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Les Tentations de Marianne
Marianne's Temptations
France 1973
produced by Francis Leroi, René Demoulin (executive) for Unité Un
directed by Francis Leroi
starring Patricia Novarini (= Rosa Fumetto), Bob Asklöf, Bernard Tixier, Andrée Damant, Evelyne Gaillard, Elisabeth Plaza, Cathy Reghin, Katia Tchenko, Mireille Barrand, Reine Villers, Daniel Bellus, Alain Quercy, Jean Roquel, Philippe Richeux, Gilles Signard
written by Francois Leroi, music by Serge Kaufman
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Working at a ski resort, county bumbkin Marianne (Patricia Novarini)
stumbles into Parisian tourist Bob (Bob Asklöf), whom she mistakes for a
professional photographer. And since he's rather fond of her looks, he's
more than happy to keep up that facade, and it's not long before they have
sex. Now for Bob, she was nothing but a one-night stand, but Marianne has
seriously fallen in love with him, so much so that she ditches her
long-time boyfriend Marc (Gilles Signard) and forces Bob to take her to
Paris with him. Bob is at first at best annoyed, but he soon starts to see
the possibilities, as he not only uses her as his sex toy but also opens
her sexually, using her as his nude and eventually porn model, then easing
her way into light (but profitable) prostitution. Marianne's not too ok
with all of this, but she's also very much in love with Bob. Then Bob is
invited by his boss (Alain Quercy) and the boss's wife (Evelyne Gaillard)
to a swinger club, and of course he brings Marianne along, hoping she'll
draw all the attention to herself while he can shoot photos for a little
blackmailing scheme he has dreamed up. But he's captured taken photos and
thrown out of the club while his camera's confiscated, and with him out of
the picture, Marianne's gangraped. And after all these eye-opening
experiences, Marianne returns back to the ski resort, and to Marc who has
been waiting for her all this time. Now this is a movie that
hasn't really aged well: It's clearly made from a male perspective, and
thus its views on women and female sexuality feel somewhat cynical, not to
say misogynist - basically this is a film about a girl being tricked into
prostitution, and the guy who has orchestrated it all is portrayed pretty
much as a loveable rogue while the main blame is put on the girl herself.
Of course, all of this is seen strictly from today's point of view, with
today's morals in mind - which actually almost makes this film worth a
watch as a time capsule ... but I'll put the emphasis on
"almost" here as taken by its own terms, the film's not
particuarly well-made, and is in its imagery rather tame compared to its
story, so the titilation factor's rather low. What remains is at least
some nostalgic fun painfully out of tune with today's political
correctness.
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