Le Diable rose - Das liebestolle Freudenhaus

A surprisingly little-known French sex comedy, from the days when soft pornography was vanishing fast from most of Europe. Surprisingly, because it has good production values and is generally well-made. Perhaps, the light-hearted combination of France's nazi occupation with the sex comedy genre is more than many people can stomach. Especially, since this is more a sex film with jokes than a titillating comedy.

I was not quite sure what to make of the acting. Much of it appears rather ham-fisted, but that may well have been intentional, to create something like a modernised (and sexified) Carry-On movie. The two English officers certainly fit into this mould. Former porn actress Brigitte Lahaie has a lot of screen presence, and she can act, as she had shown before on many occasions. Thus, with very little competition from the rest of the cast she finds it easy to dominate every scene she is in.

Many ideas in this film seem to have been nicked from José Bénazéraf's 1978 porn flick Bordell SS. Both are situated in a French brothel frequented by German soldiers just before and leading to D-day, in both films members of the resistance ask the brothel for support, and both feature a dubious German female officer with a disturbed sense of her sexuality.