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).

The film bounces back and forth between Ann and Beatrice's Sapphic Odyssey and Mitch's Parisian Exploits. The former include a post-beach tryst:

...a park picnic party with a couple of hippies:

...and Beatrice's first trip to a porno theater (with ice cream cones!):

The latter (Mitch's week) consists of some time with some twins:

...and a couple go-rounds with a crazy-eyed hitchiker:

(With a Beatrice-featuring fantasy sequence thrown in there for good measure.)

When Mitch finally returns to the coast for the weekend, all of Ann's pump-priming pays off and the couple and Beatrice have a whale of a time; first getting Mitch cleaned up after his motorbike ride from the city:

...and then luxuriating around and in a pretty boss pool:

Finally, Beatrice's (presumed drip of a) husband returns from his job in the city, her fun frolicking is O-V-E-R, and she is fucking bummed.

Literally seconds after Beatrice is out of the picture, Mitch and Ann have set their sights on the next belle du week-end.

Robert Rimmer often talks about women viewers potentially identifying with women in the adult films he reviews. I don't know if he'll discuss identification with Ann or Betrice, but in my opinion, Ann's sexual confidence is something I expect many women would admire (and ideally identify with).

Sure, she's tasked by her husband to win over and warm up their weekly playmate, but she seems to really relish her errand and role as sexual awakener. It's impossible to say if they always opt for sexual naifs, but given the gusto with which Ann teaches Beatrice in the ways of the world, it wouldn't come as a surprise. In fact, I wonder if she'd fill her free time during the work week the same way even if she and Mitch didn't have the arrangement they do.

Let's do see what Rimmer had to say:

Things you have never seen before but are coming to if you live long enough - an older man ejaculating.

Jesus Christ, Bob, that's it? The review, such as it is, is a brief paragraph almost exclusively discussing Jacques Insermini's age and beefy dad bod. All he says about the plot is that "[h]is wife solicits young women to join them in threesomes at their summer place," which isn't inaccurate but is awfully reductive.

The more classic French adult films I watch, the more I'd like to learn the language. I mean, it's probably more common for people to want to learn new languages to read untranslated literature, but when it comes to learning, the ends justify the means, right? Anyway, I quite enjoyed Introductions, so I'm giving it a CC25, and there you have it.

RANDOM THOUGHTS
° Ann set up that camera to take a picture of her and Beatrice, but all she's gonna get is sand, baby.

° It really seems like Georges Fleury inherited a blond wig collection as was determined to use them all in this film.

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