Plaisir à trois

Only a genius like Jess Franco to conceive such a masterpiece. I used to say that "La Comtesse Perverse" was my favorite of his films, but the truth is that it is impossible to pick just one title among the many gems in his huge filmography.

I consider "Plaisir à Trois" an immaculate work of art. I love every frame of it, and without the unique talent of Jess this story wouldn't have resulted so efficient. His camera job is impecable here. This is his most Sadean film, in the sense that it is impregnated with a pure sense of amorality never so successfully explored in other works. Sexual pleasure and cruelty are impossible to separate in this universe populated by people in search of pleasure without limits, even if the price is the suffering and death of their object of desire.

The extraordinary Alice Arno is the perfect incarnation of female sadism. No other woman exudes such a fascinating perversity. And no other actress could have played her role here. It was with Jess that this very underrated actress found her best roles. Lamentably, she was wasted doing cameos in many mediocre French erotic craps, some of them for the abominable Eurociné.

Some people criticised the choice of Tania Busselier to play Cécile, claiming that she doesn't convince as an ingenuos virgin, but her character is everything but a virginal naive girl, as revealed in the shocking ending.

Robert Woods gives his best perfornance for Franco here, in my opinion, being at the same time charming and detestable.

Lina Romay, in her first considerable role for Jess, shows an incredible talent, making of her retarted sex slave character one of the high points of the plot.

The twist in the climax, was perfect, and the story concludes with one of the most disturbing images I ever saw. It is one of those brutal endings that is hard to forgert.

In short, "Plaisir à Trois" is a testimony of the undeniable geniality of a director who dared to put on celluloid some of our darkest and sickest desires.

I searched for Plaisir à trois purely so that I could tick it off in my copy of The Aurum Encyclopedia of Horror, but all I could find was a French version of the film with no subtitles. Still, this being a typically trashy Jess Franco sadean sleaze-fest - 99% nudity and sex and 1% plot - it was easy to get the general gist of things.

Alice Arno plays Countess Martine de Bressac, who returns home after spending a year receiving psychiatric treatment for castrating one of her lovers. It's not long before Martine is back to her old ways, adding new exhibits to her torture dungeon: prostitutes that she and her husband Charles (Robert Woods) paralyse and subsequently display as human trophies. After spying on their sexy neighbour Cécile (Tania Busselier), Martine and Charles lure the young woman into their world of perversion.

Here's a catalogue of the sleaze on offer...

With the help of her manservant Mathias (Franco regular Howard Vernon), Martine picks up a hooker, draws her naked, then takes her to her dungeon to flog her.

Cécile rolls around sexily on her bed while Martine and Charles get fruity with each other (this happens twice).

The countess flogs mute sex-slave Adèle (Franco muse Lina Romay).

Martine shares a bath with Cécile.

The characters play a game where each must perform a sexy act: the countess does a striptease, Adèle makes out with a mannequin, Cécile has a lesbian romp with Adèle, and Charles humps Cécile (a scene that verges on hardcore).

The film ends with Charles, Martine and Adèle taking Cécile to the dungeon, where the tables are turned on the countess: instead of adding Cécile to her collection, Martine finds herself being administered with the paralysing injection instead.

With a notable lack of underwear, loads of full frontal female nudity, a hunchbacked dwarf, crash zooms aplenty, a jazzy lounge soundtrack, and some really bold fashion choices from Charles (purple suede suit with yellow shirt, and a two piece that looks like it's made from floral upholstery material), this is bound to please avid Franco fans but will probably bore most people silly.

As for it being horror... I really don't think so.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

Plaisir a trois (1973)

*** (out of 4)

Martine (Alice Arno) is released from a mental hospital a year after castrating a man. She returns home to her husband Charles (Robert Woods) and the two immediately start plans to seduce and murder their neighbor's daughter Cecile (Tania Busselier).

Also known as HOW TO SEDUCE A VIRGIN, this Jess Franco film is about as weird, perverted and twisted as you'd expect. It's loosely based off the de Sade story and it's one that the director had visited before and after. I've always been a fan of Franco's whenever he adapted this story because it usually meant the director could go full force into the perversion that the material needed.

What impressed me most here were the actual performances by the entire cast. Both Arno and Woods are flawless as the evil couple and the coldness that both actors bring to their parts really helps the film. Busselier is also extremely good and believable as this virgin that the couple try to bring into their web. You've then got Lina Romay doing a very good job playing a mute, which is the type of role she was always great at. Howard Vernon and Alfred Baillou are also good in their small supporting roles.

Franco made over a dozen films in 1973 so it was one of his busiest periods. The director delivers a very professional looking film and a film that certainly contains a dark sense of humor and some perverted material. This certainly ranks as one of the director's better films. It looks extremely good and Franco manages to paint a twisted tale of seduction, murder and perversion.