THERESE AND ISABELLE

Radley Metzger, 1968

Starring: Essy Persson, Anna Gaël, Barbara Laage, Anne Vernon

One of the earliest films to present a positive and erotic portrayal of lesbianism, Metzger’s well-known art film concerns two teenagers, the quiet Therese and the rebellious Isabelle. They meet at boarding school after These is abandoned there by her newly remarried mother. She strikes up an intense friendship with Isabelle, one that quickly turns into a secret love affair, as intense as it is brief. Soon after their relationship begins in earnest, Isabelle’s mother takes her away to somewhere else in Europe, never to be seen again by Therese. 

Based on the novel by Violette Leduc, this French-U.S.-Dutch co-production is framed by scenes of the adult Therese visiting the boarding school and remembering her relationship with Isabelle. Some of Leduc’s flowery prose is preserved in lengthy narration, a technique used in nearly all of Metzger’s early films and a lot of ‘60s erotica. The voice-overs are primarily used during the drawn out sex scenes between the girls. These moments are light on nudity or explicit sex and instead focus on eroticism and romance. As with some of Metzger’s early films, there are facial close ups and a lot of staring intensely at the ceiling and moaning, but mostly out of focus, heavily shadowed scenes that imply more than they show. Their sexual exploration is melancholic, slow, and full of discovery. 

The lovely Essy Persson (she starred in the earlier, erotic Swedish film, I, A Woman, which was distributed by Metzger in the U.S. and was very scandalous at the time) is clearly too old to play a teenage girl, but is otherwise perfect for the role. Her somber, lovesick presence nearly overwhelms Hungarian actress Anna Gaël (Erotic Trap, Nana and a very interesting life in addition to her acting career), though the latter has some key scenes, such as a fist fight with another girl at school and a frustrating scene where she hires a room at a whore house so that she and Therese can be alone together for once. The characters of Therese and Isabelle are both very basic, which limits the film to a certain extent, but prevents things from getting too complicated or silly. Therese and Isabelle also eschews the typical characterizations used by Metzger in many of his films from this period: the strong, independent, and sexually experienced woman with a troubled life that has a tragic outcome. 

With the increased eroticism, beautiful black and white cinematography from Hans Jura, and somewhat tragic romance, I mostly viewed Therese and Isabelle as one of the filmic stepping stones to Metzger’s later, more sexual and more interesting works. It is certainly one of his most accessible efforts and is unlikely to shock any modern viewers. The film is historically important because of its positive portrayal of the lesbian relationship. It brings the lonely, love-starved Therese an intense connection with someone else and only ends poorly because Isabelle is removed from school. The final scenes of the young Therese show her being comforted by another school mate and running off to play a game. This has elements of later films like Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures, and though I am pleased that Therese and Isabelle has a more positive ending, I think Metzger, with his trademark style, could have further explored their imaginative inner lives and developing sexual fantasies. 

The vagueness of the plot and inconclusive ending is in Metzger’s favor, making this film feel more like a sad, erotic daydream than an exercise in realism. Fans of ‘60s erotica will enjoy this slow burn of a film, rich with atmosphere and surprisingly thick erotic tension, despite the lack of shock value for contemporary audiences. There is a decent DVD from Image/First Run that is worth checking out. Ignore most of the other reviews, which either say this is one of Metzger’s masterpieces (those come a little later) or mainstream negative reviews like the one from the frequently idiotic Ebert, who declared, “This is it, the worst movie of the year.”

MOTHER JOAN OF THE ANGELS

Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961

Starring: Lucyna Winnicka, Mieczyslaw Voit

“Being possessed pleases me. It is me who opens my soul to the demons.”

Ken Russell's The Devils is not the only film adaptation of the story of the possession at the Ursuline convent in Loudon. In 1961, Polish director Jerzy Kawalerowicz (Night Train, The Hostage of Europe) made a film based on a novella of the same name by writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Mother Joan of the Angels aka Matka Joanna od Aniołow aka The Devil and the Nun. Instead of focusing on the trial and execution of Father Grandier, Kawalerowicz’s film follows the events after this, the four subsequent years of possession for Mother Joan and her convent. A priest, Father Suryn, travels to Mother Joan’s isolated convent to investigator the possession allegations after Father Grandier’s death. Suryn develops a deep connection with Joan and is determined to save her soul, regardless of the cost to his own. 

Suryn’s character is based on a real priest, one written about in a lengthy section in Huxley’s book on Loudon. Huxley calls him “a victim of neurosis,” and this film will likely interest fans of possession films where the victims of various neuroses are typically female. It certainly makes an interesting counterpoint to The Devils, feeling somewhat like a sequel even though it was made ten years prior. 

With incredible performances from Lucyna Winnicka as Mother Joan and Mieczyslaw Voit as Father Suryn, Mother Joan won a Special Jury Prize at the 1961 Cannes Festival, but was otherwise ignored by critics and audiences. This quiet, starkly beautiful and tragic film is almost an inverse of Russell’s classic. It is disturbing, but for very different reasons. In an interview with KinoEye, Kawalerowicz explains that this film “is a love story about a man and a woman who wear church clothes, and whose religion does not allow them to love each other... The devils that possess these characters are the external manifestations of their repressed love.” 

Mother Joan is not a political film. It is, somewhat like The Devils, a film about the difficulty of navigating between good and evil. Possession has become the only way to express identity and give room to the inner world of sexual fantasy that has been repressed for so long in Joan and the sisters, as well as Suryn. With that said, both the sexual content and the possession scenes are extremely restrained, despite scenes of exorcism, self-flagellation, and death. Kawalerowicz excels with simple black and white shots, such as one scene of the nuns lying on the floor around the altar like so many crosses. Doubles, reflections, mirror images and shadows abound in the film, along with some surreal exorcism sequences where the nuns seem float as they walk along in trance states and are visually compared with birds in flight. 

Mother Joan has a small cast, limited locations and a subtle, hymn-focused score. Without Kawalerowicz’s masterful cinematography and grasp of style, this would probably have felt like a theatrical production. This haunting, eerie and understated film is a meditation on repression, love, faith, and madness and, like The Devils, deserves a critical resurgence. It is available on DVD from Second Run cinema. 

Happy Valentine’s Day: My 13 Favorite Romantic Songs from Horror and Cult Movies

Sometimes horror and cult movies, despite their often extreme subject matter, address love and romance. Often this is accompanied by a special song. Here are 13 of my favorite for this Valentine's Day, in no particular order.

1. Riz Ortolani - Cannibal Holocaust Opening Theme

I’m sorry, but I have always thought this song was really romantic. 

2. Willow’s Song from Wickerman

Not only is this actually a really sweet, melancholic, and kind of erotic song, but in the film it was sung by a hot, naked woman pounding on the walls in sexual frenzy.

3. The Ramones - I Want You Around from Rock ‘n Rock High School

One of my favorite romantic fantasy scenes from any movie ever. Riff Randall + Joey Ramone forever. 

4. Paul Williams - Old Souls from Phantom of the Paradise

A sad, romantic song from a sad, romantic movie. A bonus is that it’s sung by Jessica Harper from Suspiria fame. 

5. Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses from Silence of the Lambs

Taken from the amazing scene where a naked Buffalo Bill dons a lady skin suit, dances around, and proclaims “I’d fuck me.” As Oscar Wilde one said, to love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. 

6. Take My Breath Away from As Tears Go By

Yes, I know that the original Berlin version from Top Gun is really romantic, but Wong Kar Wai had the song adapted in Cantonese for his first film, As Tears Go By. Must be heard to be believed. It is played is during a scene where the two characters realize their love for one another and finally find each other after a series of near misses and awkward exchanges. 

7. Dramarama - Anything, Anything from Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master

How could I not include this? It doesn’t really fit in with this movie, which is not at all romantic, but who cares. 

8. Lou Reed - Satellite of Love from Velvet Goldmine

Todd Haynes film that is loosely based on the love affair between David Bowie and Iggy Pop was the first romantic drama (other than Casablanca) that I really enjoyed. There is a particularly sweet scene between the Bowie and Pop characters where they listen to my favorite version of “Satellite of Love” with Bowie on backing vocals.

9. Angela’s Theme from Sleepaway Camp

It’s difficult to have sexy time at camp - or anywhere - when you’re confused about your gender. But he’s begging you to stay anyway, because you’re just what he’s looking for. 

10. Fastway - If You Could See from Trick or Treat

‘80s power ballads are always romantic, but a whole soundtrack full of Fastway is just amazing. Plus this is a satanic horror movie where the heavy metal nerd gets the pretty girl in the end. 

11. Michael Jackson - Ben from Ben

Yes, this is sung by a youthful Michael Jackson and is for a movie about a young boy’s deep friendship with the titular rat, Ben, who massacres humans when he is not in the warm embrace of his homo sapiens buddy. But if you read the lyrics this is clearly a love song about a “special” friendship.

12. Roy Orbison - In Dreams from Blue Velvet

David Lynch knows how to capture many different types of sexual and romantic feelings all at once, many of them unpleasant. Movie aside, the original “In Dreams” evokes many of these feelings on its own. “In dreams you’re mine all of the time.”

13. Rebekah del Rio - Llorando from Mulholland Drive

Another example of Lynchian love scenes. Sexy, romantic, devastating and somehow absolutely terrifying. 

SHORTBUS

John Cameron Mitchell, 2006

Starring: Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, Lindsay Beamish, PJ DeBoy, Raphael Barker

I absolutely adore John Cameron Mitchell, who wrote, directed and produced Shortbus, his second film after the more famous Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It's a queer drama/comedy, kind of like with Hedwig, except with explicit sex instead of songs. The film shows intersecting stories that revolve around a local sex club/art salon in New York, the titular Shortbus, which is frequented by a sexually diverse, emotionally challenged group of people. Sofia, essentially the centerpiece of the film, is a married sex therapist who pretends that she and her husband are happily married and have a wonderful sex life. In reality, she has never achieved orgasm. She works with Jamie and James, respectively a former child actor and a former prostitute, a gay couple who are considering opening up their relationship. When she freaks out during a session, they take sympathy and invite her to Shortbus, held in the home of Justin Bond, a drag performance artist (who plays himself). She loosens up a bit and becomes friends with an uptight dominatrix named Severin, who has never had a real relationship. The film charts the difficulties of Sofia, Jamie and James, and Severine, leading somewhat towards the crux of their problems and a believable solution.

Shortbus is certainly flawed, but its almost hippy-like sentimentality is a refreshing break from other dramas with unsimulated sex, many of which are deeply challenging and anything but sexy. At its core, this is an indie drama about emotional isolation, about people attempting to make a connection with other people in the other way they know how: sex. This completely charming film is able to overcome its sometimes trite script and the actors overcome limited performances with their sheer devotion to the characters. The core actors helped create the story with Mitchell through a series of improv sessions and workshops. Unfortunately Sofia’s quest to find an orgasm is the central plot point of the film, which seems tame compared to some of the other characters’ problems. I also feel that the “quest for an orgasm” plot drive is more tame and conventional than the rest of the film wants to be. As a result of this, there are many fluffy sitcom-like moments that become a bit grating. 

I think Shortbus remains the most sexually explicit non-pornography film made in the U.S. Much of the sex is unsimulated; there is hetero- and homosexual sex, oral, anal, masturbation, threesomes, use of sex toys, some mild S&M, and so on. One of the finest scenes in the film involves a male threesome where one character sings the national anthem into his partner’s asshole. Shortbus deals with various sexual and emotional problems in a warm, sensitive way, but it definitely isn't the kind of film to watch when you're in the mood for a typical romantic comedy. 

Despite the film’s flaws, Mitchell’s aim to challenge conventional portrayals of sex in mainstream cinema makes this film very much worth watching. The film looks great, and though it lacks the over-the-top style of Hedwig, you can clearly tell that this is a Mitchell film. The documentary footage, shot by James’ character, is a particularly nice touch. There are also many delightful moments of humor and wit and the overall light, joyous tone is refreshing without fully embracing a happy ending and positive solutions for all. As Justin Bond so fittingly puts it, Shortbus is “like the ‘60s, but with less hope.” I loved the film and it comes highly recommended. Pick up the region 1 DVD, which has some lovely special features, including an interesting commentary track from Mitchell and some of the cast members. 

MUTANTES: PUNK PORN FEMINISM

Virginie Despentes, 2009

“The concept of obscenity is a totalitarian tool to reduce women, ultimately, to a piece of flesh.” -Catherine Breillat

Virginie Despentes, known for the controversial New French Extremism film Baise-moi (2000, meaning “Fuck me,” but sometimes titled as “Rape me”), created this made-for-TV documentary about sex-positive, pro-porn feminism. She interviews a wide range of subjects across the U.S., and in Paris and Barcelona. This movement, which began in the U.S. in the ‘80s and flourished in the ‘90s and ‘00s, embraces sex work and pornography as potentially pro-feminist, rather than the conventional feminist view that these things debase women. Female artists, writers, filmmakers, pornographers and performance artists began reclaiming sex and pleasure, as well as advocating for sex workers. Many of the artists and filmmakers interviewed are or were sex workers: prostitutes, call girls, porn actresses, strippers, etc. Despentes, herself a former prostitute and porn critic, interviews a wide range of subjects and focuses on the growth of the movement and the works produced within it. 

Her interview subjects include many notable women. Here a few you should know: 

French director Catherine Breillat (one of my favorites) is known for sexually explicit films that explore female sexuality, such as Romance, Fat Girl, Sex is Comedy, and Anatomy of Hell. She is also a novelist and professor at the European Graduate School. Lydia Lunch, one of my only female role models growing up, is a musician, writer, performer, actress, and one of the most important and famous members of the New York No Wave movement that spanned music, literature and film. 

Stripper, porn actress, performance artist, sex educator, editor, writer and producer Annie Sprinkle is a very important member of the pro-sex, pro-porn feminist movement and has created such amazing pieces as Public Cervix Announcement, where she inserted a speculum into her vagina and allowed audience members to look at her cervix with the aid of a flashlight. Learn more about her here. Carol Leigh aka the Scarlet Harlot is responsible for coining the term “sex worker” and is an artist, writer, activist and filmmaker. Sex worker activist Norma Jean Almodovar began with a career as a traffic cop for the LAPD and later become a sex worker in Beverly Hills after becoming disgusted with the level of corruption in the police department. She wrote Cop to Call Girl and founded the International Sex Worker Foundation for Art, Culture and Education.

Dr. Siobhan Brooks is an ex-peep show worker, sociologist and academic who focuses on the place of African American sex workers within the industry. She was involved in the documentary Live Nude Girls UNITE! and wrote about her sex work unionizing efforts in Organizing From Behind the Glass, in addition to many other academic articles and a book, Unequal Desires: Race and Erotic Capital in the Stripping Industry. 

Californian trans musician and writer Lynn Breedlove helped found the dyke-themed punk band Tribe 8, has done spoken word performances at a number of LGBT festivals, has authored a novel, acted in a few films, created a comedy show, etc. Swiss-born erotic wrestling enthusiast Sondra Goodwin makes pornography for women and was involved in HBO’s Real Sex.  New York producer, director, and actor and Maria Beatty is known for her black and white BDSM and fetish films. Coralie Trinh Thi is a former porn actress and co-directed Baise-moi with Virginie Despentes. American writer, editor, producer, sociologist and sexologist Carol Queen has written Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture, among many other instructional sex books, and a novel, as well as organizing instructional sex-positive events and workshops, such as Bend Over Boyfriend (about pegging). 

Though this documentary has its flaws, it covers important subject matter and its heart is definitely in the right place. Despentes encourages viewers and interviewees to question the meaning of pornography, sexuality, gender, feminism, sex work, etc. The movement’s examination of what makes someone a feminist was particularly relevant and interesting to me. Though I am female, I’ve never considered myself feminist -- due in large part to the fact that the only self-asserted feminists I met growing up were definitely anti-porn. When I finally found out about this movement, it was a huge breath of fresh air. Sex, pleasure, and pornography are all things that can and should be liberating, a means to express, embrace and understand the self. 

Despite some initial reservations, I couldn’t help but enjoy and appreciate Mutantes. It is available on DVD from Solaris. This film is intellectual, sexy, and amusing. Those unfamiliar with the movement will likely learn a lot and come away with many things to think about. Be forewarned that the documentary includes many clips of movies and archived live performances, many of which will be shocking for the casual, non-porn friendly viewers, as the wide range of subject matter includes S&M and pornography.

CARMEN, BABY

Radley Metzger, 1967

Starring: Uta Levka, Claus Ringer, Carl Möhner, Barbara Valentin

"I know her intimately… but not well."

Carmen is a beautiful waitress and con artist who lives by her own rules. She tricks a young policeman, José, who is landed in jail for helping her. When he is released from prison, she pays him back with a night of serious seduction. Predictably, he falls in love with her and wants their relationship to continue. Carmen returns his feelings, but refuses to give up her lifestyle of crime and pleasure. They are forced to go on the run after José kills one of her lovers and things go from bad to worse when he learns she has a husband. Carmen’s stubborn independence and José's passionate jealously spell disaster. 

Carmen is based on the novella by French author Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845. It inspired dozens of adaptations, including the famous opera by Georges Bizet. The novella tells the story of the beautiful gypsy (Romani is the more correct term, I know) woman Carmen and her doomed love with the soldier Don José. The film is a reasonably faithful adaptation of Carmen and runs through all the major plot points in the novel. The tragic crux of the story is that Carmen is determined to be free, not to be owned by anyone or forced to consent to monogamy, even though she is technically a married woman. What made the novella and the opera so shocking are the portrayals of sex, crime, and an outlaw lifestyle (someone should really make a biker version of Carmen). 

Though Metzger is unable to present these elements as controversially as Bizet’s opera, Carmen’s sexual promiscuity, strength of personality, and insistence on sexual and emotional freedom represents the origins of a formula he would use throughout almost all of his subsequent films. Carmen’s control over her own sex life and reliance on her sexuality for basic survival sets up most of the sex scenes in the film, though they aren’t particularly erotic or scandalous by today’s standards. With that said, there are some cleverly perverse scenes. Carmen does a dance at a night club that involves her sitting on a wine bottle and has an affair with a politician that turns into a threesome with his kinky wife. A pop singer Carmen seduces drinks alcohol out of baby bottles and makes a few infantilism references, and there is a lovely sex scene shot through colored glasses and bottles. Sex is implied, but never explicitly shown, and there are a lot of facial close ups, particularly during implied oral sex scenes. Overall this is a literary drama with some eroticism, unlike Metzger’s later films which emphasize erotica and/or hardcore sex more than plot. 

With Carmen he developed the formula that would become so successful with his later films: an eroticized, modernized literary adaptation with a strong, central female character. Though this is his first color film, it lacks the opulent style and welcome humor that made his middle period so enjoyable. Carmen is one of the darkest of Metzger’s films and though the titular character seems fond of José, she repeatedly mocks his love and manipulates him into aggression and murder, eventually her own. Uta Levka (she appeared briefly in his previous film, The Alley Cats) is absolutely beautiful here, but is a cold, restrained and even mean-spirited version of Carmen. Claus Ringer, an utterly un-Spanish looking José, is unfortunately bland and boring. His lack of personality justifies Carmen’s disinterest in him, which makes the plot less believable.

I would not recommend this jazzy, swinging ‘60s version of Carmen for first time Metzger viewers, but it is worth seeing if you’re a fan of his other work or of ‘60s erotica movies. This film helped kick off some of his later, great works when it received a measure of success, particularly from positive critical reviews and a nice write up from the New York Times. There is a DVD box set from Image Entertainment, The Radley Metzger Collection Volume 3, which includes the superior The Lickerish Quarter and the far inferior The Princess and the Call Girl. Unfortunately these box sets are known for their miserably bad transfers, so I would go with the single disc Image release or just a rental. 

THE ALLEY CATS

Radley Metzger, 1966

Starring: Anne Arthur, Karin Field, Sabrina Koch, Charlie Hickan, Uta Levka

“The swingin' sixties like you've never seen them.”

Radley Metzger’s third film (second directed solely by him), The Alley Cats is sort of a mad spiral of European swinging ‘60s infidelity. Leslie and Logan are engaged. He is having an affair with one of her friends, but is paranoid Leslie is cheating on him, which she soon begins to do out of sexual frustration. Irena, an elegant acquaintance, begins an affair with Leslie, who finds some liberation, but also some confusion, in her new found promiscuity. 

This is one of Metzger’s more disappointing early films and even though it tries to be sexy and shocking, will likely be too tame and slowly paced for modern viewers. This is more of an erotica melodrama than a softcore porn film. There is almost no nudity and though sex is a regular occurrence, it is not shown on screen (or is shot through a greased up lens). A lot of people mush their faces together, though. Even though it is not as developed as Metzger’s later films, it shares themes that would reappear, like a positive view of lesbianism, the subtext of posing for art as an invitation for sex, a woman going on a sexual journey to gain control over her life, and sexy European settings filled with sexy people who seemingly do nothing but party and have sex. Though the film lacks Metzger’s trademark humor and wit, there is some absolutely hilarious dialogue, such as “Me? Where have I been? Around the world in 80 ways, that’s where I’ve been.” There are a number of once-shocking but now silly scenes, like a sexual whipping that suddenly turns into a threesome and a moment when Leslie’s first illicit sex partner writes how great she was on her sleeping body in lipstick. Predictably and somewhat upsettingly, it ends with what I think is an affirmation of heterosexual monogamy. 

I can’t complain at all about the lovely ladies present. Ann Arthur is great as Leslie in her only role, playing up the character’s vulnerabilities. Sabrina Koch, also in her only film role, stands out as the somewhat predatory lesbian Irena. There are also more familiar faces, such as German actress Karin Field, who appeared in a number of crime-horror hybrids known as krimi: Night of the Vampires, The Hunchback of Soho, The Mad Butcher, Web of the Spider, etc. The lovely Uta Levke makes an appearance as a very sexy night club dancer. She was also in a few krimi - The Hunchback of Soho, The Monster of Blackwood Castle, etc. - in Metzger’s Carmen, Baby, in Fulci’s comedy Operazione San Pietro, and in Vincent Price vehicles The Oblong Box and Scream and Scream Again. 

The Alley Cats is available on an out of print DVD from Image Entertainment and in First Run Features’ Radley Metzger Collection Volume 1 box set, which includes Camille 2000 and Therese and Isabelle. Apparently the transfers are quite bad, so I would stick with the Image release or wait for something better. Do not get this movie on accident, though. Despite The Alley Cats’ flaws, it has Metzger’s trademark beautiful visuals and fun, jazzy score and comes recommended for anyone who enjoys '60s erotica.