Nana: La vera chiave del piacere

I'm into finding more obscure/less mainstream films to watch but this one didn't do it for me and the young age of the lead actress was already a red flag. But the fact that there's real-life incest of sorts that's glossed over shocks me even more so. Never watching this again.

In the opening titles of this movie it says that is "loosely based" on the fin-de-siècle novel of Emile Zola. I haven't read the novel, but I am a little suspicious about the lesbian scenes and the bizarre "human cockfighting" scene. I am also quite sure that Zola never claimed that his contemporary, George Melies, a real-life silent French filmmaker (who was also a character in Scorcese's "Hugo")made porn loops to show in Parisian brothels. I suspect the notorious 80's low-rent Israeli producers Golan and Globus took at least some liberties with both fiction and reality.

This is a movie about a young actress and prostitute, who shows up at a brothel and becomes an object of obsession for numerous men--a Jewish banker, a count, and the impressionable son of the count--and proceeds to blithely destroy all their lives.

The lead, 18-year-old Katya Berger, is not an especially beautiful girl, but she has a very nice body, which is useful since she spends a great deal of the movie nude. Berger is one of a several young German actresses of the 70's (including Lara Wendel, Katja Bienert, and most famously Nastassia Kinski)who actually appeared in a lot of nude and erotic roles BEFORE they were "legal" by modern-day US/UK standards. Berger's 1978 debut, "Labias Piccolas", for instance, is available in the US today, but reputedly shorn of about 11 minutes of underage nude scenes. But that is not a problem in THIS movie made five years later. Of course, she does have a lesbian scene with an actress played by her real-life sister, Debra Berger (both are daughters of spaghetti Western actor William Berger)and an inter-racial oral sex scene. And there are a couple other notorious figures in the cast including Annie Belle, a French "lolita" actress from the earlier 70's, and 60's British party girl Mandy Rice-Davies, who was caught up with Christine Keeler in the "Profumo Affair", which brought down a British government and was later chronicled in the movie "Scandal". Clearly the Go-Glo boys were trying to court a little controversy here.

Given all that though, this movie is surprisingly boring. One problem is that the only really strong actor here is Jean-Pierre Aumont, but a lot of it is that director Dan Wolman is not very adept at drawing out any believable drama. Still, it is not a terrible movie and isn't worse than any other Golan-Globus film--whether or not you consider THAt a recommendation. . .

Nana (1982) was an "erotic" film that was loosely based upon the Emile Zola novel. I saw this film when I was in high school on pay cable during the late 80's. There was only a couple of scenes that made the movie enjoyable. The rest was pretty lame, tame and filler. I have to warn you that the movie is pretty "Euro" and some people will be turned off by the "realism" of the way women are shown in this movie. But if you love the "au natural" look, then you'll be in heaven.

Today this film is pretty hard to find. I don't think that their was a strong demand for this film on video. But seriously, I wouldn't go out of my way searching for a copy.

Okay, not thrilling. Just okay.

Nana DVD "Rare" Young Katya Berger plays many Nude scenes in the unedited version,Rated R contains extensive nudity, Katya is a absolute beauty! Young Katya Berger bares a lot of skin in this costume drama about a young Parisian lady who finds work at a burlesque club and then takes advantage of the perverts who come there. The film takes place in the 1880's, one of the stars of the club has created movies, the movies created were not very exciting but nudity all the same and very tame for today's standards. Mandy Rice-Davies, who helped bring down the British Government years ago, appears in this film. Costume drama for completest or those who want to see a poor man's Brooke Shields/Eva Ionesco, anyway you put it Katya is a stunning beauty that could steal any older man's heart and that is exactly what she did in this movie, very seductive, sexy and gorgeous all in one bundle! A true must have and to own.

Purview

Usually I don't review anything I haven't watched in its entirety, but it was 2 at night, half an hour still to go, and I was certain that I would not miss anything of value by going to sleep. (Was anything produced by Golan and Globus ever of value?) There are two major problems in this film. First is the plot: too many scenes are individual sketches that don't connect to anything. Not that this is a surprise in softcore porn... The second, and worse, problem is Katya Berger. She is supposed to bewitch every man in the film but I totally fail to see how. All I saw was a little girl with zero acting abilities, not even that pretty. OK, the green eyes are cute in close-up, but several other women in the film are far better-looking.

Nothing else is too convincing either. What seemed interesting at first was the presence of the legendary Georges Méliès as a character. There, too, is a dual problem: the two examples of his films do not look like genuine films of the era, and they have none of the inventiveness that was his trademark.