The late Francis Leroi, who passed away from cancer in 2002, was one of French adult cinema's rare artists (Gérard Kikoïne and, possibly, Claude Mulot a/k/a "Frédéric Lansac" might also be deserving of this moniker) rather than a solid artisan such as his equally renowned compatriots Claude-Bernard Aubert a/k/a "Burd Tranbaree" and Jean-Claude Roy a/k/a "Patrick Aubin". Perhaps to keep matters interesting to himself, he was forever tinkering with tried and tested genre formulas, incorporating influences from world cinema - the French are nothing if not movie lovers - as well as classic erotic literature. Just an example of each. Louis Malle's scandalous PRETTY BABY, introducing a very under age Brooke Shields in various states of undress, inspired one of his most popular films, PETITES FILLES AU BORDEL, which finally delivered on Malle's feature-length and nowadays surprisingly unwholesome teasing. On a more idiosyncratic note, his sulfurous DECULOTTEZ-VOUS MESDEMOISELLES, directed under the "Jim Clack" pseudonym, offered an unholy mix of the Comtesse De Ségur with themes and imagery more commonly associated with the Marquis De Sade !
JOUISSANCES PERVERSES - the various EVA BLUE variations only occurred after Ken Russell's disturbing CRIMES OF PASSION was released Continentally as LES NUITS ET JOURS DE CHINA BLUE - proves one of Leroi's most experimental films, borrowing techniques and motifs from '60s Godard which had already inspired several of his early forays into film-making including LA POUPEE ROUGE and POP GAME. Almost entirely devoid of dialog, the film takes its premise from one of the most revered American adult movies at the time, Radley Metzger's brilliant PRIVATE AFTERNOONS OF PAMELA MANN, yet transforms it through brazen intellectual game-playing into something uniquely French. For this elaborate practical joke (almost) to work completely, Leroi needed the complete complicity of his regular camera man, the highly skilled François About, who in recent years has succeeded in striking up a similarly fruitful relationship with the mysterious "Martin Cognito".
An obviously well to do lady (there's no character name, but she's played by the supremely sophisticated Jenny Feeling a/k/a "Eva Paurey" from Kikoïne's dark ENTRECHATTES) spends her days moving from one carnal encounter to the next, forever followed around by a ludicrously conspicuous detective in trench coat and fedora, the latter portrayed by the omnipresent Piotr Stanislas. Most of the action takes place in a huge, "modern" (and, by association at the time, impersonal) office building with Jenny instigating an underground garage grope with her chauffeur - who looks like Willy Bracque, star of Jean Rollin's DEMONIAQUES - and obscure black performer Oumar (this particular bit of identification courtesy of the knowledgeable folks at La Revue Du Cinéma) on her way back from brightening up lonely business man Victor Samama's lunch break. The director's slyly subversive sense of humor surfaces in another sequence with bored office worker André Miller fiddles around with his latest gadget, a remote control designed to undo ladies' zippers. Shades of Manara's classic comic LE DECLIC. The elegant blonde in the subsequent group scene is Morgane, billed as "Marianne Fournier", the quintessential little French maid from Aubert's excellent SOUMISSION. The guy in the thick glasses is, of course, Claude Valmont, unlikely lead from Leroi's underrated PETITES FILLES.
Tricks of light and sound jazz up an elaborate orgy that has the added narrative relevance of the detective character moving from voyeur to actual participant. Flat out hottest number must be the swimming pool set-up with Feeling doing to herself what her last name implies while Mika Barthel (the devious seductress from Kikoïne's unsettling JOURNAL D'UNE JEUNE FILLE EN CHALEUR) and stalwart Jean-Pierre Armand frantically fornicate in H2O. Returning home, Jenny finds a projector spinning in her bedroom, illuminating images of her amorous antics that day. The phone rings and - in the film's first lines of dialog - the private eye tries to blackmail the woman for money and more. Anyone familiar with Metzger's PAMELA MANN already knows the final twist, further reduced to basics by having the woman's husband and the private dick as a single character rather than the former employing the latter as part of the complicated marital games the couple engage in.
JOUISSANCES PERVERSES - the various EVA BLUE variations only occurred after Ken Russell's disturbing CRIMES OF PASSION was released Continentally as LES NUITS ET JOURS DE CHINA BLUE - proves one of Leroi's most experimental films, borrowing techniques and motifs from '60s Godard which had already inspired several of his early forays into film-making including LA POUPEE ROUGE and POP GAME. Almost entirely devoid of dialog, the film takes its premise from one of the most revered American adult movies at the time, Radley Metzger's brilliant PRIVATE AFTERNOONS OF PAMELA MANN, yet transforms it through brazen intellectual game-playing into something uniquely French. For this elaborate practical joke (almost) to work completely, Leroi needed the complete complicity of his regular camera man, the highly skilled François About, who in recent years has succeeded in striking up a similarly fruitful relationship with the mysterious "Martin Cognito".
An obviously well to do lady (there's no character name, but she's played by the supremely sophisticated Jenny Feeling a/k/a "Eva Paurey" from Kikoïne's dark ENTRECHATTES) spends her days moving from one carnal encounter to the next, forever followed around by a ludicrously conspicuous detective in trench coat and fedora, the latter portrayed by the omnipresent Piotr Stanislas. Most of the action takes place in a huge, "modern" (and, by association at the time, impersonal) office building with Jenny instigating an underground garage grope with her chauffeur - who looks like Willy Bracque, star of Jean Rollin's DEMONIAQUES - and obscure black performer Oumar (this particular bit of identification courtesy of the knowledgeable folks at La Revue Du Cinéma) on her way back from brightening up lonely business man Victor Samama's lunch break. The director's slyly subversive sense of humor surfaces in another sequence with bored office worker André Miller fiddles around with his latest gadget, a remote control designed to undo ladies' zippers. Shades of Manara's classic comic LE DECLIC. The elegant blonde in the subsequent group scene is Morgane, billed as "Marianne Fournier", the quintessential little French maid from Aubert's excellent SOUMISSION. The guy in the thick glasses is, of course, Claude Valmont, unlikely lead from Leroi's underrated PETITES FILLES.
Tricks of light and sound jazz up an elaborate orgy that has the added narrative relevance of the detective character moving from voyeur to actual participant. Flat out hottest number must be the swimming pool set-up with Feeling doing to herself what her last name implies while Mika Barthel (the devious seductress from Kikoïne's unsettling JOURNAL D'UNE JEUNE FILLE EN CHALEUR) and stalwart Jean-Pierre Armand frantically fornicate in H2O. Returning home, Jenny finds a projector spinning in her bedroom, illuminating images of her amorous antics that day. The phone rings and - in the film's first lines of dialog - the private eye tries to blackmail the woman for money and more. Anyone familiar with Metzger's PAMELA MANN already knows the final twist, further reduced to basics by having the woman's husband and the private dick as a single character rather than the former employing the latter as part of the complicated marital games the couple engage in.