- Immoral Tales (film)
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Immoral Tales 
Film poster for Immoral TalesDirected by Walerian Borowczyk Produced by Anatole Dauman Written by Walerian Borowczyk Story by André Pieyre de Mandiargues Starring Lise Danvers
Paloma Picasso
Charlotte Alexandra
Fabrice Luchini
Florence Bellamy
Pascale ChristopheMusic by Maurice LeRoux Cinematography Noel Very
Guy Durban
Bernard DaillencourtEditing by Walerian Borowczyk Distributed by Argos Films Release date(s) 1974 Running time 105 minutes Country France Language French Immoral Tales (French: Contes immoraux) is a 1974 French anthology film directed by Walerian Borowczyk. The film was Borowczyk's most sexually explicit at the time.[1] The film is split into four erotic themed stories that involve the loss of virginity, masturbation, bloodlust and incest.[1]
After the release of Immoral Tales, Borowczyk's began to fall out of favor from film critics. Modern critical reception to the film is that it is not one of Borowczyk's strongest works.
Contents
Plot
The film is separated into four stories. The first story involves André (Fabrice Luchini) who takes his 16-year old cousin to the beach to perform fellatio on him in tune to the waves of the incoming tide. The second story is titled Thérése Philosophe and involves a teenage country girl (Charlotte Alexandra) who intermingles sexual desires in her imagination with her dedication to Christ after being locked in her room. The third story features Elizabeth Báthory (Paloma Picasso) as a Countess who murders young girls in order to gain eternal youth by bathing in their blood. The final story involves the daughter of Pope Alexander VI, Lucrezia Borgia (Florence Bellamy), having sex with her male relatives.
Production
The film's stories are taken from various sources including surrealist writers and poets. The first story in the film is taken from surrealist writer André Pieyre de Mandiargues. The second story is taken from an anonymous sacrilegious novel from the 18th century. The third story is a re-telling of the case of Elizabeth Báthory from the study of surrealist poet Valentine Penrose.[2]
A fifth story in the Immoral Tales was originally planned, but was taken out of the film and developed into the feature film La bête (1975).[2]
Reception
After the release of Immoral Tales, Borowczyk's began to fall out of favor from film critics.[3] New York Magazine wrote a negative review referring to the film as "episodic and disjointed, but also written with a great deal of stupidity" and describing the story-telling, directing, acting and photography in the film as "wretched".[4]
Among modern reviews, Allrovi gave the film three stars out of five, feeling that first two stories did not work as well as the second two as well as stating that it was Borowczyk's move from "arthouse material and toward softcore; as such, the material displays its director's characteristic intelligence but lapses into exploitation a little too often".[5] In an overview of Borowczyk's work in the film magazine Senses of Cinema, Immoral Tales is referred to as his weakest amongst his first five feature films and that "an unsensational approach to the material and detached gaze of the camera make it closer to a surrealist text than a pornographic movie."[1] David Kehr wrote a review for the Chicago Reader praising that the film "contains some very elegant images" but compared it negatively to Borowczyk's followup Story of a Sin which Kehr proclaimed "avoided the trap of superficiality by adopting an ironic mode. Here, he seems entirely too sincere—and more than a little dull."[6]
Notes
- ^ a b c Rufell, Joe. "Rich and Strange: An Introduction to the Live Action Features of Walerian Borowczyk". Senses of Cinema. http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2001/18/borowczyk/. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
- ^ a b Richardson, 2006. p. 114
- ^ Riley, John (February 26, 2008). "Walerian Borowczyk". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/walerian-borowczyk-467947.html. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
- ^ Simon, John (27 March 1976). "Robin Hood and his Merry Menopause". New York Magazine (New York Media, LLC) 9 (13): 82. http://books.google.com/books?id=Y-MCAAAAMBAJ. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
- ^ Jenkins, Sidney. "Immoral Tales: Review". Allrovi. http://www.allrovi.com/movies/movie/immoral-tales-v155780. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
- ^ Kehr, David. "Immoral Tales". Chicago Reader. http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/immoral-tales/Film?oid=1074479. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
References
External links
- Immoral Tales at AllRovi
- Immoral Tales at the Internet Movie Database
Films directed by Walerian Borowczyk Dom · Mr. and Mrs. Kabal's Theatre · Goto, Island of Love · Blanche · Immoral Tales · The Story of Sin · The Beast · The Margin · Behind Convent Walls · Immoral Women · "L'Amoire" in Private Collections · Lulu · Docteur Jekyll et les femmes · The Art Of Love · Emmanuelle 5 · Love RitesCategories:- 1974 films
- French films
- French-language films
- Avant-garde and experimental films
- 1970s drama films
- Erotic films
- New Line Cinema films
- Films directed by Walerian Borowczyk
- French LGBT-related films
- Lesbian-related films
- Incest pornography
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