Product Details

• Actors: Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Martinez, Vincent Lindon, Marthe Keller, François Berléand
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: December 7, 1999
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000021Y7H
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,446 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The School of Flesh" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Perhaps only the French could create a movie with the sexual heat of The School of Flesh. International star Isabelle Huppert, a strawberry-blonde beauty with brimming blue eyes, is Dominique, a successful businesswoman of "a certain age." Quentin (model-pretty Vincent Martinez) is a bisexual male hustler half her age. They begin an affair after meeting at a disco, and their relationship turns toxic in short order--a compulsion that neither can shake, with negative consequences for both. Each is drawn inexorably into a hurtful game of cat and mouse, switching roles back and forth with every round. More than anything else, the film does a truly convincing job of depicting the exquisite pain of addictive relationships. It is impossible not to become drawn into the enticing energy of the affair--to hope it won't end, while knowing it must. The School of Flesh takes us on an irresistible walk on the wild side. --Laura Mirsky

From The New Yorker

For his new movie, Benoît Jacquot, best known for "A Single Girl," has set a Yukio Mishima novel in present-day Paris. The transplant is all too successful; the whole thing feels French to its fingertips. French cinema has long thrived on the romantic mismatch, and in this case it's Older Woman meets Younger Man; to be precise, we get the uptight businesswoman (Isabelle Huppert) letting her hair down for the sake of a poor bartender (Vincent Martinez), who has a colorful sexual record and no morals to speak of. If this were a Hollywood production, the hustling youth would find true love in return; the strength of Jacquot's take on the affair is that he is prepared to show his lovers not changing, or skirting change and then pulling back in fear. Only in bed do the two leads understand each other, and sometimes not even there. Word has it that French viewers thought there was too little sex in the movie; American viewers may think there's too much. Vive la différence. In French. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deliciously Forbidden, January 27, 2001

By 

Dorian M. (Pasadena, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The School of Flesh (DVD)

''L'Ecole de la Chair'' (School of Flesh), a candidly modern take on the search for intimacy, is the basis for a sensuous, sexy, and painfully passionate love affair between an older woman and a younger man. Dominique (Isabelle Huppert), a career-minded, well-off older woman meets Quentin (Vincent Martinez), a young street hustler with a mysterious background. From the start, and in spite of herself, Dominique responds to Quentin's obvious signs of interest, and they strike up a ''deal'': an affair, with no strings attached. Watch as these two beautifully sad beings duel for control and fight to entrap one another. Do they have a chance at love? I'll never tell! A subtle yet powerful movie, with characters you'll never forget. Quintessentially French in many ways, this is a fabulous dramatization of Yukio Mishima's Japanese novel (roughly translated as ''School of Love''), adapted to modern-day France. ''The School of Flesh'' will not be liked by everyone, of course, but if you're looking for a quiet, painstaking anatomy of the intricacies of heterosexual love, especially of the May-December variety, this is the movie for you. Buy it TODAY! This is a difficult DVD to locate. For movies that explore a similar topic with various settings and characters, also check out these movies: Indochine, Un Coeur en Hiver (A Heart in Winter), Nettoyage à sec (Dry Cleaning), Entre Nous (also with Isabelle Huppert).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intoxicating, July 4, 2000

By 

Tito Sierra - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The School of Flesh (DVD)

Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Martinez are superbly cast as victims of co-dependence. School of Flesh inverts the older-man young-woman theme and flavors it with contemporary nuances. Here we have an affluent older woman who gets off on the power money afford her, and a younger ambitious young man who prostitutes himself in more ways than one. This is no doubt a moral tale, though thankfully the director allows the viewer to make up his own mind about who abuses and who is abused, who is good and who is bad. The final scene is devastating, perhaps the best I've seen of films in this genre. Also, Isabelle Huppert is stunning--you may fall in love with her.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars school of flesh, December 22, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The School of Flesh [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I enjoyed this film! An older woman falls for the passionate eyes of a young bartender. She becomes a prisoner of her desires for his love. The aloof, yet caring and secretive persona of the young gentleman only adds to the anquish she experiences as love emotionally tears at their identities. The plot has interesting twists and turns. A good departure from hollywood.