Outrage aux moeurs

Already a veteran of industrial movies, inciting potential investors to cough up the cash to fund factories, Pierre Unia took a sudden swerve circa 1974, switching his attention from machinery to mammaries with an innocuously risqué little number entitled LES MAITRESSES DE VACANCES a/k/a SEX AND THE FRENCH SCHOOLGIRL. Coming along at a crossroads section in French fornication film history, with simulation rapidly rendered obsolete by full color penetration, Unia felt commercially compelled to retrieve his labor of love from domestic distribution at the eleventh hour, sprucing up its mildly naughty shenanigans with pornographic pickup shots, a common practice at this stage in the evolution of European erotic cinema. A similar fate befell his follow-up feature, LE PIED! a/k/a FLAT OUT, but at least this time around several of the original cast members (including Béatrice Harnois, Frédérique Barral and Pamela Stanford) stepped up to the plate to perform the "offensive" acts themselves. Realizing there was no way back, Unia embraced his new source of employment, churning out competently crafted carnal capers, albeit at a more reverential rate than his brethren in slime.

Characterized by both ecological concerns and an oddly protofeminist sensibility, allowing amorously autonomous heroines to challenge phallocratic patriarchy, his concise body of work was initially taken at face value by otherwise knowledgeable scribes as that of a female filmmaker, the anagrammatic "Reine Pirau" ! ESTELLE ET FLORA, with its devil may care eponymous erotic explorers, could serve as a prototype of the director's idiosyncratic approach, taken to Utopian extremes with B...COMME BEATRICE's harmonious matriarchal farming community. Subverting the myth of the rape of the Sabine women, L'ENLEVEMENT DES SABINES had a group of sexually disgruntled women joining forces against male egotism. Even though there's a price to pay for their defiance, a recurring turn of events throughout Unia's explicit endeavors, his female characters have the last word, obtaining vengeance both sophisticated and unexpected for the unbridled male violence inflicted upon them, a knee-jerk reaction towards their mates' challenging an increasingly antiquated status quo.

Attempting to emulate EMMANUELLE's continued box office drawing power, with video rental and cable TV a reliable secondary source of income, Unia scheduled a brief return to real name respectability with a score of four tame trifles, all of which amazingly opened alongside Hollywood blockbusters at Paris first run theaters. Nobody's fool, the director made sure to shoot simultaneous - if sometimes substantially different - hardcore versions to maximize potential profits. Last as well as least of the lot, OUTRAGE AUX MOEURS approximates a cheapskate rendition of the already sordid if marginally popular (due in no small part to their pulp print source) BRIGADE MONDAINE skin-heavy "thrillers" searching to expose such tabloid-friendly subjects as white slavery and drug trafficking.

Thirtysomething movie mogul Claude Farrell ("Chris Garini" a/k/a porn performer Ghislain Garet, prominently featured in Gérard Kikoïne's NEVER ENOUGH) has the hots for aspiring actress Grendy Daumier (Valérie Houlier), star of his latest not-quite-porn blockbuster DORTOIR DES GRANDES - in reality, Unia's previous simulated opus COLLEGE DORMITORY - and at least a decade his junior. Unaware she's using him to further her career, with frequent trips to the tropical isle of St. Barts a pleasant bonus (not least in terms of production value), Claude receives the proverbial wake up call coming back from business earlier than expected to find Grendy giving it up to a lowly delivery guy. Shooting his rival for the unworthy tramp's affections, he goes on the lam, seeking refuge on a houseboat inhabited by another pair of cinema hopefuls, down to earth Chantal (Laetitia Thomas) and round-heeled Carla ("Ghislaine Kerdavid" a/k/a Michelle Davy, star of Michel Lemoine's LOVE IN PARADISE) who respond to Claude's disruptive presence in radically different ways. While Chantal seizes each opportunity to alert outsiders for help, Carla just comes on to him !

What little plot there is plays better as (albeit unintentional) comedy with wholly implausible situations - like Claude accompanying Chantal on a porn dubbing session since they both could do with the cash ?! - and some of the most wooden acting ever inflicted upon a paying audience. Ironically the sole cast member foregoing fornication film experience, totally talent-barren Houlier proves the prime offender with the fake tan sporting Garet a close contender. Frizzy-haired Thomas, who starred in Unia's simultaneously shot FESSES VIERGES A L'ESSAI AUX CARAIBES only to disappear without a trace, tries hard but is forced to face defeat by a belated change of heart turning her character into a complete moron. Ultimately, the delightful Davy comes off best, perpetually naked and wisely entrusted with most of the sex scenes. Stateside audiences may recall she starred (as "Nicole Vartan") in Jourdan Alexander's passable sequel TAXI GIRLS 2. Truncated orgy footage - check out FESSES VIERGES for the "inside scoop" ! - showcases a plethora of recognizable porn performers like mustachioed Jacky Arnal, incredible hunk Eric Saville, chunky Frank Balard, Karoline Houtart (the chubby-cheeked chick in a nun's habit also appearing in Michel Barny's AMOUR, FANTASMES ET FANTAISIE) plus a veritable who's who of Michel Lemoine cast-offs including Amanda Shell (FORBIDDEN PLEASURES), Chantal Trobert (MARILYN MON AMOUR) and Mina Houghe (HOT DESIRES). DoP Yves Dahan, who subsequently found his niche on French TV, makes the most of movie's exotic locations yet fails to enliven the pedestrian Paris portion, notwithstanding back to back car crashes, only one of which bears any tangential relation to the nonsensical narrative.