The merger of hardcore sex with commercial cinema, or at least French cinema, occurs whenever veteran French director Catherine Breillat steps behind the camera.

A film like Breillat's latest hardcore female sexuality drama, the engrossing Anatomy of Hell, might be difficult to watch in its entirety, but it needs to be seen. The film follows four nights spent together between a suicidal woman (model Amira Casar) and a gay man (Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi) she has paid to watch her while discussing every horrific aspect of sex. At the point in the movie where everyone squirms, while the woman provocateur sleeps, Rocco's confused character brings a tool from a nearby shed and inserts it in the sleeping Casar's vagina.

Artful direction and serious subject matter keep Anatomy of Hell from sliding into pornography. Anatomy of Hell claims a common theme, sex without love, yet the film is not for the squeamish, a real boundary pusher, what one expects from Breillat. The fact that she is a woman addressing a woman's sexuality makes her cinema transgressions all the more fascinating -- and perhaps more forgiving.

Remember: Breillat, best known for her earlier films, Romance and 36 Fillette, first came to attention in 1968 as the author of an explicit novel no one under 18 could purchase, although she was 17 when she wrote it. Anatomy of Hell is a minor Breillat film, but it stands above other films dealing with women and sex. And the Rest
Writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes' debut film Mean Creek (Paramount) is a gripping morality play with a dazzling avant-garde heart. In a small Oregon town, revenge against a school bully and a game of truth and dare between troubled teenagers on a riverboat trip lead to unexpected consequences. Cinematographer Sharone Meir makes dreamlike use of the muddy river water and shafts of sunlight. Yet, the dramatic soul of the movie belongs to its young cast, especially Rory Culkin as the bullied boy and Josh Peck as the bully. (Steve Ramos) TV Reruns
The DVD set of NBC cop drama Homicide: Season Six (A&E) features the returning talents of Baltimore writer and crime reporter David Simon (HBO's The Wire), executive producers Barry Levinson (Rain Man) and Tom Fontana (Oz) and character actors including Andre Braugher, Richard Belzer and Yaphet Kotto. Yet, NBC boosts the show by adding talented filmmakers like Mary Harron (American Psycho) and Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, U.S.A.). Strong use of multi-episode arcs allows the tension to build slowly. The DVD set presents the episodes in the order intended by the show's producers. Its bonus documentary, Anatomy of a Homicide, examines the genesis of the season and quite possibly the show's, finest episode, "The Subway." (TT Clinkscales)