(1971)
Dir - Bruno Gantilon
Overall: MEH
An erotic fairytale that hints at more horrific elements than it ever shows, Bruno Gantilon's Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay, (Morgane et ses nymphes), is an interesting exploitation film, if still a far too meandering one. Based off of Arthurian legend elements though set in the modern day, it was partially shot at the castle Château de Val in the Czech commune of Bort-les-Orgues. The somewhat dilapidated location makes for an ideal, unearthly setting where beautiful, ageless women live an immortal existence of pleasure. The story alludes to vampirism and several characters deliver dialog that seems to dictate that they have a torturous way of inflicting punishment on those who break their mystical code, though no such graphic material is ever depicted on screen. It is still certainly in the realm of Euro-trash by way of being softcore pornography. Gantilon stages an effective opening and introduction to the island of Avalon, but the entire middle of the film stalls in its tracks with one repetitive, slow dialog exchange and lesbian love making scene after the other. It does have a somewhat ethereal, provocative tone, but it also overstays its welcome.
(1976)
Dir - Nicolas Gessner
Overall: MEH
The French/Canadian/American co-production of Laird Koenig's novel The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a curious film, one that has some chilling moments and stellar performances, but also one that suffers from a highly implausible script. One of five 1976 movies that Jodie Foster appeared in, this was her first substantial, leading role and one that she rather excels in. Playing an alarmingly self-sufficient thirteen year-old, she speaks with the confidence of a veteran con-woman and seems to be in complete control of her far-fetched situation. Just before undertaking Apocalypse Now, Martin Sheen delivers an equally solid performance as a frightening creep and Bad Ronald's Scott Jacoby is a likeable, adolescent love interest for Foster. Hungarian-born director Nicolas Gessner keeps the pace up even if the large majority of the movie is people checking up on Foster's character who perpetually thwarts any grown-up's attempts to talk to her ever-missing father. Here lies the problem though in that plausibility is stretched detrimentally thin as there are just too many times where every speaking character at some point behaves in an ill-logical manner that breaks verisimilitude.
(1979)
Dir - David Cronenberg
Overall: GOOD
By his own admittance, The Brood was David Cronenberg's warped, more bitter, yet "realistic" answer to the same year's Kramer vs. Kramer. Written after the director went through a divorce and custody battle over his daughter, the movie hits quite close to home in its subject matter. Of course always one to explore his own fascinations with horrific, psychological mutations of the human body, the story goes to far more monstrous lengths than just a standard broken relationship drama. Themes of motherhood and repressed rage also play into those of marital dysfunction and thankfully, Cronenberg is skilled enough as a filmmaker to not let the movie's more grotesque and borderline ridiculous moments undermine the story's honest intentions. Hammer regulars Oliver Reed and Samantha Egger are quite solid in their eccentric performances, though Reed is comparatively more toned-down than usual. This was the first film to be scored by Howard Shore who would go on to collaborate with Cronenberg on virtually every following project, though his work here is a bit much at time as hardly any scenes play out to any natural and far more unsettling silence. Still, the movie is plenty unsettling as it stands and represents another memorable genre effort from Cronenberg who was very much in peak form at the time.
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