9 Lives of a Wet Pussy

9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (1976)

** (out of 4)

Ferrara's first feature-length film is this hardcore effort about a rich New Yorker (Pauline LaMonde) who writes to her tarot card reading friend (Dominique Santos) about her various sexual encounters. These encounters include various men and women and we also get a sequence in a gas station bathroom where she pretty much has to rape the worker. Ferrara has pretty much forgotten all about this film as he had his name changed in the credits to Jimmy Boy L. and whenever asked about his first film, he actually talks about his second, THE DRILLER KILLER. It's funny but this and THE DRILLER KILLER actually have quite a bit in common. THE DRILLER KILLER was a horror film that contained gore and violence yet it pretty much tried to stay away from the genre as if the director was just forced into making it. I think the same can be said here because we get hardcore scenes yet they're filmed in a way as if the director was saying he'd much rather be doing something else. This might be why he's also refused to talk about the film or have anything to do with it. The sex scenes are all rather ugly without any decent camera-work but this could be said about the entire film. It looks incredibly cheap and seems to have been put together on the run. Ferrara does manage to create a rather weird atmosphere but the voice over narration and silly dialogue doesn't help matters. One of the most outrageous scenes has a father passing out drunk and then his two daughters rape him. Yes, not step daughters but actual daughters. There's a rumor that Ferrara was involved in hardcore scenes but I really don't think that's the case. He appears in a scene but I think it's rather obvious, due to the editing, that there's a stand-in doing the actual work. In the end, there are certainly much better hardcore movies out there so this here is going to be for Ferrara fans who want to see the film he wants nothing to do with. I'm not sure what he has against this movie but it's certainly a lot better than THE DRILLER KILLER.

Very little interesting plot , Plain Girls i thought Gypsy would interest me latter but i fell asleep on the couch that never happens with Carol Connors or Rhonda Jo Petty.

It fails to deliver on two fronts. The story lacks sufficient interest to make the not very titillating sex scenes worth sitting through and vice versa.

It is to pornography what "Driller Killer" was to horror films, meaning that young Abel Ferrera didn't seem to understand what audiences for these kind of pictures wanted to see. Sure, he delivered hard-core sex and in Driller Killer delivered the blood and violence, but both are crippled by absolute pretentiousness and lack of plot. The girls are mostly unattractive and the sex is lame. The "fantasies" of it's characters are dumb and pointless.

Also, don't believe those bootleg hawkers that try to convince you that Ferrera "performs" in this movie. He appears as the character of the old man but saves the nasty stuff for his stunt double.

Abel Ferrara's first film got the deluxe treatment via Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray and it's worth a watch if your a fan of Ferrara. Basically a set of scenes, linked by a narrator who is reading/reminiscing of letters from her absent lover. As porn it's serviceable, nothing remarkable for the era with largely unknown performers, many friends of the director and Ferrara himself in one scene. It's more interesting as a Ferrara film, being his first one. What it may lack as porn it makes up for in ambition. Ferrara attempts a few different style but sets up many themes that he would explore and dissect in later films throughout his career. So while it may not be a triumph, it's still worth a watch.

The film almost has no plot, minimal dialogue, unknown cast, the sex scenes have very bad lightening and the angles are the worst, you can only see moving objects, no faces or the "sensitive" parts.

I'm still surprised how well known it is, it's very bad even for 1976.

I only rated it 4/10 because of the overall cinematography, the locations are great and the film stock they used had brilliant colors.

Pauline character which should be the lead role only said a few lines in the whole movie, it is worth a viewing if you are interested in photography and cinematography (like me), otherwise don't bother watching it let alone buying it.