JUSTINE’S HOT NIGHTS (1976, Jean-Claude Roy [as Patrick Aubin])
Filmmaker Mik Feriz (Philippe Gaste) has not made a film in two years. When a producer (who’s previous production was “What’s Under a Scotsman’s Kilt?”) shows interest in his latest script, Mik signs a contract only for the producer to then insist on changes to make his political film into an erotic film (“For example, the rebellion in the barracks at Montpellier. I want you to replace it with a sexual revolution in Vinceness. With girls, lots of them”). The producer is confident that Mik will bring respectability to the genre and charges him with coming up with some ideas for the following day but Mik quickly finds himself drawing a blank. His actress wife Nina (Michele Barton), who has just been offered the lead in an artistic film starring opposite a talented German Shepherd, disapproves of Mik’s decision to do the film but decides to help him write it and possibly star in it. With the help of Justine (Nadia Kapler), a virgin found on their doorstep, Mik and Nina spin a series of scenarios referencing EMMANUELLE, LAST TANGO IN PARIS (even going so far as to replicate Vittorio Storaro’s warm lighting), MADAME CLAUDE, Denis Diderot’s THE NUN, De Sade’s JUSTINE, and even Henry Kissinger!
Directed by Jean-Claude Roy (SCANDALOUS PHOTOS), JUSTINE’S HOT NIGHTS sets itself apart from many of the softcore sex comedies of the era by actually being funny; perhaps so because it also functions as both a parody of sex comedies as well as the erotic genre in general. The film has some intelligently-scripted scenes like the sequence with Justine in the convent which at first seems to be referencing DeSade as Justine is molested by both the Mother Superior (played by Nina) and a preist which is then revealed to actually be referencing Diderot’s THE NUN when the Mother Superior chastises the priest as Monsieur Diderot (played by Mik the writer) “You did enough harm to us in the past.” Although Roy does comically express the artistic decline associated with the sex film boom, he is also quick to skewer the very artistic pretensions that Mik and his producer believe would make his erotic film more respectable (his wife asks, “Do you think anyone knows about Diderot and his nun?”). In one scene, a couple rehearsing for a live sex show don balaclavas since the heating cannot be turned on until midmonth and chat about whether the new flat the girl has just moved into has central heating and mundane things while fornicating (“Don’t let him screw you on the overtime. It’s important for social security”). The Henry Kissinger sequence utilizes black and white archival footage overdubbed by a French imitator in which he constantly interrupts his diplomatic visit to telephone Justine (seen in color) before finding he will not be able to meet up with her.
Roy does undermine himself by having much of the Mother Superior’s verbal seduction of Justine take place off-screen under a scene in which a monk steps out of a stained glass window (made out of canvas with cutouts for the actor playing the monk and another actor playing a horned red devil) to copulate with a naked novice in bed. Similarly, certain random images like a naked woman and a female mermaid against a blue background amidst cardboard cutout fish swimming around on fishing line and a naked fivesome of neighbors overhearing Mik and Justine’s tango in the apartment above feel more inserts to keep the audiences less stimulated by the cinematic and literary references interested than random visual sketches in Mik’s imagination. Most of the sex scenes are typical of French softcore filmmaking although a couple later in the film are more explicit and probably would have been cut by the BBFC a couple years ago. A cat food commercial narrated by a starving African child is in poor taste for this type of film (though the statement it makes and manner in which it is made is probably is indicative of Mik’s output as a serious filmmaker). The film does eventually run out of steam with a rather limp ending set at an “audition” where the producer is more concerned with the actors’ screwing ability than their acting; a scene which seems like it should have been one of the film’s highlights and apparently aims to be so with its closing shot. Although the fantasies are centerpieces for Kapler, I found Barton to be the more interesting performer and Gaste is fine as the lead. Lighting and photography are well-composed throughout (even if the elements for the transfer make this sometimes difficult to assess).
New label Naughty presents JUSTINE’S HOT NIGHTS – passed uncut by the BBFC – in an anamorphic widescreen (1.64:1) transfer. The master is not optimal – in one fantasy sequence involving a bathtub set against a black background, for a startling moment it looks as if the dark-haired woman lowering herself into the bathtub and the frame has no head until she turns slightly to reveal her face – but may reflect the best materials available short of going back to the original negative (if in fact it is in any better condition). While the subtitle translation is witty and seems thorough, it does make hash of a reference to Just Jaeckin during “The Mile High Club” sequence (in which Barton plays a stewardess whose name tag reads “Emmanuelle”) and subtitles are not provided for the theme song. Extras consist solely of a collection of trailers for current and upcoming Naughty releases including this film, the already available SCANDALOUS PHOTOS (with Brigitte Lahaie), EDUCATION ANGLAISE, DRESSAGE (by REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS’ Pierre B. Rheinhard) and the forthcoming HOUSE OF LEGS (a fetish series of recent vintage that seems completely and utterly out of place alongside the feature and aforementioned trailers).
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