NANA (1983) Blu-ray
Director: Dan Wolman
Scorpion Releasing/Ronin Flix

Cannon mines Émile Zola for softcore erotica with NANA, on Blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing.

The Minotaur is a high-class Parisian bordello frequented by both members of high society who would rather it not be known and those who seek to scandalize, personified respectively by banker Steiner (Yehuda Efroni, TEN LITTLE INDIANS) and Le Figaro columnist Faucherie (Massimo Serato, THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW). Also in attendance on the night famed illusionist Georges Méliès (Tom Felleghy, DEATH KNOCKS TWICE) is set to unveil his "moving pictures" invention and his new star is timid student Hector (Marcus Beresford, LADYHAWKE), son of the Count Muffat (Jean-Pierre Aumont, CAULDRON OF BLOOD), who is engaged to be married to Rennee (Annie Belle, LAURE) but hungry for experience and adventure. The unveiling on prototypical stag film of Nana (Katya Berger, TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS) and then her undraping in living color makes an impression on all three men, but only Steiner has the money to buy her from bordello owner Fontan (Robert Bridges, PINK FLOYD: THE WALL) who sets her up in a villa directly across the avenue from the Muffats, scandalizing the Count's wife Sabine (Mandy Rice-Davies, no stranger to scandal herself as one of the prostitutes implicated in the Profumo affair) just as the Count himself has lighted eyes upon her. Muffat initially visits Nana to warn her off of his son who has become distracted from both his studies and his fiancée over her, but he is soon enthralled by her beauty and a slave to her whims. Indeed, Nana learns to use her body and the cunning of faithful maid Zoe (CORONATION STREET's Shirin Taylor) to free herself of Steiner, supporting herself with the patronage of rich lesbian Satin (Debra Berger, EMANUELLE IN BANGKOK) and "king of Parisian nightlife" Xavier (Paul Muller, A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD), with divertissement including foxy fox hunting and human cockfighting. She also convinces Faucherie to seduce Sabine so that she can have the Count to herself, but anyone who lingers too long in Nana's atmosphere is destined for ruin.

Mounted around the same time The Cannon Group picked up Tinto Brass' superior period piece erotica THE KEY – which they then failed to distribute – NANA feels like a slightly more expensive variation on the period erotic films Cannon associate Harry Alan Towers was lensing around the same time for The Playboy Channel with Claude Mulot's BLACK VENUS (which also featured Rice-Davies) and Gerard Kikoine's LADY LIBERTINE/FRANK AND I moreso than Cannon's more lushly-mounted LADY CHATTERELY'S LOVER or the ludicrously-entertaining BOLERO. Katya Berger (daughter of actor William Berger) is not nearly charismatic enough to embody "the Venus of the gutter," and the dubbing does not help her or anyone else (even Aumont is robbed of his recognizable French-accented English voice); indeed, with considerably less screen time and dialogue, Debra Berger's Satin is considerably more beguiling. One feels sorry for Aumont while Beresford is quite wooden. The filmmakers, including screenwriter Marc Behm – who went from CHARADE and HELP! to X-RAY/HOSPITAL MASSACRE and the aforementioned Cannon LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER – and Israeli director Dan Wolman (who got his start with pre-Golan-Globus Cannon on MAID IN SWEDEN but has moved onto more mainstream Israeli films), seem more infatuated with Nana than Zola, not only dreaming up a happy ending for her but also having her seen off by characters who were either financially ruined and/or died in the source novel. The film's best assets are the handsome cinematography of Armando Nannuzzi – who lensed Visconti's THE DAMNED and LUDWIG before losing an eye while shooting Stephen King's MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (as one of the Italian crew members Dino DiLaurentiis shipped to his North Carolina studio in the eighties) – and the scoring of Italian great Ennio Morricone (whose first name Cannon inexplicably managed to misspell in the opening credits).

Released uncut theatrically by Cannon and then on VHS by MGM in the early eighties reportedly trimmed of some of the more explicit nudity which was restored for MGM's limited edition collection DVD-R edition, NANA appears to be intact on Scorpion Releasing's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray as the ninety-two minute timing corresponds to the U.K. release timing and the German VHS release (when taking PAL speedup into account). It goes without saying that Nannuzzi's cinematography is diffused throughout in the style of softcore films of the era, particularly period pieces, but textures come through in the set dressing and costumes while all of the women are given the gauzy glamour treatment. It is not the same master as the MGM DVD-R which was framed at 1.66:1. The post-synched soundtrack is without any technical flaws in the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, and English SDH subtitles are included. The only extras are trailers for 3:15, HELL CAMP, LONE WOLF MCQUADE, ACT OF VENGEANCE, CALIFORNIA DREAMING, and RECORD CITY. Licensed from MGM, Scorpion's Blu-ray is Region A-locked and available directly from Ronin Flix and Diabolik DVD. (Eric Cotenas)

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