L'amour chez les poids lourds

Was anyone talking about bizarrely ambitious film projects? Well "Truck Stop" definitely belongs in this particular category, as it is a French soft-pornographic version of the legendary Greek poem "Homer's Odyssey". Sleazy soft core and Greek mythology form quite an odd combination, to say the least, but you can pretty much expect everything from writer/director Jean-Marie Pallardy. I have a weakness for this pleasantly deranged French cult filmmaker ever since I had the joy and privilege of watching his deluded 80's action/trash vehicle entitled "White Fire". That movie was totally unscrupulous and outrageous, whereas "Truck Stop" is still somehow unique and admirable.

I kid you not; this motion picture truly and honestly revolves on a more or less faithful macho trucker who desperately attempts to get back home to his beautiful girlfriend Pamela, the proprietor of a raunchy truck stop bar, but cannot because he repeatedly encounters "obstacles" in the form of sex-hungry women that want his body. That poor, poor guy! The role of the trucker was such an inhuman job that director Pallardy didn't have any other choice but to play it himself. Whilst Ulysse and his loyal co-pilot try to resist the virulent sex attacks of scarcely dressed desert sirens and eye-patch wearing shop girls, his muse and her yummy truck stop employees continuously invent games to keep the horny truckers on a safe distance. "Truck Stop" obviously is an insignificant and totally redundant late 80's sexploitation movie, but it's undeniably entertaining and charming if you appreciate this sort of humbug. The tone and atmosphere are irresistibly light-headed and Pallardy's screenplay actually contains a handful of ingenious and clever ideas. The games and contests held between the truckers in Pamela's bar are particularly imaginative. For example, there's are sequence where all the truckers are lined up, without pants and with a bell tied to their ding-dongs, and forced to watch two girls fondling each other. The contestant, if any, who manages to keep his bell from ringing under this severe sexual pressure, wins. In case you're a connoisseur of 70's European cult cinema, you might recognize several familiar faces, like that of Elizabeth Turner ("Waves of Lust", "Cannibal Apocalypse"), Annik Borel ("Werewolf Woman") and Evy Galleani ("Baba Yaga", "Damned in Venice" and "Born for Hell").

There is nothing on the sleeve of the DVD to suggest this was other than standard soft porn fare. Whilst it's hardly great, the ingenuity with which the makers translate the Greek classic Odyssey deserves some praise.

Ulysse is a truck driver who gets lost in the desert after his middle-aged co-driver is lured away by a mirage of beautiful women (The Sirens). They are rescued by a beautiful woman who lives by an oasis (Calypso) who falls in lust with Ulysse and keeps him with her for weeks. Meanwhile Ullyss' wife Pamela (Penelope) finds her restaurant gradually filling up with bachelor truckers who think Ulysse is dead and fancy claiming his wife and his business. The plot alternates between Ulysse trying to make the difficult journey home, encountering a one-eyed ogreish woman (the Cyclops), whilst back at the café the suitors and local whores stage drunken sex games and circle around the resourceful Pamela.

All the women, Cyclops excepted, are beautiful and sexy, whilst the men are generally hairy and rather gnomic looking. If you can get past that, this is a bawdy romp with a bizarre musical soundtrack of poor cover versions of sixties and seventies pop songs. The sun constantly shines on the lovely French countryside and film is pretty professionally made. The dubbing is haphazard on the English version but even with that obstacle, Elizabeth Turner gives an elegant, sensuous performance as Pamela, making her a woman well worth crossing a desert for.

This is not a particularly good movie, but it is certainly an interesting one. It's a modern-day version of "Odysseus" with the Odysseus character, "Eugene" (played by director Pallardy ) as a long-haul trucker who becomes lost in the desert after his horny partner is lured away by beautiful lesbian "sirens". They both end up at the villa of a woman name Calypso (played African-American actress Ajita Wilson) who takes them in, but insists that our hero have sex with her several times a day (poor guy). Eventually, they get away, but still have a long journey home as they encounter highwaymen and a very unattractive but VERY amorous one-eyed female bartender. Meanwhile, back home Eugene's wife "Pamela" (Elizabeth Turner) runs a truck stop where she is besieged by horny truckers wanting her sexual favors, so she delays them by holding various "contests", like seeing how long the men can watch two of her attractive friends go at it without getting physically aroused.

Obviously, this movie is based loosely on the classic Greek epic poem, but it also seems to be influenced by contemporary American movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" (a weird combination, I know). Besides the truck driving theme, there's a lot of Hal Needham-Burt Reyolds style bloodless brawling. And there's not only the usual good ole boy male bonding, but some borderline homoeroticism as well. One trucker picks up a pre-op transsexual and lets his partner have sex with him/her without telling him. Ironically, the transsexual is played by a real woman (Anika Borel from "Werewolf Woman") whereas reputed real-life transsexual Ajita Wilson plays a real woman. Between that, the frequent gay jokes, and the abundant male nudity, some viewers may feel sexually confused to say the least. Fortunately, there's also abundant female nudity and actresses on hand like Elizabeth Turner (from "Wave of Lust") and the lovely Ely Galeani, who plays one of the girls featured in the aforementioned "contest"(I definitely would have lost that particular contest).

I suppose if you take this as any kind serious adaptation of "Odysseus" (or of "Smokey and the Bandit"), it's not that good. But as far as European softcore porn flicks go, it's a frickin' masterpiece. It's interesting at least in any case, and worth checking out if you get a chance.