L'insatisfaite + L'amour aux trousses

Former model Jean-Marie Pallardy was one of the more unlikely figures to forge a career directing (and starring) in French erotic films and his genre-defying efforts gave birth to a series of inexplicable and unforgettable vanity projects. Pulse Video presents two of Pallardy’s earliest films, including his feature debut, both newly scanned and restored from their original negatives and presented in their completely uncensored versions.

L’Insatisfaite / Full Time Females (1972) A rich, elderly man attempts to assault his young nurse. As she escapes, she is murdered by a mystery assailant who stages the death to look like an accident. Believing himself responsible, the man attempts to cover up the crime and, with the help of his future son-in-law, searches for someone to replace her. They find the perfect candidate in Patricia, a Parisian prostitute whose face is disfigured due to an acid attack, coaxing her into undergoing cosmetic surgery and assuming the face of the dead woman. But things don’t go as planned. In his very first feature film, Pallardy offers a taste of everything that would soon define his bizarre approach to filmmaking with a cockeyed blend of eroticism, romance, family drama, and plenty of strangely staged action set pieces.

L’Amour aux trousses / Hot Acts of Love (1974) Francis, heir to an industrial empire, is traumatized by his mother’s suicide and suffers from anxiety attacks. After his brother is killed by an unseen assassin, Francis’ paranoia reaches a fever pitch. Encouraged by his aunt to rest at the family's Corsican estate, increasingly strange events begin to occur around him. Francis’ behavior then turns incredibly erratic, as someone close to him strives to drive him mad. In his fourth film, Pallardy refines his style creating an elegant erotic thriller with a cast including Dutch actress Willeke van Ammelrooy (then Pallardy's partner), the acclaimed Corinne Marchand (Agnès Varda’s Cléo de 5 à 7), a leading role for fellow filmmaker Michel Lemoine (Seven Women For Satan), and Pallardy himself in a supporting performance as a sleazy pornographer.