Tweet
Released by: Alpha France
Released on: August 12th, 2014.
Director: Claude Mulot
Cast: Marilyn Jess, Richard Allan, Catherine Marsile, Hélí¨ne Shirley, Laura Clair
Year: 1981
Purchase From TLA Video
The Movie:
Wow. This 1981 Alpha France production, directed by Claude Mulot under his Frédéric Lansac alias (his last for the production company), is insane. The film focuses on the exploits of a perpetually horny writer named Nicolas (Richard Allan) who just can't find a woman with the ability to satisfy him until he meets a dark haired lass named Sabine (Hélí¨ne Shirley). They hit it off, stopping after a tennis session to go at it in the backroom of a pub before heading home and going at it some more. Eventually though, the spark fades and she just doesn't want it the way he does. We see this when she pleasures herself and instead of joining in, he uses a radio control R2-D2 to continuously bump into her foot. We see this again when she's doing the dishes, all dolled up in fine French lingerie, and he takes her from behind… only for her to complain about his libido and continue with her chores.
She leaves him and he brings on a pretty blonde temp secretary to help with his manuscripts named Lucielle (Laura Clair). Of course, as soon as she gets to work his libido kicks in and he coerces her into doing some dirty deeds but eventually she too leaves his life. Lonely and perpetually in the mood, Nicolas takes a page out of his own script and heads into some sort of secret laboratory to build himself a PVC clad female pleasure robot (pronounced row-butt in the English dubbed version!) in the form of super fox Kim (Marilyn Jess). Somehow able to control her using the same remote control he used to control R2-D2, he has her take care of his problems anytime the mood strikes with the simple push of a button. So happy is he with his new toy that he has her take a turn on a director he's working with while he sits in his hot tub, watching and taking matters into his own hands (he stares at them in seriously creepy ways). This turns out to be a bad move, however, as soon after that Kim starts disobeying his remote control commands and doing her own thing, like jumping on top of the porter when he drops off Nicolas' mail one fine afternoon. Understandably upset, Nicolas decides that the only solution is to build himself another row-butt…this time a black chick (Catherine Marsile)!
In addition to multiple R2-D2 toy appearances (seriously, the little guy pops up all over the place in this movie and often during the more explicit moments!) and some gratuitous J&B product shots this one offers up a really fun story and plenty of bizarre moments to think one once the end credits hit the screen. Without giving away the ending, the story actually does a pretty decent job of allowing Nicolas to go about his dirty business and therefore deliver the requisite number of bump and grind sequences but at the same time craft him as a fairly tragic character. The fact that he can't control his libido quite literally controls his life and keeps him from finding true love, as is made obvious when his relationship with Sabine comes to a close. Because of this there's a fair bit more depth here than you might expect and it actually ties together quite well once the film comes to its FIN.
The cast members all deliver some quality work here. The movie's success really hinges on Alpha France regular woodsman Richard Allan and while the English dubbing takes away from things a little bit he's good in the role. There are times where he's involved with whichever one of the female co-stars you'd care to name where he definitely seems into it and going at it for the sake of satiating his own arousal and because he enjoys it but so too are there scenes where he seems to be going at it to quell his thirst and put a stop to his uncontrollable desire. There's a dichotomy to his performance that works well. The ladies all do fine work too, with Hélí¨ne Shirley transforming her character Sabine from a wholly willing nymphomaniac into a cold, frigid, uninterested bitch of a woman. Clair and Marsile are also fun to watch but, this will come as a surprise to no one, Marilyn Jess steals the show. Without a single word of dialogue she's able to evolve from a slave with no will of her own into something more interesting and assertive.
A wacky mix of sci-fi and sex loaded with some seriously off the wall moments, French Girls For Pleasure (alternately known as Programmed For Pleasure and La Femme-Objet) is absolutely worth a watch.
Video/Audio/Extras:
TLA Video, through a deal with Alpha France, presents French Girls For Pleasure on MOD/DVD-R in 1.66.1 non-anamorphic widescreen, which would appear to be the movie's original aspect ratio. The image is a little soft but stable enough. Colors look okay, skin tones look appropriately natural and black levels are decent. There are times where some minor compression artifacts pop up but otherwise this is a decent enough presentation even if it isn't going to blow you away.
The disc includes an English language Dolby Digital Mono track as well as a French language option but no subtitles to accompany it. The dubbing here is painfully obvious, but then, that adds to the movie's considerable charms in its own goofy way. Dialogue is occasionally a bit muffled but more often than not it's pretty clear and the score sounds alright.
There actually are some extras this time around, but you have to let the movie play out to get to them (there are no menus on the disc). Once the feature finishes there's a twelve minute restoration demo that shows how the negative was scanned and color corrected for this release years back. After that there's a theatrical trailer for the feature. All of this is in French sans English subtitles.
The Final Word:
French Girls For Pleasure is a completely off the wall feature filled with decent sex scenes and plenty of completely bizarre moments. It's hard to say if this was supposed to be funny or not, as it plays things surprisingly straight, but it definitely is. Marilyn Jess is a treat to watch here though, and yeah, if you dig what Alpha France did so well, give this one a shot. It's a kick.
And check out R2-D2!!
