Between bloody roses and talking pussies, Claude Mulot strayed from the fantastique into a good ole attack on the bourgeoisie with plenty of sex and violence and SINS OF THE FLESH, on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro.

The son of an industrialist, Benoît (Francis Lemonnier, SUBWAY) is young-ish and seemingly well-off, cruising around Paris in a convertible and seemingly living the jet set lifestyle; however he has more problems than mere gambling debts: he's a voyeur, he's impotent, and he often vents his frustrations out in violent ways. One night, he catches young thief Jean-Pierre (Patrick Penn, MESRINE) attempting to steal his car. Rather than turning him in, the possibly also bisexual Benoît takes Jean-Pierre for a ride, and they fortuitously come across Isabelle (Anne Libert, A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD) and rescue her from being raped by her stepfather (Georges Guéret, I AM FRIGID… WHY?). Hanging out at his father's country cottage, Benoît plays butler to Jean-Pierre and is allowed to watch the younger couple having sex, but he eventually asserts his dominance with the promise of money, convincing Jean-Pierre to break into his father's company. When Jean-Pierre is caught, Benoît tries to blackmail his father by creating a scandal and confessing his involvement in the robbery, but his father only agrees to drop the charges against Jean-Pierre and will not pay off his debts. When Isabelle goes home to pack her things, her stepfather attempts to rape her again, and Benoît turns his frustrations with his own father onto the man and kills him. Needing money for the three of them to flee to Mexico, Benoît then hits upon the idea of using Jean-Pierre to seduce his stepmother Sabine whose youth-concerned charitable interests are a front for keeping young thugs on the side for sex. Everything seems to be going their way at last, but Benoît cannot seem to keep his murderous desires at bay, and the younger couple may either end up as his patsies or his next victims.

Although best known in English-speaking territories for the early French horror film THE BLOOD ROSE and the scandalous PUSSY TALK – the inspiration for Tom De Simone's R-rated CHATTERBOX – director Claude Mulot was more than another of France's erotica specialists. Although he made his directing debut with the strip club vignette film SEXYRELLA, his followed up THE BLOOD ROSE with the violent crime thriller THE CONTRACT and PROFESSION: ADVENTURERS. SINS OF THE FLESH was an indicator of his move towards the erotic – as with those later films, he writes and directs this one under the pseudonym "Frédéric Lansac" the name of THE BLOOD ROSE's protagonist – and while this film revels in extended softcore sex scenes – including a voyeuristic aside for Benoît that may very well have been added in post-production as it does not show anything explicit but it certainly appears as if the actors are doing more than mimicking – and having a look and sound that is in keeping with other product by distributor Alpha France directed by colleague Max Pecas, the film does not seem to be solely concerned with sex. The characters, particularly Benoît who complains that his wealthy father should take care of all of his needs, seem odious and mostly are, one cannot help but lean towards Benoît and company as they attack characters who are just as hypocritical but seem more so because of their money and respectability. Benoît's reaction at the end to his fate is wonderfully cynical. The combination of French tax laws regarding pornography in the eighties and perhaps Mulot's own boredom with the genre lead to a series of compromised projects including the poor French attempt at the giallo KNIFE UNDER THE THROAT with Brigitte Lahaie (FASCINATION) and Florence Guerin (THE CLICK), and the pretty but uninvolving BLACK VENUS, one of a series of classy literary erotica adaptations – this one credited to a story by Honoré de Balzac – produced by Harry Alan Towers for the Playboy Channel before his early death.

Released in a cut X-certificate version in the U.K. as SEX WITHOUT LOVE, SINS OF THE FLESH was similarly neutered upon theatrical release in France, not getting back its salacious material until home video. The film was released earlier this year from French boutique label Le Chat Qui Fume on a 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray combo edition – which, unlike their SEVEN WOMEN FOR SATAN, was not English-friendly – and the same 4K master has been used for Mondo Macabro's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen transfer. Apart from the grainy title opticals and some night exteriors, the transfer looks very clean and the more saturated colors pop, calling attention to the use of neons and some pop art on a shoestring set decoration. The grading is free of the teal-leaning revisionist look popping up on some vintage films, which is especially pleasing when it comes to the blues that actually appear onscreen – including some underwater shots – while skin tones are nicely varied in the firm bare flesh. Both French and English dub tracks are provided in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono. The post-dubbed dialogue (on both tracks) comes through clearly but it is the film's score that is the true highlight (unfortunately not provided in an isolated option as it is on the French release). Optional English subtitles are also provided for the French track.

Ported over from the French edition are a handful of great extras. In "La Charnelle" (20:57), Libert is at last interviewed, and she does spend a bit of time on working with Jess Franco in Portugal, an offer that came to her from producer Robert de Nesle on the day she signed a contract with the Crazy Horse strip club, her memories of never knowing what film she was doing for Franco on what day, her friendship with Howard Vernon, and working with Mulot, Jean-François Davy (EXHIBITION), and mainstream Claude Lelouch (A MAN AND A WOMAN), as well as her ill-fated attempts to start a modeling career in New York. In "Adventures with Alpha France" (24:23), distributor Francis Mischkind recalls making films for the army in Algeria, returning to France where he started distributing short films for children, meeting Mulot when he was an archivist at distributor Franco London, picking up Scandinavian films like I AM CURIOUS YELLOW along with other art films from that area that were naturally more racy – as well as some of the same American softcore films Harry Novak's Box Office International picked up for the states – and forming his own distributor Alpha France when his regular distributor Rank France shut its doors. He next ran into Mulot when he and his producer brought him SINS OF THE FLESH, leading to a partnership that included PUSSY TALK and some other films before the X-Law classified films like SINS OF THE FLESH as pornography based on their subject matter rather than their content. In looking back at the films, he notes that pornography of that time was optimistic and had a joie de vivre lacking in modern product.

Most informative is "My Nights with Claude" (26:46), in which dubbing director Gerard Kikoine recalls working on Franco's films for de Nesle, writing dialogue, creating effects, and getting music since the edited copies sent to him were entirely mute, and meeting Mulot through his actress wife Martine Messager who did voice work for Kikoine, and working on SINS OF THE FLESH before PUSSY TALK which was his first hardcore film dubbing job. He speaks highly of Mulot and how he and assistant director Didier Philippe-Gerard (THE NIGHTS OF MARILYN), half-brother of Messager and husband of adult film actress Marilyn Jess, were mentors as he worked his way up to the director's chair. "Profession: Movie Maker" (25:57) is an update of the 2003 interview with assistant director Philippe-Gerard previously featured on Mondo Macabro's THE BLOOD ROSE DVD. He describes his friendship with Mulot who became his brother-in-law, their shared love of movies and how Mulot introduced him to American films, Mulot's love of horror films and how unpopular the genre was in France – he contrasts Jean Rollin's film as being more poetic while Mulot's ambitions were for more straightforward genre works – and traces a running theme through SINS OF THE FLESH and PUSSY TALK in upsetting the bourgeoisie and Mulot's disgust at conformist. He also discusses Mulot's less satisfying later works and the circumstances of his accidental death.