'37.2°C in the Morning') is a 1986 French erotic psychological drama film directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, based on the 1985 novel 37°2 le matin by Philippe Djian.
[6][7] Zorg, a thirty-something aspiring writer, makes a living as a handyman for a community of beach houses in the seaside resort of Gruissan on France's Mediterranean coast.
He meets nineteen-year-old Betty, a volatile and impulsive young woman, and the two begin a passionate affair, living in his borrowed shack on the beach.
Zorg enjoys the quiet provincial life and makes friends with the grocer Bob, his sex-starved wife Annie, and various offbeat characters, but Betty's violent mood swings are a concern.
Zorg, masquerading as a woman, robs an armoured cash collection van delivery headquarters, holding the guards at gunpoint, and tying them up.
He attempts to use the money to buy Betty's happiness, but she fails to respond and enacts yet another prosecutable offence by luring a small boy away from his mother and taking him to a toy store.
Going home, he sits down to continue his current novel, while conversing with his adopted cat, from whom he hears Betty's disembodied voice.
According to the director Jean-Jacques Beineix, the relationship between Jean-Hugues Anglade and Béatrice Dalle went far beyond a simple professional collaboration.
[9] A 185-minute director's cut debuted in 2000 with the extra hour allowing Betty's descent into madness to take up more space and her pursuit of motherhood to get more screen time.