Joy and Joan

Brigitte Lahaie sure has a great body, but while that may be enough to carry a porn flick, the soft "Joy and Joan" suffers severely from her acting capabilities (or lack thereof). As "Joy" she gives Clint Eastwood a run for fewest expressions per face, when she and "Joan" undress to go at each other, why, they might as well be baring themselves for their gynaecologist going by their enthusiastic faces. There's exactly two scenes in the whole movie where Brigitte is laughing, both while being liberally splashed with water so she probably couldn't help herself - but she looks nice during those seconds.

Ad to that a grating soundtrack, a paper-thin plot and horrible acting from most anyone else, and the only redeeming qualities that remain are some nice locations and the pretty bodies. I was pointed to this movie by some positive reviews but got severely disappointed.

As far as "anonymous"-written soft-core pornographic books go, the Joy series can be considered a classic with Fanny Hill and The Story of O. Certainly not as well known as the others, but fairly erotic and entertaining...

Joy: Chapter 2 is an adaptation of the second book (usually titles Joy and Joan); as an adaptation, it barely follows in the book's tracks. As soft-core in its own right, however, it's a great movie.

Joy is played by Brigitte Lahaie- a distinctive looking (and beautiful) actress known mostly in America for her role as a prostitute in Henry & June, but known more in Europe for being a former hardcore porn actress and star of many exploitation films afterwards. Basically, in this film, Joy runs away from her sexually-abusive husband, and goes overseas. There she meets and becomes sexually involved with a young woman (girl in the book), while being tailed by a man whose intentions are unknown.

Obviously, the main draw of this film isn't the story, but the sex scenes- which are plenty. Brigitte is, as mentioned above, unique looking- she is not your run-of-the-mill sex kitten. She takes her role and runs with it; no matter how non-explicit her scenes are, she's great to watch, and she really knows what she's doing during the sex scenes. Her female partner (whose real name escapes me) also comes across well; she seems to be younger and energetic, and she provides a contrast to the more mature and thoughtful role Brigitte plays.

Are there better movies of this type? Probably. Are there better Brigitte Lahaie movies? Probably. But Joy: Chapter 2 is still an entertaining romp, that may just make you into a fan of Brigitte, too.

Joy et Joan (1985) Brigitte Lahaie is Joy, she's a well traveled woman who's on holiday in Indonesia. She travels all around southeast Asia looking for excitement and pleasure (Indonesia, Indochina and The Philippines). Along the way she meets a young, short haired curvy brunette named Joan. The two strike up a friendship along their way back to France. What happens next? Well that would be all too telling. Pseudo sequel (in name only) to the Joy series.

Sadly, this movie is next to impossible to find. Unless you, live in a place like Europe or Japan. The U.S. has no respect for film of this caliber. The film industry is obsessed with bleached blonds with fake parts of the female anatomy.

Highly recommended Euro-trash.

A++++

By all means seek this one out, you wont regret it!

This is actually a beautiful love story, very steamy, although I would have preferred more rather than less eroticism, it was 'R' rated the version I saw.

Stunning locations, beautiful people, some fine acting, characters with some depth, and a great deal of pathos I might also add in one particular case.

Lahaie is simply one of the best of the European erotic actresses and she makes anything watchable.

This film should have been made hard-core, the sex as presented is a mere tease. That being sad it is very hot, and explores the plasticity of our sexuality.

To me it was one of the happiest endings in film.

God please, please free America of censorship! As had been noted in an earlier comment this film is now, apparently, unavailable.

I have said repeatedly on this wonderful website, that trash is always available, EVERYWHERE, but seriously crafted films are usually out of print.

Who said it? The public loves trash. I do blame the distributorship and the major chains for allowing this problem to fester.

BTW this IS a woman's picture, LOL.