There are two versions of this movie. One is short version and the other is lengthy uncut version. Short version is just another romantic drama movie. Nothing special. But the uncut version is a real masterpiece. The experience of watching this movie is not like watching it as a spectator; but as a participant. If the actors felt happy, we feel it. If they are crying, we too are crying. If they made love, we feel the pleasure of it. Such strong acting. It is the experience of watching the actual lives of two people through a secret window.

Zorg (Jean-Hugues Anglade) is a handyman working in France, maintaining and looking after the bungalows. He lives a quiet and peaceful life, working diligently and writing in his spare time. One day, Betty walks into his life, a young woman who is as beautiful as she is wild and unpredictable.Although the film is widely praised, it was "hated" by Roger Ebert, who sees it as nothing more than a film about the lead actress being naked a good deal of the time. He says that is the plot, and anyone who gets more out of it is missing the point. Many people apparently miss the point, as the film received both a BAFTA and Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1986, as well as winning a César Award for Best Poster.Ebert exaggerates slightly, but I cannot completely disagree with him. For one thing, I am not a fan of explicit sex is movies as it never serves a purpose. But also, it just is not that interesting of a film. If people were not attracted to the scandalous nature of the film, it would probably not be a cult film today.

The theatrical cut of '37°2 le matin' is about a man (Zorg) who is helpless to his sweet girlfriend's inner turmoil. She is unable to help herself and he basically ignores her psychotic episodes probably in hope that things will sort itself out and that any time something happens will be the last time. Despite the English title it's about the male perspective, Zorg's life revolves around this woman for the time they are together, but it's really Béatrice Dalle as Betty who owns the film, even though it kind of stays on the character's surface she comes across as a fascinating, fully realized character. I thought it all comes together splendidly, though, from coherent plot and characters to the mixture of tones.The scenes of madness are tragic but in between those there's much delight with a world that has a subdued magic I'd love to bath in. It's very much the quirky characters around the two that shape that world and they are also responsible for infusing the film with most of the comedy and there are many hilarious moments indeed. The last act principally seemed like a fine conclusion but felt too rushed with the very ending feeling especially anticlimactic and I guess I just didn't want the film to end which is always the most positive possible point of criticism but probably also very much implies that I should watch the one-hour longer "Version Intégrale".And so I did the very next day! The director's cut is a mixed bag. There are quite a few additional scenes that added very little, some of them being more fun than others. One long episode in the middle section of the film that was missing in the theatrical cut did add some depth but wasn't really essential either. I generally don't really care for Zorg's sporadic poetic narration in '37°2 le matin', I thought it didn't add anything and I also found it sadly vulgar which worked against what otherwise seemed like true love between the two protagonists. The DC doesn't add any new narration but some minor scenes that I thought added a bit to the vulgarization like other characters making sexual remarks about Betty and Zorg sniffing Betty's underwear in her absence. But don't get me wrong, them being naked and having sex a lot actually felt very frank and even innocent, it gave the film this very free-spirited atmosphere that I enjoyed. Anyway, in the DC overall one gets a bit TOO much of a feeling of a daily routine setting in for those characters, it hurts the magic a bit and overall the film felt a bit long.What certainly did profit from it was the last act, well, except for one terrible sequence of Zorg robbing a joint in drags that came out of nowhere and tonally felt very much out of place. Other than that new scenes emphasized that Zorg was very concerned about Betty and he really tried to help her even if he was a bit late with realizing the seriousness of her condition at that point. The very end didn't change but it resonated much more with me. This time around Zorg killing Betty seemed like an incredibly selfish act which I figure he did so he would be able to move on with his life. Not an admirable act in the least but I can accept the ending, for Zorg Betty was, for better or worse, merely one chapter in his life (a point driven home by the image of the cooking chili which basically bookended the film), tragic ending, selfish man, but acceptable as a reminder that life's a bitch and all good things must come to an end.Concluding I'd say that the theatrical cut felt complete apart from the rushed ending with the director's cut adding some depth (although not nearly enough to warrant extending the film by over an hour) at the cost of muddling things up quite a bit and maybe even having the film lose some impact. If I was to recut the DC to create the, for me, ideal version of '37°2 le matin' I'd probably remove at least 30 minutes. Anyway, never mind which version, it's a new favorite for me.

It's funny, on an 'objective' level this is a weaker film than Beineix's 'Diva'. Indulgent (3 hours long!), with a sometimes uneasy mix of comedy and dark drama, some over the top acting and a few scenes that make no sense at all (the robbery?!?). Plus a climax that's a painfully obvious steal from another film. You could also make a good argument that the film's view of women is retrograde; they're crazy muses that help us to find the really important thing, ourselves. Then we can get along without them. Certainly critics are much more mixed on this then on the seminal 'Diva'. Yet for all that, I actually enjoyed this more than 'Diva'. There were more moments when I got caught up in the story, in the way the images and music and emotion interacted, and I appreciated that it lacked 'Diva's self-satisfied, self-referential 'cool'. Not a great film, but an honest attempt to explore both the madness of love, and madness in love. (And, yes, all the hot sex and nudity is fun too.). My rating is probably too high, but damn it, images and moments just keep sticking with me.