"The Couples Of Boulogne" is an entertaining French sex comedy from the 1970s. The film is something of an oddity, being neither straightforward soft core porn, nor an attempt at serious film-making. The film does have a plot and strong production values but there is no underlying symbolism or social commentary. The director makes it clear from the very beginning that his goal is to pad the skeletal storyline with as much nudity and gratuitous sexual activity as possible. The result lies somewhere between Porkies and a cheap, French James Bond film.
The plot revolves around an unhappily married couple who become sworn enemies when a wealthy man offers a one million dollar reward to the spouse who succeeds in finding his missing son first. The film follows the progress of the pair on their search for the missing man, as they find new lovers and embark on a series of increasingly ludicrous sexual adventures, which include various threesome combinations, a memorable orgy and an acrobatic sexual encounter on a yacht.
Personally, I found "The Couples Of Boulogne" more amusing than erotic. The scene where Barbara performs cunnilingus on the maid in front of her unimpressed husband is downright hilarious. There is indeed a lot of flesh on display but the context in which it appears, is just too ridiculous to be anything other than funny. The film does offer an interesting insight into the European moral code of the 1970s and contains some beautiful footage France and the Caribbean. However, the film can not quite sustain it's paper thin plot over the full running time and I had lost interest by the time the film reached its uninspired conclusion.
