Camille 2000 Review

• 1st Mar 2013

Camille 2000 is the earliest of the three films by director Radley Metzger to be released by Arrow Video; the others being The Lickerish Quartet (1970) and Score (1974). I wouldn’t say that any of these films were any worse or any better than the other. But I would say that if push came to shove then The Lickerish Quartet was the marginally better and more interesting of the three films. Whichever, Camille 2000 is undeniably daring and taboo for the date it was made with nudity-a-plenty; it is still very cautious in displaying any pubic hair, unlike Metzger’s later films. Viewing all three films close together there is clearly a journey to these films becoming more explicit with pressures of more hardcore porn becoming the norm and even receiving general release by the mid-1970s.

The story centres on a young man called Armand (Nino Castelnuovo) who meets a wealthy woman, Marguerite (Danièle Gaubert) at a party in Rome. After he begins his eroto-centric relationship with her he bores his friends about how much in love with her he is. In time it becomes apparent that she blows hot and cold with him leading him to become even more obsessed by her. When she blows him out on a dinner he has arranged, he travels to her house and catches her in flagrante as it were with another man. He returns the favour with another woman who disrobes in front of her and has written in lipstick on her back the word “whore”. She then admits that she has been a high-class prostitute and although he reluctantly accepts this she begins dating a kinky comte but only after she has been warded off by the Armand’s father.

The plot has a literary source in Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel ‘La Dame aux Camelias’ and transports it from the 19^th century belle époque up to fashionable la dolce vita Rome with fashionistas, see through plastic chairs, gay clothes designers and kinky wardrobes. The names remain the same in the film and the film does not try to hide its literary source. The swinging sixties also transfers Marguerite from being a consumptive to a heroin addict but she remains as a courtesan. Despite the erotic subject matter, this soft porn Euro film by an American director (whose films appear to use English even when dubbed as the main language by its European cast) is very typical Euro soft porn in which the sex scenes are played out in slow motion to a funky soundtrack (like the more hardcore porn films made in the 1970s) and the rest of the nudity is carried out during orgies and extravagant parties including the erotic striptease and grinding by shapely stripper and performer Sylviana at a party scene. This scene was originally cut from the film but the extended erotic strip is restored as one of the extras on the disc, as is one of the love making scenes between Marguerite and Armand. The film is grossly overlong and would have benefitted with about half an hour shaved off while already mentioned the sex scenes are replete with what could be seen as hilariously clichéd shots such as Armand giving Marguerite the orgasm of her life played put to its funky score and a vase of roses shot in and out of focus. However, the set designs and clothing (even the tacky ones) are the stars here placing this film deep inside Austin Powers time capsule – groovy baby.

The source print for Camille 2000 has been beautifully cleaned up and among the extras can be seen the original print followed by the new cleaned up version. The cracks, pops and scratches have all been neatly eradicated. In addition this is the longest version of the film that has been seen in the UK. As with the other films there is a very chatty commentary by Metzger and film historian Michael Bowen who discuss the film, as well as lots of on-location shooting footage which includes discussions about tensions on the set from some of the peripheral characters, as well as trailers for all three of the Metzger films released by Arrow. All of this together gives the film (and by default all the films) a sense of historical place otherwise and previously neglected.
Chris Hick