Die sexuellen Geheimnisse einer Familie

Trust the French to make thoughtful, explicit, ground-breaking cinema. SEXUAL CHRONICLES OF A FRENCH FAMILY is, as the title would suggest, a comic drama about the sex lives of three generations of a close-knit French family, and the various mini-dramas that arise from each. The controversial thing about it is that the sex scenes - and there are plenty of them - are real.

In fact, the sex is presented in such an ordinary, matter of fact way, that this is hardly pornographic. It's almost like a documentary in places. The actors, who have no inhibitions whatsoever, happen to be very realistic in their various parts and the way their different lives intertwine is well achieved. Watch out for THE RETURNED's Pierre Perrier, who has a last scene cameo.

I'm giving this a top score (which I do extremely rarely) not because it it a great film but, because it is a much needed film that no one has been brave enough to make until now.

Reading the other reviews I get the impression that the writers watched the film as 'entertainment', it is that and has enough of a plot & deep enough characters to stand up as such.

However, I believe the films real value shows when seen as what a school biology curriculum may title as "Facts of life: Advanced Course (Sex As A Part Of Life)". It is clichéd and a little unreal, as such educational films are, but still very good.

Of course this film is never going to be shown as part of a school curriculum, or is it? Life itself is a school. Most of us are raised with a closed-minded attitude to sex, and as a result have a perverted view of it.

This film shows us that all us adult pupils of the school of life (from age 16 to the end) are sexual beings for which sex can be a very enjoyable & enriching part. This applies whether or not we have a 'good-looking' appearance, sex can be a beautiful act even when old wrinklies are involved. It also shows that it is to be treated with care & responsibility. It also drops in that sex is something to be shared, not taken or merely bought. While commercialised sex is at best empty & possibly damaging.

Someday this film will be unnecessary, in which case this would be merely entertainment. When that happens I would probably give this a mere 5 or 6, and the other reviews I see would be apposite. Until then this film is great art, given that great art is meant to challenge us & make us think.

Unfortunately most of us have a 'broken' thinking machine so most only see porn. For those can do only see it a such, try watching & understanding the expressions of the sexual participants, both pre & post coition, also during. You will see that love and care comes out much more vividly than eroticism. You will also how it can be awkward for first-time participants but then, as they learn to relax with each other, how the bond between them grows. This is not porn, this is a very worthwhile piece of art for whom I would like to praise all the participants.

Edit: I saw a pirate version of this film after it was taken from a P2P download. But having seen it I decided that it was worth buying and attempted to. However, I was only able to source worthless censored versions. So it seems that I am disallowed from financially supporting the making of such films, and that we are only allowed to learn about sex from perverts (i.e. schoolmarm types & pornography). Hmmmm, what a weird world we live in... it just emphasises the need for more stuff like this film.

The original French release of this film contains, as you might expect from the title, lots of explicit sex. However, the US/British version was severely censored, with all the sex and most of the nudity removed, which, if you think about it, is pretty silly for a film with that title. The trouble is, most of the people selling this DVD/Blu-Ray don't tell you which it is they're offering. The ONLY way to know is to check the run time -- the French (complete) version is 85 minutes long, with no English subtitles, and the bowdlerized "safe" version is 79 minutes and has English subtitles. Still waiting for the full version WITH subtitles as my French is good but not that good.

The story is simple, just a cross-section of an everyday family with very real sexual scenarios. I was stunned to see such great acting in a cast readily open to perform explicit sex acts. Romain's, the recently turned 18 male lead, very real awkwardness is cringe-worthy and forced out of me an embarrassed laugh. All the actor's chemistry with each other was perfect, I couldn't imagine it done better, because it didn't need to be done better.

The film is careful to steer clear of pornographic style and only shows a minimum of explicit acts while remaining so real you may as well be there with them.

I'm not giving it a ten only because I felt it didn't challenge me enough as a viewer. Although, If you're on the more reserved side towards sexual expression this may be a very challenging viewing indeed. *side note: Some characters aren't given much development though, but I think too much complexity might detract from the film's simple journey.

Highly recommended film

One might say and/or think that strokes is quite the innuendo here. And if you watch the explicit cut of the movie (there is a softer version available of this), you would be excused for calling it a pun. Having said all that, this is quite the family. If you try to be open minded (if you aren't already or maybe your family is close to this anyway), you will get a story of how (not) to raise your kids. And how to grow up, how to communicate ... actually as this is one example of how things can go down, you can imagine that this is not a blueprint. Nor for or against anything shown here.

As said, some might want to try the softer version, if you don't want to see certain things. Funnily enough both versions are rated 16 in Germany. Which I guess says something about how sex is being seen and appreciated (or marginalized). Again it is always a matter of perspective and how you have grown up, what you have been taught. So don't blame the movie for certain things it depicts or the fact that almost everyone is beautiful (although I've been told I'm too nice in certain regards, so you may have other beauty values yourself). French cinema over the last decades has gone nude ... not all of it, but they seem to like the theme and they don't shy away - provoking much? Maybe, but there comes a point (no pun intended), where it is almost normal, yes? Is that good or bad? Who am I to judge?