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| La Perversion d'une jeune mari�e
69 min French Porn company Alpha France has struck gold releasing classic European XXX cinema on DVD. The most notable of these releases are the early works of the irreproachable Brigitte Lahaie. This is not to say that this is the only outlet for her films, it�s just the best. Collectors with a little extra money will probably also be interested in the German language releases from Ribu and the Italian releases from Shendene (just be sure you�re not buying the same movie under a different title!). More often than not, the Alpha France releases have an English audio option. I know that in XXX films, the importance of the storyline/dialogue is severely downplayed in favor of the visual appeal. I don�t intend to blow smoke up your ass and tell you I�m riveted by the story lines, but I�d be lying if I told you that I was disappointed when a release has no English track (not disappointed enough not to buy the movie, mind you). La Perversion d'une jeune mari�e is a good example to illustrate the importance of this. To begin with, I really do want to know what�s happening throughout the movie � so score one for the English track. On the other hand, the goofy track completely changes the feel of the movie. It�s not just the dialogue that was re-dubbed; the entire audio track was wiped clean, including all the music. The original French music track, while nothing stunning, was enjoyable and well suited for the film. The new English music is repetitive to the point of being nauseating. The one exception is the wedding theme, which in the French track is traditional organ music, whereas the English track has a weird contemporary sounding pop song about a house on a hill. While its inclusion at this point in the film is baffling, I can�t help but find the song intriguing! The music is less remarkable, but the most damning aspect of the re-dub is the dialogue. I can�t understand what is being said in French, but even knowing that the language is vulgar and filthy, it still sounds somewhat classy. I can�t help but get the feeling that the English track is a bit of a satire on Americans. The ubiquitous Alban Ceray (Bruno) is transformed into a gruff but hilarious no nonsense New Yorker. Two other guys (who I can�t remember seeing in any other movies) are given thick southern drawls. I will give credit to the fact that it wasn�t a lazy dub job; every character is fleshed out through moans and groans as well as dialogue. It�s just that the new voices plant the film purely in the realm of self-parody. The sound effects didn�t get off the hook easily either, and both tracks have their merits depending on what kind of film you want to watch. The original French sounds keep in line with this being one of the hotter XXX films I�ve come across. Mostly it sounds like well preserved live sound recordings, i.e. various body parts slapping against one another. The English track however, does everything possible to render the film suitable for some ultra dirty version of Mystery Science Theater 3000; including super slurpy oral sex sounds the resemble a child icing off a popsicle on a hot summer day! So, in the end it really does feel like two completely different versions of the film. On a technical note, the French track sounds much more crisp and clear than the slightly muffled English counterpart. Both are watchable, although the English track does drop out briefly in a few spots. As you can probably imagine, the radically different audio tracks make this film a little more difficult to review. On the English side of things we have a film that feels unintentionally hilarious, although I think the people behind the dubbing knew what they were doing. The French track plays out as one of the best XXX films from a time and place that put out arguably the best XXX films in the history of cinema! Either way you slice it though, what we have here is a film centered almost entirely on Brigitte Lahaie in her prime. As far as I�m concerned there is simply no way to go wrong! The story opens with a man and a woman in bed (the only scene in the film that is 100% Lahaie-free!) having sex. It is revealed that the man is getting married and the woman he�s with is his wife�s best friend. As we progress further along, we realize that this probably won�t be a problem. The man is led to Marie-Christine�s (his bride-to-be) house with his mistress. Here they look over a photo album/diary of Marie-Christine�s sexual exploits. This makes up the body of the story as we see Brigitte involved in four different scenes. The two stand out scene both involve Marie-Christine and her maid (Jenny Feeling) going to town on two very different guys in her bedroom. This isn�t to say the other two scenes aren�t worth a look, they are as sure as I�m a dirty, dirty man. The movie concludes with a nine person wedding/orgy the likes of which can hardly be explained with the limitations of the English language! I can�t stress enough that this is a show stopping scene to top all show stopping scenes! The splendors of this scene are as indescribably as any monster hiding in a cave in an HP Lovecraft story. It�s possible that my rambling here will elevate the expectations of this scene to unattainable heights for anyone who hasn�t scene the movie yet, but I�m afraid that�s just a risk I�m willing to take. Happy viewing and Godspeed! I give this one 4 � wedding orgies out of 5! Review by Joe Canistro 11.9.2005 |