Les amours particulières

Pretty cool little Euro shocker here from France, best known by horror aficionados for director Jean Rollin, whose films ROOM OF CHAINS (as the English version available from SWV) most closely resembles for want of a comparison. Rather than being a kinky vampire movie this one's an equally kinky and somewhat less preposterous modern day tale about two businessmen having an affair behind their wives backs.

But they aren't just closeted homosexuals or even bisexuals cheating on their wives, they're both psychopaths who engage in a pretty sleazy little game. To get themselves in the mood for love one of the guy's dresses up in a disturbing looking disguise and roams the country roads waiting for nubile young maidens to pedal by on their bicycles. He runs them off the road, konks them over the head, and takes the girls back to the country villa where the two guys engage in their private games away from the prying eyes of society.

There they have a room prepared like a dungeon, and as can be predicted for such material the girls are stripped, wetted down a bit, and chained up while the two ogle her shapely form through a peephole while she suffers. Occasionally they will don robes and abuse the girls in a surprisingly gentle manner, but for the most part they just want to look and drool over the prospect of having such complete control over someone. When they've gotten their kicks they usually deposit her right where they found her, traumatized but none the worse for the wear.

Meanwhile a police procedural into the abductions is underway, setting up a completely hilarious running motif where the young victims enthusiastically doff their shirts and display their wares to both the inspector & the cameras. In spite of the homosexual theme the film is almost a non-stop parade of attractive French actresses being undressed or undressing for the camera along with some softcore romping with their real life squeezes. One can't help but wonder if in the complete original French version more details of the homosexual affair may have been explored, though that's not the point of the story and its hardly a "gay" movie.

As if that weren't already enough to make a pretty groovy movie, the older of the two psychopath starts to become unhinged and entertain torture fantasies -- one of which is pretty far out -- that begin to spill into his everyday life. It isn't enough anymore just to look and he starts taking the game more seriously, resulting in some deaths. His home life starts to fall apart, his wife confronts him with evidence that he's been cheating on her, the younger guy decides he's in love with a fetching young lass & wants out, and the rest should be left a surprise.

Very worth seeking out, with a fantastic music score as well by French composer Guy Skornik. Good old Something Weird Video have it on their web catalog for now though it certainly is worth resurrecting for a proper restoration.

7/10

The Room with Chains (1970)

** (out of 4)

A couple married and well off men decide to have some fun by kidnapping various French girls and chaining them up in a basement, which has been turned into a torture chamber.

THE ROOM WITH CHAINS is an early French exploitation movie that seems to have gotten a dirty reputation. I'm going to guess that it got this bad reputation because not too many had seen it and someone who had seen it decided to try and sell it off as something much worse than it actually is. The film has a reputation for being rather graphic and dirty but it certainly falls well short of that probably due in part to what couldn't be shown in France at the time this was made.

With that said, there are some interesting things in this Gérard Trembasiewicz film. There's no question that the highlight of the picture are the various scenes in the basement. Again, one really shouldn't be expecting any gore or even blood for that matter but I liked how these scenes were staged. We get a red tint during these torture chamber sequences as well as a rather funky music score. The atmosphere in these scenes were quite good and the ladies are even better.

With that being said, there's really not too much that happens in this film. The stuff in the basement doesn't happen too often, which is a shame because it's so much more entertaining than everything else, which includes the men talking way too much as well as an investigation that goes no where. The performances are decent for what they are but there's really nothing here that jumps off the screen.

Two married and wealthy perverts kidnap nubile French girls and put them in their torture & voyeur chamber.Their private games become more and more kinky as they put snake on their beautiful naked bodies..."The Room of Chains" by Gerard Trembasiewicz is a forgotten French exploitation flick with plenty of nudity.The film is surprisingly light on sadism due to its date of making.Overall,"The Room of Chains" is more or less softcore shenanigans and doesn't really get rough until pretty close to the end so in that manner it might prove disappointing to those looking for a little more violence to go alongside their naked ladies chained in the basement,but for those who enjoy sleaze this one definitely delivers.7 out of 10.