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Madame Claude
The French Woman
France 1977
produced by Claire Duval (executive) for Orphée Arts
directed by Just Jaeckin
starring Françoise Fabian, Dayle Haddon, Murray Head, Klaus Kinski, Vibeke Knudsen-Bergeron, Maurice Ronet, Robert Webber, Jean Gaven, André Falcon, François Perrot, Marc Michel, Roland Bertin, Ed Bishop, Karl Held, Ylva Setterborg, Marie-Christine Deshayes, Max Amyl, Sophie Barnett, Jack Berard, Valérie Bonnier, Gérard Buhr, Florence Cayrol, Marie-Claude Collin, Evelyne Dress, Radiah Frye, Pascal Greggory, Fernand Guiot, Lyle Joyce, Marcella Klept, Serge Lahssen, Marc Lamole, Lucienne Legrand, Louise Mazzaroli, Philippe Moreau, Henri Poirier, Jean-Pierre Rambal, Claire Richard, Pierre Risch, Gilbert Robin, René Roussel, Nicole Seguin, Li Sellgren, Vandat, Vania Vilers, Nadia Verine, Catherine Zidi
screenplay by André G. Brunelin, based on the novel Allo Oui, les Mémoires de Madame Claude by Jacques Quoirez, music by Serge Gainsbourg
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Madame Claude (Francoise Fabian) runs an agency for high class
prostitutes - all hand-picked by her, which means she also turns girls
down who are just too willing, convinces others, like Elizabeth (Dayle
Haddon), who aren't initially willing at all - but she always makes sure
she doesn't make a girl do something against her will. Elizabeth is a
fairly innocent young girl who got so fed up with both her job and her
mother that she eventually saw prostitution as a viable alternative - but
even working for Madame Claude has left her innocent enough to believe in
true romance. Now of course, Madame Claude's organisation is on one hand
controversial, but on the other so well-regarded that she counts
figureheads of high politics and big business among her customers - which
means that those who complain about her the loudest publicly hold a
protecting hand over her privately. And then there's photographer David
(Murray Head), who has been seeing several of Madame Claude's girls
privately, and has taken photos of them with their customers - and he's
just what shady businessmen Zakis (Klaus Kinski) and Hugo (Marc Michel)
need to sabotage a certain weapons deal. Thing is, the CIA's very
interested in that deal, and thus go after David to get the photos from
him. Problem is, the photos also show Madame Claude's girls, which is
bound to get her into a position she might no longer be able to count on
her friends in politics to get her out of ... Madame Claude
is really a child of its time and as such a wonderful time capsule: A
mixture of political thriller and erotica, with a sensationalistic
torn-from-the-headlines plot but made with enough taste to still hit a
chord with contemporary mainstream audiences rather than the exploitation
crowd, in a time when the envelope regarding sexual content in movies was
still actively pushed - though that said, director Just Jaeckin, coming
more from the erotica than the thriller side of the spectrum, has gone
quite a bit further in his earlier classics Emmanuelle
and The Story of O. And while
Jaeckin is a director who favours style over substance and thus fails to
give this movie much depth, he knows how to spin a yarn for sure, as this
film has plenty to offer in terms of action and sex and hardly a dull
moment, all wrapped in tasteful enough imagery to appeal to the crowds -
which makes this a wonderful trip down nostalgia lane from toda's point of
view when the scarce examples of erotica for the mainstream masses tend to
get more and more sterile in approach and execution.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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