Blue Movie

The taboo-challenging work of producer-director Pim de la Parra, which inaugurated the so-called "Dutch Sex Wave" in movies of the early 1970s, has been recently seen in the Cult Epics release of his 1973 film Frank & Eva, which is now joined by this earlier 1971 groundbreaker that also stars Frank & Eva‘s Hugo Metsers but is directed by Wim Verstappen. The flimsy plot follows Michael (Metsers)—just released from prison after a five-year stint for bedding an underage girl—as he becomes the resident lothario in the high-rise apartment building where his parole officer has placed him to facilitate his re-assimilation into society. Before long, Michael is organizing orgies for the desperate housewives who are his neighbors, even if his main interest lies in Elly (Carry Tefsen), who lives next door and is his partner in the enterprise. Blue Movie is historically interesting as the opening cinematic salvo in the sexual revolution taking place in Holland at the time. As a film, it is fairly mediocre—slow, repetitive, and pretty tame by today’s standards—although the cinematography by Jan de Bont, who went on to have an illustrious Hollywood career, shows admirable fluidity on a clearly limited budget. Extras include a 1971 interview with Verstappen, new interviews with de la Parra and Metsers’s son Hugo Jr., a featurette on the Eye Film Institute in Amsterdam (where the film was restored), and a poster and photo video gallery. A strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)