Camille 2000

I first heard about this film through its music. The late Piero Piccioni was one of Italy's finest composers from the hey day of Italian cinema in the 60's and 70's.

The write up for this movie descibes it solely in terms of sex and eroticism... but it so, so much more. It is like a wonderful painting depicting the heart wrenching trials and tribulations of two lovers, who spend a great deal of time hiding from the truth. Daniele Gaubert is superb in this, and you almost fall in love with her yourself (she, like her on screen persona, also had a tragic early death at the age of 44, from cancer). I am not a big fan of Metzger but this one is a must for all fans of lush 60's cinema.

It is how the 60's (the none 'Hippies' anyway) would like to be remembered.... ultra stylish, hedonisitic, with the heartache of love lost. (Let us pray Hollywood leaves this film be and not 'create' one of their awful remakes)

Camille 2000, which could be called the first of the modern, adult films, was among those trendsetting, forward-looking pictures that marked the end of the 1960's. That said, it's not a fantastic film, but fairly well done. The pill popping, hard driving female of the film is asked, at the opening of the picture, whether she ever comes down. "Not if I can help it," she replies, tossing another handfull of drugs into her mouth. In a sense, that's the theme of the film; lurid and risque for the time, but somewhat tame compared to today's endless stream of mindless porn films.

Metzger was a master at stretching a budget and providing nudie, erotic fair with dazzling production values. Remember that naked bodies were a pretty new commodity back in 1969 America and the eroticism that sizzles from the screen in this and other Metzger films comes from simply the idea that we are going to see people naked! And that usually means attractive females!! It is great to see something with such an innocent approach to titilation. Unlike many films and music videos today, where you just don't get to see much of anything, it delivers.

In addition, Metzger always toyed with kinky subject matter (check out "Lickerish Quartet") and that gave his films the edge over other American competitors. One of my favorite film-makers and very under rated. People who can't enjoy a Metzger film are generally too conservative in their tastes, ie "Titanic" = Best Picture.

I'm glad I saw it. There are life lessons about love, sex, art, pleasure, honesty, and denial here. Radley Metzger at his best is a very honest and true-to-life filmmaker. Even when he's being surreal and throwing illusions at you like in "The Lickerish Quartet" he's being brutally honest and teaching you something about yourself and about life. Neither prudish, nor libertine, just honest, Metzger artistically explored the areas of life that other filmmakers either avoided or treated with juvenile snickering attitudes. Of course he was a businessman too and his choice of subject matter was no doubt shaped in part by what was commercially viable, but he was also a brave and dedicated craftsman who helps us still to understand and grow wiser. The emotional impact of this film is not unlike "Therese and Isabell", though the eye candy in this film makes it an easier viewing experience. Not all of Metzger's films hold up today, but this is one that does.

The main reason to watch Camille 2000, full disclosure here, is leading actress Danièle Gaubert, a successful model and one of the most beautiful women ever to appear in European cinema. She made about a dozen movies back in the sixties, and retired from acting in 1972 when she married skier Jean-Claude Killy. She falls somewhere between "Wow" and "Holy $#*%". There, I said it. Her astonishing looks make her a convincing figure as the beautiful muse-prostitute at the center of a decadent "scene", set in the future world of 2000, but she was also fairly experienced and accomplished as an actress by this time and had good chemistry with Nino Castelnuovo, who plays the naively romantic Armand. Although the year 2000 as viewed from the angle of the pop art late 60s is a bit laughable from this end, the central doomed romance at the heart of the story is still affecting to watch today, and the supporting performances, all of which blend a decadent insouciance with closet romanticism, flesh out the dramatic landscape nicely. Worth a watch.