Longtime admirers of each other's achievements, erotic entrepreneurs Max Pécas and Radley Metzger finally joined forces in 1975 with former funding latter's awesome adaptation of Catherine Robbe-Grillet's pseudonymous penned (as "Jean de Berg") S&M romance THE IMAGE through his Paris-based production facility Les Films du Griffon. In return, Metzger would loan out that film's luminous leading lady as well as girlfriend throughout most of the decade Mary Mendum a/k/a "Rebecca Brooke" for Max's own entrance into the explicit arena (times demanding...) with FELICIA. In France, where l'amour comes naturally, Pécas saw no need for a name change to take the pornographic plunge. Casting aside their repressive government in favor of a supposedly more liberal alternative unexpectedly clamping down the Continental adult industry with surplus taxes and stringent regulation, French fornication filmmakers enjoyed a brief breath of freedom as powers that be shifted between 1974-76 when just about everything seemed possible without the social stigma that was soon to become their part. For Pécas personally, this meant a grand total of two sexually graphic efforts, the other being the unapologetically single-minded LUXURE.
Apart from a perfect representation of people's perceptions about Europorn, FELICIA offers the sole explicit footage in existence actually performed (as opposed to body double inserts) by Joe Sarno's magnificent muse Mendum. Mesmerized by her elegant beauty, backed up by considerable thespian skill, a combo all too rare to squander, he was to feature her in five of his finest films. Rumors flew hard and fast as to what became of her after she had ended an otherwise exceptional career by appearing in questionable drive-in fodder, the most persistent perpetuated by erstwhile co-star Jamie Gillis claiming she had married a Muslim and converted to Islam, living a life of quiet obedience ! The truth, as usual, proved much more mundane. Happily wed into peaceful anonymity, she kept in touch with the Sarnos all these years and finally came out of hiding last year to provide an on-camera interview, looking relaxed and ravishing, for Seduction Cinema's DVD reissue of ABIGAIL LESLEY IS BACK IN TOWN.
As Metzger "lost" Mendum to Pécas, he (almost) gained all 5ft of Felicia herself, the formidable if fleeting Béatrice Harnois whose misgivings concerning her erotically explicit employment finally got the better of her, bowing out of MISTY BEETHOVEN at the last minute ! FELICIA remains as close to the respectability of "real" cinema she ever got, having been shot and widely shown soft-core on 35mm stock with 16mm insert footage seamlessly integrated for the more permissive picture palaces. Leading man Jean Roche pushed the envelope in terms of full frontal male nudity but refusing to go all the way. He called upon the services of a stunt double to accomplish his sexual performance, in this case Becky's IMAGE co-star Carl Parker.
Rare in adult, this hinges entirely on the thespian and carnal prowess of its three leads, additional characters appearing but peripherally to the film's plot, on the surface simply another rehash of sex cinema's staple story of the solid family unit disrupted, spiced up and subsequently reconciled by a manipulative interloper, in this case 14-year old Felicia (with Harnois convincingly looking the part, although 20 at the time) coming to stay with her aunt and uncle in the French seaside resort of Deauville while her mother recovers from a breakdown in some Swiss sanatorium. Fidgety on the film's age and blood tie issues, the English language version omits all references to the character's tender years and reduces Paul and Gabrielle to mere friends of the family ! He's a teacher, popular with and practically stalked by one of his nubile students (perky Nicole Daudet), and she's a photographer of partially clad cuties which excuses the presence of models Marlène Myller and Eva Khris around the house. Providing the best of the non star-related action, both starlets engage in Sapphic slurping at the behest of the blackmailing little brat who has caught them surreptitiously trying on Gaby's gaudy costume jewelery. The only other sex footage comes courtesy of baby-faced wannabe stud Ray Prevet (also in the perfunctory Les Monteuses by "Richard Stephen" a/k/a Dominique Goult who directed the troubled Killer Truck with Klaus Kinski and...Maria Schneider !) as Ronny who's about Felicia's age and every bit as clueless though claiming extensive experience.
Educational voyeurism and teenage fumbling can only take a girl so far, setting the scene for Paul and Gaby's initiation of their little niece...or is it the other way round ? The bulk of the narrative concerns Felicia's premeditated attempts at seducing her elders, alternating between clumsy (flashing her private bits) and sophisticated (feigning injury), picking up on Gabrielle's suppressed same sex attraction and taking advantage of Paul's frustration once their liaison literally leaves him the odd man out. Harnois's playful insouciance, reinforcing the impressions she's making up as she goes along, effectively takes the sting out of a character that could otherwise come across as conniving. Felicia may deserve a sound spanking (which she certainly receives, fear not !) but she basically remains an innocently curious Lolita venturing into territory subsequent political correctness would soon deem out of bounds. Building erotic tension with a master's hand, Max almost makes the cumulative pressure too much to bear. This aspect along with the production's overall classiness makes the film perfect for couples as long as neither partner's too freaked out by the underage insinuations that come with the intrigue. If nothing else, the lustrous lensing by Roger Fellous - the hardest working DoP in '70s French XXX films, for good reason - should go a long way to take the edge off, along with the soothing strains of a lush orchestral score by longtime Pécas collaborator Derry Hall. Very much a "real" film with all that entails in terms of plot, production and acting, Felicia solidly holds its ground as one of the finest European adult movies ever made.
Apart from a perfect representation of people's perceptions about Europorn, FELICIA offers the sole explicit footage in existence actually performed (as opposed to body double inserts) by Joe Sarno's magnificent muse Mendum. Mesmerized by her elegant beauty, backed up by considerable thespian skill, a combo all too rare to squander, he was to feature her in five of his finest films. Rumors flew hard and fast as to what became of her after she had ended an otherwise exceptional career by appearing in questionable drive-in fodder, the most persistent perpetuated by erstwhile co-star Jamie Gillis claiming she had married a Muslim and converted to Islam, living a life of quiet obedience ! The truth, as usual, proved much more mundane. Happily wed into peaceful anonymity, she kept in touch with the Sarnos all these years and finally came out of hiding last year to provide an on-camera interview, looking relaxed and ravishing, for Seduction Cinema's DVD reissue of ABIGAIL LESLEY IS BACK IN TOWN.
As Metzger "lost" Mendum to Pécas, he (almost) gained all 5ft of Felicia herself, the formidable if fleeting Béatrice Harnois whose misgivings concerning her erotically explicit employment finally got the better of her, bowing out of MISTY BEETHOVEN at the last minute ! FELICIA remains as close to the respectability of "real" cinema she ever got, having been shot and widely shown soft-core on 35mm stock with 16mm insert footage seamlessly integrated for the more permissive picture palaces. Leading man Jean Roche pushed the envelope in terms of full frontal male nudity but refusing to go all the way. He called upon the services of a stunt double to accomplish his sexual performance, in this case Becky's IMAGE co-star Carl Parker.
Rare in adult, this hinges entirely on the thespian and carnal prowess of its three leads, additional characters appearing but peripherally to the film's plot, on the surface simply another rehash of sex cinema's staple story of the solid family unit disrupted, spiced up and subsequently reconciled by a manipulative interloper, in this case 14-year old Felicia (with Harnois convincingly looking the part, although 20 at the time) coming to stay with her aunt and uncle in the French seaside resort of Deauville while her mother recovers from a breakdown in some Swiss sanatorium. Fidgety on the film's age and blood tie issues, the English language version omits all references to the character's tender years and reduces Paul and Gabrielle to mere friends of the family ! He's a teacher, popular with and practically stalked by one of his nubile students (perky Nicole Daudet), and she's a photographer of partially clad cuties which excuses the presence of models Marlène Myller and Eva Khris around the house. Providing the best of the non star-related action, both starlets engage in Sapphic slurping at the behest of the blackmailing little brat who has caught them surreptitiously trying on Gaby's gaudy costume jewelery. The only other sex footage comes courtesy of baby-faced wannabe stud Ray Prevet (also in the perfunctory Les Monteuses by "Richard Stephen" a/k/a Dominique Goult who directed the troubled Killer Truck with Klaus Kinski and...Maria Schneider !) as Ronny who's about Felicia's age and every bit as clueless though claiming extensive experience.
Educational voyeurism and teenage fumbling can only take a girl so far, setting the scene for Paul and Gaby's initiation of their little niece...or is it the other way round ? The bulk of the narrative concerns Felicia's premeditated attempts at seducing her elders, alternating between clumsy (flashing her private bits) and sophisticated (feigning injury), picking up on Gabrielle's suppressed same sex attraction and taking advantage of Paul's frustration once their liaison literally leaves him the odd man out. Harnois's playful insouciance, reinforcing the impressions she's making up as she goes along, effectively takes the sting out of a character that could otherwise come across as conniving. Felicia may deserve a sound spanking (which she certainly receives, fear not !) but she basically remains an innocently curious Lolita venturing into territory subsequent political correctness would soon deem out of bounds. Building erotic tension with a master's hand, Max almost makes the cumulative pressure too much to bear. This aspect along with the production's overall classiness makes the film perfect for couples as long as neither partner's too freaked out by the underage insinuations that come with the intrigue. If nothing else, the lustrous lensing by Roger Fellous - the hardest working DoP in '70s French XXX films, for good reason - should go a long way to take the edge off, along with the soothing strains of a lush orchestral score by longtime Pécas collaborator Derry Hall. Very much a "real" film with all that entails in terms of plot, production and acting, Felicia solidly holds its ground as one of the finest European adult movies ever made.