A Private Collection (1973) User Reviews

A public collection.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 5/10 · 19 August 2020]

Checking the run-times of the 70's shorts by auteur Walerian Borowczyk,I noticed this one was the longest. Having seen all the others,I got set to view the collection.

View on the short:

Originally planned as a segment to his Immoral Tales (1973-also reviewed) work,Walerian Borowczyk gives the audience a eyeful by opening his vast collection of Adult material. Fingering the themes which would appear across his movies, Borowczyk mixes old footage, (some of which has had to be censured) photos and toys with devices that create cheeky animations that cast a light on this private collection.

Sex, texture, and collections

[imm21 · 8/10 · 14 August 2006]

UNE COLLECTION PARTICULIERE crystallizes, in wittily stripped-down form, many of the concerns that run through Borowczyk's œuvre. Firstshown as part of a "work-in-progress" screening of IMMORAL TALES at the London Film Festival in 1973, this collector's cabinet curiosity piece puts on display an assortment of objects, toys and images, all bound by the twin obsessions of sex and looking. What is particularly striking about the way Borowczyk presents the collection (which he himself owned) is the close attention to texture and sound, which combine to suggest a sensuous tactility in spite of the predominantly humorous and crude nature of the curios. The creaking and ticking of vintage mechanical toys generates a rhythm that echoes the movement of film itself, as well as movement of a more carnal nature. This harks back to Borowczyk's training as an animator, which fuelled a fascination for the way stillness and movement come together in both cinema and sex. Meanwhile the emphasis on the textures of wood, cloth, paper and engravings that can be seen throughout his work becomes the primary subject-matter here. A sense of touch is conveyed strikingly by the presence, in extreme close-up, of fingertips touching and holding these erotic relics, invading their space in the frame.

"Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects", wrote Walter Benjamin; "not that they come alive in him (the collector); it is he who lives in them". Here the life of the collector-director is hinted at in his possessions, as well as a sexually-charged extended history of previous owners.

Well worth seeing if you get the chance.

Sex Photos and Toys

[Michael_Elliott · 30 April 2017]

Une collection particulière (1973)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Of all the Walerian Borowczky shorts I've seen, I'd probably argue that this here is the best of the bunch. Basically we see the director's massive porn collection, which includes still photography, old-fashioned photos that reveal the sex when lights hit it and of course animation. A PRIVATE COLLECTION is a pretty entertaining film that set the director loose from his mild cinema and straight into what would become his sexploitation era. This film is available in three different versions with two of them missing several sequences towards the end where a woman is having sex with a dog. On the Arrow Video release there is a "long" version and a "short" version but both of them are missing the bestiality sequences. The entire film is pretty much just a variety of sex photos and toys and for the most part it leads to some great entertainment as long as you're not easily offended. This here was obviously meant for an adult viewer and the various bits and pieces of the collection makes it entertaining to say the least.