Supermodel Joy (Claudia Udy) flits from man to man, never satisfied. There’s the photographer who loves her, but he, it seems, is too much of a boy. Far more intriguing for her is the older man (Gerard Antoine Huart) she falls for, and keeps returning to, moth to a flame, despite his refusal to give up the other woman in his life. The root of Joy’s problem seems to be twofold: she is haunted by the memory of having caught her parents in flagrante as a young child, and she is obsessed with her father, who left her when, again, she was very young.
So yeah, nothing creepy about the older man fixation at all, now is there? At any rate, this is glossy erotica cut very much from the same cloth as Emmanuelle, complete with pointless travelogue footage to show off all the location shots and half-baked philosophical musings about sex (or, more specifically, female sexuality). There is also a minor subplot involving Joy’s nude shot as part of a campaign for the liberation of the aforementioned female sexuality, though this gesture towards feminism feels rather dubious, serving only as an excuse to get the heroine naked again. Well-produced though the film is, it lacks the narrative drive of something like The Alcove, meandering gently along to a rather abrupt conclusion. It is an interesting, semi-nostalgic reminder of the lost days of theatrical soft-core, but for sheer entertainment value, a dollop of Joe D’Amato-style sleaze will get you farther.
Video
The print is in very nice shape, with no damage. The colours are very strong, in the 80s, we-love-reds-and-blues-so-much manner. The blacks are deep, but the contrasts tend, in the dark scenes, to be a bit too dark. Pixelation and grain are present, particularly when red predominates, and the bigger the screen, the more apparent this is. The aspect ratio is the original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.
Audio
The case claims the disc boasts a 2.0 track, while the accompanying symbol suggests 5.0. In fact, the track is, at best, stereo, and a pretty thin one at that. There is no surround at all, and the music mix has dated noticeably. The dialogue remains clear, however.
Special Features
Reflections on Joy: (11:00) Udy reminisces about how she got the part, and what the shoot was like. She is very engaging, and is clearly very fond of the film.
Final Thoughts
This kind of film is, for all intents and purposes, extinct, its descendants relegated to cable. The preservation and presentation here is thus valuable, even if the movie is of only passing interest.
