The Story Of O (1975/Blu-ray/NC-17 Uncut Version/Somerville House) + Emmanuel (1974/Lionsgate DVD)
Picture: B-/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Films: C+/C
When
serious films about people, sex and the human condition arrived and broke new
ground, the XXX hardcore sex cycle boomed right along with it, leading some to
think they were doing the former when they were squarely part of the latter
movement. Just Jaeckin is one of those
directors and his work is now arriving on Blu-ray following some DVD releases. His early (mis-)interpretation of Pauline
Reagé’s oft-censored book The Story Of O
from 1975 has been issued on Blu-ray, while his international hit film debut Emmanuel (1974, the first of several in
a series that included many equally silly imitators) was recently issued on
DVD.
In both
cases, the films enjoy exploiting their situations, wallowing in them, become
spoofs of themselves quickly and fall apart as narrative films of any substance
early. In both, a “young, innocent” (and
by male sexist standards, dumb) female goes from the world of respect to one
she never knew, implying any work of sex is disreputable. That is not true in real life, but always
true in Jaeckin’s work. The film was a
softcore sensation taking advantage of Deep
Throat (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and any sensationalism it
could. At the time, it worked. Now, it is just silly and now plays as the
beginning of sexual trivialization that the likes of Brittany Spears and her
ilk have made sadly commonplace. Looking
at it now, much of it makes you wonder what the big deal was except that people
were so oppressed as to make a sexual revolution necessary. Sylvia Kristel became a star and is the only
thing that saves this dated, much ado about nothing time capsule.
More controversial
is the S&M work of The Story Of O
and similar to Lolita, is told in
first person, making the book a continuous point of contention. The S&M scene has found itself slowly
entering the mainstream more, but a fake sense of its operation and politics
versus the reality (i.e., people acting idiotically childish as opposed to the
kinds of darker, more serious, proto-Fascist realities the likes of which are
represented in Pasolini’s Salo from
the same year) have made this as much a joke as healthier sex in the previous
example.
The title
character is played by the amazingly sexy and attractive Corrine Clery, whose
exceptional body is the only single reason outside of unintentionally laughs to
bother watching this film. She decides
to allow herself to submit to a “crazy, secret world” to make her boyfriend
(Udo Kier) happy, because he definitely has issues and she is dumb enough to
date him. The result is non-stop sex
(and sex abuse) with strangers and “conditioning” (yawn) by the people running
this chateau/brothel. Then this goes on
for the longer 105 minutes originally intended.
More
explicit and just as astray as the shorter cut of the film, the idea that Clery
would even date Kier is baseless and never works, then the series of events
that follow (titillating, stupid and/or otherwise) are mishandled by the
director. Part of the problem is a
self-indulgent male director with a single, predictable approach trying to tell
a female point-of-view story. The
voice-over is female, but it hardly works.
In the original French, which does not make it more realistic, it is
flat and dull. In the English dub, it is
a disaster, nearly camp and inadvertently points out all the many flaws and
pitfalls Jaeckin keeps hitting. The
result in any language is shocking amateur and dated. If Clery was not cast, this would be a total
bomb. She continued this kind of work
for a while, but is best recognized from her work four years later in the huge
James Bond hit Moonraker (reviewed
elsewhere on this site) which showed her in a much better light.
The 1080p
1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Story
Blu-ray is problematic, in part because Jaeckin has this shot in a soft focus
amber that apes the Playboy Magazine look of the time and as was the case with Caligula (also reviewed elsewhere on
this site) yields very mixed results.
There are some good shots, enough to earn is letter grade, but there are
more than a few that are just too grainy.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.70 X 1 image on Emmanuel is softer and grainier all the way, which is to be
expected for a DVD, but I wondered what few shots would benefit from a Blu-ray
upgrade. It has a flatter look at times
and flesh tones can be accurate, but are not as consistent. Both have Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtracks
of little note. Extras include making of
and marketing featurettes for Emmanuel
and text cast bios, stills, previously unreleased scenes and director’s audio
commentary on Story.
Sadly, Jaeckin
and a whole group of would-be “erotic artists” kept making such shallow
hardcore and softcore product until VHS and Beta killed their market and it
wore thinner than a condom about to tear.
That much of this is now tame and was always silly says how overkill and
hype is no substitute for substance.
After sitting through the likes of both, you can see why Stanley Kubrick
made Eyes Wide Shut. After seeing these and films like them,
Kubrick’s final film (also reviewed elsewhere on this site) makes more and more
sense.
- Nicholas Sheffo
