Viol, la grande peur

This episodic sexploitative drama is about the subject of rape. If this sounds bad then probably rightly so - most of the rape scenes have a certain voyeuristic 'quality', as one would expect from a Eurocine production. To its merit, the film does not trivialise the subject or make the rapes appear erotic - it remains realistic and bleak, but nevertheless this is still a sexploitative product.

However, the film has one redeeming feature: the devious episode involving hitch-hiking student Brigitte Lahaie and two truckers. The latter decide to have a go at beautiful Brigitte and, boy, will they live to regret this!

"Rape" by Pierre Chevalier is a strange and gleefully sleazy semi-mondo about a bunch of reporters trying to "blow the lid" on rape,of course resulting in a lot flashbacks with lots of nudity and rape in them.There are seven or eight rape scenes in "Rape",some of them quite brutal and misogynistic.The film don't take the stand for rape,but just the fact that the cheap exploitation makers at Eurociné did a film on rape with lots of nudity in it makes it dubious to the max.The most interesting episode is with Brigitte Lahaie.She plays a medicine student,who is raped by two truckers.After recovering from trauma she lures both her rapists and surgically castrates them.8 out of 10 for this politically incorrect sickie.

A newspaper editor decides to jazz up circulation by releasing a series of articles on rape. He then assigns three of his staff writers (two of them quite handsome), to dig up the stories, interview the victims and start writing human interest stuff for the paper.

Initially, we follow the reporters as they track down and interview the victims--their stories shown in sexy flashbacks. As the film progresses, the stories start coming fast and furious, each more raunchy and entertaining than the one before.

Things peak halfway through with a wildly watchable tale about a South American girl imprisoned for no reason at all, who becomes the object of lust for two horny guards.

The most famous segment features porn actress Brigitte Lahaie, who is ravished by two truck drivers and then gets sweet revenge.

The film keeps up its sexy energy right to the end, the runtime flying by pretty quickly. This title is long overdue for a blu ray release! Recommended for lovers of Euro, sleaze, grindhouse and sexploitation films.

So this is a drama claiming to be "based on actual events" (yeah right) where reporters document rape cases from all around the world to expose the judicial system's mistreatment of rape victims but is really just a rape revenge exploitation film? Wrong, it doesn't rate that high. It's really just a soft core porn exploitation film.

The numerous graphic scenes of rape are in fact just soft core porn with all parties not only consenting but really getting into it. The jazz music sets the tone. They can't seriously be trying to convince anyone that these girls are being raped.

The version I saw was dubbed to English and the voice actors weren't even trying to take this seriously either. For example the prison guards in Chile all have fake Brooklyn accents.

The film is best known for the scenes of hard core porn legend Brigitte Lahaie getting "raped" and then enacting her own revenge. This segment certainly lived up to its reputation and makes the whole movie worth watching.

Lahaie is known for doing legitimate acting at the same time she was also starring in hard core porn films. This movie does not qualify for legitimate anything.

There are several other scenes which are laugh out loud riots. For example, when a reporter travels from France to Chile it goes totally Indiana Jones and actually shows us a map of France and Chile, only it's just a simple map book, no moving line. Why? What was the purpose of showing us this?

I suspect I saw the edited version of this film as some of the rape scenes have poor editing cuts. Perhaps the original version was hard core porn?

I really enjoyed this movie for several laugh out loud moments that someone would make a movie this truly sleazy. It's titled 'Rape' after all. As I said, none of the "rape" scenes even approach "rape."

Episodic film centred around a newspaper office where it is decided to make more of the many rape stories that come in and create some discussion, try to change the climate of opinion (and sell more papers). This is a blatant case of 'having your cake and eat it' where the film makers hold up the 'awfulness' of rape and how women get blamed instead of men and then going to great lengths to re-enact these 'awful' acts for our viewing pleasure. Interestingly, of course the legal position has changed around since the 70's and it is now very much a case of the 'poor' guy having to prove that he didn't rape his girlfriend. The film opens with some guy running around Paris asking people what they think of rape (how fatuous is that) moves on to a trial scene where the judge is clearly of a mind that 'she must have been asking for it' and we end with a pious group of journalists suggesting they may have changed the world. In between we get rape sequence after rape sequence, well shot, voyeuristic and not unsexy. The scenes are varied and regular with a stand out one featuring a young Brigitte Lahaie and two truckers who get their comeuppance from this 'anatomy student', but it is all a bit too two faced and one is left doubting very much if there ever was any thought in the film makers mind other than bums on seats. Not for everybody, obviously, but a watchable and interesting curio from, for good or bad, a unique period in modern times.