Camille 2000 (Radley Metzger, 1969)

Before taking a turn into hardcore as Henry Paris, Radley Metzger made hyper-stylish, Euro softcore porn (made by an American!). Camille 2000 is my first Metzger film, and while I can't call it a great film, I thorougly enjoyed the voyeuristic trip into the swinging 1960s. Marguerite (also known as Camille, though I didn't really catch why) meets Armand, suave American bachelor in Rome, and they fall in love and have a lot of sex. There's the basic plot right there, although there is more to it than that, as the movie is based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas. The veneer is all happening sex and drugs, but there is a darker thread of self-destruction and death underneath all the sparkle. The sex is filmed in that perfect, soft-lensed focus of 1970s exploitation films, and although it isn't patricularly arousing or revealing (I've never seen sex by two people laying perfectly still on a bed, but whatever), it is very timely piece. The acting isn't bad, in fact, I rather liked Marguerite and how she was handled as a woman who takes care of herself by any means necessary, yet is soft and incredibly vulnerable on the inside. But if you only need one reason to see Camille 2000, there is a prison-themed party, complete with a sex jail. Seriously. This movie is nothing if not a suggestion of the end of the swinging 60s (just check out the ending for proof of that); still, it made me want to be a loose, rich, drug-addicted celebutante in Europe. Well, maybe not. 7/10

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