After the contribution from his friend the psychoanalyst Jean-Noël Picq in A Dirty Story (a tale of sordid and allusive voyeurism), Jean Eustache renews the experience three years later in an analogue creation. Secretly observed female genitals are replaced by a universally renowned masterpiece, The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. In both cases, the aim is to unveil, in words rather than through image, what art and sex conceal or repress. In front of a small and friendly audience, this improvised exegesis comments on the third panel of the primitive triptych, where the Flemish artist depicts Hell, amidst which fishermen, beasts, monsters and humanoids indulge in acts that are far more akin to torture than to delight. The filmmaker’s edit organises this chaos of chopped bodies into a scene that is as coherent as Bosch’s own composition.

Hervé Gauville
Writer and critic