Les charnelles (1974)

(AKA Sins of the Flesh) A French film featuring Anne Libert about a psychologically messed up millionaire's son who works with a couple lowlifes to take back what's his and seek revenge.

Patricia (Roselyne) and her friends at an outdoor cafe. Her friends are scoping out men, but Patricia seems uninterested.

The friends spot Benoît (Francis Lemonnier), a millionaire's son. The tell Patricia to go for it.

Benoît drives Patricia out into the country.

Patricia lays down a blanket and drops her dress.

Benoît looks at Patricia intently and slowly walks from the car.

Patricia wonders why Benoît is still standing there. "What's you're problem?"

Then she realizes he can't get an erection. Patricia starts laughing at him and making fun of Benoît.

Benoît is humiliated. He gets upset and runs to the car. Patricia inexplicably doesn't understand why he's running away and chases after him.

"What's gotten into you?" she asks. Benoît won't let her in the car and puts it in drive.

Benoît drives off, leaving Patricia stranded. She continues to insult his manhood as his car speeds away.

Benoît's visits his mother Sabine (Barbara Sommers). She's naked getting a massage.

Sabine tells the masseuse to leave and Benoît starts massaging her. We can see that Benoît has an unhealthy attraction for his mother.

Sabine hops hurredly off the table when she realizes what time it is. She's going to be late for a presentation she's giving. She gets her clothes on and asks Benoît to talk to her while she dresses.

Oblivious that her son is drooling over her, Sabine nonchalantly puts on her panties. Benoît tries to collect himself and tells her that he's broke again. She tells him to talk to his father.

Benoît goes to his father's office (where his picture hangs prominently) and his told that his father won't meet with him, and he refuses to pay his gambling debts. Benoît knows his father is ashamed of him and avoids him at every opportunity.

Isabelle (Anne Libert) is doing chores, putting dishes in the cupboard while her perverted degenerate father watches her.

She bends over and her father stares intently at the upskirt.

He's drunk, and staggers over to grope Isabelle. She screams and tries to get away.

He picks her up and throws her on top of the table.

He tries to rape her, but Isabelle is able to escape. He chases her down a dark road.

As it so happens, Benoît and Jean-Pierre (Patrick Penn) see Isabelle getting assaulted and rescue her. Jean-Pierre is a young criminal who was caught trying to steal Benoît's car. Rather than have him arrested, Benoît takes a drive with him.

Benoît takes Isabelle and Jean-Pierre to his place where they do drugs and watches them have sex (since he can't himself). After, he convinces the runaway and the criminal to rob his father's office. Benoît and Isabelle wait in the car while Jean-Pierre takes the valuables from the office. However, the police arrive and Jean-Pierre is arrested. Benoît and Isabelle drive away.

Isabelle is naturally upset, but Benoît tells her that Jean-Pierre will be out of jail before noon. He asks her to wait in the car while he goes to see someone about it.

Benoît is paying a visit to his father's mistress (Karin Meier). She is naked and awakened by the doorbell.

She sleepily makes her way to the door.

She asks who it is.

When Benoît answers, the girl is visibily annoyed and put out by his arrivel.

Benoît chides her for essentially being his father's whore.

She yells at him, "If you just came here to create trouble, beat it!" Benoît yanks an antenna off the TV and points it at her.

Benoît uses the antenna to open her robe.

He pushes her back onto the couch using the antenna.

But she isn't exactly cowed by this show of aggression. Instead, she lays on he sofa and starts to fondle herself.

They hear someone at the door. It's Benoît's father! Benoît hides and the mistress covers herself up.

Benoît's father has picked up his mistress and is carrying her to the bedroom when Benoît reveals himself. He admits to organizing the burglarly of his office - and he says he'll turn himself in to the police unless Jean-Pierre is released. His father doesn't want a scandal so agrees to drop charges against Jean-Pierre.

Benoît is back on the road with Jean-Pierre and Isabelle. The robbery was a failure, but he has another plan. But first it's time to stop by Isabelle's house.

Isabelle walks in the front door and her drunk father immediately comments on how pretty she is.

She goes up to her room, strips down to her underwear and packs her suitcase.

Her father busts in and rips off her panties and tries to rape her.

Surprise. Jean-Pierre and Benoît are here. They start beating the living shit out of Isabelle's father.

By the time Isabelle puts on her clothes, her father is dead.

The three outcasts go for a sauna. Benoît tells them to not worry about it. They'll go to Mexico and hide out for a while. Bur first he wants to deal with his mother. He wants Jean-Pierre to have sex with his mother and he will record the whole thing and use it to blackmail her.

Benoît knows that his mother likes to visit a barge whe she gets banged by a group of artists and ne'er-do-wells.

Right on cue, Sabine arrives at the boathouse bringing presents for her boy toys.

When Jean-Pierre arrives Sabine is instantly interested in him.

Sabine takes Jean-Pierre to her country estate and they have sex. Benoît captures the whole thing on his camcorder.

After sex, Jean-Pierre shows Sabine the recording and blackmails her.

The three of them go to a club. Isabelle and a brunette (Murielle Rivat) make eye contact, and she goes home with her.

Isabelle and this woman have sex. Jean-Pierre and Benoît have actually followed them in secret.

The lesbian sees Benoît watching from behind a potted plant.

The woman stops pleasuring Isabelle and stands up as Benoît approaches.

Benoît walks up to her and tries to strangle her to death! The woman breaks free and runs out of the house.

The woman hides inside the sauna. Benoît locks her inside and turns up the heat.

The heat becomes too much. The woman collapses to the floor.

Isabelle tells Jean-Pierre what just happened. They rush to the sauna. Jean-Pierre fights with Benoît while Isabelle opens the door to find her lover seemingly dead.

Isabelle pulls her from the sauna; she is limp but might still be alive.

On the run once again, the three of them flee to a rural village.

They stop at a diner. Benoît admires the waitress (Katia Tchenko) and follows her outside where she feeds the chickens.

Benoît clearly has become completely unhinged. He starts attacking the waitress, throwing her down and ripping off her clothes.

He stops when he hears a car peel off.

Benoît goes back inside and finds Isabelle and Jean-Pierre are no longer in the diner. They've clearly fled.

The poor waitress drags herself off the pile of manure and heads to the phone in the diner.

Benoît chases after Isabelle and Jean-Pierre but they leave him in their dust. Benoît returns to the diner.

The waitress calls the police.

With the police hot on his tail Benoît runs far into the countryside until he reaches a tall cliff. On the cliff he finds a tent.

In the tent he finds a hippie and his naked girlfriend (Joëlle Alexandre).

Benoît orders the hippie girl out of the tent, holding her at gunpoint.

The police surround Benoît and he uses the naked hippie as a hostage.

Benoît thinks he's going to get out of here - but he's forgotten about one thing.

The hippie is still in the tent behind him. The hippie runs up on Benoît and takes away his gun. Benoît is finally captured. THE END

VZ6 SCORECARD

I think the Vietnam War created a lot of nihilism and really dark hopeless vibes in cinema around this time. It's almost impossible to describe, certainly not in a few sentences; it's a numb, humorless and mean spirited tone.  It can be interesting to watch, but can become oppressive.  Aside from that, there is a metric fuck ton of sleaze in this film which is reason enough to check this out; nudity for days.

Barbara Sommers was 44 when she got naked in this film.  Sommers had been in film since 1960 and appeared in such works as What's New Pussycat? (1965).  Her last role was actually an episode of China Beach in 1989.  She passed away in 2003.

Murielle Rivat provides some extremely graphic close-ups; damn close to hard core levels as she's having sex with Isabelle. Rivat spends nearly the entirety of her screen time completely nude.  Rivat was only in two films - this was her first, then three years later La communion solennelle. She did voice acting for one film, then appeared in a TV movie twenty years later.  What an odd filmography!  Generally if you are supplying this level of graphic nudity you find your way into other similar sexploititon projects.  But this is it for Rivat if you want to see her naked - but I guess she packs so much nudity into this one film it's still more than enough.

Katia Tchenko has over one hundred film and television roles to her credit - in a career that has lasted up this very year. 

Karin Meier was in a number of TV shows and movies from 1974 to 1975, then more or less disappeared aside from one episode of Musikflipper in 1979.

Joëlle Alexandre was only in four films, all in the seventies.  So, she didn't do much - but you have to hand it to her for being brave enough to do this scene: completely in the buff in front of dozens of actors as police officers atop a windy cliff. 

Of course, Anne Libert is the real star of this film - and she delivers a surprisingly graphic sex scene. Liber was in a ton of other good stuff in the seventies, so we'll talk more about her in upcoming reviews.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 7/10