Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Sexploitation > The Image (1976/Uncut/Radley Metzger/Synapse)

The Image (1976/Uncut/Radley Metzger/Synapse)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: C+

 

 

For a man known for his cheesy sex films, Radley Metzger decided maybe he should take the next step into the XXX world somehow.  With sex films arriving in heir hardcore form, his older films were suddenly a larger joke than anything he could have intended.  The Image (1976) has a unique (and often as dumb as his previous films) sex triangle with sexually experimental Jean, kinky oddball Claire and strange “sex slave” Anne who is lost in humiliation not being able to handle reality.  Jean and Claire are not playing with a full deck either and complications ensure.

 

The film is surprisingly infantilized for being so sexually and thematically graphic, it might have had some shock value at the time, but has not aged well at all except that it is a much more common type of supposed tale of eroticism.  Especially with The Internet and even mainstream media making sex a joke, this is an odd relic indeed.

 

As compared to past Metzger sexcapades, this one loses form and style with its increase of sleaze and Metzger was running out of ideas.  What made him somewhat distinct was suppressed to be hip and is somewhat of a sellout as compared to his most famous past works.  He even uses some of the same actors, but there is even less story here and it is only a curio since this is when he went further than at just about any other time in his career.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 x 1 image has some detail issues, tough color is consistent.  It looks as good and often better than the last Metzger films we have looked at in his sex cycle, though he also did a disappointing 1978 The Cat & The Canary.  That was a thriller only.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is not bad here, while extras include an isolated music score track, trailers for several Metzger films and a paper pullout with an essay by Stephen R. Bissette with more information about the film.  For more about those other Metzger sex films, here are links to coverage of each of the recent sets issued on DVD:

 

Set One has The Alley Cats, Theresa & Isabelle and Camille 2000 at:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1655/Radley+Metzger+Collection+-+Volume+One

 

Set Two has The Dirty Girls, Little Mother and Score at:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1886/Radley+Metzger+Collection+-+Volume+Two

 

Set Three has Carmen, Baby, The Lickerish Quartet and The Princess & The Call Girl at:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/2141/Radley+Metzger+Collection+-+Volume+Three

 

 

For more information about this and other great titles from Synapse Films, be sure to visit their site at the following link where you can also order these discs:

 

http://www.synapse-films.com

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com