Expose Me, Lovely (1976)

The entry for Expose Me, Lovely at the Internet Adult Film Database claims that the "[f]ilm's title and plot capitalizes on the mainstream movie Farewell, My Lovely released a year earlier." I haven't seen Farewell, My Lovely, but reading the plot summary, while it's not a one-to-one, I could see where there would be certain elements and story beats drawn from the Hollywood adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel.

Here, Karen (Catherine Burgess) hires Frosty Knight (Ras Kean, excellent names, both character and actor) to find her brother Keith who'd been in New York for five years and had lost touch. Apparently, their father's health is failing and the old man, Frank, wanted to repair his relationship with his son before moving on to the Pacific Northwest estate in the sky.



Frosty's investigation leads him into a world of artists and hustlers, cryptic phone calls and unseen assailants. There are twists, turns, and revelations that Frank Spencer's interest in finding his son may not be as heartfelt as it seems.

Easy Alice (1976)

You'd be forgiven for assuming, as I did, that Linda Wong's character was named Alice. Despite the poster heavily implying that's the case (Easy Alice starring "Hustler" cover girl Linda Wong) and the opening credits outright saying so (Linda Wong as "Easy Alice"), the only time she's addressed by name - twice by her boyfriend Joey (Joey Silvera) and once by friend Bob (Turk Lyon) - she's called "Carol."

The name "Easy Alice" is used once and may refer to Carol, but it's not explicitly evident. More on that in a bit.

First, a brief overview of the plot (such as it is) of the film.

Joey is an easygoing, happy-go-lucky guy who makes his living as a adult film actor. He refers to himself multiple times as a "model," but when asked to elaborate, says he's a "porno model." He may shoot stills, I guess, but the insight into his profession the viewer is offered is in regard to performing on film. His career doesn't sit well with his girlfriend, Carol, but despite assuring her that he's leaving the industry behind, he isn't making any strides to bring those promises to fruition.

Introductions (1976)

The original French title that translates to The Weekends of a Perverse Couple is plenty blunt. I wonder if "perverse" (or, pervers, I guess) has a bit more nuance in French than English. Regardless, I prefer the classier ambiguity of title Introductions.

There's no time wasted letting the viewer know what's up: it's sexy summertime in France, and while Mitch (Jacques Insermini) spends the week working in Paris, it's up to his wife Ann (Emmanuelle Pareze) to locate and seduce a sweet young thing that they can share when he's back for the weekend. For our voyeuristic pleasure, the target is Beatrice (Chantal Nora).

Carnal Haven (1976)

Carnal Haven isn't completely inept film making, but it isn't particularly "ept", either.

The film opens with a bizarre mission statement from writer, producer, director, "fotographer", and editor Carlos Tobalina (as Troy Benny):

From there, Carnal Haven is more or less broken into three parts:

28% An introduction to four couples with relationship issues that all find their way to a sex clinic, interspersed with some of their action at the clinic.

Lesllie Bovee & John Leslie

Turk Lyon & Candida Royalle

Desiree West & Dashile Miguele

Joey Silvera & Bonnie Holiday

32% Time at the clinic where the four couples (plus a few other people and minus Joey Silvera, for some reason) get some basic instruction on human physiology and learn a few techniques to please their partners (the "Inca Nut" thrusting technique for men and the "Gypsy Grip" squeezing technique for women) courtesy of the doctors (Ken Scudder and Sharon Thorpe).

The new techniques (and some things that just come naturally) are tested out during a prolonged (and moderately uninteresting) orgy.

40% Cutting between the couples, post-clinic, relishing their rekindled passions, with an 8-minute aside in which Lesllie Bovee explores her sapphic desires, back at the clinic with Sharon Thorpe and Annette Haven.

The only parts of this final act that stood out were Turk Lyon and Candida Royalle getting into a position that put the structural integrity of Lyon's dick in serious jeopardy:

...and Silvera's character's resolution (giving up his life of crime) getting it's own extra silent film-style thought bubble card:

"Shity" all right.

There's some inconsistent narration that lends a bit of an educational film feel (a bit on that later).

The film editing wasn't great, but the music editing was a train wreck, particularly during the orgy and post-clinic "reclaiming" sex. It was like somebody only had access to a few songs (including a 1970s cop show jazz funk cast-off and echo heavy proto-jam band song) that they were trying to mix live, cutting between them seemingly at random and in no way influenced by what was going on on-screen, and sometimes letting them overlap. Just truly bizarre stuff.

Then, at the very end, Tobalina gives us two more text cards:

I get that pornographers were under serious threat of prosecution for indecency, but even by 1976 it seemed like dressing up blue movies as documentaries or marital instruction was kind of a bygone thing. If he'd leaned into it more, I could have believed it was satire of the convention, but it doesn't play that way at all.

Let's see if Rimmer has an explanation for recommending it:

A sex education porno film? Sure enough - and unlike the Love Tapes, which are more clinical, this one has many top stars.....

Uh, sure.

At the outset, the narrator says, "If you think this is one more orgy, you're in for a big surprise," but I'd argue you really aren't. I kind of got the feeling Tobalina did just want to shoot an orgy picture and when he finally got around to it (in 1983's Marathon) it was a lot more fun. CC200

RANDOM THOUGHTS
° I feel badly for Dashile Miguele and Desiree West. Whereas all the other couples were just examples of "couples", Miguele and West were representative of Black America. And then their problem was that he coveted a new Cadillac and she wanted him to get a job. And then the resolution was that he did get a job that let him get the car, but his new illustrious career was as a pimp. Yikes.

° You can't help but notice that for all the talk of clits in the clinic, there was no real focus on female pleasure (let alone orgasm) during the film's climax (so to speak).

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Next up:

Blue Ecstasy (1976)

Reviewing this one is a little tricky. Let's start with the title. From what I can gather, the original French title of Frederic Lansac's film is Blue Ecstasy, but it was also released as (translated to English, in some cases) Experiments in Blue, Extra-Marital Ecstasies, Perverted Games of Insatiable Girls, and Games for an Unfaithful Wife (which is the version that seems most widely available, on DVD and streaming services). The box copy for the 64-minute Games for... describes it thusly:

"Offer yourself everything that makes you happy!" This is the unwise telegram sent by unfaithful husband to his wife that he abandoned on the day of their wedding anniversary to join a young and fiery mistress in London. The Abandoned wife seeks then revenge by taking the word "happy" to mean pleasure in the carnal sense of the word and discovers ecstasies she had hitherto forgotten. The regal and lecherous Frederic Lansac attracted a record number of viewers when his film was released September 22, 1976 In Paris rooms in Alpha France.

Change "hitherto forgotten" to "never known" and it would be a reasonable enough description. The first ten minutes show anniversaries one through four of Joelle (Marie-Christine Guennec) and William Legrand (Jean-Louis Vattier).

For the first, William chastises Joelle for trying to blow him since he doesn't want his "wife acting like a whore."

For the second, William presents Joelle with housekeeper Laurene (Michele Grubert) since "the apartment is too much work for" her. Then, they have some sex until he remembers a Dutch client he needs to take care of and cuts things short to make a phone call.

For the third, Joelle and William celebrate with William's brother Eric (Patrick Segalas) and his new bride Ange (Micky Love). Eric and Ange are all over each other, and when William again needs to take a phone call, Joelle falls into a fantasy of her in the mix with the newlyweds.

For the fourth, William and Joelle are again celebrating (or, I should say "celebrating" since William is a real barrel of laughs asking, "Aren't we getting too old for nonsense like this?") with Eric and Ange. This time, Eric's friend Billy (Jean-Paul Allais) has joined as well. After William leaves to show a client Paris by night, Eric asks Joelle if she's happy. Whether she believes it or not, she promptly answers that she is. After a bit more champagne, Eric and Joelle are seated beside one another opposite Billy and Ange. When Billy starts heavily petting Ange, Eric begins feeling Joelle up, which she seems to enjoy until realizing maybe she's enjoying it too much, and excuses herself for the evening.

The remainder of the film takes place on Joelle and William's fifth anniversary. William is in London with his British mistress, and when she mentions their anniversary, he realizes the mistake he's made and rushes to send Joelle flowers and the aforementioned "unwise telegram".

William's insistence that Joelle "have fun" jump starts a day of sexual discovery that includes a lesbian spa tryst with Laurene, blowing a policeman in a phone booth, exploring anal sex with a couple that advertises their services on restroom walls, dabbling in voyeurism (by inviting a young couple making out in a park up to her appointment and then concocting a series of reasons to "interrupt" them) and exhibitionism (parking in public, dropping the top of her convertible, and rubbing one out), and group sex, finally making it with Eric while Billy and Ange ball.

While Joelle's finding herself sexually, William has a crisis of conscience, unable to get back to Paris due to an airport strike. It's hard to tell which he regrets more: cheating on Joelle with his annoying and childish mistress or that a liberal interpretation of the telegram could have Joelle buy herself expensive jewelry, a fur coat, or a Rolls Royce.

When he finally is able to return, he confesses everything and vows to "start being a real husband again." He asks for Joelle's forgiveness, but she's passed out; understandable given the day she had.

As it is here, it's a tidy little film. Joelle's feelings and motivations aren't particularly explored but you can assume she's not happy in her marriage. The thing is, there's a 78-minute version of the film that sheds much more light on the story, but the only copy I could find was in German without subtitles. Whenever I come across adult films that have versions that vary by 8-20 minutes, I assume that the cuts involve "extreme" content (water sports, BDSM, fisting, etc.). Here, the hardcore that was cut was about half of the Joelle/Laurene spa scene and post-popshot frolicking between Joelle and Ange. Maybe the editor had some anti-lesbian bias? Weird. More importantly, though, the cuts included a scene in which Joelle calls a sex therapist* to ask what kind of sexual experiences someone her age would be expected to have, and she's basically given a list of the activities she'd seek out later that day.

It's such an integral part to cut, I'd be curious to find out if there was an issue with the original film and a quality print wasn't available during the remaster. Additionally, during the Joelle/Ange footage, there were multiple cuts to William's rush to the airport and back to Paris that helped frame his final plea to Joelle.

Let's see what Rimmer had to say (and see if we can't figure out which cut he may have seen):

This one is advertised as one of the 10 best films on the European circuit in 1981. Made in Paris, it has an underlying sense of laughter that escapes most American producers. It also offers many of the interesting Parisian exterior and interior scenes that will make you want to take off for Paris.

Sure, okay. I'll tell you what, though, the bulk of his entry is exactly what I had in mind when I started this project. This one may well set the record for shit he got wrong:

After reading a book that her brother has written about sexual freedom, Joelle decides that it's time for her to experiment.

Eric is explicitly William's brother and his book (Sex and Liberty) has yet to be published, as mentioned in the toast to Billy (the publisher) at the fourth anniversary dinner.

Soon she is blowing a surprised but willing chauffeur while he stands near his limousine in busy Paris traffic.

Not a chauffeur. Not a limousine. Not in traffic.

Then she tries the maid, and a few days later a session with the husband of a friend.

She "tried" the maid first, the couple in the "session" were definitely strangers to her, and everything for sure took place on the same day.

By the time William arrives home, Joelle has been to a group-sex party sponsored by her brohter, but tired as she is, she's happy to see William again and is still loving.

Again, Eric and William are brothers. And I know it's subjective, but I don't think she seemed particularly happy to see William, just generally blissed out by her erotic expedition. So much for figuring out which cut (64- or 78-minutes) he saw: it seems like he only half-watched a version that wasn't translated and just guessed at what was going on. (I will mention that he lists the film as Experiments in Blue, so maybe the Caballero release really was that different....)

There were elements that reminded me of High Rise, but Blue Ecstasy (or whichever title you want to give it) lacked the extra oomph that elevated High Rise to a CC5. I'll rate Blue Ecstasy CC25.

* I don't speak German, but I was able to find an online service provided AI-generated subtitles to uploaded videos. Then I used Google Translate to turn that into English. Needless to say, the audio from a digital version of a VHS-copy of a 40 year old movie wasn't great, but there was more than enough that translated accurately-ish to piece the scene together.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
° I'm 99% sure the dick Joelle sucks in the telephone booth is (mostly) Jean-Louis Vattier's and not the cop's (Gerald Thomas; though his shows up a couple times in the scene). I'm not sure if it was symbolic - that Joelle was imagining it as William's since he wouldn't allow her to fellate him - or practical - that Thomas couldn't get it up.

° Blue Ecstasy shares a rating with compatriot Erotic Pleasures. Of Rimmer's review I wrote, "The only thing Rob whiffed on is that he said that the film took place over a few days, whereas it was definitely only one day." I guess there's something about French films that made him incapable of perceiving the passage of time....

° This is actually the second Lansac film I've watched since rebooting Pornonomy. The first was the excellent La femme-objet, which I found by way of Your Online Secret's post. It does not appear in Rimmer's book, as far as I know, anyway, since it doesn't show up under it's American release title (Programmed for Pleasure) or it's other - even less apt - ay-kay-ay French Girls for Pleasure. Had Rimmer reviewed it, I'm certain it would have been a Collector's Choice, though, so perhaps I'll review it at some point.

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Next!

Erotic Pleasures (1976)

Note: By rights I should have done all the special characters for the French names and words, but I opted to skip all the "Alt +"ing since...well, I didn't feel like it.

Life is tough for three Parisian women. Joelle (Maryline Guillaume) is a student desperate to lose her virginity. Martine (Carole Gire, credited as Chris Martin) is a young housewife who feels trapped by her career-minded husband. And wealthy Arlene (Siegried Cellier) wants to find a true gentleman to love, but only seems to attract men who want to use her for her body and money. In pursuit of their Erotic Pleasures (originally released as Tout pour le plaisir; All for Pleasure), Joelle, Martine, and Arlene learn that their fantasies aren't all they're cracked up to be in reality.

Joelle's quest for deflowering begins when she decides to ditch school and runs into some sort of street tough. When he takes her up to his place, she asks him to teach her how to have sex.

Unbeknownst to her, the ruffian is into submission and humiliation, and can't get it up unless she beats him with a belt. Without sexual experience of her own, she can't know whether his requests to be disciplined are "the way it should be done," and he tells her that since she "hadn't made love before" he's "showing [her] the right way." Frustrated with his act, she gives him the lashes and kicks he's after, but rushes out of his place none the wiser in the ways of balling.

Later, a friend offers to arrange a hang sesh with the friend's brother who, the friend'd been told by her brothers girlfriends, was "a great ball."

After hitting a joint and while vibing out to some sitar jams, the friend convinces Joelle that they should practice what will happen when her brother shows up, culminating with the two of them 69ing on a pretty sweet couch. Unfortunately for Joelle, the brother never shows, because - psych! - her friend doesn't have a brother.

At long last, Joelle's able to get laid when she asks her dream teacher Hector (Andre Miller, credited as Herve Amalou) for a ride home on his motorbike so he can tell her what she missed that day in school. Hector doesn't seem like he'd be the most considerate lover since he didn't bother offering Joelle his helmet when she hops on the back of his hog.

And lo, when they finally get down to it and she's in apparent discomfort, he just keeps on pumping away until he finishes on her stomach. There's a bit of tenderness between them directly after the act, and they have a fine old time, laughing away, while stripping her bed to hide the blood stained fitted sheet that "marked" the occasion of her entering womanhood. But then, Joelle's father comes home and chases Hector out of the apartment, he leaves her a note that merely says "Adieu", so fuck that guy.

After Martine's berated by her husband for making shitty tea, buying the wrong sugar, and just generally keeping poor house, she decides she'll live a little and cheat on her husband. First, she looks up her old flame Eric (Gilles Kervizic) who she remembers as sweet and romantic, but turns out to be a slob that expects her to clean up his place after they screw.

Then, she makes a go of it with a swinging couple (Dolores Manta and some guy) in her building (the husband, apparently, is Martine's husband's best friend, the wife an ex-girlfriend, which is a double whammy of cuckolding), but is understandably put out when the husband takes it upon himself to invite some other dudes to the flat to join the party.

Ultimately, she decides to commit to being a great housewife, only to find that her husband has decided he'll always be more dedicated to his career than his marriage and leaves.

Arlene's first unsuccessful coupling is with a young guy (Louison Boutin) who appears to be crashing with her and is more interested in sipping coffee, smoking a cigarette, and making faces at himself in a mirror than taking her from behind.

Then, he bills her 100 francs per day for his time there. Next, while sharing a cab with a well-dressed man (Dominique Aveline), she engages in some backseat action only to find that the man has forgotten his wallet and she's on the hook for the fare. The guy got two free rides.

At last, Arlene seems to have found the man she's been looking for when a shop clerk tells her that she can't pay with a personal check or credit card and a suave fellow (Guy Royer) insists on paying her bill in cash (based on a couple of historical exchange rate calculators, I think it's around $411 2020 USD, for what that's worth).

The two dip out to a fancy hotel for champagne and afternoon delight, but while Arlene dozes in post-coital bliss, her assumed gentleman robs her blind. Interestingly, we're given a bit of insight into Arlene and her supposed predicament for attracting parasitic men when she returns to her apartment. Without access to her place, she asks to be let in by a man who's wildly in love with her. After he confesses hjs affections and Arlene all but seduces him, she suddenly throws a wad of cash at him accusing him of actually only desiring the money, so he angrily storms out. You have to wonder if her troubles are mostly the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Finally, all three women end up at the swinging couple's sex party that presumably got rolling when Martine left earlier.

The scene is a resolution both by being the final scene and where the three women come to terms with what they'd experienced on their day's journey. Joelle is pleasured by the party's hostess. On the one hand, it could just be due to the relative dearth of dicks. On the other, it could indicate Joelle's budding preference for sapphic delights after her earlier g/g rendezvous and being dissed and dismissed by Hector after her first and only "successful" hetero intercourse. My eagle-eyed wife (and sometimes Pornonomy collaborator) pointed out that for the first time since dressing at the start of the film, Arlene took off her boots (especially noteworthy since she was wearing pants, so she'd have had to put them back on after undressing), suggesting she was done searching.

Martine has sex with the same man whose invitation by the hosts earlier offended her to the point of leaving. Has she decided that now, left by her husband, she will start "screwing everybody in Paris"? And Arlene, paired with the host, is pointedly shown reading Guido Crepax's adaptation of the infamous Story of O.

My assumption is that Arlene is using O's journey into submission as a way to accept (and enjoy) being "used" by men for her money.

Basically, she loves being used.

Despite how I've structured this review, the women's stories aren't told one-at-a-time, but rather by rotating focus. The film is very nicely shot though I wouldn't have minded the use of the just-invented Steadicam. Admittedly, the handheld camera work is very French, but there were some parts that verged on motion sickness-inducing. The editing was also great (particularly during the Martine/Eric scene while she was considering the sorry state of Eric's place while they were doing it). And there were some instances of sophisticated and nuanced humor. Unlike Hot Action, the English voice acting was more than acceptable. (Strangely, it seemed like the French audio track was also over-dubbed for some reason, so also unlike Hot Action, I don't think it'd've made a substantial difference watching it in it's native language.)

What's Rimmer say?

[T]he film has a laughing comme-ci-comme-ca sophistication that escapes most American films.

I don't completely disagree, although there was a slight melancholy to the film, underscored by the end. Rather than a raucous orgy that ends in a cavalcade of money shots, the three protagonists are having sex with people they wouldn't have expected or preferred to at the outset of the film, and the camera simply focuses in on the record player as the credits roll.

The only thing Rob whiffed on is that he said that the film took place over a few days, whereas it was definitely only one day.

This is the second French film I've watched as a part of this endeavor and I'd say I enjoyed Erotic Pleasures about five times more than Hot Action (although looking back I may have been slightly harsher in my rating than was warranted), so objectively I should rate it around CC50, but subjectively, I'll bump it up to CC25.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
° Four of the seven men with sex scenes in Erotic Pleasures were also in Hot Action (Andre Miller, Dominique Aveline, Guy Royer, and Jacques Gatteau). There was no overlap in the women.

° The box copy claims that Erotic Pleasures was director Francis Leroi's first x-rated film, but IAFD lists him as a co-director (with Frederic Lansac) of 1975's Pussy Talk. Among Lansac's brief filmography is a movie from 1977 called Big Fuck, which is a hilarious title.

° Francis Leroi is credited with twenty films. Eighteen were released between 1975 and 1982. The final two had nine (1991) and ten (2001) years between them. I wonder what he was up to the rest of that time.

° Martine calls Eric a dentist and he condescendingly corrects her by saying he's an "orthopedic specialist". I think they meant "orthodontic" though, because he has photos of bridgework on his wall and insists they both brush their teeth before having sex.

° Joelle's innocence was really magnified right before she lost her virginity. First, she has a swing in her room, and then she points to her bed and tells Hector, "That's a young girl's bed. Nothing's happened there yet."

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