
Immoral Tales is a UK VHS release by Thorn EMI Video on April 1982.
Description[]
How often, as a critic, have I hears the complaint: 'Why can's anyone make an artistic sex film?' My answer is always the same: 'Go ans see one by Walerian Borowczyk.' Borowczyk (pronounced Borof-chick!) is a Polish director who now lives in France and has, in recent years, made one 'scandalous' film after another. Immoral Tales, made ib 1973, was the first of these. And I suppose it is scandalous if you think erotic imagery shouldn't be allowed in case it makes rampaging maniacs of us all. But Borowczyk isn't just controversial. He is also one of the great cinematic image-makers if his time -- a film-maker who can invest either a crowded scene or the tinies detail with extraordinary visual power. Immoral Tales, though it did cause a scandal (and attendances) when it first opened in Paris, also won the coveted L'Age D'Or award, named after the great Buñuel surealist masterpiece.
The film consists of four stories, The Tide set in this century, and Thérèse the Philosopher, Erzsébet Báthory and Lucrezia Borgia in past times. The eroticiam of eachof them is neither immoral nor gratuitous, but certainly obsessive and compeling. Each is also at times darkly threatening, at times richly comic. Lucrezia Borgia, for instance, is a spiteful atack on religous hypocrisy, and Erzsébet Báthory a hymn to the beauty of young womanhood which conceals a killing worm within its rose. Borowczyk's vision is not everybody's, but the power of his images is such that you can't ignore it. He is a real artist, choosing to work on ground where most angels fear to tread and hacks frequently play. Immoral Tales is pure cinema, whatever you may think of its themes.
DEREK MALCOLM
Cast[]
[1] | Lise Danvers | ... | Julie / André's cousin - Story 1 |
[2] | Fabrice Luchini | ... | André / Julie's cousin - Story 1 |
[3] | Charlotte Alexandra | ... | Thérèse - Story 2 |
[4] | Lisbeth Hummel | ... | Lucy Broadhurst - Story 3 |
[5] | Paloma Picasso | ... | Elisabeth Bathory / Countess - Story 4 |
[6] | Pascale Christophe | ... | Istvan - Story 4 |
[7] | Florence Bellamy | ... | Lucrezia Borgia / Pope's daughter - Story 5 |
[8] | Lorenzo Berinizi | ... | Caesar Borgia / Pope's son - Story 5 |
[9] | Jacopo Berinizi | ... | Pope Alexander VI - Story 5 |
[10] | Philippe Desboeuf | ... | Hyeronimus Savonarola / Friar |
[11] | Tomas Hnevsa | ... | (as Thomas Hnevsa) |
[12] | Mathieu Rivolier | ||
[13] | Robert Capia | ||
[14] | Gerard Tcherka | ||
[15] | Kjell Gustavsson |