My Body Burns (1972)
Early French Erotica
Rereleased 2009
Le Chat Qui Fume
MVD (Distributor)
R1 DVD
Director
Jean-Marie Pallardy made the change from male model to film director in the
1970s and this was his first full-length feature. As a result the film has some
rough edges that are aggravated by a poor conversion to English.
“Doug”
is a notary (the equivalent, I think, of a Justice of the Peace and a respected
position) in a small French town. He is well past his youth but has not yet
married. He gets his sexual satisfaction from the occasional orgy at his house
and by chasing the village’s young females. Despite his discretion gossip is
spreading in the village and a rumour is spreading that he prefers boys to girls. He must marry
to save his reputation. He is attracted to Evelyne, a rather younger girl who
is, in turn, attracted to his fortune.
There
is a problem. Evelyne is in a long-term lesbian relationship with the
possessive and sulky-looking Michelle, who has no intention of letting her
girlfriend go. She threatens to expose Doug’s sexual habits if Evelyne leaves
her. She will name the people who have taken part in his orgies. Doug decides that she will have to die.
So
much for the plot, now let’s go to bed and get on with it. There is a strong
emphasis on style over plot, as you would expect in this type of film. Pallardy’s
direction makes the most of the women’s bodies, with each shot lovingly framed
and beautifully filmed. This is true erotica, not porn. Unfortunately many of
the bedroom shots go on forever and the background music is often overpowering
and inappropriate. The outside scenes in the forest look better, but the music
problem still exists – it’s a sort of jazz club / elevator music fusion that
seems as out of place now as it probably was then.
The
film is not helped by some really bad overdubbing in places. Rather than force
some harsh American accents over a film that looks decidedly European, I think
it would have been better to keep the French track and simply subtitle it. This
would have kept the French flavour and improved the overall film. The overdubbing
may have been necessary, though, to appeal to U.S. audiences who were starting
to move out from their own skin flicks and investigate what the rest of the
world had to offer (such as the Danish Agent 69 films reviewed in earlier
issues of Synergy). This overseas
influence probably culminated in the release of Emmanuelle, possibly the
best-known French erotic film, in 1975. Strangely, My Body Burns has many
touches of the style of the later Emmanuelle so Pallardy may have been on the
right track. He also managed to put a little humour into some of the characters
such as the promiscuous underage maid. Many erotic films take themselves too
seriously and the touches of humour are welcome to break the sexual tension.
Overall
there are enough weaknesses to make this film something of a disappointment. It
could have been so much better, and probably was when it was released in the
original French. We will use it as a starting point in Pallardy’s film career
and look at some of his later films in further reviews. He was still producing
erotica into the 1980s when France’s exploitation cinema started to wind down.
Three of his early films have been rereleased in the Classics of French Erotica
series.
The
film has been well remastered The DVD includes clips from some of his other
films including a Western, and there is also a gallery of stills and photos of
some of his actresses.
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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.5 (2009) of the digital and
print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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