Les onze mille verges (1975)
(Bisexual)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor 95m
Director: Eric Lipmann
Cast: Florence Cayrol, Marion Game, Yves-Marie Maurin, Jenny Arasse
Synopsis:
A young banker about to be married to his domineering fiancée, is contacted by admirers of his ancestor, Prince Mony Vibescu, 'hospodar héréditaire' (Romanian seigneur), and travels east to Bucharest on the Orient Express in his imagination. In the process, via film material and onscreen narration, he is regaled with the sexual exploits of his predecessor, namely living up to the challenge of satisfying his mistress twenty times in a row on pain of suffering the punishment of 11,000 fustigations! Thus, he learns to gain mastery of his own carnal pleasures.
Review:
An immensely important film in the annals of erotic cinema (as opposed to pornography), Lipmann's fantasia on Apollinaire's scandalous tome occupied a privileged space at the height of the grey area surrounding French classification of 'adult film material'. Thereafter, with the advent of the 'classé X' hard porn film, began the ghettoisation of erotic cinema whose main casualty was the presence of softcore entertainments such as this: why invest thousands in handsome production values if you can give your principal market more of what it wants for a lot less? As for the film itself, it is, give or take one or two irruptions of sadistic content, a joyful romp through alternately decorous couplings and frenetic 'partouzes', in which the childlike hero encounters a series of delectable nymphets. It's pacy, amusing, at times witty in its use of punning and quotation, and throughout there is nary a 'verge' in sight. (The title stems from a play on the 11,000 vierges of Saint Ursula, and a punning reference to the word verge (rod); as for the English language title, it is both inadequate and unhelpful in the extreme.)
(Bisexual)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor 95m
Director: Eric Lipmann
Cast: Florence Cayrol, Marion Game, Yves-Marie Maurin, Jenny Arasse
Synopsis:
A young banker about to be married to his domineering fiancée, is contacted by admirers of his ancestor, Prince Mony Vibescu, 'hospodar héréditaire' (Romanian seigneur), and travels east to Bucharest on the Orient Express in his imagination. In the process, via film material and onscreen narration, he is regaled with the sexual exploits of his predecessor, namely living up to the challenge of satisfying his mistress twenty times in a row on pain of suffering the punishment of 11,000 fustigations! Thus, he learns to gain mastery of his own carnal pleasures.
Review:
An immensely important film in the annals of erotic cinema (as opposed to pornography), Lipmann's fantasia on Apollinaire's scandalous tome occupied a privileged space at the height of the grey area surrounding French classification of 'adult film material'. Thereafter, with the advent of the 'classé X' hard porn film, began the ghettoisation of erotic cinema whose main casualty was the presence of softcore entertainments such as this: why invest thousands in handsome production values if you can give your principal market more of what it wants for a lot less? As for the film itself, it is, give or take one or two irruptions of sadistic content, a joyful romp through alternately decorous couplings and frenetic 'partouzes', in which the childlike hero encounters a series of delectable nymphets. It's pacy, amusing, at times witty in its use of punning and quotation, and throughout there is nary a 'verge' in sight. (The title stems from a play on the 11,000 vierges of Saint Ursula, and a punning reference to the word verge (rod); as for the English language title, it is both inadequate and unhelpful in the extreme.)
(Bisexual)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor 95m
Director: Eric Lipmann
Cast: Florence Cayrol, Marion Game, Yves-Marie Maurin, Jenny Arasse
Synopsis:
A young banker about to be married to his domineering fiancée, is contacted by admirers of his ancestor, Prince Mony Vibescu, 'hospodar héréditaire' (Romanian seigneur), and travels east to Bucharest on the Orient Express in his imagination. In the process, via film material and onscreen narration, he is regaled with the sexual exploits of his predecessor, namely living up to the challenge of satisfying his mistress twenty times in a row on pain of suffering the punishment of 11,000 fustigations! Thus, he learns to gain mastery of his own carnal pleasures.
Review:
An immensely important film in the annals of erotic cinema (as opposed to pornography), Lipmann's fantasia on Apollinaire's scandalous tome occupied a privileged space at the height of the grey area surrounding French classification of 'adult film material'. Thereafter, with the advent of the 'classé X' hard porn film, began the ghettoisation of erotic cinema whose main casualty was the presence of softcore entertainments such as this: why invest thousands in handsome production values if you can give your principal market more of what it wants for a lot less? As for the film itself, it is, give or take one or two irruptions of sadistic content, a joyful romp through alternately decorous couplings and frenetic 'partouzes', in which the childlike hero encounters a series of delectable nymphets. It's pacy, amusing, at times witty in its use of punning and quotation, and throughout there is nary a 'verge' in sight. (The title stems from a play on the 11,000 vierges of Saint Ursula, and a punning reference to the word verge (rod); as for the English language title, it is both inadequate and unhelpful in the extreme.)