| Belles D’Un Soir (1977)
77 minutes AKA Suprêmes jouissances Jouissances La Garçonnière Königin der Lust Supreme Delights Exquisite Pleasure The French porn industry flourished in the mid 1970s with a wealth of creative and modestly budgeted features. Fearing the demise of legitimate cinema, the government passed the “X-Law” in October of 1976 to limit the growth of the XXX industry. This effectively withdrew a good deal of the “official” financial support afforded to these films and often relegated them to specialty theaters. This golden age was deceptively short considering the tremendous output. The entire affair provides for an interesting story lavishly illustrated with perverse films. An impressive overview can be found in the indispensable euro-sleaze bible Immoral Tales by Cathal Tohill and Peter Tombs. With the admittedly strong output of smut from this era, it may seem strange that I tend to gravitate more towards films from the late 1970s and early 1980s. This is not entirely the case, as I think many of the best films did spring out of the golden age; but there is one merciless and relentless force that continually pulls me to the end of the decade. The power of Lahaie compels me. In a nutshell I am a rabid connoisseur of Brigitte Lahaie. If I weren’t lucky enough to find the most open minded and supportive wife, this obsession would surely lead me to a life of solitude. Fortunately that is not the case, and I am free to pursue my collection of all things “Behind the Bush” (Behind the Bush is the title of her autobiography, if you’d please remove your mind from the gutter!). As compelling as Ms. Lahaie is, her presence alone can’t make a great movie (although it can go a long way in that direction). It is advantageous then that she worked with some of the premier directors in both erotic and horror cinema (including Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, and in this case Claude Mulot aka Frédéric Lansac). The classic image of Brigitte Lahaie that immediately comes to mind is the blonde bombshell from movies like Six Swedes at a Pump, Night of the Hunted, or La Perversion d'une jeune mariée. Here instead, we are presented with an earlier image of Brigitte from her days as a brunette. I never thought I would find anything as attractive as a blonde Brigitte, but it is with only the most humble concession that I admit that she looks as good here as she has in anything else I’ve ever seen her in. In a nutshell the story follows three young women (Lahaie, Martine Grimaud, and Véronique Maugarski) as they set out to liberate themselves from their lazy and controlling boyfriends. Things go well for a while as they realize that they can use sex to get just about anything the desire. Meanwhile, the guys go and fetch some replacement girlfriends who just don’t seem to cut it. Tension arises though when the new found liberation inflates the girls’ heads a bit as all three of them lose their jobs…mostly for not passively accepting the sexual harassment of the males around them. This makes paying the rent more difficult, luckily for the girls they are sexy enough to figure out some other form of payment for the “happily married” landlord. Before I could craft a way to afford living arrangements for the young ladies they’ve opened up a brothel and are promptly busted by the police. Ending the movie on a pessimistic note, the girls return to their boyfriends right outside of the prison. While I know it probably isn’t wise to delve to deeply into the social ramifications of a French porno film, I can’t help but mull the ending over to myself a bit. What kind of message are we sending to the young sexy ladies all over the world who want to get through life by having sex with various people? Is the message supposed to be that the girls are in a better situation now because they’ve developed a “working situation” with their boyfriends? Or are they perhaps stuck in the same old situation because they lost their way and ended up reducing themselves to the very same sexual objects that they were rebelling against? Whatever the message is, I’m going to try to find some way to own my own apartment building and see if dreams really do come true. To sum things up, I really do enjoy this film, even if the end seems a bit anti-climactic (no pun intended, honest). It may not be as imaginative as some of the more high profile XXX French cinema (including Mulot’s own talking vagina epic, Pussy Talk), there is plenty to look at and Mulot proves again that he is just as skilled at storytelling as he is at depicting sensuality. I give this one 4 young go-getters out of 5! review by Joe Canistro 11.2.2005 Click on the curious head to email me! |
 |