Monday, March 28, 2005
"Erotic Fun for All Ages"
is the caption on the DVD container, a snippet of a review from the San Francisco Examiner. I'd been throwing out captions to my ever-loving wife for ages about this movie, but not so much ending up with the word "erotic" within my comments than more of words like "modern comedy of manners", "Depardieu", & "ingenious plot". For whatever reason, she's never been able to see this film, a personal favorite of mine. The "Erotic Fun for All Ages" was not the best thing to be highlighted on the DVD, as it required explanation even before I had a chance to slip the DVD into the player.I thought a "Je n'est ca pas" would do.
Ha! Ignorance of that film blurb's meaning, and even better, said Ignorance expressed in French. Unfortunately, my wife is possessed with the adversarial prosecutorial skills that would have all of the "Law & Order" defense lawyers pleading for settlement. Her raining down of questions and answers left me no choice but to press "Play" and crank up the sound.
While the film held me in its grip just as it has in all my previous viewings, the searing eyes I felt on the right side of my head let me know there was going to be a difference of opinion from the other viewer. I'll give her credit for sticking it through, although the complete viewing may have only provided her with more ammunition.
Bertrand Blier, the director, has a unique view of the human condition. It's his combination of Misery and Humor that always draws me in. A big plus is that his partner-in-crime, in many cases, is Gerard Depardieu, a lug who's simultaneously loathable & lovable.
(From an Amazon.com review of another of Blier's movies, "Too Beautiful for You") In the films of Bertrand Blier, love is a virus that sends its victims on a feverish fling of impulsive passion before leaving them abandoned and alone.
How the San Francisco Examiner concocted "Erotic Fun for All Ages" is beyond me. The only explanation that I come up with is that the initial review, which would have been written in English, was mis-translated into English and then re-translated back to English by the film company. So, what may have been "Erotic Fun not for all Ages" or "Erotic Fun for the Ages" was described as a family movie for fun of the erotic kind. Sort of like "Disney Does Dallas". This is most definitely not a film for anyone under 15; as an adult you'd have a lot of explaining to your kiddies during the film and talking would ruin the film experience for you.
At the conclusion of the film, my ever-loving wife, arms crossed, just stared at me for a while.
"So, this is THE movie that you've been talking up so much, since we first met?"
(Denial not being a feasible option here, due to her prodigious memory), I mumbled, "Oui, c'est ca." (hoping French would bail me out).
"Well, let's see.....2 guys become buddies. They sleep with the same woman, one of the guy's wife. Then a teenaged boy gets involved... This is nothing more than a male fantasy, actually two male fantasies! One would be the grown-up (well, as grown-up as a man can get) fantasy. The other would be a teenager's fantasy of the "Older Woman" variety".
"That is one way of looking at it. But how about the whole "human condition" thing. The whole husband-trying-to-make-his-wife-happy angle. The humour of the dilemna. The servitude of man toward woman..."
I was getting nowhere. Even discussion of the cinematography, of the places in France that were beautifully shown, or of the realistically captured scenes of kids in their cusp-of-manhood stage got me nowhere.
A last thrust. ".....But wasn't it at least fun? In an erotic way?"
....
.... Flipped at you from a distance of a few feet, those DVD containers can really leave a nice dent in the side of your head. Especially if you get hit with one of the corners.
Comments:
<< Home Verging on Pertinence Just some more disposable thoughts clogging up the hinterlands
Your post raises an interesting - I think - question: at what age does the modern male cease entertaining the "older woman" fantasy? I am 38 and I'm not sure that I have altogether stopped, since certain selected women in the 40-50 age range can still create some degree of erotic frisson, I find. Many apologies for posting this on the blog of a married man.
# opined by 
: 1:52 PM, March 28, 2005
: 1:52 PM, March 28, 2005
Men being the creatures that Mr. Outer Life places just a chromosome above the slime crawling from yonder swamp, I believe any interest an "older" woman throws at a "younger" man will be considered as a welcome invitation by the man. Unless, of course, that man has discovered the marvels and intrigues of Go. All bets are off at that point.
The only "older women" fantasies I ever had were lifted from the pages of Penthouse, lifted themselves from my dad's bottom drawer. Funny, though, that all the older women in those stories were French?
And your wife is testing you with that "two-men-one-woman" scenario, sunshine - she's waiting for you to correct her.
Mine, I know, has tried all manner of trickery to entice me to admit of "every man's fantasy", as she calls it.
And your wife is testing you with that "two-men-one-woman" scenario, sunshine - she's waiting for you to correct her.
Mine, I know, has tried all manner of trickery to entice me to admit of "every man's fantasy", as she calls it.
Yes, but: Carole Laure is archetypally beautiful. Older, younger; she's timeless.
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# opined by : 7:48 PM, April 04, 2005
: 7:48 PM, April 04, 2005 << Home Verging on Pertinence Just some more disposable thoughts clogging up the hinterlands
