The "enfant terrible" of European erotica par excellence, Gérard Kikoïne always seemed most at home when exploring the darker side of people's sexuality and the often extraordinary lengths to which they were prepared to go in order to keep up the superficial appearance of respectability in a deeply hypocritical society. The comfortable middle classes, natural habitat to his fellow filmmaker at Alpha France Claude Bernard-Aubert (a/k/a "Burd Tranbaree"), proved his favorite target, making him something of a sex saga sibling to the lauded likes of Claude Chabrol and Luis Bunuel yet with an additional ferociousness alien to these art-house darlings, with the possible exception of THE CEREMONY and THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL respectively, but I digress. The Elektra complex that fuels daughter Marilyn Jess' gradual seduction of about to rewed dad Alban Ceray through a series of increasingly twisted mind games in CHAUDES ADOLESCENTES and the bourgeois family blown to smithereens by interloping nurse Agnès Lemercier hired to off pater familias Gilbert Servien in ENTRECHATTES serve as prime examples of Kikoïne's vitriolic attack on the shaky values of "polite" society.
Even so, he has never taken matters as far as in BOURGEOISE ET PUTE!, an almost casually cruel comedy of reprehensible manners and arguably his masterpiece. The criminally underrated Cathy Menard shines in one of two career performances – the other being in Bernard-Aubert's L'INITIATION D'UNE FEMME MARIEE – as outwardly prim Muriel, goody two shoes twin sister of slutty Sandra who has taken her life prior to the film's proceedings. Confiding in a letter to her sibling that she chose her depraved existence as a means to distinguish and distance herself from the enforced propriety that comes with comfortable surroundings, Sandra offers Muriel the key to her apartment and therefore the opportunity to take a walk on the wild side by assuming her "deceased" sister's identity. The ease with which Muriel accepts this offer at first seems emblematic of Kikoïne's jaundiced view of mankind and its phony sense of dignity.
A supposed paragon of virtue, she meets a veritable rogues gallery of characters, each one seedier than the last, starting with stuttering, hook-handed janitor Jean-Pierre Armand demanding the rent being paid in kind. A client of Sandra's, bank manager Gilbert Servien, interviews her for a secretarial job prior to taking attendant liberties in a classic scene mixing Kikoïne's sick sense of humor with intense carnal heat. Presiding over a frenzied porno shoot, Muriel orchestrates a bondage heavy threesome between superstar Marilyn Jess (wearing a Bettie Page wig), the magnificent Marianne Aubert and bespectacled Hubert Géral as the dildo-wielding stud from Belgium ?! Obscure starlet Olivia Flores (a/k/a "Moanie") delivers a standout turn to rival her seething performance in Claude Mulot's superlative ECHANGES DE PARTENAIRES as the arrogant, hilariously Franglais spouting lesbian who finds blind-folded comeuppance at Muriel's behest. An elegantly depraved party sequence has her mingling with Eurasian Mika Barthel and gorgeous Eric Saville (a/k/a "Eric Dray"), by far the best-looking male performer in '80s French fornication flicks. Not a single source has as yet identified the man and woman who also participate. The actor portraying Muriel's mustachioed milquetoast husband Pierre, who figures in the film's sophisticated twist ending, has only been credited as "Thierry".
Sandra's alliance with a petty thief, played by late starlet Cathy Stewart's real life boyfriend Dominique Irissou, effectively leads Muriel towards a life of crime as she becomes instrumental in an upcoming bank job. To assure her loyalty, she's mauled by a pair of middle-aged masterminds, one of whom's Jacques Marbeuf (the despicable dad from Kikoïne's JOURNAL INTIME D'UNE JEUNE FILLE EN CHALEUR), along with a grotesquely slobbering turncoat security guard played by Marc Winandy, obviously a "proper" as opposed to purely pornographic actor who portrayed the grotesque lead character in Max Turbay's indescribable INCITATION AUX PLAISIRS. Traditionally, the intended theft goes awry with rape and murder further staining Muriel's status she seeks to protect in the film's explosive climax. Only then does the audience realize that the entire story has actually been told in flashback from the opening "funeral" onwards and that there never was an actual twin sister beyond the slutty alter ego that allowed Muriel to indulge those sleazy fantasies she was forced to suppress in daily life !
Kikoïne went all out in representing sex as grotesque, an irresistible driving force that reduces characters to caricatures. Adopting a superior position as head-shaking storyteller of this farce of human foibles, this approach is emphasized by the spectacular camera work of Gérard Loubeau, favoring the distancing effect of long shots and wide angle distortion. One of the finest in the fornication film field, he would collaborate with the director well into his subsequent mainstream career on BURIED ALIVE and MASTER OF DRAGONARD HILL while simultaneously establishing himself as a talented porn filmmaker in his own right with RAPT IN LOVE, L'HERITIERE and his crowning achievement SECRETS D'ADOLESCENTES. The use of sound f/x is sophisticated and a variety of musical styles are employed to suit the nature of each scene, none better than the haunting jazzy theme song "Sand & Rain" heard at film's deceptively serene start.
Even so, he has never taken matters as far as in BOURGEOISE ET PUTE!, an almost casually cruel comedy of reprehensible manners and arguably his masterpiece. The criminally underrated Cathy Menard shines in one of two career performances – the other being in Bernard-Aubert's L'INITIATION D'UNE FEMME MARIEE – as outwardly prim Muriel, goody two shoes twin sister of slutty Sandra who has taken her life prior to the film's proceedings. Confiding in a letter to her sibling that she chose her depraved existence as a means to distinguish and distance herself from the enforced propriety that comes with comfortable surroundings, Sandra offers Muriel the key to her apartment and therefore the opportunity to take a walk on the wild side by assuming her "deceased" sister's identity. The ease with which Muriel accepts this offer at first seems emblematic of Kikoïne's jaundiced view of mankind and its phony sense of dignity.
A supposed paragon of virtue, she meets a veritable rogues gallery of characters, each one seedier than the last, starting with stuttering, hook-handed janitor Jean-Pierre Armand demanding the rent being paid in kind. A client of Sandra's, bank manager Gilbert Servien, interviews her for a secretarial job prior to taking attendant liberties in a classic scene mixing Kikoïne's sick sense of humor with intense carnal heat. Presiding over a frenzied porno shoot, Muriel orchestrates a bondage heavy threesome between superstar Marilyn Jess (wearing a Bettie Page wig), the magnificent Marianne Aubert and bespectacled Hubert Géral as the dildo-wielding stud from Belgium ?! Obscure starlet Olivia Flores (a/k/a "Moanie") delivers a standout turn to rival her seething performance in Claude Mulot's superlative ECHANGES DE PARTENAIRES as the arrogant, hilariously Franglais spouting lesbian who finds blind-folded comeuppance at Muriel's behest. An elegantly depraved party sequence has her mingling with Eurasian Mika Barthel and gorgeous Eric Saville (a/k/a "Eric Dray"), by far the best-looking male performer in '80s French fornication flicks. Not a single source has as yet identified the man and woman who also participate. The actor portraying Muriel's mustachioed milquetoast husband Pierre, who figures in the film's sophisticated twist ending, has only been credited as "Thierry".
Sandra's alliance with a petty thief, played by late starlet Cathy Stewart's real life boyfriend Dominique Irissou, effectively leads Muriel towards a life of crime as she becomes instrumental in an upcoming bank job. To assure her loyalty, she's mauled by a pair of middle-aged masterminds, one of whom's Jacques Marbeuf (the despicable dad from Kikoïne's JOURNAL INTIME D'UNE JEUNE FILLE EN CHALEUR), along with a grotesquely slobbering turncoat security guard played by Marc Winandy, obviously a "proper" as opposed to purely pornographic actor who portrayed the grotesque lead character in Max Turbay's indescribable INCITATION AUX PLAISIRS. Traditionally, the intended theft goes awry with rape and murder further staining Muriel's status she seeks to protect in the film's explosive climax. Only then does the audience realize that the entire story has actually been told in flashback from the opening "funeral" onwards and that there never was an actual twin sister beyond the slutty alter ego that allowed Muriel to indulge those sleazy fantasies she was forced to suppress in daily life !
Kikoïne went all out in representing sex as grotesque, an irresistible driving force that reduces characters to caricatures. Adopting a superior position as head-shaking storyteller of this farce of human foibles, this approach is emphasized by the spectacular camera work of Gérard Loubeau, favoring the distancing effect of long shots and wide angle distortion. One of the finest in the fornication film field, he would collaborate with the director well into his subsequent mainstream career on BURIED ALIVE and MASTER OF DRAGONARD HILL while simultaneously establishing himself as a talented porn filmmaker in his own right with RAPT IN LOVE, L'HERITIERE and his crowning achievement SECRETS D'ADOLESCENTES. The use of sound f/x is sophisticated and a variety of musical styles are employed to suit the nature of each scene, none better than the haunting jazzy theme song "Sand & Rain" heard at film's deceptively serene start.