Therese and Isabelle
Director: Radley Metzger
Year Released: 1968
Rating: 0.5
Jaw-droppingly pretentious girls-discovering-themselves film from Metzger, who tries to meld soft-core porn and art-house black-and-white sincerity into a potent, almost D.H. Lawrence-esque whole, but only succeeds in trying my patience. It's neither erotic nor particularly artsy, and the voice-over (from the source novel?) during the scene where Isabelle performs cunnilingus on Therese is funnier than it is sensual; the 'story' doesn't go anywhere, either, and Metzger's decision to film the stilted sex scenes in long takes makes them feel too remote to be affecting. Copulation should never be - or look - humdrum.
