THREE IMMORAL WOMEN (LES HEROINES DES MAL)
France, 1981, 95 minutes, Colour.
Marina Pierro, Gaelle Legrand, Pascale Christophe.
Directed by Walerian Borowczyk.
Three Immoral Women is yet another film in the strange career of Walerian Borowczyk, the Polish director who works in France. After making a number of experimental shorts and Goto, Island of Love, he moved into more big-budget films, making his mark with the mediaeval fable Blanche. With the interest in sexuality (and its relationship to religion, tradition, society, he moved into the field of sexual fable and allegory. He made a collection of stories
called Immoral Tales, moving through the Renaissance period to 19th. century France and modern times. His subsequent films were variations on these themes: The Beast, The Streetwalker, Behind Convent Walls, Lulu.
Many reviewers were disgusted by his films and branded them ‘Sexploitation'. While there are certainly exploitive elements in them, Borowczyk, in his eccentric way, does raise questions about the place of sexuality in relationships, in society, but especially in repression in the psyche. Borowczyk has an eye for detail as well as a capacity for presenting baroque images on the screen, of a seemingly hermetically sealed world, whether it be of the Renaissance or of 19th. century France. The dazzling visual impact draws a non-verbal response from the audience, which makes his films harder to deal with than the ordinary presentation and exploration of sexual themes.
The three stories in the present film are of mixed value: Margherita presents a peasant girl whom Raphael loves after spying on her with her fiance Tomaso. The film blends Raphael's painting career, especially on Madonnas, with his
affairs and infatuation with beautiful women. There is a background of jealousy, especially with a banker spying on Margherita - who then is tempted to poison Raphael. She poisons both men and, with her wealth, returns to her fiance. This is a lavishly cynical story about men exploiting women and, of course, being vanquished by them.
The second story, Marceline, is more bizarre but more persuasive. A childish girl who clings to her pet rabbit (somewhat erratically) is horrified when her parents serve the rabbit for a meal. As she crumbles with this experience, she visits a delivery boy, Petrus, thinking that he is a butcher and that he might help. She is raped. Petrus, thinking he has killed Marceline hangs himself. The effect on Marceline is devastating and she returns home to kill her parents. In this striking fable, Borowczyk shows so much of basic human drives, repression, violence and vindictiveness.
The third story, Marie, is less persuasive and is set in the present. Marie is held to ransom. She is tracked down by her dog, who attacks and emasculates the kidnapper and then does the same to Marie's husband. Marie embraces the dog in the finale. Of all three stories, the last seems the most exploitive (perhaps because it is set in the present whereas costume distances thee response of the audience ).
Borowczyk certainly has obsessions - they are not for every audience but they make their own bizarre contribution to the explorations of repression of the screen.
