Immoral Tales

Made between Blanche and Story of Sin, Immoral Tales takes Borowczyk's celebrated eye for erotic representation about as far as it can go. The result, which is Borowczyk's slightest and most commercial offering to date, has provoked wildly differing responses: great pagan art or ultimate softcore? In one sense it hardly matters: although cool and stylised in approach, the film displays the most sustained erotic content yet seen publicly in this country. Four episodes - three stories of women from history, plus a contemporary Surrealist text - explore manifestations of feminine eroticism in relation to various taboos: a cosmic initiation, a religious ecstasy, incest and a bloodlust. There is nothing to censor as such, because everything is controlled through atmosphere and suggestion. Objects, even decor, are invested with an erotic tactile quality. The story of Countess Bathory, for example, who bathed in the blood of murdered girls, is predominantly a visual catalogue of liquids on flesh.