3. Immoral Tales (1974)
Directed by Polish Director Walerian Borowczyk who mainly worked in France, Immoral Tales is an anthology film featuring four tales of sex and lust. Borowczyk was once the darling of the arthouse scene, but as his career went on, he started to deal more with erotica and his critics accused him of wallowing in the gutter. I disgree. His erotic films are not mere sex films. They have that arthouse edge and beautiful direction that sets them apart. Plus they are fiercely cerebral. Immoral Tales is no exception. The first story is about two cousins who go down to the beach on their bikes. The male cousin cajoles his female counterpart into sex play and nudity. The tide is coming in. The male cousin wants the girl to perform fellatio on him so that his orgasm will coincide with the very highest tide. As she is performing the deed, he talks a lot of technical stuff about the moon and the tides. The next story has a young girl locked up in a room for apparently loitering after Mass. She explores the room which has pornographic books and she masturbates vigorously with several cucumbers. Whenever she gets let out of the room we see her walking through a field and being raped by an indigent country man. The Third tale is the story of Elizabeth Bathory, a Countess who rounds up the most attractive young girls from neighbouring villages and slaughters them, using their fresh blood to bathe in, in an attempt to preserve her youthful looks. The final tale involves the incestuous couplings between Lucrezia Borgia and her male relatives - her father was the Pope. There are a lot of arresting erotic images in Immoral Tales. The director's usual fixation with female auto-eroticism is in attendance - this time with cucumbers. And boy does that girl get through those cucumbers! There is a lot of extended nudity in the Elizabeth Bathory section with the unwitting victims taking a good long shower and soaping each other up. The Lucrezia Borgia section is just out and out blasphemy but pretty sexy blasphemy. The mood of the film is enhanced by the authentic period music and costumes. There is a delightful twist in the Elizabeth Bathory segment which serves the murderous cow right. An arty, erotic slice of cinema. Not sleazy as the director's detractors would say about it.