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Caught masturbating during biology class, Romain (Mathias Melloul)’s suspension from school inadvertently sparks a new age of sexual openness in his family life. When mother Claire (Valérie Maës) resolves to take a greater interest in the sex lives of her children: adopted daughter Marie (Leïla Denio), eldest son Pierre (Nathan Duval) and reluctant virgin Romain, along with her husband Hervé’s (Stephan Hersoen) widower father (Yan Brian), she hopes to bring her family closer together and knock down the boundaries that have formed between them over recent years.

Opening their film with a viral video depicting teenage onanism, directors Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr are quick to overcome any initial shock value in the hope of desensitising their audience to the apparent taboo of sexuality in cinema. From this point on, nothing is off-limits or under-represented as Sexual Chronicles of a French Family touches on first times, ménages-a-trois, prostitution...

Title: Sexual Chronicles of a French Family Directors: Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr Cast: Mathias Melloul, Valérie Maës and Stephan Hersoen With a title like “Sexual Chronicles of a French Family,” it is one that is supposed to inspire a few things inside of you, namely titillation, desire and curiosity. It is indeed a very thought-provoking title and subject matter but does it go any further than that. Does it inform us of our basic animal needs to explore and reproduce? More importantly, does it inform us of our human aspects of love and loyalty? With faint praise, the answer is sort of. The story chronicles a family on the [ Read More ]...

The opening shot of “Sexual Chronicles Of A French Family” is handheld footage of a young girl in class, her eyes darting back and forth as we hear a teacher discuss the day’s lesson. She briefly looks into the shaking camera before slipping her hand underneath her skirt. She wears no undergarment, as we see her fingers passionately move up and down, the camera becomes still as she pleasures herself. If you’re looking for “Snow White And The Huntsman,” you may be in the wrong theater.

It’s this video that starts a chain reaction amongst an upper class French family, itself fraught with tension. With matters unspoken between Mom, Dad, Grandpa, their three handsome sons and one adopted daughter, it's implicit but unaddressed: their home has been invaded, conquered, taken over by sex, whether it be the bag full of condoms Dad constantly brings home, or the...