27/05/11

Le Concerto de la peur AKA Night of lust [Uncut] (1963) - José Bénazéraf



Kidnappings, murders and gang war for the control of a drug traffic...

There's really a unique touch in those early Bénazéraf movies. You're a bit somewhere between thriller, exploitation and Nouvelle Vague...
As I understood, the version released in the US already on the site is severely cut and suffers from a ludicrous English dubbing. The movie certainly deserves better than that...

20/05/11

Vintage Erotica Anno 1930 (2003) - Various



Artists have explored the erotic image since the beginning of time. On the walls of caves, on Hindu Temples, in ancient scrolls, humans have celebrated the sexual act. Cinema is no stranger to eroticism, but there is a mistaken belief that erotic cinema is an invention of the past fifty years. In order to dispel this myth we present this archive of erotic images captured by our "grandfathers camera."
This DVD includes two hours of French erotica from the 1920's and 30's and features all aspects of soft-core, hard-core, straight, bi, gay and fetish imagery. Made in France, these films feature lush backdrops and exotic costumes with settings ranging from the Orient to the era of the Musketeers. Filmed by professionals as well as amateurs (like the mysterious Mr. X) these films prove that erotica cinema is as old as cinema itself.

15/05/11

Glissements Progressifs Du Plaisir AKA SuccessiveSlidings of Pleasure (1974) - Alain Robbe-Grillet


Quote: When you think of art house directors you probably think of some of the more famous filmmakers like Werner Herzog (Aguirre, the Wrath of God), Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) or Alejandro Jodorowsky (Holy Mountain). Someone you may not know is French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet. Robbe-Grillet was part of the “nouveau roman” novelist movement which diverted from the classical style of writing and deviated from the norm with experimental prose. The same could be said with his film Glissements progressifs du plaisir (literal translation is “Gradual shifts of pleasure”) aka Successive Slidings of Pleasure where he blends dreamlike visuals with eroticism and, oddly, nunsploitation.

Le Jeu avec le feu AKA Playing with Fire (1975) - Alain Robbe-Grillet



When Carolina (Anicee Alvina), the daughter of wealthy banker Georges de Saxe (Philippe Noiret), is reported kidnapped, it is upsetting to him even though he knows it isn’t true. The kidnappers have taken the wrong person. The banker hires Frantz (Jean-Louis Trintignant) a disheveled, seedy detective to find his daughter and hide her safely away. She soon finds herself in a fantasyland whorehouse, where all kinds of extreme perversions are routinely practiced. There, a near-double of her father whips and then seduces her. Eventually, she and the private eye escape or leave, having extorted the kidnapping money from the girl’s father. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Gradiva (C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle) AKA It'sGradiva Who Is Calling You (2006) - Alain Robbe-Grillet

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Alain Robbe-Grillet's final film, an erotic ghost story set in Morocco. James Wilby plays an archaeologist pursuing the mysterious Arielle Dombasle through the streets of Marrakesh.
Review by Nathan Southern for All Movie Guide:

Quote:

The revered and celebrated Alain Robbe-Grillet's supernatural drama C'est Gradiva qui vous appelle (AKA That is Gradiva Who Calls You) - a French-Belgian co-production - concerns John Locke, an art historian immersed in Asian research on the Marrakeshi casbah, accompanied by Belkis, his servant and mistress. Amid his studies of Eugene Delacroix, Locke repeatedly encounters a lithe, ethereal female presence in the city's medina (or Arabic quarter) who draws him seductively through the city's mazelike streets, again and again, but repeatedly vanishes. He then encounters Anatoli, a self-professed antique dealer and curator of Oriental artifacts for beginners itching for a challenge. Belkis persuades Locke to keep his distance from these individuals, but Locke blatantly ignores her admonitions and forges ahead - never quite realizing that the spirits are toying with him, and drawing him into a dead-end psychosexual black hole.