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Released by: Alpha France
Released on: December, 2014.
Director: Francis Leroi
Cast: Julia Perrin, Sophie Duflot, Cathy Stewart, Marilyn Jess
Year: 1980
Purchase From TLA Video
The Movie:
Better known domestically as Open Nightly, this film, directed by Francis Leroi in 1980, Dream Girls In A Brothel begins in a bordello where some well-dressed old men spend some quality time with some scantily clad young women. From there, we meet a young woman named Julie (Julia Perrin) completes her time at boarding school - but not everything that went on at this school was as pure as those who put her there thought they would be, which we learn from ourselves when we see the priest in charge giving it to one of the nuns. Julia is picked up by her mother and father and brought back to work as a maid at the high class brothel they run. Here she sees her mom works quite diligently in her duties as the head madam and making sure that all of the local politicians and officials who make up their regular clientele are well taken care of.
Early on in the film Julia is not permitted by her parents to take part in the constant action going on in the various rooms - and that seems fine with her, she has some trepidation and is new to all of this. Of course, as the storyline progresses, that changes and she moves on first to voyeurism then to self-gratification and then to a little girl on girl experimentation before going all in as the movie builds to its finish. There are a few amusing subplots here too about some crooked inspectors being bribed and then blackmailed and a great scene in which one of the male characters shows off a certain prostitute (Marilyn Jess) and the cash value of her body and her skills. There are a few other bizarre set pieces that occur throughout the movie, including a regular customer, a blind man, who shows up to get it on with his favorite hooker while Julia and another maid named Rosette (Cathy Stewart) watch from behind a one-way mirror. You can easily imagine what he does with his white cane. Before it's all over we'll see a woman get it on with a wine bottle (sort of, more on that in a bit), another woman smoke a cigarette with her lady parts and, well, we won't spoil the ending but there is a bit of a twist.
This is quickly paced and quite well shot with a lot of great locations and nice costumes on display throughout the duration of the movie. The camera work is top notch and most, though not all, of the female performers on display are genuinely beautiful. The guys? Not so much, as many of the participants are meant to be older rich dude types getting some on the sly - so in the context of the story that works, but those watching this one for the beef on display could be disappointed. Those ladies though, yowza. Cathy Stewart and Julia Perrin are great together here and the scene with Marilyn Jess is worth the price of admission alone.
There's also a very strong vein of absurdist humor and anti-bourgeoisie commentary running through the movie. The rich are all corrupt and out for themselves while those at the brothel, who work for their money, are just out to have a good time and enjoy themselves - this would seem to be the underlying message of the story, and that's not unusual in French porn from this time frame, in fact it's fairly common!
Unfortunately the version of the movie on this disc is cut, or at least it seems that way. The running time is about sixty-two minutes and listed running times online go anywhere from seventy-four minutes to eight-two minutes. Without another version to compare it to on hand it's hard to confirm what exactly has been chopped (and there's always the possibility that running time stated online are wrong) but one scene in particular stands out as odd. When the woman pleasures herself with a wine bottle instead of seeing it in regular filmed speed, we instead see what is basically a quick succession of still photos and it's over in a matter of seconds.
Video/Audio/Extras:
TLA Video, through a deal with Alpha France, presents Dream Girls In A Brothel on MOD/DVD-R in 1.33.1 fullframe, which would appear to be its proper aspect ratio in that there doesn't appear to be any cropping or missing information. The image is fairly stable and shows okay detail but contrast is a bit overblown in some scenes. Typically though, colors look okay if occasionally a bit faded while skin tones look pretty natural. Black levels are closer to a dark grey than true black but this is perfectly watchable.
The disc an English language audio track in Dolby Digital Mono and the dubbing here is pretty obvious though that tends to add to the fun. Dialogue is occasionally a bit muffled but more often than not it's pretty clear and the score sounds quite good. There are no subtitles provided on the disc.
There are no extras on this disc.
The Final Word:
Dream Girls In A Brothel is pretty loopy stuff in which a quick and amusing series of occasionally kinky hardcore vignettes plays out alongside a plot just substantial enough to carry the picture. The presence of Marilyn Jess, Cathy Stewart and Julia Perrin will be reason enough for most vintage French smut aficionados to take notice, but the rest of the cast turn in fine work here as well.
