Les exploits d'un jeune don juan

"L'iniziazione" - and try saying that title three times fast - is allegedly a softcore, erotic flick, which is actually based on a pornographic novel by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. What's funny is that there's no real attempt at eroticism in the movie. There is some nudity, but it's incidental, and never shot to arouse or even be the focus of the shot.

There's also no sex. Characters have sex, yes, but the action cuts to afterwards, so we don't get to see.

The main character also isn't particularly likeable. He's a prop, like any male character in a porno film, there to have sex. But since the movie has no sex, he just wanders haplessly through it.

The movie's only real source of life or interest is the beautiful Virginie Ledoyen, here in her film debut at only nine years old. She lights up the camera. The movie should have been shot through her eyes.