Gwendoline (1984)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 105m
Director: Just Jaeckin
Cast: Tawny Kitaen, Brent Huff, Zabou Breitman, Bernadette Lafont
Synopsis:
Gwendoline travels to China in a crate (why is unclear) to find her father, who has disappeared while searching for an undiscovered butterfly. Enlisting the help of a rough adventurer, she and her maid follow a trail to a tribe of Amazons ruled by a vicious queen, who plans to reap untold diamonds by engineering a volcanic eruption.
Review:
For two thirds of its length this is a Perils of Pauline romp that takes itself none too seriously, which is just as well. Once the trio arrive in the land of the Yik-Yak, the art direction, and presumably much of the budget, take over in a welter of sado-masochistic kitsch that had James Ferman and the BBFC frantic with the scissors back in 1984, but has since been released on DVD uncut. Those looking at Jaeckin's filmography and expecting plenty of softcore coupling will be disappointed: the director wanted to do something different with this, admittedly erotic, 60s comic strip, and the censor's objections had to do rather with the infliction of torture and bondage on semi-naked females. Lafont, in the Duran-Duran role, has a great time pronouncing every letter in the hero Willard's name, presumably digging deep for some untapped double-entendre, and generally the enterprise delivers a whole lot more sex and violence than Vadim's Barbarella was able to a decade and a half earlier.
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 105m
Director: Just Jaeckin
Cast: Tawny Kitaen, Brent Huff, Zabou Breitman, Bernadette Lafont
Synopsis:
Gwendoline travels to China in a crate (why is unclear) to find her father, who has disappeared while searching for an undiscovered butterfly. Enlisting the help of a rough adventurer, she and her maid follow a trail to a tribe of Amazons ruled by a vicious queen, who plans to reap untold diamonds by engineering a volcanic eruption.
Review:
For two thirds of its length this is a Perils of Pauline romp that takes itself none too seriously, which is just as well. Once the trio arrive in the land of the Yik-Yak, the art direction, and presumably much of the budget, take over in a welter of sado-masochistic kitsch that had James Ferman and the BBFC frantic with the scissors back in 1984, but has since been released on DVD uncut. Those looking at Jaeckin's filmography and expecting plenty of softcore coupling will be disappointed: the director wanted to do something different with this, admittedly erotic, 60s comic strip, and the censor's objections had to do rather with the infliction of torture and bondage on semi-naked females. Lafont, in the Duran-Duran role, has a great time pronouncing every letter in the hero Willard's name, presumably digging deep for some untapped double-entendre, and generally the enterprise delivers a whole lot more sex and violence than Vadim's Barbarella was able to a decade and a half earlier.
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 105m
Director: Just Jaeckin
Cast: Tawny Kitaen, Brent Huff, Zabou Breitman, Bernadette Lafont
Synopsis:
Gwendoline travels to China in a crate (why is unclear) to find her father, who has disappeared while searching for an undiscovered butterfly. Enlisting the help of a rough adventurer, she and her maid follow a trail to a tribe of Amazons ruled by a vicious queen, who plans to reap untold diamonds by engineering a volcanic eruption.
Review:
For two thirds of its length this is a Perils of Pauline romp that takes itself none too seriously, which is just as well. Once the trio arrive in the land of the Yik-Yak, the art direction, and presumably much of the budget, take over in a welter of sado-masochistic kitsch that had James Ferman and the BBFC frantic with the scissors back in 1984, but has since been released on DVD uncut. Those looking at Jaeckin's filmography and expecting plenty of softcore coupling will be disappointed: the director wanted to do something different with this, admittedly erotic, 60s comic strip, and the censor's objections had to do rather with the infliction of torture and bondage on semi-naked females. Lafont, in the Duran-Duran role, has a great time pronouncing every letter in the hero Willard's name, presumably digging deep for some untapped double-entendre, and generally the enterprise delivers a whole lot more sex and violence than Vadim's Barbarella was able to a decade and a half earlier.