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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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6
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9 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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On
something of an Erin Brown kick of late, I
now turn my attention to the last film she shot
billed as "Misty Mundae": Tony Marsiglia's
Chantal. Lensed back-to-back
with Lust
for Dracula in 2003, it was eventually released
late last year in a two-disc DVD edition. The
movie is a showcase for her dramatic acting talent,
a capacity never utilized in all those softcore
sex spoofs she appeared in. Playing an innocent
waif abused by a procession of creeps and perverts
in Hollywood, Ms. Brown (or Misty, for the purposes
of this review) demonstrates she has the chops
for serious, demanding roles —
especially ones requiring
copious nudity.
18-year
old Chantal (Misty) arrives in the City of Angels
with only the clothes on her back (a somewhat
frumpy but nonetheless rump-clinging dress), a
single suitcase, and very little money. In her
deluded mind she believes
she has the makings of a top model or movie star.
Instead she's in for the rudest of awakenings,
a series of psyche-shattering encounters with
the scum of the earth. Practically everyone she
meets, be they male or female, is keen to do her
dirty. Manipulated, humiliated, degraded and abused
(even literally pissed on), poor, pitiful Chantal
is eventually reduced to eating from the garbage
in desperation. Only the intervention of a tough
but empathetic hooker (Julian Wells, Dr.
Jekyll & Mistress Hyde) saves her from
the abyss. But for how long? Can Chantal afford
to trust the only friend she has?
Two
key factors will likely determine whether you
have a positive reaction to this film. Both
involve Misty Mundae.
First
and foremost, are you a fan? If so then Chantal
is essential viewing. As Misty acolytes
know, her presence is almost always the best thing
about nearly every title in her extensive filmography,
which quite frankly includes a lot of outright
crap. Her naturalistic, girl-next-door charm appeals
to many of us (whether or not she's naked);
those attributes are front and center here. To
see her given a chance to truly act for
a change is gratifying.
Secondly, can you accept the Chantal character
as interpreted by her? Our
tragic heroine is painfully naive —
unbelievably so, really, if not for the fact that
Misty's portrayal strongly suggests that Chantal
had mental problems before
landing in Hollywood. The script never
clearly establishes this (Marsiglia has a penchant
for leaving much to the viewer's interpretation),
but the lead performance certainly communicates
the idea. Were it not so, I feel the audience
could well lose all sympathy for Chantal, dismissing
her as a bubbleheaded idiot who gets what she
deserves for being so stupid. In that case the
film simply isn't going to work —
your thumb will repeatedly jab the FWD key to
zip through everything but the naughty bits.
Although I think it would've
been better to unequivocally depict Chantal as
mentally troubled from the get-go, Misty makes
her believable. She emotes her ass off in this
movie, running the gamut from irrepressible joy
to Beneath the Planet of Blackest Despair and
back again... Director Marsiglia had every confidence
in Misty's thesping abilities, since he often
employs handheld close-ups of her facial expressions
to convey the story's emotional impact. That confidence,
I believe, was amply rewarded. She's very good,
particularly in the most difficult scenes.
Marsigila's
films for E.I./POP Cinema are more accurately
categorized as erotica rather than sexploitation,
but this isn't to say elements of the latter aren't
present. A ritualistic tryst between Julie Strain
and Seduction Cinema stalwart Darian Caine —
predatory lesbian photographers who put on a lewd
show for the shocked Chantal prior to forcing
her to perform as well —
is gratuitous and smacks of padding, but in this
case it's great to see statuesque late night cable
legend Strain (Sorceress,
BattleQueen 2020)
back in action. Counterbalancing this obvious
bit of red meat for the horndogs are the film's
other major nude scenes, which take completely
different tacks. When Chantal is made to strip,
then pose and have sex with Andrea Davis, she
breaks down in despairing shame, submitting against
her will —
a sequence that is meant to disturb the viewer
rather than titillate. (Your reaction may vary,
of course.) The sex scene between Misty and Julian
Wells, on the other hand, is genuinely erotic.
Chantal discovers she can find pleasurable fulfillment
in girl-on-girl lovin', which Marsiglia chooses
to shoot mostly with close-ups of faces (instead
of writhing body parts) in the tradition of Joe
Sarno.
Chantal
is Marsiglia's most linear, conventionally structured
work to date. Yet he can't resist a few surrealistic
touches here and there, notably in scenes taking
place in the filthy fleabag hotel where Chantal
lives for part of the story. (She finds a broken
mannequin in her room, a multitude of daggers
stuck in its torso; the director's appearance
as the wheezing, tubercular desk clerk wouldn't
be out of place in one of David Lynch's weirder
films.) As with their collaborations on Lust
for Dracula and Sinful,
Marsiglia and cinematographer Dang Lenawae work
wonders with a paucity of time and money at their
disposal, delivering a professional-looking film
with artistic flair. Viewing Chantal
I again had to wonder what these guys could be
capable of given a million bucks and a month-long
shooting schedule (rather than low six figures
and less than a week).
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Chantal was shot
in 16mm and thus looks grainier than a 35mm feature,
a fact deliberately enhanced by the "bleached"
effect applied to the color scheme in post-production.
A stylized look is achieved, one which generally
serves the film well but comes with its own particular
baggage: bright outdoor scenes look "hot"
and often harsh, as does the light streaming through
unshaded windows (in the photography studio, for
example). Within these parameters the anamorphic
1.78:1 presentation is a pleasing one, to match
a solid Dolby 2.0 stereo sound mix.
Not
exactly a bargain-priced deal, POP Cinema's two-disc
set at least comes packed with a substantial
roster of supplements:
Disc
1 extras naturally focus on the main feature and/or
its star. Of special interest to Misty fans will
be the audio commentary she participates in with
Tony Marsiglia, a candid, revealing discussion
in which she talks about the emotional breakdown
she suffered while shooting the film and her subsequent
decision to leave the world of sexploitation behind,
her work on Masters of Horror and the difficulty
she's had transitioning into mainstream film roles.
(Her fear and loathing of auditions, she admits,
isn't exactly helping her career.) She and Marsiglia
also chat about the filming of Chantal
and their previous collaborations. A second commentary
track is provided, teaming Marsiglia with producer
Michael Raso; it's an interesting back-and-forth
concerned with the challenges of making a microbudget
film. A pair of brief featurettes —
The Making of Chantal (10 min.) and Camera
Test (2 min.) — chronicle
aspects of the production while underway. The
selection of Misty Mundae trailers
(seven nudity-filled promos) is practically a
given for an E.I./POP Cinema DVD.
Disc
2 contains an entire feature-length film as a
bonus —
the 1969 B&W
Nick Philips skin flick Chantal
(in surprisingly good shape), which served as
"inspiration" for the Misty vehicle.
It's actually pretty dull in its peekaboo pretensions,
more valuable as a time capsule than prurient
entertainment. Director
Philips (Gunilla,
Dr.
Christina of Sweden) talks about the film
in an audio commentary moderated by grindhouse
sleaze expert 42nd Street Pete, and also appears
solo in a 5-minute interview featurette. Continuing
the time capsule theme is These Girls Are Fools
(20 min.), a ragged-looking "nudie cutie"
short from 1956 about small town gals who end
up as topless models in the big city. A trio of
trailer vaults toss in a little more Misty
and some "retro"
offerings such as Joe Sarno's Daddy
Darling and Confessions
of a Young American Housewife.
An
illustrated 12-page booklet of liner notes, written
by Ed Grant of Media Funhouse, expounds on both
the '69 and '07 incarnations of Chantal.
3/21/08
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