I first watched this film about five years ago, expecting no more than a soft porn flick with a badly incorporated story line to link the titillation.
However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was so much more.
I'm not saying that it is the Citizen Kane of French cinema, but this soft porn movie does have an interesting plot, involving some pretty raw emotions. Conflict, rejection, jealousy, anger, desperation and love are all laid bare on the screen, giving the watcher a genuine interest in its characters and plenty for us to empathise with.
Eurovision beauty Betty Mars, plays Emilienne, an art dealer and dutiful housewife to her husband Claude, played here with Freddie Mercury moustache by Pierre Oudrey.
College lecturer Claude has a secret lover in the form of one of his beautiful young female students Nicole, known to her intimates as Nouky.
Nouky, (Nathalie Guérin), is a spoilt brat of an art student with a spiteful streak a mile wide and she is constantly asking for Claude to leave his wife.
It is only when Claude refuses once and for all, she decides to do something about it. If Claude won't leave Emilienne, then Nouky will join them.
Claude finds out about Nouky's plan quite early on and is at first against the idea, but the thought of seeing his two women together seems to excite him beyond words and he eventually goes along more to satisfy his personal fantasies than any of the women in his life.
Nouky visits Emilienne at her gallery and shows her some self portraits in erotic poses. Despite telling Nouky that her gallery never exhibits portraits, she none the less buys them, secretly turned on by the pictures and the young artist who painted them.
It is at this meeting Nouky seductively asks Emilienne to pose nude for her, and after a few days of fighting what is apparently an unknown and suppressed bisexuality, Emilienne finally agrees.
What then follows is the start of a full on lesbian affair between the two, with Emilienne torturing herself by hiding the guilty truth from Claude, who of course is already aware of everything.
It is disturbing to see Emilienne in these scenes as we know she is purposely being exploited by both her husband and their mutual lover. One such scene is where Nouky lets Claude secretly watch her and his unsuspecting wife.
Finally Emilienne, driven by guilt and confusion, confesses to Claude that she is not only cavorting with another woman but she is also in love with her.
Claude, lays on his best startled and surprised routine, but is quick to comfort and console, after-all his plan is working beautifully.
It is therefore decided to Claude's inner delight, that Emilienne will be allowed to bring her new lover into the marital home and the three live together in a sort of Ménage á trois.
This arrangement works happily for a while, after all Claude is free to love both women and Emilienne is able to keep her marriage together and conduct her relationship with Nouky openly and with her husbands blessing. Nouky shows all the signs of contentment, but it is all on the surface. She has other ideas planned.
She considers the Ménage á trois as a means to an end. She has no real feeling for Emilienne and is just using her to be near Claude. When she realises the arrangement is actually bringing Claude and Emilienne closer together, Nouky maliciously tells Emilienne about her and Claude's prior relationship and as how their current situation is a direct result from a plan of their concocting.
This is heartbreaking and earth shattering news for Emilienne who feels betrayed by the two people she loves. However, she does continue to try and make things work despite Nouky changing the boundaries of the threesome to the extent that it is now her and Claude who are the couple and Emilienne the guest in their midst.
However Nouky's evil streak has come to the forefront with her new found power and she mercilessly bullies Emilienne and humiliates her. One scene that stands out in particular is where Nouky forces Emelienne to perform a sexual favour for a visiting male friend.
Finally humiliated to breaking point and too aware of her pitiful status in her own home, Emilienne decides to leave and files for divorce from Claude.
Emilienne, is the true victim in this film, it is her you relate to more than any other character, and on her departure from the house, you can really sense the hurt and despair she must be feeling.
Not only has she lost her husband and her lover, she is confused as to her real sexuality. She is confused as to whether or not it is women in general that attract her or just Nouky herself. She tries sleeping with prostitutes and frequenters of the local gay bar, but these encounters seem to lack whatever it is that satisfies her new found lust for lesbian sex.
In the end it is Nouky and Claude who find Emilienne's departure the most painful. Now married with a child, they come to realise that it was Emilienne's presence that made the whole thing special. Nouky feels nothing but guilt and heartache as she slowly appreciates just how much she really did love her, and they both want her to come back home.
And this is how the story ends, with Emilienne returning to the house, this time with a complete roll reversal and two partners who really do love her as much as she loves them.
Still a porn flick at heart with some gratuitous nudity at times (the lesbian orgy scene in Brittany for one) but on the whole fitted neatly into a very entertaining and serious love story which defies conventional attitudes.
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