Surprisingly discreet in its depictions of sexual
desire, BLANCHE looks magnificent, given Guy Durban’s striking photography and the period sets and costumes designed by Borowczyk, Jacques D’Ovidio and Piet Bolscher. The director’s precise attention to framing and composition is a constant joy; the visuals are reminiscent of period art and the production design is spare and uncluttered. As with Pier Paolo Pasolini’s THE DECAMERON and THE CANTERBURY TALES, both released around the same time as BLANCHE, there is a genuine feel for the medieval setting, with the result that the film displays an unforced elegance in its atmosphere, music and vivid characterizations.
The special features consist of an introduction by Leslie Megahey, the director of the BBC-produced SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER (1979), a film which drew upon BLANCHE for visual inspiration (this interview can also be found on the BFI Flipside re- lease of SCHALCKEN THE PAINTER, reviewed VW 177); “Ballad of Imprisonment” (28m), in which various crew members—assistant directors Patrice Leconte and André Heinrich, camera assistant Noël Véry and co-producer Dominique Devergé-Ségrétin— recall the making of the film and the various prob- lems experienced (actor Jacques Perrin, also one of the producers, had requested Catherine Deneuve for the role of Blanche, but Borowczyk’s refusal led to pair barely speaking for the duration of the shoot); “Obscure Pleasures” (63m 15s), an insightful inter- view with the director from 1985 which shows him at work on “Scherzo Infernal”; “Gunpoint” (Au bout
des fusils, 1972, 11m), a documentary by Peter Graham focusing on the preparation, execution and finale of a pheasant shoot on a country estate which becomes a critique of both the “sport” and its par- ticipators, and for which Borowczyk handled some of the photography and editing duties; and “Behind Enemy Lines” (5m), an interview with Graham on the making of “Gunpoint.” The accompanying 27- page booklet features an essay by Daniel Bird, an article by Philip Strick which had appeared in the June 1973 edition of THE MONTHLY FILM BUL- LETIN, an essay by filmmaker Chris Newby (ANCHORESS, 1993) from the April 1996 issue of SIGHT & SOUND, and a selection of contemporary reviews, most of which are overwhelmingly posi- tive. (Tom Milne, writing in THE TIMES, remarks that “
...it is an astonishing film... BLANCHE sug- gests one of those medieval illuminated manuscripts in which the text is enveloped, sometimes almost buried, in a luxuriant foliage of decoration.”) Released only once previously on home video in the UK—by Connoisseur in 1995 with the classifi- cation downgraded to a PG (despite its violence and
a brief nude shot of Ligia Branice as she emerges from a bath)—the film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1 with mono 1.0 audio and optional English subtitles. The remastering, from the original 35mm materials, refreshes Borowczyk’s fluid visuals with renewed vitality.
MMORAL TALES (1974) is the film that would irrevocably damage Borowczyk’s directorial career. In retrospect, this anthology of antiquarian erotica appears an extension of Borowczyk’s interest in the often destructive power of sexuality, examined most compellingly in BLANCHE and taken to its most logical extremes here and in the director’s next fea- ture, THE BEAST. However, such was Borowczyk’s rarified reputation as a filmmaker, animator and artist that IMMORAL TALES was considered by many to be a step too far—in completely the wrong direction. Borowczyk would be hereafter branded as a purveyor of smut, losing much of his previous following as he followed his developing obsessions. IMMORAL TALES began life as “A Private Col-
I
lection” (“Une collection particulière,” 1973), a vi- brant short film in which the director himself allows
the viewer to browse his collection of vintage and not-quite-so-vintage erotica (fine prints, drawings, bric-a-brac, etc.). Narrated by Surrealist author André Pieyre de Mandiargues (whose books were filmed by Jack Cardiff as GIRL ON A MOTOR- CYCLE and by Borowczyk himself as his 1976 fea- ture La marge, aka THE STREETWALKER) and produced by Anatole Dauman (who had previously backed “The Astronauts” in 1959), this seminal short is presented here in two distinct versions. The first, running 12m, is the familiar theatrical version, while the second (which was screened at the 1973 Oberhausen Film Festival) is 2m longer and considerably more explicit. Not only are we al- lowed to see much more of the pornographic pho- tographs which the director presents to us, but some vintage film footage is on display featuring an en- counter between a woman and a dog. In order to comply with the requirements of UK law, the of- fending frames have been replaced with a black screen.
Borowczyk had originally intended for “A Pri- vate Collection” to be part of a portmanteau film which would be produced by Anatole Dauman for Argos Films and would take advantage of the re- cent relaxation in French censorship laws. In addi- tion to “A Private Collection,” IMMORAL TALES would feature five stories of sexual desire through the ages. The film was previewed in a three-epi- sode version—comprising “A Private Collection,” “The Tide” (La marée) and “The Beast of Gévaudan”
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