Claudric Jean

Jeu De Dames

Label: Born Bad

Genre: Soundtrack

Availability

7" €12.99

Dispatched within 5-10 working days

"Jeu de Dames, la libération des femmes" (1973), a film by director Christian Lara, is a vaguely subversive charm flick that won't be remembered for a long time. An amusing detail, however, is that Georges de Caunes, father of Antoine de Caunes, the famous French TV personality, plays the lead role alongside Danielle Palmero. It's just one of a number of naïve films that, without being erotic, is sufficiently olé-olé that it failed to find a place in theaters on the traditional circuit. Faced with this commercial failure, the unscrupulous producer at the time, anxious to save his investments, decided to re-edit the film so that it could be screened in the X-rated circuit. He rechristened the film "Sex Revolution" in a more racy style, inserting more hardcore scenes to appeal to fans of the genre. The synopsis of the revisited film leaves no doubt as to its content:

"ANIK loves -women. In this case, MURIEL.

NORA has an inordinate sexual appetite. Only FRANCE seems normal.

Still a virgin, she resists her fiancé's assaults. All 4 are ravishing cover girls.

They arrive on an island to work on a motorcycle advertising campaign, in the company of Arnaud, one of his firm's brightest hopes. But he's also the son of a writer well known for his anti-feminist novels.

So it's no surprise when the writer turns up one morning.

Forced to abandon his reportage for an important race, Arnaud gives up his companions to his father" (extract from the "Sex Revolution" press kit).

Although Georges de Caunes is no longer credited on the poster or in the credits of "Sex Revolution", he finds himself, in spite of himself, promoted to lead actor in a porn movie, much to the delight of his son Antoine de Caunes, who is still dreaming 50 years later of finally being able to watch this forgotten masterpiece of the 7th art.

The film seems to be a dud (PS: I haven't seen it), but as for the music, Jean Claudric is particularly inspired and offers us one of the best French jazz funk soundtracks, which would not blush at the comparison with the best of the genre, such as Michel Legrand's "Un homme est mort", or Jean-Pierre Mirouze's "Le mariage collectif", previously released by Born Bad.