Madame
Claude
(1977*)/My
Nights With Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie
(1975 w/DVD*)/P.O.
Box Tinto Brass
(1995*)/We
(2018/Artsploitation Blu-ray)/The
Whirlpool
(2012/IndiePix DVD)/A
Woman Like Eve
(1979/*all Cult Epics Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/B- & C+/B/B-/C+/B Sound: B-/B- & C+/B-/B/C+/B-
Extras: C/C+/B/C/C-/C+ Films: B-/C+/C+/B-/C+/B-
Now
for a group of erotic films that actually have narratives, or at
least try to...
By
the time Just Jaecklin's Madame
Claude
(1977) was released in theaters, the director already made his
directorial debut with Emmanuelle
(1974, the most ripped off and imitated sex film since) and The
Story Of O
(1975, from the shocking book, both reviewed elsewhere on this site)
so he took on a book about a madame and her sex workers who happened
to survive some of the richest and most powerful men in the world.
Also issued as The
French Woman
in the U.S., the film has some impressive and explicit scenes, if not
as graphic as XXX of the time, it comes very close.
Besides
being shocking in its implications (corrupt rich people) and some sex
scenes, this was a time when such films were taken seriously as
possibly serious cinema (which brass' Caligula would soon
end!) and managed to sign on actors including Murray Head
(Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday and several famous musical
hits), Klaus Kinski (teetering between all kinds of respectability
and sleaze even at this point) and has music by legendary Serge
Gainsborough. It does not always work, but has aged well and in
interesting ways and is worth a look. It is also a time capsule in
more ways than you might first think.
Pim
de la Parra's My
Nights With Susan, Sandra, Olga & Julie
(1975) is
about a foursome of women who love sex and quickly become sex killers
in this wild film that is not quite a horror film or even mystery
thriller, yet is not outright exploitation or sexploitation as it is
also involving the men not quite being innocent and is also not a
character study, yet is not slap-dash about its sex or any sexuality.
The result is a mixed bag that does not exactly try to be anything
specific but simply show the events, yet seems to still know what it
wants to do. The ac tors are good and it is part of the four-film
Dutch
Sex Wave Collection
pictured above. The other three films are reviewed elsewhere on this
site.
P.O.
Box Tinto Brass
(1995) has
the director making a 94-minutes-long romp based on erotic mail
(pre-Internet we gather) sexual fantasies based on several of them.
To call it an anthology is a stretch, but it is a hit and miss affair
with some good moments, but nothing he has not done before and
nothing we have not seen before. It is at least consistent and looks
good, but does not have the energy of his best work.
Rene
Eller's We
(2018) is a Dutch film about a group of sexually active teens (et al)
from a suburb there, but instead of coming of age and being happy,
they quickly and sadly start using their sexuality to steal,
threaten, rob and commit all kinds of crimes. This kind of thing has
been going on in the U.S. for decades and is rarely discussed, but
the film does a good job of telling this sad story about these
children who should have some good opportunities in the future just
being too impatient and ignorant to wait. It can be erotic, but much
of it is not because it is all unfortunate how they waste themselves
and become increasingly vicious in whom they go after. It is no
Clockwork
Orange,
Natural
Born Killers
or even a Larry Clark film as it is coming from a different angle,
but it is boldly different and worth a look.
Alvin
Case's The
Whirlpool
(2012)
was shot in the U.S. and Canada, but is an on-the-flu film from
French filmmakers (and in the language) about two strangers who meet,
then get sexually involved as they travel. An obvious road film, it
has some good moments and leads Agathe Ferox and Pierre Perrier are
as convincing as they are very sexual, but the low budget 80 minutes
could have been more creative and the actors even shown to better
effect. Still, worth a look.
Finally,
Nouchka Van Brackel's A
Woman Like Eve
(1979) is the other film with name cast members joining the unknowns
or know-in-sex-film names as a married housewife (Monique van der Ven
of Paul Verhoeven's Turkish
Delight)
falls for what looks like a young man, but turns out to be Maria
Schneider (of Bertolucci's Last
Tango In Paris)
in this look at unhappy domestic life. The wife seems happy in the
affair, but no one totally seems happy in the film, as it tries to
explore the oppression and connected situations with a bit more
success than expected.
The
sex is not as explicit as some of the other entries here, but it is
there enough for a hard R rating if issued today in the U.S. market.
At least they tried to do a mature, adult film. Renee Soutendijk,
best known for Verhoeven's underrated The
Fourth Man,
also stars.
Now
for playback performance. The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition
image on Madame
is one of the best-looking releases here with fine color, a solid
transfer and a pretty decent restoration form the original Kodak-shot
color negative that has its style, but has fine color range. Flesh
tones are accurate and the hard work to create some shots holds up
well.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Olga
also looks fine in what looks like a Techniscope shoot, but has some
softness and age issues a little more than expected. Otherwise, it
is very nice and the anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 DVD is
passable, but much softer and without the color range.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Box
Tinto
has the usual styling you get form his films that fall somewhere
between the 1970s still photography from Playboy
and Penthouse
Magazines. It is one of the newer entries and one of the best
looking.
The
1080p 2.65 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on We
is the newest production here, but this very wide frame (usually for
epic films like Ben-Hur
(1959)) is for epic films and this is not that. Instead, it makes
everything more distant and softer than it should be.
The
1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Eve,
however, has few flaws and is one of the best transfers here,m
styling and all. Color is also impressive throughout as it should
be.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Whirlpool
looks good for the format, but some of this looks so good, it should
have been a Blu-ray release too. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
sound has some surrounds and is well-recorded,. But could be clearer
and warmer.
As
for the Blu-ray sound, We
has a
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix that makes it the
best-sounding release here with a consistent soundfield and is the
only multi-channel release here. After Whirlpool,
the rest of the films are originally theatrical monophonic releases
(though bonus film IsTintoBrass
is also DTS-MA 5.1) and those Cult Epics releases are DTS-HD
MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mixes
with PCM 2.0 Mono counterparts, save Olga
with lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono and Madame
with all three. The lossless versions sound as good as these films
will ever likely sound, though expect some dubbing and age to the
soundmasters.
Extras
include Original Theatrical Trailers on all six discs, while Madame
adds a feature length audio commentary track by writer/film scholar
Jeremy Richey, a Promotional Gallery, 202 HD-shot interview with
Director Jaeckin and other Cult Epics trailers. Olga
adds a Poster & Photo Gallery in HD, 2019 HD-shot director's
intro, more Scorpio Films trailers and Scorpio short films: Heart
Beat Fresco
(1966), Joop
(1969) and Joop
Strikes Again
(1970). Box
Tinto
adds a Poster & Photo video gallery, 2003 intro by the director,
a photo video gallery for all of Brass' work, praise clip and 2013
interview with director Massimiliano Zanin. Eve
adds a Poster & Photo gallery and a 2020 HD-shot interview with
Director Brakel by Journalist Floortje Smit at Eye Filmmuseum.
Whirlpool
adds interviews with the leads.
-
Nicholas Sheffo