FURIES
SEXUELLES (1976)/PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE
(1972) Blu-rayDirector: Alain Payet
Peekarama/Vinegar Syndrome
FURIES
SEXUELLES (1976)/PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE
(1972) Blu-rayVinegar Syndrome's resurrected Peekarama line goes French with a "Ciné Clichy" Blu-ray pairing of films by unsung exploitation filmmaker Alain Payet.
In FURIES SEXUELLES, lingerie shop girl Marie-Madeleine (Corinne Lemoine, PHANTASMES) is fired by her peeping tom boss (Bigotini, THE HOT NIGHTS OF LINDA) after spurning the advances of a well-healed customer (Jacques Marbeuf, THE LIVING DEAD GIRL) in the fitting room. A single mother with mounting bills, Marie-Madeleine leaves her daughter with her apartment building's porter and wanders into a bar and into bed of handsome Gianni (Richard Allan, FRENCH ERECTION) but any illusions she had are shattered when she wakes up to find he has left cash on the bedside table. Prostitute confidante Carmen (Mandarine) advises Marie-Madeleine to keep the money since she needs it and introduces her to cocktail bar owner Monique (Antonella Caneri) who hires her as a hostess, promising that she only needs to entertain men on the dance floor and over drinks; however, her other girls are in the employ of sadistic pimp Roger (Carmelo Petix, BODY LOVE). Against her better judgment, Marie-Madeleine goes home with an elderly aristocrat (Robert Le Ray, FRENCH BLUE) for a threesome with his younger wife (Lisa Orsag) only to be degraded as whore in the aftermath. Marie-Madeleine's life spirals into monotonous sexual encounters and numbing alcohol until Gianni turns up again and invites her to a party where things take a turn for the worse.
Although a minor figure in French exploitation with such Eurocine footage cocktails like HITLER'S LAST TRAIN and NATHALIE: ESCAPE FROM HELL– productions shot back-to-back with, respectively ELSA FRAULEIN S.S. and HELGA, SHE WOLF OF STILBERG utilizing the same locations and casts – Alain Payet worked far more prolifically in French hardcore porn films in which other filmmakers like Jean Rollin, Jess Franco, Michel Lemoine, and Jose Benazeraf dabbled as it became harder to finance their softcore films. Although unmistakably low budget, FURIES SEXUELLES boasts reasonable production values that one came to expect from the early to mid-seventies films of aristocratic producer Robert de Nesle (Franco's LORNA THE EXORCIST) before the ghettoization of the genre. Although not technically a horror film, FURIES SEXUELLES does show that Payet was as capable as Jess Franco of venturing into dark areas of erotica, from the visual depiction of Marie-Madeleine's downward spiral to episodes of sadomasochism as when Roger has two women whip and beat one of his prostitutes while he himself is sodomized by his boytoy enforcer Angelo (Ghislain Van Hove, PIGALLE STORY) or the "climax" of Gianni's party; and yet, there is something very different from some of the more downbeat American examples of hardcore filmmaking of the same period.
PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE describes the way in which a circle of prostitute friends covertly conduct their business by advertising their services as lingerie models for amateur photographers. Ringleader Claudine (Claudine Beccarie, INHIBITIONS) regularly has a full plate with high profile clients – among them a tax lawyer played by Jess Franco regular Pierre Taylou (EXORCISM) and handsome TV presenter Daniel (Gabriel Pontello, HOT BODIES) who inveigles her into a threesome with two of his co-workers (Marie-Jose Pontello and Marie-Christine Chireix) – so she fobs off jobs onto her friends for whom prostitution is more of a part-time job with its surprises and pitfalls. Martine (Martine Grimaud, FRENCH NYMPHO) hides her real job from her hippie boyfriend who finds it suspicious a secretary makes enough money to support his lifestyle of artistic exploration in the countryside. Pamela (Pamela Stanford, SEXY SISTERS) starts to examine her life choices when she is twice accosted by an unhinged exhibitionist (Jacques Marbeuf) who slaps her around one night and then demand she castrate him the next, and then gets robbed by another client. Tania (Tania Busselier, ILSA THE WICKED WARDEN) fares best when one of Claudine's castoffs turns out to be a wealthy shop owner (Gilbert Servien, BRIGADE OF DEATH) who asks her to photograph him in women's underwear for the pleasure of his wife. Claudine assures Pamela that most of their more eccentric clients are generally harmless, but the irresistible invitation of an elderly Count (Robert Le Ray) and his perverted wife (Sylvia Bourdon, PUSSY TALK) reveals a pair who are playing for keeps.
Although presented as the second feature on the disc, PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE was actually Payet's first hardcore film. It is the more conventional in terms of its episodic narrative, with Beccarie's main character delegating jobs and smugly offering advice to her colleagues – particularly Stanford who gets put through the emotional wringer in scenes that are simultaneously humorous and tense – with the bulk of the film devoted to humorous looks at the sexual peccadillos of the clients; that is, until Bourdon shows up to whip and urinate on her male slave and convince Grimaud to help her sexually assault a gay guy (Gabriel Coez, BANGKOK CONNECTION). In spite of some moments of coercion and S&M, the film is overall lighter in tone than FURIES SEXUELLES, ending on a philosophical note as Claudine and Martine take in the sun and muse on the lack of respect or consideration that comes with their job. The de Nesle production is generally handsome-looking with some nice locations and some quirky setups.
Released in France theatrically as THOROUGHLY MODERN MARY-MAGDAELENE (onscreen title in English even though it was not dubbed for export and the rest of the credits were in French), FURIES SEXUELLES comes to Blu-ray in a director's cut unseen since 1976 with the title LES MARIE-MADELEINE and running sixteen minutes longer than the aforementioned theatrical cut. The longer version offers no additional sex scenes over the theatrical version or anything more explicit – the film is plenty graphic in both versions – whiel the shorter version deleted two dialogue scenes related to Marie-Madeleine's young daughter (who is spoken of but never seen) while certain dialogue scenes like Monique telling Marie-Madeleine to be practical about her prospects are played as silent montages set to music, and there are other trims for pacing. While the theatrical version had an end credits crawl, the director's cut features an extended black screen with exit music of the same length. There does not seem to have been any such issues with multiple versions of PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE. Mastered in 2K from the original 35mm camera negatives, the 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen presentations of FURIES SEXUELLES and PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE do not look quite as good as the HD masters of Franco's de Nesle titles but that seems to be as much an issue of the cinematography – which is only occasionally creative in terms of lighting – as the archiving with a prominent light leak along the right side of the frame and density fluctuations in the middle of the frame popping up in the latter film. Also evident of the guerilla shooting nature of the exteriors is a panning shot in PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE where the image looks overexposed as it follows the actresses through a patch of sun only to reveal that exposure was set for the shade once they step into it. Black levels are generally good with only a couple night exteriors looking a bit flat in the darkest and farthest areas of the frame while neon colors, set decoration, and costume accessories pop.
Extras include a scene exclusive to the Belgian cut of FURIES SEXUELLES (5:29) in which a mime is tied up by a prostitute wearing an Indian headdress and sodomized with a leek! Vinegar Syndrome note that the negative for this scene was stored separately from the rest of the film so they elected not to integrate it into the feature presentation. PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE comes with a theatrical trailer (3:19) and an archival article gallery (1:40).
The most substantive extras, however, is an interview with actor Richard Allan (27:15) who recalls PROSTITUTION CLANDESTINE – in which he has a supporting role as the aristocratic couple's butler – was technically his first feature but that he had already double in the hardcore inserts for a film by Payet associate Lucien Hustaix titled LES JOUISSEUSES. He reflects on the film and his relationship with Payet with whom he went into business, noting his dislike of the film's sexual violence but that Payet had a knack for casting – including actors for particular fetishes – and recalls his friendships with the cast including former dancer Robert Le Ray who was quite the womanizer even in his old age, gay actor Petix who usually played outrageous roles in Payet's films, and noting that he found Beccarie to be full of herself. He also recalls pulling out of business with Payet after bad experiences getting paid by Eurocine and various Italian co-producers, as well as recalling Payet's later years before his death including working for porn producer Marc Dorcel. The cover is reversible and special limited edition with an embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kessler Jr. is limited to 2,000 units and only available here at Vinegar Syndrome. (Eric Cotenas)