Julia et les hommes

One of the unwritten rules for sex films is to depict sex as something enjoyable - perhaps it is a guilty pleasure and some punishment may be afoot, but a pleasure nonetheless. Another is that a once initiated sexual encounter always goes ahead - the punters loath prickteasing.

This film dares touching these rules. The story resolves around an upper middle class family during the summer holidays. They are desperately trying to have a good time, and the emphasis is here on "desperately", because they are just not very at good at it. Sex is the only thing that overcomes their boredom, but even that rarely suffices. This lethargic lot is very hard to excite - the only time anyone got really upset was mother Hildegard when her husband's mistress told her at the family diner table that she was now sleeping with her teenage son as well.

Make no mistake: this is a softporno and nothing else, it does not have a message of any kind. But it is much less predictable than the average genre flick and that makes for much more interesting viewing.

Note: the UK release has an attempted rape scene (Pauli on Ivanna) cut, which is a bit of a shame as it explains the family's subsequent trip to Italy.