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France
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1984
Directed by Just Jaeckin
Starring
Tawny Kitaen
Brent Huff
Zabou Breitman
Color
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105 Minutes
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Not Rated
Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC)
Severin Films
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Gwendoline
on DVD
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Jaeckin's
most famous film
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5
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8 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Jon
Allen |
Not
just for cult fanatics, Just Jaeckin's Gwendoline
is something of a mixed bag... but that's not
to say that the film lacks merit. With a comic
flair that enhances the overall silliness, the
film somehow works on the level of pure entertainment.
Like it or not, that's all it really needs.
Jaeckin,
famous for his '70s softcore international hits
Emmanuelle and The
Story of O, made his last film (1984) with
the idea that the sensuality and soft-focus erotica
of the previous decade's work would not find its
way into Gwendoline
without detailing an affable adventure movie first
and foremost. Adapted, albeit mostly in name only,
from the fetishist/bondage comic strip by John
Willie, the film (known in the U.S. as The
Perils of Gwendoline In The Land Of The Yik Yak)
sketches the naive, virginal 'damsel
in distress' character
whose clothes are
always torn, and who might as well be running
through the jungle in stiletto heels and fishnet
stockings.
As
many have noted, Gwendoline
is like a cross between Romancing
The Stone and Raiders
Of The Lost Ark, with the lumbering, sophomoric
comic qualities of 1980's Flash
Gordon. And it starts out that way, at least,
with Jaeckin taking us into the middle of the
action. We are introduced to Gwendoline almost
right away; she and her faithful friend Beth (actress
and director Zabou Breitman) escape a convent
and find themselves in China with the hope of
finding the incredibly rare butterfly that Gwendoline's
father had obsessed over. Tawny
Kitaen, made 'famous' later on as Tom Hanks' would-be
bride in Bachelor Party
as well as her appearances in the MTV videos for
hair metal practitioners Whitesnake, is at the
mercy of a bad script and carries some baggage
but also a very discernible lack of talent. While
she most definitely can be somewhat lauded for
her effort in Jaeckin's film, she ultimately is
a failure, almost as if there were a hyper-realized
vision as Willie's comic strip character, a mental
adolescent who cannot think for herself, a girl/woman
who desperately wants to be with a man but knows
little about how they communicate or what they
are after. Still, it gets better.
After being discovered
by Chinese gangsters on a loading dock, Beth and
Gwendoline are turned over to a crime boss who
will sell them for money. However, the two are
serendipitously saved by Willard (Brent Huff of
Nine
Deaths Of The Ninja), a man who's after money
owed to him by this same crime boss. He unwillingly
rescues the two, but wants nothing to do with
them; he's committed to the shady underworld scene
he calls home. Gwendoline and Beth want to search
for the former's vanished butterfly-hunting father,
and they collectively bribe Willard into helping
them venture into Yik Yak, a land few enter and
where Gwendoline's father disappeared. Early on
in their journey, they discover through a colleague
of Gwendoline's father that he had been sacrificed
by a savage tribe to appease ancient wind spirits.
Willard seems ready to turn back, but the fearlessness
of Gwendoline and Beth shame him into continuing
the trek.
It's in the first 45 minutes
or so that we're served notice of the total lack
of enthusiasm on Willard's behalf. Of course,
this friction is necessary to move
the story along; Jaeckin hopes to underline
their budding relationships with a steady dose
of humor. A scene in which Willard, leading the
others through a jungle, actually convinces the
women to remove their shirts in an effort to use
the garments to capture valuable drinking water
during a rainstorm is completely unnecessary,
yet funny and politically incorrect, as it highlights
what kind of man Willard is and how willing his
nubile female companions are. It may be Jaeckin's
intention to depict a flimsily realized heroine,
blindly attracted to Willard, but it ultimately
dates the film, as Willard and Gwendoline make
advances on each other and yet operate on two
wildly different metaphysical and emotional planes:
Willard, the brute, and Gwendoline, the child.
Willard is especially confusing, as he seemingly
despises Gwendoline and yet, almost clinically
and contradictory to his nature, desires her in
some carnal, passionate way, as if he has every
intention of deflowering a convent escapee from
the beginning. (She is Tawny Kitaen, it
must be said.) Somehow, these two are comparable
to the relationship of Harrison Ford and Kate
Capshaw in Indiana Jones
And The Temple of Doom, ripe with comic
machismo and an unnerving attraction that's bound
to be consummated in the end.
Still, what makes it work is
the change of locale. Jaeckin lacks a real energy
in direction and obviously can't get the best
from his actors, but the exotic scenery and beautifully
shot images allow the three to move with relative
ease to their final destination, all while maintaining
a weirdly compassionate relationship in the face
of danger. The above-average production values
are something to commend and the music, while
also dated, suits the proceedings well. Sounding
almost like post-New Wave symphonic Europop, it
compliments the more action-packed scenes and
gives the film an almost Brechtian grandeur.
An hour in, the threesome escape
the same jungle tribe that sealed the fate of
Gwendoline's father and
descend into a huge fissure in the earth.
Here they discover he fabled butterfly but, at
virtually the same moment, Beth is kidnapped (again),
this time by a leather bikini-clad female soldier
from an underground (literally) empire of Amazons
ruled by an evil queen (buxom Bernadette LaFont)
—
a world of torture devices and fetishistic
costumes influenced by the designs of Fritz Lang
and H.R. Geiger. The Queen's domain is a converted
cave above an ancient volcano that, according
to legend, will one day erupt and loose a fabulous
treasure in diamonds embedded at its core.
The last half hour of Gwendoline
is a visual masterpiece, even if many of its set-pieces
are clumsy. Jaeckin again is distressingly off-kilter
with his direction; the legend that dictates the
Queen's kingdom is confusing, but he allows enough
room for slapstick action that these missteps
are almost forgivable. Towards the end, we are
fully aware that with Gwendoline having to save
Willard (and Beth) from the peril of the Queen
via a bout with the Queen's warriors, our leads
are invariably in love. The fast pacing and frequent
injections of comic relief (as unsuccessful as
some of them are) permit the viewer to thoroughly
enjoy the interactions of the fearless trio.
Gwendoline
is not without its faults. The acting is stiff
and Jaeckin, quite honestly, is better suited
for the film as a cinematographer. But it's fun,
and as a cult film it succeeds with room to spare,
due to the humor, intentional or not, as well
as the laughably inconsistent line readings and
performances. For a film with such a proud display
of relative sleaze and exploitation standbys (gratuitous
nudity, awful dialogue and even worse dubbing,
bad fight scenes), it plays almost like a real
adventure film —
especially
in the film's last quarter, the 'chariot race'
scene in particular.
The music, exotic locales, and beautiful camera
work are enough to make it worth watching again.
And what comes across more than anything are the
aural and visual pleasures; even the interplay
between Willard, Beth, and Gwendoline is entertaining.
Apparently, what's missing from the original release
is not softcore melodrama, but rather, an abundance
of fight scenes that are happily restored in this,
the director's cut. It only gives notice to a
film that strives for instant Euro-action status,
one that can be viewed over and over with the
fun of a comic adventure on which it's loosely
based.
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Released by Severin in June
2006, the Gwendoline
DVD contains a beautiful anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer
(the
colors are simply breathtaking)
and two first-class 5.1 audio options, French
and (dubbed) English. The disc's special
features —
chiefly the on-camera interview of Jaeckin and
his audio commentary —
are designed, in some ways, to give the impression
that the movie has enough grace to elevate it
beyond cultdom. It's evident that the director
is proud of his last film although fully aware
of its inherent faults. In the interview featurette
he discusses his plans to make an adventure film
that would, or could, be seen as a separate entity
from his softcore works of the 1970s. Jaeckin
reveals that they were able to stretch out the
relatively small budget farther than initially
planned, allowing for additional spending on some
of the production and props in the film's second
half. Contained in the commentary is some interesting
info concerning Tawny Kitaen not related to the
production of Gwendoline,
as well as the pictures from her Lui magazine
layout inspired by the movie. The stills, taken
by Jaeckin and presented in gallery form on this
disc, serve notice of the gaudiness of the film
but also his strengths as a photographer. The
commentary is of special note because Jaeckin
does not override the movie with superfluous chatter
but rather lets the viewer pay close attention
and enjoy the film as he injects certain insights
with appropriate timing.
The most interesting
feature, and perhaps the most difficult, is the
Kinsey Institute interview with John Willie, recorded
in 1962, in the last year of his life. Willie
was noted for his work on Sweet Gwendoline
but also his love of alcohol. He had by this time
developed a brain tumor, and that is perhaps why
the man sounds virtually possessed, knowing possibly
that he was in his final stages. He sounds thoroughly
inebriated while intimating his love of women
—
specifically naive women in heels and stockings,
always in trouble —
and how his interest in fetishism informed many
of his adolescent experiences. It's 43 minutes
of poorly recorded sound, but also something of
a revelation: a man aware of his demons and accomplishments
and yet one who might not have been conscious
of his own cult status.
12/15/07
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