Exhibition 2

In the wake of his hugely successful Claudine Beccarie hardcore docu-drama EXHIBITION, director Jean-François once again turned to his still un-realized sci-fi pet project "The 32nd Hour" for which funding was still not forthcoming. Longtime friend Francis Leroi, who sadly passed away a few years ago and who had made a similar transition from "auteur cinema" (POP GAME) to skin flicks (LES TENTATIONS DE MARIANNE, JE SUIS A PRENDRE), urged him to meet with another early French porno legend who was quite the opposite of Beccarie, all prim and proper and apologetic once the cameras stopped rolling, a woman who went out of her way to shock and provoke literally everyone yet possessed the cultural and intellectual baggage to clarify her – not seldom contradictory – motives : the inimitable Sylvia Bourdon.

Though she had been the well-publicized star of a considerable number of relatively high-grossing "X" films (including Claude Mulot's irresistibly silly LE SEXE QUI PARLE a/k/a PUSSY TALK and José Bénazéraf's companion pieces LA SOUBRETTE PERVERSE and LA VEUVE LUBRIQUE), Bourdon prided herself on leading an even far more liberated life style off-screen, stopping at seemingly nothing to satisfy her urges and those of just about anyone she comes into contact with. This both intrigued and delighted Davy who balked at the prospect of repeating himself with another porn star profile.

Salacious Sylvia spent a lot of her evenings, it turned out, as a makeshift dominatrix, presiding over no holds barred orgies and doling out punishment to whoever wished or deserved it, this with more enthusiasm than actual skill it should be noted. Her number one slave was a certain Jan Wilton, a writer from Holland who didn't mind the six hour train trip to join his mistress in Paris whenever she required his presence. In one of many scenes now cut, it was explained that he had developed a taste for submission from his Gestapo concentration camp days during the Second World War !

Due to extensive problems with the French ratings board, which initially forbade the film altogether on grounds that it was "an affront to human dignity", a great deal of the S&M footage has been cut along with all of the hardcore insertion stuff that would've relegated the film to porno theaters under the new legal regulations of 1976. Popular rumor has it that about three quarters of explicit content wound up on the cutting room floor, but apart from critics and audiences present at the initial Cannes film festival screening there's no one who can vouch for this. Davy had plans to reinstate the footage for its less stringently regulated video release but found to his dismay that the accompanying soundtrack had gone missing, thus we'll have to make do with the current, "official" version which lasts just a little over an hour. What's on display in this butchered edition may still be more than enough to make most people wince and definitely never fails to elicit a strong response from whoever views it.

This is not the cosmeticized rendition of S&M as an elegant ritual that is sold to us by most porn from HISTOIRE D'O down to present day fetish and B&D (bondage & discipline) specialized features. Jan is not a handsome hunk gently pushing personal boundaries but a scrawny, middle-aged wreck of a man, his saggy body covered in welts and bloody wounds from sessions past, at turns pathetic and dignified, astonishingly eloquent when voicing and negotiating his motives and desires. That may be the aspect that makes EXHIBITION 2 and its gallery of "miscreants" ultimately impossible to casually dismiss, much as one might like to in order to be able to retreat to the safety of one's privileged existence : the obvious eloquence and intelligence of the interviewees, led by the irrepressible Sylvia, forces viewers to perhaps begrudgingly admire if not condone (yet that's not really our prerogative, is it ?) the life she and her friends have chosen for themselves.

This is a movie that'll stay with you for a very long time after you've seen it, frequently involving, often funny, occasionally disturbing and even repulsive. Currently retired Belgian movie critic Ronnie Pede, easily our country's most incisive cinematic analyst ever, went out on a limb when he selected this as one of his ten best films of the year though he was unquestionably on the money in his judgment.

Further insight into Bourdon's convoluted psyche was offered by her excellent book "L'Amour est une Fête" (Love is a Feast) which came out around the time this movie was made and should be required reading for anyone claiming an open mind. Disillusioned with porn's generally low quality, Sylvia sort of retired in the late '70s, opened a gallery specializing in erotic art, managed a restaurant in Les Halles and even took a stab at journalism. Most disheartening to learn from Davy's DVD introduction is the (unsubstantiated) rumor that there was a behind the scene puppet master lover that pushed the seemingly independent Sylvia to ever greater (because publicity-inspiring) excesses. Say it isn't so.

Interesting, fun documentary about porn star Sylvia Bourdon. It does not cover her film career, but rather focuses on her personality, lifestyle, and beliefs. She appears to be a total hedonist. Defines herself as a "sexual communist, but conservative with the purse strings." And she's very blunt and irreverent. At one point she laments that she can't have anal sex because of her hemorrhoids, but she optimistically says she will have the doctors take care of them. "Knowing Sylvia is a surrealist experience," says one of her friends.

Some of the more interesting scenes involve her playing with one of her consensual slaves. She degrades and whips him, all while one of her uptight sexually conservative friends is in the room. Her friend is very disturbed by the display, looking away at times and appearing to sob. Bourdon tries to explain that she and the man both enjoy the activity, but the uptight one is too horrified to understand.

And perhaps my favorite quote occurs at a dinner scene. A man criticizes Sylvia, charging that food and sex are all she thinks about. Sylvia cheerfully concedes "I'm a c*** with a stomach". Good times!