Tendres Cousines [French-only] [Uk region]

I have first heard and seen this title years ago in Playboy. They had an article on it with some stills from the movie. The next time, was collection of stills from the Movie plus addition stills in a coffee table book. I finally caught the movie on Cinemax and had taped it. It was years later that I was able to buy a Tape and now I have the DVD. This movie was enjoyable on several levels. One, it had an element of comedy in it which kind of tempered the darknesss of the times. It had a pretty decent, although maybe a tad shallow, story. The DVD quality was very good all things considered. Unlike the others I have, A Summer in St.Tropez. Bilitis, & Premiers Desirs, this one was not through New Star. Anja Shute ( Julia ) was, in my opinion, the show stealer. She is a cutie. She was also able to show a range of emotions, which was good. Julian wanted Julia, but she wanted Charles and Charles wanted anything in skirts. The female hired help had a thing for Julian ( lucky kid ). It sounds a bit convoluted, but isn't really. Just life on the farm I guess. There is Nudity, but not an over abundance of it and it is done tastefully. There is also some implied sex. For me, it is a fun movie that I still like to watch from time to time.

If one is familiar with David Hamilton's movies, they already know that all are short on story and dialogue, and strong on soft erotic portrayal of the characters (especially the female characters). So, briefly, its the story of the people in a french village at the beginning of the first world war, and the impact of the war's beginning on this village, and especially on the coming of age of the 1 young man who is suddenly the only "man" remaining in the village after the other men go off to war.

Interesting coming of age story of Julien, and his love for his cousin, who loves someone else. Along the way, he gets "experience" in the ways of love, from many women. There's a bit of love in the air, and everyone, nearly, seems to get in on the action. Not a bad little film, not a classic, with attractive people. I was lucky enough to find a region "0" disc that would play in my "Cyberhome" disc player, as this might not, even though it's region free, and most of the previous versions were Region 2, which would definitely not do so. [Aside: I understand, to a point, the idea of region coding, to protect copyright and all, but with the access people have nowadays, on the internet, it seems a bit pointless.] Anyway, a decent little film. [Not for those who might be offended by sex and nudity.]

Ok, picture this. You are 14 years old and live on a farm. War breaks out and all the men on the farm and the surrounding village are sent off to fight. You find yourself surrounded by women and girls. As the only "man" around, naturally, you start getting a lot of attention. So far, this sounds like every teenage boy's fantasy, right? Too bad life is not that simple. Sometimes, the attention you're getting is not coming from the one you want. And the one you want, wants none of your attentions. Our young man, Julien, is in love with his cousin. But the cousin is in love with an older man, who went off to war. She does not take him seriously. That is the plot of this movie. Lots of teenage romance, some light drama, and a pretty good dose of comedy. Highly recommended.

I'm not quite sure why it seems to be impossible to find a movie within this genre that does not intermit either slap-stick comedy or overt violence. This film would have been better without the added attempt at stupid humor. The story is quite interesting and plausible. The eroticism is more romantic than explicit.

Another David Hamilton film, even better than the previous offering, I highly recommend it, but you will need a region 2 or all region DVD player to watch it. The film is worth the expence!

***PAL***; BEWARE

Saw the original, and loved it. My then girlfriend liked it too, artsy, but non-threatening. This transfer wasn't a great one, so it remained very grainy, where the original was just soft-focus. Otherwise a beautiful indy-style film from an outstanding photographer. Nudity? Grow up, it's what I remember from past girlfriends, and I grew up mostly in the military in the Conservative South.

David Hamilton

It is not a modern hard core blue movie , so buyer beware.

Le DVD est bien en version originale française. C'est une gentille comédie érotique avec de jolies et jeunes actrices. Du charme et de l'humour, la qualité est très bonne. Je conseille ce produit.

good

After watching Premiers Desirs, I had high hopes for this film from photographer-turned-director, David Hamilton, but it seems that although he has set up a series of sumptuous set-pieces, the result is a jerky sort of narrative with some scenes seemingly cut short for no apparent reason. The BBFC website says that all previous cuts made have been waived for this DVD release, so this looks like the complete film. The film is set in France just prior to the outbreak of WWII and fourteen year old Julien has been left all with the females of the household when all the men are called up for military service. Julien becomes the man of the house in more ways than one - lucky Julien! Soft-focus camerawork and dream-like sunny settings together with erotic scenarios should have given us a masterpiece in erotic cinema but the editing lets it down. Also, the transfer to DVD is not so good so the soft-focus images become even softer - not good. The DVD reviewed her is the UK edition. Run time is 88 minutes and aspect ratio is 1.66:1. Language is French with English subtitles. There are no extras.