Camille 2000

Camille 2000

Based on Alexander Dumas' La Dame aux Camélias, Camille 2000 was made in Italy but directed by Radley Metzger and written by Michael de Forrest. This is the story of Marguerite Gautier (Danielle Gaubert, who died too young at 44 but had a life where she was married to the son of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and ski champion Jean-Claude Killy, as well as acting in 17 movies), a woman of whom the rumors say "the hills are covered with the bodies of the men she's ruined." Armand Duval (Nino Castelnuovo) falls for her instantly, despite the harsh words of his father (Massimo Serato) and the offer by his friend Gaston (Roberto Bisacco) to show him other women. He finally gets her alone and charms her; she tells him that if he really loves her that he should run. They instead live on love on a houseboat in Porto d'Ercole. Armand's father believes that she's using her son; unknown to everyone, the opposite is true, as she is selling off every gift rich men have ever given her to keep their life. The father asks her to leave his son, as he's meant for more. She complies and ends up with Count DeVarville (Philippe Forquet) and hooked on drugs to try and forget. Armand throws himself into work, which becomes his addiction. One of her friends introduces Armand to Prudence (Eleonora Rossi Drago) who throws an S&M orgy that also has Marguerite and DeVarville invited. Of course, things won't end well. How can they, as when we first meet Marguerite, someone asks her, "Don't you ever come down?" She answers, "Not if I can help it." A movie filled with longing, eroticism and inflatable furniture, this is 1969 looking to a future that we'd never find.

At just at the halfway point, literally, Marguerite and Armand are talking above a church scene taking place far below them and, there, it is the end of a funeral where the pallbearers come out and carry the casket down the steps to load the casket into the hearse. This is where she first pledges fidelity after her seen infidelity resulting in the "messenger" with the note on her back played by Dominique Badou. Marguerite is promptly unfaithful and i wonder what the symbolism of the funeral below was. Was it the death of Armand's good judgement?

Camille 2000 is about the a lady of a night as viewed through the eyes of her lover. She tries make things right for him BUT it ultimately lead to her downfall. Directed by Classic Golden Age Porno flick Director Radley Metzger, its schmancy soft-core porno that shows what would be the director's signature. A keen eye for details and framing, for what pretty much is a thankless production That being said, the biggest downfall of Camille 2000 is that it is direction took for the vibe and acting. Of all his that I have watched, this is one of the least favored of his works. His (much better) works while hardcore in content, always had sophisticated yet well balanced approach to its material AND most importantly, grounded by actually well crafted stories and performances. For this film, it has a mood that is all over the place AND acting that barely could lift the melodramatic AND stilted dialogue. Some of the scenes, especially the scandalous scene of sex and sodomy, had aged horribly. And this being an international production with audio added Post Production, the actor might not really have the best grasp of what the film really was about. The material really ate them alive. Especially for melodrama, as it is not as forgiving of a genre on its own. Overall, very forgettable Metzger. His Classic Golden Age Porno films show him in his most uninhibited AND out and about. Try that.

I saw this flick due being released on the Arrow label. i do know that it was made i the roaring sixties, a time of drugs and free sex. And let this be a flick about forbidden romance. They way it was shot I was rather surprised that some dare to call it soft erotic. Sure, there's a lot of making love going on but it's so tame for the time being shot. The girls are really lovely and all are voluptuous and that's what this all about, all showing their juggs on some LSD music. Let me say that the score is excellent but the erotic, well, for example, in the first love scene you can easily spot on the Blu ray release that the girl was wearing flesh coloured knickers not to reveal a thing. No pubic hair is ever shown. On the men site they show almost everything not intended but you know, you can't hide their testicles. It's a classic for so many people and I can agree on many ways, the way the love scene's are shot with mirrors used that all looks fine but to say it's erotic, well, there are other flicks made back then showing more then Carmilla did. Just look at the orgy going on, a bit of master and slave but low on nudity. Go figure out that not one year later Mona was released, the first explicit flick without credits to start the golden age of *. A perfect example of the free sex era. Gore 0/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5

Wow.. Sweet Jesus. Last week i just discovered the psychedelic sound of tame impala and now i seen a picture like this. A blend of vintage- swinging-romance cinema with the setting of Last Year In Marienbad. Big thanks to "torrent" who seed me this love making film. The visual is 10, the story is 6, If this get a remake, the cast must be Camille Rowe with the soundtrack from Pulp, Boo Radley , and other Cafe Del Mar or Shibuyakei. Last week i just discovered the psychedelic sound of tame impala and now i seen a picture like this. A blend of vintage- swinging-romance cinema with the setting of Last Year In Marienbad. Big thanks to "torrent" who seed me this love making film. The visual is 10, the story is 6, If this get a remake, the cast must be Camille Rowe with the soundtrack from Pulp, Boo Radley , and other Cafe Del Mar or Shibuyakei. Last week i just discovered the psychedelic sound of tame impala and now i seen a picture like this. A blend of vintage- swinging-romance cinema with the setting of Last Year In Marienbad. Big thanks to "torrent" who seed me this love making film. The visual is 10, the story is 6, If this get a remake, the cast must be Camille Rowe with the soundtrack from Pulp, Boo Radley , and other Cafe Del Mar or Shibuyakei.

Camille 2000, which could be called the first of the modern, adult films, was among those trendsetting, forward-looking pictures that marked the end of the 1960's. That said, it's not a fantastic film, but fairly well done. The pill popping, hard driving female of the film is asked, at the opening of the picture, whether she ever comes down. "Not if I can help it," she replies, tossing another handfull of drugs into her mouth. In a sense, that's the theme of the film; lurid and risque for the time, but somewhat tame compared to today's endless stream of mindless * films.

CAMILLE 2000 Aspect ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision) Sound format: Mono Whilst visiting Rome, an amorous nobleman (Nino Castelnuovo) falls in love with a beautiful young libertine (Daniele Gaubert), but their unlikely romance is opposed by Castelnuovo's wealthy father (Massimo Serato), and Fate deals a tragic blow... A sexed-up love story for the swinging Sixties, adapted from a literary source (Alexandre Dumas' 'La Dame aux Camelias') by screenwriter Michael DeForrest, and directed with freewheeling flair by Radley Metzger who, along with the likes of Russ Meyer and Joe Sarno, is credited with redefining the parameters of 'Adult' cinema throughout the 1960's and 70's. Using the scope format for the last time in his career, Metzger's exploration of 'la dolce vita' is rich in visual excess (note the emphasis on reflective surfaces, for example), though the film's sexual candor seems alarmingly coy by modern standards. Production values are handsome throughout, and the performances are engaging and humane (Castelnuovo and Gaubert are particularly memorable), despite weak post-sync dubbing. Though set in an unspecified future, Enrico Sabbatini's wacked-out set designs locate the movie firmly within its period, and Piero Piccioni's 'wah-wah' music score has become something of a cult item amongst exploitation devotees. Ultimately, CAMILLE 2000 is an acquired taste, but fans of this director's elegant softcore erotica won't be disappointed. Next up for Metzger was THE LICKERISH QUARTET (1970), which many consider his best film.

I first heard about this film through its music. The late Piero Piccioni was one of Italy's finest composers from the hey day of Italian cinema in the 60's and 70's. The write up for this movie descibes it solely in terms of sex and eroticism... but it so, so much more. It is like a wonderful painting depicting the heart wrenching trials and tribulations of two lovers, who spend a great deal of time hiding from the truth. Daniele Gaubert is superb in this, and you almost fall in love with her yourself (she, like her on screen persona, also had a tragic early death at the age of 44, from cancer). I am not a big fan of Metzger but this one is a must for all fans of lush 60's cinema. It is how the 60's (the none 'Hippies' anyway) would like to be remembered.... ultra stylish, hedonisitic, with the heartache of love lost. (Let us pray Hollywood leaves this film be and not 'create' one of their awful remakes)

OK, the pace is slow and the sex now looks tame, but Radley Metger's once-notorious Swinging Sixties update of the old romantic warhorse is worth sticking with - if only as a time-capsule of the decade that inspired it. The scene has shifted from Belle Epoque Paris to 'dolce vita' Rome, and the dying courtesan (Daniele Gaubert) is not a consumptive but a junkie. But she's still the 'Lady of the Camellias' - with flowers aplenty. Watch a vase of them zoom hilariously in and out of focus as her young lover (Nino Castelnuovo - whose career looked so promising in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg!) teaches her the true meaning of *. All jokes aside, this version is surprisingly close to the Alexandre Dumas fils novel, with its dark core of eroticism and death. Most of the sex takes place in Marguerite's stunning white boudoir - ceiling mirrors, chiffon drapes and invisible plastic chairs. At the film's end, our heroine is confined to an oxygen tent after her last fatal OD. Visually, the setting is more or less identical. Her on-and-off love affair with priggish young Armand reaches its 'climax' at an eye-popping S & M theme party. (Cue for aluminium Paco Rabanne dresses and copulation in a giant gold cage!) This slick Vogue-ish sadism is sleazy but not gratuitous: it mirrors the cruelty at the story's heart. Sorry, I'm making all this sound like Art, which it's not. Metzger's direction is alternately stylish and ham-fisted, and as for the acting of Mlle. Gaubert...well, let's just say Garbo and Sarah Bernhardt can rest safely on their laurels. The supporting actors are the veritable cream of Eurotrash - Silvana Venturelli as scheming sex-pot Olympe, Roberto Bisacco as libertine Gaston, Eleonora Rossi-Drago as high-fashion procuress Prudence - but they have far too little to do. The real star of this film is set and costume designer Enrico Sabbatini. His work makes Austin Powers look like an exercise in restraint! David Melville