Tendre et Sensuelle Valérie

I saw this film numerous times, I can't say its a memorable film, because it isn't. The film is poorly acted and the plot is very lame and predictable.

However, I can't say the film isn't well crafted. Sure, for a comparison with films like Citizen Kane or Vertigo, two films I love and worship as being the best motion pictures of all time, this film REALLY doesn't stand with them. But the fact it's filmed in Black and white gives the film a cool touch of art.

One fun filled fact to the film, the sexy lead actress, Danielle Ouimet.

She creates a good example of the "dumb blond" cliché created not long afterwards....

I loved the music, very precise on the music of the time.... A mix of classical and rock, very interesting.

And, not only is the music interesting. Though the story may be very simple and ordinary, it does present a very accurate look of sexuality in the sixties society and how the sexual revolution was heading on....

A very average film that will most likely be forgotten not long after seeing it, but a fun filled array of music and sexy images.

This is an early example of what was known "maple syrup porn" principally churned out by two French Canadian producers (who later went on to form Lion Gate Films!)and rarely seen outside of Francophone Canada. It features Danielle Ouimet, an actress who later became famous for playing the blonde victim in the seminal Euro-horror classic "Daughters of Darkness". Ouimet was painfully awful in that more famous movie (and its director Harry Kumel still says bad things about her every time he's interviewed), so I was impressed that she was actually pretty good here.

Using a minimum of sync sound and a lot of groovy early 70's music, "Valerie" tells the story of young girl who runs away from her Catholic boarding school to become a topless go-go dancer. Badgered by her lesbian co-worker/roommate she descends even further into prostitution soon becoming "the prettiest whore in town". Too late, she meets a widowed painter with a young son who is unaware of her seedy past. But, of course, it all comes out (partly because she is still turning the occasional trick). The ending is pretty weak, managing to somehow combine the usual hypocritical brand of moralism of these films with a pretty unbelievable "happily ever after" resolution. But for most of it's running time this is an entertaining and visually stylish movie.

Although this movie has some sex and A LOT of nudity, it is much less sleazy and more more tasteful than most American sexploitation films of the period. It has kind of European feel to it like Radley Metzger's "Therese and Isabel" (but with less literary pretensions)or the famous Swedish sex film "Inga" (but with a slightly less barely legal leading lady). It's hard to find (I had to special order it from Canada), but definitely worth a look