Le segrete esperienze di Luca e Fanny

This superbly cast and maximally enchanting European gem offers a very distinctive, bold and inventive variation on the popular motif of young protagonists’ sexual awakening. In this case, the narrative is enhanced with an unconventional form of the classic concept, which promises the voyeuristic pleasure of seeing behind the façade of refinement and seriousness that conceals sexual desire. However, the setting this time is a rich family’s spacious summer residence behind whose walls no traditional orgies of the upper crust take place. Instead, repressed desires paradoxically build up here. The catalyst of the tension is the passionate and impulsive maid Simona (Brigitte Lahaie) and her uninhibited colleague Gina (played by Lidie Ferdics, who for some reason is replaced by Marie-Claude Moreau in the hardcore scenes). Through them, the frustration of the central trio of characters – Luca (Dominique Saint Claire), the adolescent son of the house’s owners; Fanny (the captivating Julia Perrin), the daughter of family friends; and the strict aunt Martha (Jane Baker) – start to come to the surface. ____ Now, however, it is necessary to note that the film exists in three official versions, which differ substantially, as each contains something that the others don’t: the long 90-minute hardcore version (on Danish VHS), the 82-minute softcore version (released in Germany on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray) and the short 61-minute hardcore version (French remastered DVD). The most broadly distributed is the short version produced by Alpha France, which deserves credit for the meticulous remastering of its entire catalogue comprising hundreds of predominantly French porn films from the classic era, though unfortunately almost all of them (with rare exceptions) have been cut down to a runtime of roughly one hour so that two or three could be released on a single DVD. ____ The short version (61 minutes) retains all of the sex scenes in all their hardcore glory, but the narrative has been butchered and thus changed dramatically. It completely leaves out the depiction of the relationships between the characters and tells an utterly different and, unfortunately, disturbingly generic story that leads to the main protagonist’s expected copulation with Fanny. ____ Conversely, in its original form, the film does not come to a connection between the characters played by Julia Perrin and Dominique St. Claire. This happens in the first third of the film, though only in a dream sequence. Luca and Fanny don’t sleep with each other, because they actually have different desires and this sequence only hints at Luca’s horniness, which he himself hopes to satisfy elsewhere. Both the long hardcore and edited softcore versions provide an arousing and, for some, possibly controversial narrative about the  tentative discovery of one’s own sexuality and the repression of desires. The debauched and sexually manipulative maid Simona plays the essential role of an initiator who prompts the stagnating characters tormented by denial to take action. The narrative inventively raises the viewer’s expectations as to how the depicted web of relationships will ultimately take shape, with a surprising revelation at the mid-point of the film. Sexual attraction that had been repressed for years comes to the forefront and is confronted by the superficial and frigid world of Luca’s parents. This time, the wealthy bourgeois setting is not a place of debauchery, but of asexuality, which is characteristically defied by the young, the servants and forbidden love. In its original form, the film exhibits numerous similarities to the American classics Taboo and Private Teacher, but whereas those films were conceived as satires or comedies, Summer in the Country provides a wonderfully sexy, boldly open and multi-layered variation on the theme of repressed desires and sexual maturation. The result is a porn movie in which sex is not only an attraction, but an essential narrative device and a means of presenting the characters and outlining their psychological development. ____ The softcore version (82 minutes) is paradoxically the only one of the official releases that contains the complete narrative, though it leaves out the hardcore scenes. For some reason, the 90-minute hardcore version leaves out the aforementioned dream sequence. There is  also a rough, 106-minute fan-made compilation that contains all of the scenes, some of them even twice, probably because some of the scenes were shot twice, separately for the hardcore and softcore versions. ____ 61-minute hardcore version – three stars, the other two versions – five stars. (10.07.2013) (menos) (más)