Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Immoral Tales Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 17, 2014

Walerian Borowczyk's "Immoral Tales" (1974) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; longer version of the film; new interview program featuring cinematographer Noël Véry and production manager Dominique Duverge-Segretin; two versions of Walerian Borowczyk's documentary "A Private Collection" (1973); and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Ecstasy

Immoral Tales is available individually and as part of Arrow Video's Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection Blu-ray box set. Included with this review are photos of the individual release and the box set, which comes with an exclusive illustrated book featuring new essays and landmark articles as well as a collection of short stories by the Polish director.

Arrow Video’s Blu-ray release of Walerian Borowczyk’s Contes Immoraux a.k.a. Immoral Tales (1974) offers two different cuts of the film. The first and shorter one features the four stories that also appeared on the now out of print R1 DVD release Anchor Bay produced back in 2000. They are La Maree a.k.a. The Tide, Therese Philosophe, Erzebet Bathory, and Lucrezia Borgia. The longer version, referred to as The L’Age d’Or Cut, features a fifth story, La Bete a.k.a. The Beast, which the Polish director later on developed into a feature film. The feature film was completed in 1975, a year after Immoral Tales.

In The Tide, which is set in present days (sometime during the early 70s), a handsome boy (a very young Fabrice Luchini, In the House, Intimate Strangers) and his cousin (Lise Danvers) visit a secluded beach. There they play a game and the boy seduces the girl. While initially it seems like the boy is the stronger player, it is actually the girl that allows the game to continue and in the process exposes the boy’s insecurity.

Therèse Philosophe is about a pious young girl (Charlotte Alexandra, A Real Young Girl) who angers her mother and gets locked up in a room for three days and three nights. There the girl begins experimenting with her body and discovers sexual bliss.

In Erzebet Bathory, the notorious countess (Paloma Picasso) and a group of soldiers visit Nyitra County in Hungary. They seize young virgins and then promptly return to Bathory’s castle. Soon after, the girls are stripped naked and ordered to wash in a giant bathroom. Before Bathory joins them, they drink a special potion and go berserk. The bloody finale of this short has to be seen to be believed.

The controversial The Beast offers a fascinating interpretation of the popular story about the legendary beast of Gevaudan. The beast appears somewhere in the Massif Central region and attacks a young and beautiful woman (Sirpa Lane, The Beast in Space). But instead of killing her, the horny beast rapes her -- or at least initially it appears that it does. (French director Christophe Gans also used portions of the popular story about the beast of Gevaudan in his blockbuster Brotherhood of the Wolf).

In the fifth and final story, Lucrezia Borgia (Florence Bellamy) and her husband, Giovanni Sforza, Count of Pesaro, visit her father, Pope Alexander VI (Jacopo Berinizi) and brother, Cardinal Cesare Borgia (Lorenzo Berinizi). During a ceremony, the Pope reveals the impotence of his son-in-law and humiliates him. Then following an incestuous ménage à troi, Lucrezia becomes pregnant.

The five stories are explicit and at times quite disturbing but unquestionably thought-provoking. All of them, including The Beast, satirize politically correct attitudes towards sexuality and target various taboo subjects that are typically feared or intentionally avoided. Light humor occasionally sneaks in, but unlike the films in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Trilogy of Life for instance these short stories -- possibly with the exception of The Tide -- maintain a consistently serious tone.

Stylistically, the five stories look very different. For example, The Beast has a notably dreamy aura, while the The Tide has an artful elegance that reminds of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Eden and After. This should not be too surprising, however, as Borowczyk shot each story with a different cinematographer: Bernard Daillencourt, Guy Durban, Noel Very, Michel Zolat, and Marcel Grignon.

The emphasis on detail is quite extraordinary. In the case of Erzebet Bathory one could easily argue that it is also somewhat intimidating. In this story, the final sequence where the Picasso is seen bathing was actually shot with real pig blood.

Immoral Tales Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Walerian Borowczyk's Immoral Tales arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video.

Like the rest of the films in Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection, Immoral Tales has been exclusively restored in 2K by the British distributors. While some age-related limitations remain -- such as minor scratches, some stains (on The Beast) and a few specks popping up here and there -- I could not be happier with the final result. Indeed, detail and clarity are consistently very pleasing, while color reproduction is now far more convincing. The final story, Lucrezia Borgia, looks particularly healthy and vibrant. I would also like to mention that all five stories are now properly framed, making it far easier to appreciate the visual designs as well as the precise camera movement. (This is especially true with the tightly framed Therèse Philosophe). There are no traces of problematic digital or sharpening adjustments. Overall image stability is very good. Lastly, there are no encoding or compression anomalies to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Immoral Tales Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 1.0 (with small portions of Hungarian and Italian). For the record, Arrow Video have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature.

While the five stories were shot under different conditions, clarity and depth are consistently excellent. The period soundtracks are well balanced with the dialog -- there are no sudden spikes or drops in dynamic activity. The dialog is clean and stable and the random sounds and noises are always easy to identify. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or digital distortions. The English translation is excellent.

Immoral Tales Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction - filmed introduction by Walerian Borowczyk expert Daniel Bird. Music with English text. (6 min).

• Immoral Tales: L'Age d'Or Cut (1974) - presented here is the longer cut of Immoral Tales, which features the short story La Bete. (126 min, 1080p).

• Love Reveals Itself: Making Immoral Tales (2014) - in this new featurette, cinematographer Noël Véry and production manager Dominique Duverge-Segretin discuss the production history of Immoral Tales, the casting process (Isabelle Adjani was apparently approached to play the girl in The Tide but she refused the offer), the framing of key sequences, etc. In French, with optional English subtitles. (17 min).

• Boro Brunch: Crew Reunion (2014) - presented here is footage from a lovely reunion of people who contributed to different films directed by Walerian Borowczyk. In English and French, with optional English subtitles where necessary. (8 min).

• A Private Collection (1973) - Walerian Borowczyk's documentary about a truly remarkable collection of erotic memorabilia. In French, with optional English subtitles. (13 min).

• A Private Collection: Oberhausen Cut (1973) - an alternate version of Walerian Borowczyk's documentary, adapted with the co-operation of the Polish director's regular collaborator, Dominique Duverge-Segretin. In French, with optional English subtitles. (15 min).

• Trailer - original trailer for Immoral Tales. Music only. (3 min).

• Cover - reversible sleeve with original poster designs

Immoral Tales Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

What a fantastic presentation of Immoral Tales, Walerian Borowczyk's first erotic feature (though it should be noted that the Polish director never considered it to be erotic). From all of the films in the Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection box set I think that this film most clearly demonstrates how incredibly talented the director was as all five stories in Immoral Tales are drastically different. I sincerely hope that this release is a success for Arrow Video so that we can see similar presentations of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne and Lulu. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.