Immoral Tales (1974)

When debating the difference between art and pornography, supporters of either side of the argument often fail to see that the two are far from mutually exclusive. Pornography is designed to titillate; art (in my own humble definition) is something that stimulates the mind. Why can't both co-exist? What this film achieves is simple: it titillates the (male) viewer with plenty of female nudity, an extended female masturbation scene, and depictions of various sex acts; simultaneously, it raises disturbing yet interesting theories on the natures of both male and female sexuality, with an emphasis on the relationship between sex and power. The film is divided into four episodes. The first deals with a youth (played, surprisingly enough, by the brilliant French actor Fabrice Luchini) using his family position to persuade his slightly younger cousin to perform a sexual act on him, and as potentially unsettling as that sounds, it proves the least confronting of the four episodes contained in this film. This is not to say that the film as a whole is a disturbing experience, as a simple synopsis does not do it justice: murder, rape and incest are all present, but such worries are mostly shielded from the viewer's sight, so much that one story could almost be described as Salo meets Bilitis. Immoral Tales is bizarre, erotic, and more than a little off. Yet, it simply couldn't have been made in any other decade than the 70s, and that fact alone makes it worth watching.