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Young and naive Chantal has just arrived in Hollywood to become an
actress - but soon she has to realize opportunities just don't come
knocking at her door. She takes an agent, friendly Morgana, and before you
know it, Chantal has become her lesbian lover - which Chantal even thinks
ok considering the work Morgana will be doing for her ... but Morgana does
nothing and drops her after a few weeks. Next, Chantal meets Tom, who
introduces himself as a arthouse moviemaker and proposes to cast her in
his next film - and before you know it, she lands in his bed as well. It's
only the next day that she finds out that Tom is actually nothing but a
streetsweeper. Eventually, Chantal's funds have run dry, and she
survives on dry cookies, using the cookie-boxes lid to repair her shoes
... when she finally receives a casting call brokered by Morgana. But when
she arrives at the studio she sees nothing but two strippers dancing and
undressing wiggling their bottoms ... and she figures if she stays in
Hollywood only a few more weeks, she'll be doing the wiggling as well ... In
the late 1960's/early 70's, director Nick Philips has made some quite
remarkably pieces of erotica ... but sadly, Chantal is not one of
them, it's little more than a Hollywood travelogue that after a short
glamourous exposition focusses on the underbelly of Tinseltown (though the
film remains relatively tame in its images throughout). But despite its
rather uninvolving plot, the film isn't a total waste, thanks to Philips'
expertly framed and lit shots (always one of his strengths) that show that
he's more than just another pornographer with a tripod, thanks to the
film's pretty amazing free-jazz score, and thanks to the voiceover
narration (the film uses no location sound, something quite common in the
Nick Philips-universe) that's always a bit on the campy side. So yes,
the film is totally watchable, at least for fans of nostalgic erotica, but
it's far from Philips' better films.
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