Valérie (1969)

Director:

Denis Héroux

Writers:

John Dunning (scenario)
Louis Gauthier (dialogue)

Release Date:

2 May 1969 (Canada)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot Keywords:

Female Nudity | Beautiful Woman | Sex

Cast

Danielle Ouimet	...	Valérie
Guy Godin	...	Patrick Vollant - le peintre
Andrée Flamand	...	Andrée
Kim Wilcox	...	Kim
Claude Préfontaine	...	Le riche playboy
Henri Norbert	...	Le millionnaire décadent
Michel Paje	...	Le premier client de Valérie
Clémence DesRochers	...	La travailleuse sociale
Paul Buissonneau
Yvan Ducharme	...	Le gérant du club topless
Luce Triganne
Pierre Paquette	...	Un client de Valérie
Gaétan Labrèche	...	Un client de Valérie
Georges Carrère
Christian Delmas	...	Le valet du millionnaire décadent

Runtime:

97 min | France:90 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Cinépix

Trivia:

The scenario is credited on screen to Julian Parnelle and Richard Sadler. Julian Parnelle is the pseudonym of André Link and John Dunning.

"Maple syrup porn" classic

This is an early example of what was known "maple syrup porn" principally churned out by two French Canadian producers (who later went on to form Lion Gate Films!)and rarely seen outside of Francophone Canada. It features Danielle Ouimet, an actress who later became famous for playing the blonde victim in the seminal Euro-horror classic "Daughters of Darkness". Ouimet was painfully awful in that more famous movie (and its director Harry Kumel still says bad things about her every time he's interviewed), so I was impressed that she was actually pretty good here.

Using a minimum of sync sound and a lot of groovy early 70's music, "Valerie" tells the story of young girl who runs away from her Catholic boarding school to become a topless go-go dancer. Badgered by her lesbian co-worker/roommate she descends even further into prostitution soon becoming "the prettiest whore in town". Too late, she meets a widowed painter with a young son who is unaware of her seedy past. But, of course, it all comes out (partly because she is still turning the occasional trick). The ending is pretty weak, managing to somehow combine the usual hypocritical brand of moralism of these films with a pretty unbelievable "happily ever after" resolution. But for most of it's running time this is an entertaining and visually stylish movie.

Although this movie has some sex and A LOT of nudity, it is much less sleazy and more more tasteful than most American sexploitation films of the period. It has kind of European feel to it like Radley Metzger's "Therese and Isabel" (but with less literary pretensions)or the famous Swedish sex film "Inga" (but with a slightly less barely legal leading lady). It's hard to find (I had to special order it from Canada), but definitely worth a look