Racconti immorali

Walerian Borowczyk is best known for his 1975 sleaze flick 'The Beast', and with that film in mind; I don't think I was unjustified going into this one expecting some bizarre pornography. However, it turns out that isn't what this film is at all; it's actually 'erotica', which is unfortunately not so interesting. Sure there's plenty of hot female nudity, but it's all really slow and barely erotic in the slightest. As the title suggests, this film depicts 'tales' which are immoral; and there are four in total. The first is very simple but nicely put together. We follow a pair of cousins stuck on a beach together by the tide. The older and more sexually experienced of the pair sees it as an opportunity to teach the younger a thing or two. This story is not particularly impressive on the substance front; it's very short and not a lot happens, but it is really beautifully shot and anyone that appreciates good looking cinema will surely find something to like about it.

I figured the first tale would be just a taster since it is so short, but unfortunately things go downhill from there and the second tale is the worst of the four. It takes on a period setting and basically just follows a young woman locked in her bedroom. Again, the cinematography is nice (though none of the locations are anything like as good as the beach in tale one) but the tale itself drags on too long to approaching anything like what I would call 'erotica'. The film is slightly redeemed by tale number three; which is by far the best of the bunch. Elizabeth Bathory has featured in cinema a few times; though not often enough. This tale again is slow and beautiful but the story actually holds some interest and Paloma Picasso's perfect naked figure emerging from a bath is blood is likely to be the only thing I will go on to remember about this film. I figured that if the fourth tale could match the third then the film would be a success overall; but unfortunately it's a turgid affair and doesn't compliment the penultimate story as well as I'd hoped. Split into four we have one good story, one decent one and two weak ones...not enough to recommend the film for unfortunately.

Contes Immoraux/Immoral Tales(1974) is an erotic series of short films that opens with "The Tide". This first tale is about a young girl who is taught by her cousin about the connection between sex and the highest peak of a water wave. The story is average and is the least interesting. This tale is about how sex and intellectual thinking can go hand to hand. About how sex and the idea of sexual contact is thought up by the middle class.

The second tale in the film is one of the two best tales in this sensual anthology. Its about a sexually repressed young woman that discovers her urges through her religion beliefs. Charlotte Alexandra who plays the sex hungry woman is excellent in the role as well as absolutely breathtaking and arousing. She finds her sexual pleasure through fantasies of sex and self sex using vegetables. The story is about a woman's yearning to be independant and feminine.

The tale telling of the Countess Elisabeth Bathory is the best story. It takes place during the final hours of the countess before her arrest at the orders of the king. The story takes a shot at the government structure by showing its self indulgence and absolute corruption. Elisabeth Bathory was not a vampire in the traditional sense. First, she was still alive and did not suck blood. Paloma Picasso, daughter of the fame artist is wonderful in the role of the infamous countess(interestingly, when she is arrested the kings men put a suit on her that reminds me of the prisoner's arrest suit in Brazil).

The next and final tale is about one of the most scandalous moments in the 20th Century. It features a shocking menage a trois that is very bold to view. The story is about the love affair between Lucrezia Borgia and her father, the pope plus another man. The sex sequences are disturbing and shocking. This story is very powerful in its depiction of religious corruption.

In the spirit of "I'll try anything once", I watched my first Walerian Borowczyk film; it is also probably going to be my last. His brand of pseudo-arty, antiseptic, plotless soft-core porn is totally not my cup of tea (besides, we already have Jess Franco for that). The first story is the best, because it's at least the most honest; the worst is probably the third, in which the shower scenes go on for what seems like three centuries. * out of 4.

Overall, this film is quite boring. There are 4 unlinked segments, with only the third likely to keep you awake.

This is the familiar tale of Countess Elisabeth Bathory. Bathory is a historical character who apparently used to favour blood taken from naked virgins.This scenario is an exploitationers delight, and we get to see room loads of young girls running round in the buff.

But even so, this story seems to head nowhere, and much is left to your imagination.

Four erotic tales, three set as period pieces, the fourth (actually the first episode in the film) is set in the present day. A young man researches and puts into action a plot to trap his 16-year-old female cousin into giving him head by isolating her on a stretch of beach cut off by the ocean at high tide. The problems are several. The girl obviously doesn't need to be trapped and is more than willing to explore her own sexuality so the cousin's plot is completely unnecessary. She also demonstrates that she's a good swimmer, so she isn't really trapped. He also seems to be kind of short sighted since Borowczyk's cuts from close ups of the girl's face to her vagina demonstrate her curiosity at his limited objectives. Silly really.

'Therese Philosophe' concerns a pious girl punished for something by being locked in her bedroom "for three days", she seems intent on biding her time putting a cucumber to a non-digestive use while reading. This was the most disappointing episode for me because the only reason I tracked down and bought the DVD was because I saw the wonderful erotic potential of Charlotte Alexandra in "Une vraie jeune fille". She's wasted here.

'Erzsebet Bathory' is a sixteenth-century countess who travels to various villages setting up job fairs to recruit young girls into service in her household. Her pitch is that she pays more than the king. That her recruiters have to drag the young girls from their homes kicking and screaming might bear testament to the fact that none of her previous 'employees' were ever seen again. She also seems to have bizarre bathing habits.

'Lucrezia Borgia' chronicles Pope Alexander VI's pursuit of family values by swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool with his daughter Lucrezia and her brother Cesare. Everyone lives happily ever after (except that heretic Savonarola). This was actually the most erotic of the four, but I'd rather watch Debbie do anybody...or Miss Elizabeth Bennet for that matter!

The only thing noteworthy about this film is that supposedly it was the first porn flic to rise above the miasma onto the radar screens of the mainstream media. Actually I would have guessed that that distinction would have fallen to a Radly Metzger film, but my love of baseball statistics and trivia doesn't extend to porn films so I won't bother to look it up.