Education of the Baroness

In 1977 the French erotic filmParties Fines(euphemisticallydefined as "Orgies" per Wiktionary; and according to one of the may explanations on Quora, "A group sex party. The adjective « fine » imply that the participating persons belong to wealthy or power classes or at least that it is not cheap to participate."). A version with dialog dubbed in English was released under the titleEducation of the Baroness. Both the French original and the English-dubbed versions can be viewed for free.

The movie is notable for staring Brigitte Lahaie, who went on to become a French porn superstar for the next decade before switching to mainstream films and, later, talk-show radio. It is also notable for having an IMDb rating of 6.4, which is remarkably high for a skin flick. By contrast, the mainstrsamHenry and June, in which Brigitte Lahaie had a bit part, scores only a 6.3 on IMDb and 60%/63% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.

The IMDb synopsis forBaronessis "A maid details an outrageously sexual day in the lives of a baron and baroness." That site carries a half dozen viewer reviews which emphasize the film's use of humor along with the high volume and variety of sexual activity. My favorite comment is:

This was made in the '70s when they still used dialog and plot. OK,OK, nobody wants dialog and plot in a porno. But this movie is an exception. It is sexy, to be sure, but the characters are actually interesting, with many avant garde touches and surprisingly political dialog

With the aid of a hairbrush in one and a loofa sponge in another of the earliest scenes, the movie establishes right off that the Baroness (Charlotte) is highly sexual. Her husband takes off for the evening, leaving her alone, accounting for the fact that she is also highly frustrated. The rest of the movie cover's the Baroness' evening, with scenes from the Baron's night out interspersed. (In these we find that he is a devoted sub, craving humiliation. These are clearly two people not suited to the other's sexual needs.)

The Baron and Baroness have a maid (Alice; every bit as yummy as Charlotte), who is highly sexed and open to anything, including root vegetables. Alice is unexpectedly visited by her "brother" ("we shared the same wet nurse, and our fathers died in the same trench in 1915") a blind accordionist, and his boss, the elegant gangster Mr. Finch. Part way through the movie Mr. Finch explains that women tormented him when he was young, but one day he decided that he wasn't going to put up with that any more. Now, he takes what he wants.

The bulk of the movie involves him doing just that, mainly with Charlotte, but also with Anne on the side. In the process, we find that while Charlotte talks the entitled talk of the upper class, her nature is fundamentally extremely submissive. In short order after her "get out of my house" speech doesn't work, she's allowed herself to be stripped down and fucked vigorously my Mr. Finch, without any sign of protest or resistance.

Mr. Finch then has Charlotte and Anne reverse roles (this is where the political dialog comes in), to which Charlotte submits meekly until Anne answers the phone and in effect tells Charlotte's lover not to come over. This provokes another "get out of my house" outburst from Charlotte, which Mr. Finch ends by slapping her down and buggering her thoroughly. For the rest of the film Charlotte becomes an increasingly enthusiastic participant in all sorts of sexcapades, even with the lowly accordionist whose advances she had earlier tried to avoid (presumably on class grounds, since submitting to the elegant Mr. Finch was not a problem).

There is a wonderfully droll scene near the end of the movie in which Charlotte, back in her own clothes and character as the Baroness, and Mr. Finch exchange parting pleasantries as if nothing more than a quiet dinner had just occurred. The Baroness then retires to her couch and is awakened by her husband on his return. Neither discusses the details of their evening activities.

The reason that I am writing this review grows out that scene in which the Baroness is forcibly butt-fucked, going from initially protesting to apparently enjoying it. (Interesting comment under the short clip: "Sorry to be a party pooper, folks, but Brigitte Lahaie never did anal. She used a body double for the penetration shots and all the wider shots were angled so you couldn't see that she was having regular, doggy style vaginal sex.")

Throughout this buggering the director had the intelligence to focus more on the Baroness' face than on the dick going in and out of her ass. Then, for many seconds after the climax the camera stays on her face, on which I see a look of utter bemusement. I keep returning to that look (and, well, yes, to the whole scene that precedes it; that is a seriously erotic bit of film), and I keep wondering: WHAT IS SHE THINKING?

If Literotica publishes this little review, I would be very interested to know what others see in that look. So as not to influence your opinion, I'll post my own guess as a comment 10 days after publication.