Immoral Tales (1973) User Reviews

A sex movie for the intelligentsia

[MOscarbradley · 7/10 · 10 August 2017]

Art or pornography? Well, if it's pornography certainly no pornographer in cinema as come as close to art as Borowczyk does here. The five "Immoral Tales" that make up this movie deal exclusively with sex in its various forms with a great emphasis on female nudity. Borowczyk deals with an almost fetishistic relish on the woman's body while almost totally ignoring the man's. With the exception of the first story, 'The Tide', the others are all taken from history or the past. We get St. Therese, she who was raped rather than give up her virginity; Elisabeth Bathory, she who liked to bathe, so they say, in the blood of virgins and Lucrezia Borgia, who apparently liked it whatever way she could get it. We also get a mini version of what became "The Beast" whose engorged phallus is one of the very few 'male' organs we see.

Visually the film's palette changes to suit the story at hand and this is very much a sex movie for the intelligentsia, which isn't to say that the 'dirty mac' brigade won't have a field day as well. Of course, since "Immoral Tales" first appeared movies have become a lot more sexually explicit and yet I happy to say this is a movie that can still provoke outrage today...of one kind or another.

I'd rather watch Debbie...or Miss Elizabeth Bennet for that matter!

[bill-987 · 5/10 · 30 September 2006]

Four erotic tales, three set as period pieces, the fourth (actually the first episode in the film) is set in the present day. A young man researches and puts into action a plot to trap his 16-year-old female cousin into giving him head by isolating her on a stretch of beach cut off by the ocean at high tide. The problems are several. The girl obviously doesn't need to be trapped and is more than willing to explore her own sexuality so the cousin's plot is completely unnecessary. She also demonstrates that she's a good swimmer, so she isn't really trapped. He also seems to be kind of short sighted since Borowczyk's cuts from close ups of the girl's face to her vagina demonstrate her curiosity at his limited objectives. Silly really.

'Therese Philosophe' concerns a pious girl punished for something by being locked in her bedroom "for three days", she seems intent on biding her time putting a cucumber to a non-digestive use while reading. This was the most disappointing episode for me because the only reason I tracked down and bought the DVD was because I saw the wonderful erotic potential of Charlotte Alexandra in "Une vraie jeune fille". She's wasted here.

'Erzsebet Bathory' is a sixteenth-century countess who travels to various villages setting up job fairs to recruit young girls into service in her household. Her pitch is that she pays more than the king. That her recruiters have to drag the young girls from their homes kicking and screaming might bear testament to the fact that none of her previous 'employees' were ever seen again. She also seems to have bizarre bathing habits.

'Lucrezia Borgia' chronicles Pope Alexander VI's pursuit of family values by swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool with his daughter Lucrezia and her brother Cesare. Everyone lives happily ever after (except that heretic Savonarola). This was actually the most erotic of the four, but I'd rather watch Debbie do anybody...or Miss Elizabeth Bennet for that matter!

The only thing noteworthy about this film is that supposedly it was the first porn flic to rise above the miasma onto the radar screens of the mainstream media. Actually I would have guessed that that distinction would have fallen to a Radly Metzger film, but my love of baseball statistics and trivia doesn't extend to porn films so I won't bother to look it up.

Some Crazy European Stuff

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 22 September 2015]

Four tales from various historical eras. The first, 'The Tide', is set in the present day, and concerns a student and his young female cousin stranded on the beach by the tide, secluded from prying eyes. 'Therese Philosophe' is set in the nineteenth century, and concerns a girl being locked in her bedroom, where she contemplates the erotic potential of the objects contained within it. 'Erzsebet Bathory' is a portrait of the sixteenth-century countess who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, while 'Lucrezia Borgia' concerns an incestuous fifteenth-century orgy involving Lucrezia, her brother, and her father the Pope.

Such a crazy film. From the very plot synopsis, you might think this was something like Woody Allen's "Everything You Wanted To Know". I mean, heck, these are vignettes about unusual sexual practices, right? But the intent is clearly different. Allen was being funny and not all that risqué.

This film, on the other hand, has almost no humor and seems to be made for one purpose: to put as many nude women in one film as humanly possible. Granted, it is still a good film in some ways and has an artistic merit. It is not pornographic. But seeing as a similar film could have been made with only a fraction of the nudity, it is clear what the intention was.

Cult Classic

[eibon09 · 25 March 2001]

Contes Immoraux/Immoral Tales(1974) is an erotic series of short films that opens with "The Tide". This first tale is about a young girl who is taught by her cousin about the connection between sex and the highest peak of a water wave. The story is average and is the least interesting. This tale is about how sex and intellectual thinking can go hand to hand. About how sex and the idea of sexual contact is thought up by the middle class.

The second tale in the film is one of the two best tales in this sensual anthology. Its about a sexually repressed young woman that discovers her urges through her religion beliefs. Charlotte Alexandra who plays the sex hungry woman is excellent in the role as well as absolutely breathtaking and arousing. She finds her sexual pleasure through fantasies of sex and self sex using vegetables. The story is about a woman's yearning to be independant and feminine.

The tale telling of the Countess Elisabeth Bathory is the best story. It takes place during the final hours of the countess before her arrest at the orders of the king. The story takes a shot at the government structure by showing its self indulgence and absolute corruption. Elisabeth Bathory was not a vampire in the traditional sense. First, she was still alive and did not suck blood. Paloma Picasso, daughter of the fame artist is wonderful in the role of the infamous countess(interestingly, when she is arrested the kings men put a suit on her that reminds me of the prisoner's arrest suit in Brazil).

The next and final tale is about one of the most scandalous moments in the 20th Century. It features a shocking menage a trois that is very bold to view. The story is about the love affair between Lucrezia Borgia and her father, the pope plus another man. The sex sequences are disturbing and shocking. This story is very powerful in its depiction of religious corruption.

Passollini without the brutality

[sambson · 7/10 · 24 March 2020]

Passollini without the brutality. That is to say, provocatively sexual, without the darkest elements overwhelming the stories.

These tales may be immoral but they're also really, really dull

[gridoon2024 · 3/10 · 28 January 2020]

In the spirit of "I'll try anything once", I watched my first Walerian Borowczyk film; it is also probably going to be my last. His brand of pseudo-arty, antiseptic, plotless soft-core porn is totally not my cup of tea (besides, we already have Jess Franco for that). The first story is the best, because it's at least the most honest; the worst is probably the third, in which the shower scenes go on for what seems like three centuries. * out of 4.

pretty but dated European erotica from the 1970s

[netwallah · 6/10 · 31 May 2006]

A curious film, consisting of four erotic set-pieces. In the first, which takes place at the present time (in the 1970s, that is), a slightly annoying young man (Fabrice Luchini) tells us his young cousin will do whatever he tells her to do. They go down to the seaside, where he tells her to take off her swimsuit under her transparent dress, and to perform oral sex on him until he floods with the high tide. She does so, and thus she supposedly learns about the connection between sex and natural phenomena like the tides. Surely this is either a pretentious bit of fake sex philosophy or a con by the young man, or both/ The girl (Lise Danvers) is very pretty, with freckles, dark blue eyes, and a beautiful mouth, which Borowczyck shows in close up. These close-ups of her face and mouth are the most erotic part of the entire movie. The second tale is perhaps Victorian, involving another pretty girl (Charlotte Alexandre) who lingers after mass in the church, fondling phallic symbols like candlesticks and organ pipes and so on, while a divine voice speaks to her. In trouble for being late and locked into her bedroom at home, she fools around with various old items, a doll, a book of 18th-century pornography, a cucumber, and she undresses and brings herself to orgasm. Later she climbs out her window and wanders off across a field to the edge of a forest where a tramp accosts her. In the third, a Hungarian countess (Paloma Picasso) rounds up women from villages and brings them to serve her, aided by her page Istvan. The young women all take long showers and spend a lot of time naked, then they're given a special drink and permission to touch the countess's pearl dress and then tear it off, and then they tear each other apart, apparently, for the vampire-like countess bathes in blood and then goes to bed with the page, who is actually a beautiful woman (Pascale Christophe). In the morning soldiers arrest the countess and the page kisses the officer. The fourth tale shows a threesome consisting of the pope Alexander Borgia and his daughter Lucrezia (Florence Bellamy) and son Cesare. It's predictable, and not much helped by intercutting scenes of Savanarola scolding the church and then dying in flames at the stake. Much of the movie is filmed prettily, with excellent scenery and costumes and very attractive women often wearing very few clothes, a good deal of sexual activity and nudity. It's interesting to note the women's 1970s hair-styles and tan-lines in the historical parts, and curious also to note the element of excess and cruelty rather arbitrarily conjoined with sexuality. Direct but dated.

Not much going on

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 12 October 2021]

I thought I'd give this erotic anthology a go based on the director's standing in arthouse circles, but I was disappointed. It's well shot, certainly, with a kind of visual quality and composition that you only find in European cinema in the mid 20th century, but also near plotless and quite shallow and vapid as a result. There are five stories in total, one of which - about a legendary woodland beast - the director would later expand to feature length. Others include a girl trapped in a room, Lucretia Borgia, Countess Bathory, and an encounter on the beach. I was hoping for more horror content especially in two of the stories, but it's non-existent.

The Sea, the Pope, de Sade - and it's all art

[Thorsten_B · 9/10 · 11 June 2004]

This film, french in language but hungarian by production, depicts artistic nudity at it's greatest degree of explicitness. What we see are four episodes, one roughly taking place at present (the date of production is 1974), the other three being new interpretations of historic events and anecdotes. It is quite a 'slow' film that tries to capture it's erotic contents in an objective, unromantic manner, while being honest in portraying the sexual energy that a naked body alone offers. There are obviously a couple of common themes among the four tales, and it's not necessarily their erotic content alone that fits them together.

Let's take an – spoiler full – look at the four stories.

The first episode shows a young girl, maybe 16, and a boy, few years older, on a bicycle-trip. They stop nearby the beach and climb on the shores cliffs. He seems to be in power; she talks about her innocent kissing experiences on parties, while he openly explains to attend prostitutes weekly. The difference, as is seems, is his greater experience and her virginity, and, since this film is called 'immoral' and since there are some 'visual innuendos', it seems pretty clear where it all leads to. While exclaiming pseudo-philosophical remarks on the sea and nature, he leads her into oral sex, which is introduced by his precise description of what he and she will do, think and expect. After finishing that, and while the tide approaches the two connected bodies (hers nude, his still dressed), she asks for more of that pleasure – but he replies that it was never intended to be pleasure, but rather a teaching for her. One wonders: Was he really in power over her, or is it vice versa? He's the one that tries to manipulate her, only to see that she doesn't bother his wishes, but remains her own. Even though the viewer feels she's very devote, she remains a 'straighter', more open position towards sexuality than he does. He needs a cover story for getting what we wanted, and he builds a sort of ritual around it – whereas she only seems to agree because she wants the same thing as well.

The second episode is about 'Thérèse Philosophe'. It takes place at around 1900. A young girl is locked into a room by her mother(?) because she disappeared after the last church session. The viewer knows that she simply remained in the church, but her mother doesn't believe that. In order to punish her for her suspected in obedience, she is locked for three days and three nights. As we already know from the church sequence, she regularly imagines to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, introduced by organ clusters, who explains that he will take of her and will do his best to serve her wishes, whatever they may be. In fact, this voice is her own voice, the voice of her own secret desires that demand to be set free. While locked and restricted to concentrate on herself, that voice leads her into sexual phantasy's also supported by her finding pornographic photos and finally a book by de Sade, 'Thérèse Philosophe', of which the etchings receive more interest than the text. By reading her prayer book at one point and de Sade at another, her sexuality and belief are brought into connection. Other than usual, she finds a way to combine these two – which leads to a fairly explicit masturbation scene. Were it not done in a openly artistic manner, the idea would rather fit into cheap pornography (it involves a cucumber). In the end, on the climax of both physical exhaustion and spiritual experience, she pushes de Sade aside and gets hold of her prayer book – only to reveal that the important thing about it is the picture of a man, kept alongside the pictures of the holy figures and religious processions.

Episode three is just as 'de Sadian' as the previous one. It deals with the 17th century hungarian Comtesse Barthory, played by Paloma Picasso, who abducts attractive girls from the small villages nearby her castle. We – and the people of the villages – can expect that the purpose for that is a criminal one. The girls, on the other hand, behave self-conscious and open when bathing themselves in the castle while being watched at by the Comtesse and her servant. At this point, about two dozen girls in full front nudity can been seen on the screen constantly. They are given a poisoned liquor and then the Comtesse steps among them. Turned frenzy by the drink, the girls start to rip off her famed dress of jewelry, therefore undressing her, while attacking themselves to get hold of more jewels. It gets bloody here, but these screens are quite reluctantly filmed if compared to the erotic part. The surviving girls, one can read between the lines, are killed by the servant, and then finally the Comtesse can take her bath in their blood – and it's a bloodbath as literally as one has ever been. Following that, the servant turns out to be a girl himself, and she and the Comtesse share a very erotic, none-bizarre sexual act. It ends with the servant secretly calling the Kings Men to get hold of the Comtesse; while she is taken away, it is revealed that the servant is in love with one to them, and they kiss each other while the scene fades out.

And finally we are taken in the life of Lucrezia Borgia. She visits her father, Pope Alexander VI, and her brother, a cardinal, in Rome. Her husband, himself a Count and faithful Christian, is confronted with an incestuous family situation. Upon being shocked by what he sees he suspects to be killed, which happens not shortly after. Then the path is free for the family connection, and the unite in an orgy than is very likely to hurt some peoples religious beliefs. And the same time, as a visual counterpart, we see excerpts of Savonarola preaching against the decadence of church. He is killed and burned, while Lucrezias happily gives birth to a child whose father is her father as well – thereby symbolizing the perversion dominating the papacy at this time. Lucrezias and the child smile at each other, a scene that produces an uneasy feeling in the viewer.

And it's not the only scene with that quality. This highly controversial film is immoral because that is a lack of critical comment about what we see. We see people stepping over barriers because they are overwhelmed by their sexual energies. Especially the last two tales present a world in which power and sexuality are combined and used for dominance and destruction without remorse. It all takes place in uncivilized worlds that pretends to be rich of culture. How different is that from today? Since this, like all films, is a piece of art – and it's more art than most –, there is no need for the producers to make a distancing statement. You decide what the pictures do to you: Be they erotic or repulsive, what you see in them is part of yourself and probably part of your own perspective towards sexuality.

Immoral Tales: The Five Tales Version.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 7/10 · 17 August 2020]

After recently viewing Blanche (1971),I opened my box set of works by Walerian Borowczyk,and checked what other titles were waiting to be played. Remembering Kim Newman highlighting the anthology in his review of the set for Empire magazine,I got set to find out how immoral these tales are.

View on the film:

Smoothly re-inserting a fifth story/film which had been cut over doubts the ratings boards would be happy with it, Arrow present a fantastic transfer, with the clean soundtrack and a print retaining just the right amount of film grain, being supported by detailed extras on the production.

Encouraged by producer Anatole Dauman to make the film, thanks to Dauman believing that the relaxation of film censorship in France would help it to be a hit at the box office, (which it was) production designer/editor/writer/directing auteur Walerian Borowczyk grinds his most sensual work up to this point, with a continuation of thrusting forward with his grotesque, horror-flavoured surrealist stylisation.

Going back to his roots as a animator, Borowczyk keeps the dialogue to a bare minimum,instead weaving a peculiar atmosphere,crashing the waves of The Tide (the lead role of which he offered to Isabelle Adjani,who turned it down over the "Stigma" of Adult films) in a cheeky tribute to From Here To Eternity (1953),spreading to the castle of Elisabeth Bathory (played by Pablo's daughter,Paloma Picasso) (with no establishing location shots,a recurring motif in his credits)in unsettling scenes of Bathory's victims in the pit of the castle taking showers, framed narrowly by Borowczyk to give the impression of them being in a concentration camp.

Whilst not featuring a wraparound story, each panel is framed by Borowczyk's distinctive editing style continuing to be expanded upon in a fragmented surrealist fashion, which plunges towards The Beast tale with splintered shots capturing the disorientating state the explicit assault The Beast leaves the inflicted woman in.

Following from Blanche in having women be the focus of each tale, Borowczyk displays his unique interest in provoking, rather than erotisation, as Borowczyk nails a continuation of manipulating religious iconography, and for the final, a delicious disregard for a holier than thou façade snapped in two behind the pages of a immoral tale.

Indulgent rubbish

[gray4 · 2/10 · 5 May 2004]

This is Borowczyk at his worst, even worse than the other two Borowczyk films I've seen. It is astonishing that the four tales can be packed with beautiful, naked women and still be so boring. Borowczyk does have the ability to portray graphic scenes beautifully, and the tale about Elizabeth Bathory is particularly beautifully shot - and it is the only one with a recognizable story.

The other three tales are just very, very boring, with discreet and unerotic sex scenes and no real characters, only stereotypes. The first tale, set in the present day, involves some indulgent rubbish linking tides and fellatio. The second links cucumbers and saintliness (I think!)and I lost the point of the last completely, other than that it involved Lucrezia Borgia and the pope. Give it a miss.

This HAS to be some kind of record!

[jvanderkammer · 8/10 · 23 January 2001]

Okay, okay... 1974. The Europeans have figured out that a world-wide audience exists for films that portray full-frontal nudity, regardless of storyline or context. Borowczyk has chosen four stories from four eras to flaunt some skin... the 1970s right back to the 1400s. He takes the cake, however, with the third segment, featuring Pablo's daughter Paloma Picasso: she plays a countess in the 1700s bent on preserving her youth and vitality by bathing in the blood of virgins. To get this far, we are treated to the most incredible series of visuals ever filmed! At least thirty young, beautiful, and (gasp!) very naked women are brought forward to shower, cavort, pray, play with each other, and perform some sort of ritual that leads to their demise. You will watch the whole film, but you will come away remembering only this third segment. All the nudity aside, credit Borowczyk and crew for doing a fine job technically and photographically on this film. Definitely worth seeing.

weird softcore and still shocking for some

[trashgang · 7/10 · 25 April 2020]

1973, the heydays of porn. The heydays of softcore. This is a perfect example. Be aware, it takes you back that females are in the flesh to spot with hair on every part were it could be so for some that could be shocking. There's a close-up of a hairy armpit...

Nevertheless, still nowadays it could be shocking due the content. Short stories like for example Bathory, weel, you could easily spot were that is going. Other stories do involve religion and is still offending for some.

But the weirdest one is La Bete. Sexual actions with a beast trying to rape a woman but things turn the other way when the beast and the woman are having fun together. Very strange to watch.

To watch it completely therefor nowadays it's too slow but still, if you want to see what in the seventies were normal to film go watch it,

Gore 0/5 Nudity 4/5 Effects 0/5 Story 1,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Often just dull French erotica

[Tito-8 · 4/10 · 10 March 1999]

Even by 1999 standards, there are moments in this film that would still be considered fairly controversial. Unfortunately, once you get past a few surprising scenes and the FREQUENT nudity, this is just a so-so movie at best, with several dull stretches. There just wasn't enough going on to keep me interested after a while, especially during the first and last segments, which were heavy on the dialogue but not the least bit entertaining. Don't waste your time on this one.

immoral, yet with style

[boudu_sauve_des_eaux · 8 November 2002]

Interesting exploration on erotism, that tell four tales of 'immoralities', casually plenties of sex. However, it is interesting the focus on the corruption of governors and religious people. And visually is very well-done. I think that it has no dialogue at all. Interesting. How it could be better? Well, there are a lot of naked women, but i think that some women of a potential public would be interested in more naked men. Who knows? 7/10

One of the Walerian Borowczyk more infamous work

[ongoam · 7/10 · 13 July 2023]

This movie was the finest of Walerian Borowczyk, and I know that this was one of his most Erotic and sexy, and I know that there was a dream scene from the movie. La Bête and I love that; I know that this movie is not for children, and there was a family in the final story known as the Borgia, and I love it because of this movie. It is very sexy and disgusting, I love it because it is hard to find that this movie still exists, and one thing that I want to watch is La Bête. And this movie is very, very, very perfect for me to watch this infamous movie, and sometime I will watch another masterpiece La Bête.

Oh Countess

[haildevilman · 5/10 · 14 May 2007]

Bathory (the Countess not the black metal group) gets a doing here.

And doing she gets.

She lives among her naked ladies of the castle as they serve her in every way possible.

The story was hard to follow despite the many points it made. And I do agree, it says a lot about today as well.

The art direction and cinematography were both excellent. But the pace crept a bit too slow. It seemed as if they were padding it out as much as possible.

But the young lasses looked FABulous naked. And they were naked most of the time too.

Great looking film, but if you get more out of it, good on you.

An interesting guide to morals and values

[RickDVD · 9/10 · 14 December 2008]

I had the opportunity to review this film when it was released on DVD about 9-10 years ago. Although the IMDb was in its infancy at the time, I read about the film before reviewing it. I found this to be an interesting guide to morals and values.

Walerian Borowczyk is one of Europe's most controversial filmmakers. I had heard that Immoral Tales, the English title of Contes Immoraux or Unmoralische Geschichten, was not too much different than most of his other work. Borowczyk has also directed many sexually themed movies, including two parts of the erotically charged Emmanuelle series.

Bordering on the thin line between hardcore and soft-core pornography, Immoral Tales is a film that leaves you guilty and shocked. Not many films include two forms of incest, masturbation with a vegetable, the killing of naked virgins for their blood, and sex at the Vatican. Interestingly enough, the last two parts of the movie are supposedly true! It is extremely hard to put a film like Immoral Tales into words. Shocking in some spots, yet artistically titillating in others, the movie is paced too slowly in spots. This could be Polish director's Walerian Borowczyk's preferred style, but the film drags on and on with excess. I was able to get over the two cousins having sex in the first act, but the English translation certainly could have been better worded. Eight minutes of a young girl doing odd things with a cucumber after reading the bible is just a little more than I needed to see.

Even so, this film is a delight for anyone who has considered himself or herself voyeuristic. When the viewer sees over twenty underage naked teenage girls running around (Erzsébet Bathory)... Let's just say it is hard to describe. Lucrezia Borgia is almost ceremonious at times, and shows the baptism of Lucrezia's incestuous child. Unfortunately, some of the shots are gratuitous at best, and although this film can be great in spots, it fails in others.

Definitely worth seeing, but certainly for those who are open minded and don't mind the various actions that happen on screen. Although I rated it lower when originally reviewing it, I rate it higher after multiple viewings.

First class softcore from one of erotica's greatest masters

[staxchedda · 10/10 · 7 September 2001]

This extraordinary film has been sadly misunderstood by many for a simple reason: it is an erotic film that doesn't intend to turn you on. Rather, it is a display of sexual transgression throughout the ages told in reverse order. Each of the four chapters of Immoral Tales takes place further back in history, with the acts committed getting increasingly transgressive. The first is modern, containing semi-consensual sex between a cruel boy and his cousin. The second features religious-fixated masturbation and rape, the third lesbianism and murder, the fourth is an incestuous story of the Pope containing torture and murder, along with threesome sex. The final scene of the film is the baptism of the child of the Pope and his daughter: the androgynous baby is bathed in a radiant light as it stares into the camera, reminding us that the felonies of the fathers lead through the ages to bring about our sexual misdemeanors. Although Im. Tales is quite explicit (but still softcore, Borowczyk only did a little hardcore work) and may be arousing, but is hardly a skin flick. The compositions are too painterly (Borowczyk was a successful painter and animator before turning to film), the action too slow and morally ambiguous to get too worked up over without intellectual involvement. Borowczyk is my favorite European erotic filmmaker, and equal to Radley Metzger from a global standpoint. Contes Immoraux (Im. Tales) and Le Bete (the Beast) are his most accessible films, and a great starting point. My personal favorite is his version of Dr. Jekyll, which goes by several titles. Watch this film if you want to think about sex and your relation to the subject, not if you are just looking for a good item for foreplay.

Excellent commentary on our times--again.

[rlcsljo · 10/10 · 27 September 2002]

With another round of Roman Catholic sex scandals making the headlines, this movie seems as timely as ever. It very graphically, although rarely explicitly, details the facade of piety that hides the sexual debauchery of the Holy Roman Empire.

The lavish sets and excellent cinematography also heighten the overall sensuousness of these "immoral" tales.

Many gorgeous, supermodel types going completely nude also adds the needed touch of licentiousness to the proceedings.

No doubt, this is a seventies classic.

Great European Erotica

[charlottesweb · 10/10 · 30 December 2000]

Immoral Tales consists of four stories, each of feminine eroticism through the ages. They work back through time, beginning with a contemporary surrealist story of a 20-year-old man initiating his cousin in a sex act on the beach, timing his ecstasy to the ebb and flow of the waves. In the second story, Charlotte Alexandra stars as a girl whose dedication to God reveals itself as a burning lust when she is unjustly banished to her room for three days. The Countess Bathory episode – starring Paloma Picasso – is largely the study of liquids on flesh, while the final story follows a visit by Lucrezia Borgia to see her father Pope Alexander VI and brother Cardinal Cesare Borgia, and details the bawdiness that follows. The second tale is by the far the most erotic. Elsewhere the film is a little slow – but well worth seeing.

Not as immoral as I hoped it would be!

[The_Void · 8/10 · 2 February 2009]

Walerian Borowczyk is best known for his 1975 sleaze flick 'The Beast', and with that film in mind; I don't think I was unjustified going into this one expecting some bizarre pornography. However, it turns out that isn't what this film is at all; it's actually 'erotica', which is unfortunately not so interesting. Sure there's plenty of hot female nudity, but it's all really slow and barely erotic in the slightest. As the title suggests, this film depicts 'tales' which are immoral; and there are four in total. The first is very simple but nicely put together. We follow a pair of cousins stuck on a beach together by the tide. The older and more sexually experienced of the pair sees it as an opportunity to teach the younger a thing or two. This story is not particularly impressive on the substance front; it's very short and not a lot happens, but it is really beautifully shot and anyone that appreciates good looking cinema will surely find something to like about it.

I figured the first tale would be just a taster since it is so short, but unfortunately things go downhill from there and the second tale is the worst of the four. It takes on a period setting and basically just follows a young woman locked in her bedroom. Again, the cinematography is nice (though none of the locations are anything like as good as the beach in tale one) but the tale itself drags on too long to approaching anything like what I would call 'erotica'. The film is slightly redeemed by tale number three; which is by far the best of the bunch. Elizabeth Bathory has featured in cinema a few times; though not often enough. This tale again is slow and beautiful but the story actually holds some interest and Paloma Picasso's perfect naked figure emerging from a bath is blood is likely to be the only thing I will go on to remember about this film. I figured that if the fourth tale could match the third then the film would be a success overall; but unfortunately it's a turgid affair and doesn't compliment the penultimate story as well as I'd hoped. Split into four we have one good story, one decent one and two weak ones...not enough to recommend the film for unfortunately.

"Drama/romance" says IMDb. One story is about a woman shoving a cucumber up her fanny.

[fedor8 · 8 December 2012]

All 4 stars are for the boobs. I took points off for the dangling penises and for the overall crap-level of the movie. This is, after all, much like a Pasolini offering, only slightly less daft and a tad less amateurish.

1st story: a dweeby Frenchman has oral sex with his cousin on a beach.

An aunt leaves her daughter and her nephew alone in a large house – finally. But what does the nephew do? Would you think he is smart enough to take this unique opportunity to be with his cousin? Hell no: the one time when the house is finally empty, he takes his 16 year-old cousin to climb around a rocky beach instead, where he robotically/unemotionally instructs her to perform fellatio. The guy has the passion of a dry umbrella; they might as well have hired an android to play him. There is a disgusting scene that lasts an entire minute (trust me, an eternity), in which the camera closes up on his filthy finger making circles around her mouth. (I had to fast-forward that.) She gets naked, does the deed – while he babbles on and on about tides – and then the story ends. Yes, it's that kind of crap. Romance/drama? I think not.

2nd story: a religious girl visits a church and then inserts a cucumber up her triangle.

With barely any dialogue, the 2nd story starts off with a beautiful blond who sees little difference between religion and pornography. She is in a church, but far from being in a praying mood, she is all but ready to explode with sexual tension. Every fresco, painting, drawing and statue make her swoon with delight, the loony, ungratified creature. God isn't exactly helping matters by insinuating that He too is getting horny, which only makes the girl lose it even more.

Eventually she leaves the church (without having climaxed, the poor thing) and returns to her farm(?). An old woman runs with her through the property; they seem to be both enjoying themselves. Alas, it turns out they're not so much running gaily as it's really about the old woman actually chasing the girl; the old bag looks angry. So why did she look happy just moments ago? (These are soft-porn/erotic-flick actors so obviously one can't expect them to actually make an effort to act; that would be asking too much.)

What is grandma angry at? It isn't clear, but the punishment is being locked up "three days and three nights" in a room: a room containing a pornographic book, and a couple of large cucumbers. It seems grandma is either totally daft, or she left those on purpose, for whatever bizarre reason. Is she perhaps the director of this film?

Not being one to disappoint the wannabe "art crowd", who watch this film – mouth watering - while convincing themselves that this is a profound drama, the blond prepares for the much-anticipated and rather predictable cucumber insertion. Before she does it, though, she wastes about 10 minutes of precious screen time on swooning over a bunch of drawings, and fondling paintings. Bo-ring. She finally undresses (as the cucumber would have wanted, had he a mouth to utter demands with), and then - apparently with God's own words as encouragement - she sticks the green object inside.

Here is the troubling bit; the director seemed to be more focused on filming the cucumber in all its incredibly fascinating greenish detail than filming the blond. Was this story intended for veggie-fetishists? Or did the director simply assume that half of his audience consisted of sexed-up cucumbers. In the end, she finally climaxes, as all women that had just returned from church and are then shoved into a room with a penis-like object do, and then escapes with ease through the window. Apparently, her tearful pleas to grandma were a fluke. She must have known she can leave the room as soon as the last cucumber had been violated (or is that the wrong word?).

3rd story: A couple is doing it in a barn. A very young girl watches them, then goes to milk a cow. (How symbolic; eat your heart out, Antonioni!). A rooster shags a chicken; he is done after 3 seconds, so we cut next to Countess Bathory. She is visiting this village in order to (predictably) find some virgins whom she can slay in order to use their blood for an eternal-youth bathing session. The foolish woman obviously knew nothing about young teen virgin girls; instead of having her henchmen round them up forcibly, she could have hired a boy-band to do that, and she would have ended up with thousands instead of dozens.

One question: why would a woman as homely as this want to live forever? It just makes no sense.

Except of course if the REAL Countess didn't look anything like Picasso's daughter Paloma who was cast here for her very obvious talent and immense charisma – which is exactly why her movie career took off like a rocket after this film.

Would Pablo have approved of this movie? Why wouldn't he; he loved crap.

4th story: Lucy Borgia, her brother, and the Pope. Guess what happens in this one.

You think you know? The Pope shows her pornographic drawings of horses and then tickles her breasts with a bird-feather. Now that's the stuff of cinema legend.

Some of the naked females appear to be underage. Did the French police commence an inquiry into this seedy matter? Yes, they probably did: the cops spent an evening with the director, looking at nude outtakes of the minors in question. They were offered wine by their gracious host, and then went back to the station where they filed a fictional report.

Gratuitious, but for arts sake

[Thomas-Musings · 10/10 · 7 January 2021]

I like it. It is super gratuitous, and deals with heavy topics like rape, incest, and murder. But there is a reason for that, so I appreciate what the director is trying to do. Plus it is beautifully framed.

quite boring

[andyb-4 · 9 August 2000]

Overall, this film is quite boring. There are 4 unlinked segments, with only the third likely to keep you awake.

This is the familiar tale of Countess Elisabeth Bathory. Bathory is a historical character who apparently used to favour blood taken from naked virgins.This scenario is an exploitationers delight, and we get to see room loads of young girls running round in the buff.

But even so, this story seems to head nowhere, and much is left to your imagination.