From an age before the hardcore explicitness of Porno Chic comes a swingin’ late 60s erotic film brimming with Italian opulence, liberated sex and modish inflatable furniture. Yep, you read that last bit right.
When Marguerite, a promiscuous woman with a troubled past and a deep distrust of men meets Armand, she lets her guard down and falls in love. But can they resist old habits and latent emotions in order to stay together? Find out in this visual, sensual cinematic feast of multiple sexual partners, from the director of Score and The Opening Of Misty Beethoven.
No doubt this must have been something Mike Meyers looked at for his Austin Powers franchise due to its presentation of swinging 60’s filled with sex and drugs, bizarre costumes and groovy dance moves. Not quite knowing what to expect from my first Radley Metzger film, I found the film a bit hard to follow to start with but gradually got into the swing of it and was quite enjoying the love story that started to develop between the two lead stars. Based on the 1852 novel ‘La Dame aux Camélias’ by Alexandre Dumas, Director Radley Metzger weaves together an interesting drama of a man finding the wrong love but peppered with some softcore erotica and some outrageous 60’s production design to please the senses.
Arrow Video presents Camille 2000 on Blu-ray in an extended edition that incorporates around 15 minutes of additional footage never before seen in the UK
Presented on Blu-ray with a 1080p/24fps MPEG4-AVC codec in its original aspect ratio of 2:35.1, the restoration of Camille 2000 was personally supervised by Radley Metzger from the original Technicolor 35mm negative and a separate 35mm interpositive print for the additional footage. The results are impressive. Despite a few scenes that exhibit some excessive noise at the beginning, Camille 2000 is a pleasure to view on Blu-ray. The notes on the Blu-ray explain that Radley Metzger wanted to give the film a theatrical feel so dust specks and scratches were left in the film intentionally. No post processing techniques like digital noise reduction or edge enhancement were not applied in anyway and the film keeps its original grain structure. Colours are displayed quite vividly and certainly highlights the film’s playful production design, sets and costumes. There is a faint white line displayed for a portion of the film about an hour in where they have removed a reel scratch but its not that noticeable. The additional footage that has been spliced in from a different negative was seamless and no shift in quality was noticed.
Presented on Blu-ray with a English LPCM 2.0 Dual Mono audio mix, Bearing in mind that this film does feature some poor ADR dubbing in some scenes which was expected, I found the audio to be a bit of a mixed bag. Whilst general dialogue is clear and sound effects are nicely balanced between the front speakers and hiss and crackles from the original optical negative have been removed during the restoration process, I found the music to be a bit overwhelming throughout most of the film. Ranging from operatic to 60’s style grooves, some of the music came across as a bit loud and ear piercing that resulting in adjusting the volume on a few occasions. Whilst that was my only issue with the audio, there were a few occasions where an audible buzzing noise could be heard that originates from the celluloid itself when viewing an original vintage print on the big screen that results in true cinematic feel when viewing in a home cinema. Be warned though, some of the 60’s Euro music will stick with you long after the film has finished! The disc also carries English SDH subtitles.
Audio Commentary – Director Radley Metzger & Film Historian Michael Bowen Give their insights on the making of Camille 2000
On the set of Camille 2000 (30 minutes) – Behind the scenes B roll footage intercut with the final print with narration from Radley Metzger. Presented in Standard Definition
Sylvianes complete striptease (3 mins) – B roll footage featuring the complete striptease sequence. Some shots do go a bit out of focus. Presented in Standard Definition
Cube love scene ( 2 minutes) – An short alternate take of one of the erotic sequences. Presented in High Definition (1080p)
Restoration of Camille 2000 (7 minutes) – a Comparison of select sequences comparing the differences between the original DVD master, the newly struck transfer from the 35mm print and the final restored Blu-ray transfer. Presented in High Definition
Trailers – original cinema trailers for Camille 2000, Score and The Lickerish Quartet. All presented in Standard Definition
This was an introduction to the films of Radley Metzger for myself personally and not quite knowing what to expect (except softcore erotica), I actually found myself glue to my seat (wishing it was a see through inflatable one) to the very end. The late 60’s fashion and production design give the film a unique feel and playful mood and masks some of the questionable acting that was expected. Arrow’s presentation of Camille 2000 is certainly a release that shows respect for some of the older cult titles that vanish into obscurity in the UK. Apart from the issues with the audio as noted in the review, this is a strong release with a decent set of bonus features that rounds off a quality release. Maybe not to everyone’s taste but for lovers of cult films, this should be in your shopping basket.
