Immoral Tales (film)
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Immoral Tales (original French title Contes immoraux) is a 1974 film directed by Walerian Borowczyk, produced by Anatole Dauman and written by André Pieyre de Mandiargues.
The film Immoral Tales is composed of four stories set in four different epochs. Each story starts with a written prologue. The film was lauded by some for its unique surrealist vision and derided by others as pornography. However, in contrast to the aesthetics of modern visual pornography, its porno chic imagery is found disturbing, rather than amusing, by many viewers. The film is in French, also with Hungarian and Italian dialogues.
Immoral Tales was conceived in 1973 as a film of six stories. The other two were also filmed, but Une collection particulière was released as a separate short, and the footage of La véritable historie de la bête du Gévaudan became the dream sequence of the feature-length The Beast (1975).
Synopsis
Story 1: La Marée (The Tide):
- My cousin Julie was sixteen, and I twenty, an age difference rendering her subject to my will.
Present-day, France. André (Fabrice Luchini) tries to make his cousin perform fellatio on him. This original story was by André Pieyre de Mandiargues.
Story 2: Thérése Philosophe
- 10th July 1890. The beatification is sought of Thérése H., the pious young woman shamefully violated by a tramp. Sunday Gazette
19th century, France. A teenage countrygirl (Charlotte Alexandra) intermingles in her imagination, her dedication to Christ with her urge for sexuality.
Story 3: Erzsébet Báthory
- In 1610, Countess Erzsébet Báthory toured the villages and hamlets of her domain at Nyitra in Hungary.
Set in 17th century Hungary, this tells a story of Elizabeth Báthory. In the story Paloma Picasso appears in the role of the Countess. It was shot in Sweden, featuring Marie Forså as one of the girls at Báthory's castle who inserts a pearl from the Countess's broken necklace into her vagina.
Story 4: Lucrezia Borgia
- In 1498, accompanied by her husband, Giovanni Sforza, Lucrezia Borgia visited her father, Pope Alexander VI and her brother Cardinal Cesare Borgia. Ecclessiastical debauchery was denounced by the Dominican friar Savonarola.
15th century, Italy. Borgia family will continue with their incestuous relationships as his criticism brings the end of Girolamo Savonarola. The actor playing Pope Alexander VI is credited as "Jacopo Berinizi", a nom de plume used by Chris Marker who was a friend and collaborator to Borowczyk.
