Vanessa (Hubert Frank) - Ah, the joys of 70's
porno, and a film that desperately wants to be Emmanuelle,
right down to the wicker chair. Or perhaps Emmanuelle: The Joys of a
Woman, since it nicks the Hong Kong setting for its tale of the sexual
awakening of a convent schoolgirl (though given this upbringing, she's
curiously amenable to sensual massages). Either way, this borders on
incoherent, and not just because it's in German: I'm prepared to bet a lot
of scenes simply explained, such as the one where a guy shoots
holes in rice sacks above a dancing naked woman. There are a lot of
close-ups of statues, because...just because, right? Such surreal
weirdness is the main reason to watch, though Olivia Pascal, later in
Borowczyk's Behind Convent Walls, is certainly photogenic. Co-star
Anton Diffring looks vaguely embarrassed to be there, and who wouldn't with
songs on the soundtrack whose lyrics go: "Vanessa...you are the girl in
my dreams...Vanessa...you're haunting all my reveries..." If they use
this once, they use it half-a-dozen times, and let me tell you, it doesn't
get better with repetition. If I could quote the dialogue, it'd probably be
an Incredibly Bad Film Show candidate -- instead, I'll just quietly
forget to assign this one a rating...
See also...
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