Joy

Severin

R1 DVD

French, English subtitles

Although this film is hailed as a great erotic classic on the level of Emmanuelle, I find it hard to agree. The film has a minimal plot and a certain amount of style but little substance. It lacks Emmanuelle’s strong underlying themes of submission leading to domination, or for that matter, any other worthy theme..

To put the plot simply, Joy is an airhead who enjoys sex with anyone. She joins up with Marc, a fifty-something man about town who seems to enjoy watching Joy having sex with other men. Joy leaves him and goes to the U.S. That’s about it – hardly a plot to get excited about. Claudia Udy who plays Joy has an out of balance breast enhancement job that is quite distracting in what are otherwise beautifully filmed nude shots. Severin’s excellent cleanup of the original copy enhances the flaws.

The performances are ritualised and stylised in the French manner with little actual enthusiasm shown – it’s as if the French think it’s OK to show sex scenes provided noone is enjoying themselves. There are also some quite silly scenes, particularly the one where Joy is joining in an orgy on a waterbed while wearing stiletto heels. It seemed sure to have a wet finish, but I was disappointed.

I couldn’t really get enthusiastic about Joy. It could have been so much more had it just been left as a straightforward skin flick, but by trying to make some sort of work of art of it the director missed his target. At least Severin has managed to track down the bits that were edited out and restored the film to its original length.

Joy and Joan

This followup to Joy is not as shallow but is far more surreal. Joy is to marry Bruce, a sixtyish very rich man. He lives in Thailand. His idea of an engagement party is to drug Joy and she is had by every man at the party. All the while a fat lady is screeching opera and a couple of ballet dancers are prancing around. For some reason there is also a caged tiger whose purpose is never clear.

Bruce tells her the next morning that since she is a woman who enjoys pleasure the greatest gift he can give her is pleasure. Bruce is a man with strange ideas. Joy also has her own personal slave, a girl named Millarca.

This time Joy wants out and tries to contact her old boyfriend in Paris, but Marc is unable to be contacted. With Millarca’s help she escapes and heads into town. Escaping Bruce, she falls in with a tour guide and they become friends, although the expected lesbian scene doesn’t materialise. Not yet, anyway, but you know it’s coming.

To get away from Bruce the two girls go to the Philippines but one of his servants tracks them down. They are kidnapped and deposited at a pool orgy. Joy escapes with help from her girlfriend and the two settle in Paris. In a threesome with Marc. And the baby.

Actress Brigitte Lahaie now plays the role of Joy. On the cover slick she is billed as “Joy returns with the perfect pair” but this may just mean her co-star. Unfortunately changing the lead actress and setting the story in beautiful scenery still can’t make a turkey fly, and despite the slightly better plot this one is still a turkey. Erotic? Not really although there are some good bits. Once again the director misses the target and produces a film that is not porn and not erotic enough, but sits uncomfortably in the middle.

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