Original subtitles

No traces or marks on my body.

Look.

Oh, no! No…

Once again we would like to thank the Forum for hosting us on this second day.

Please welcome Guillaume Le Disez, Nicolas Lahaye and Cédric Grand Guillot

who wrote the book Brigitte Lahaie : les films de culte,

and of course Brigitte Lahaie

for the discussion A meeting with Brigitte Lahaie.

Good evening, everyone. Thanks for being here.

We are absolutely thrilled about this talk, this roundtable

in the presence of Brigitte, which for us caps off two years of work,

because we've been preparing this for two years.

We approached Brigitte to ask her if she'd agree

for us to embark on this book project in which we trace her entire career.

Since this was a shared idea that was not uniquely ours,

we launched a crowdfunding campaign which was successful,

demonstrating that many of us think it's a wonderful subject

that can speak to many.

Today, we'll talk about it in person with our subject.

I'm here in person. All is well.

Why a book about Brigitte Lahaie's career?

Why is her trajectory so fascinating?

Because it describes, it tells the story of two decades of cinema,

of exploitation films, of neighborhood cinemas,

of all the genres she's worked in,

and because it also tells us

how an icon, a symbol of French popular culture came into being.

No less!

That's what we'll talk about and try to trace back.

Starting from the beginning.

We'll ask for Brigitte's input throughout.

Obviously we've talked a lot.

This will also be a roundtable interspersed with video excerpts,

because we also need to show you the films we're talking about,

which make up Brigitte's trajectory.

Cédric, perhaps you could do a brief introduction

on her career, an overview of Brigitte's career?

- He's got stage fright. - I'm not at all comfortable.

I'll simply read it. It's too scary, because…

The story of actress Brigitte Lahaie

is one of a girl who followed her instincts,

but also certain men in her life inviting her to make certain choices

whose radical character she did not suspect at the time.

Some people do not understand why we associate Brigitte Lahaie

to the pure and essential notion of cinema.

That is because of…

That's because of sex, unfortunately.

Brigitte Lahaie had a first taste of cinema

through high-end pornography and eroticism,

namely with Francis Mischkind and Alpha France

and one particular director, Jean Rollin,

who invited her to join his universe,

making her almost instantly iconic.

It's with those auteurist fantasy films

that Brigitte starts to develop a taste for drama,

that of her burgeoning acting career, at the end of the '70s.

French genre films, since that's what we're talking about,

will give her a totally unexpected longevity,

which we'll talk about tonight.

It is in fact a cinema…

whose aim was, in any case…

not to have longevity.

It was meant to be seen in a theater, once, in passing.

Fortunately, 40 years later,

retrospectives are being held, and we are talking to you about it.

Yes.

Brigitte quietly became a bis cinema actor,

slashing jugulars with rage,

stabbing indiscreet patients in the eye with a syringe,

or, as you'll see tonight, becoming a political prisoner, naked,

on an island somewhere on the Atlantic shore.

Brigitte's cinema is also that.

Tonight, we'll celebrate the advent of our adult film star,

who became the cult star of so-called B films,

perhaps because A cinema has shunned her for too long.

There.

Maybe we should start at the beginning: how did you get into film?

I came to Paris in '76

with the desire to do something else with my life.

I come from a petit-bourgeois milieu.

I had stars in my eyes, as we say.

I visited modeling agencies 2 or 3 times.

Each time they told me, "No, your breasts are too large."

"Frankly, with a chest like yours…"

My chest is not that great, I agree.

One day, I responded to an ad in France-Soir that said,

"Looking for a large-breasted woman." I told myself, "That's it!"

So I went. It was on the Champs-Élysées,

I still remember it quite well, on the 6th floor of some building.

There was a guy who showed me…

I don't remember what those things were called…

It was on a small… Anyway, he showed me on a tiny screen.

He said, "It's an Italian film,

"and we need to splice in hardcore inserts."

I said, "What? Hardcore inserts?"

Then he had to explain to me what those were, because…

I no longer was a virgin,

but I'd probably only had two men in my life.

I watched it and said, "That's cool. Yes."

Then I told myself, "Alright, okay."

That's how my first shoot began.

You could only see my ass, which is fitting for the Festival des Fesses.

Very soon after, I was being asked to shoot films,

but I did have a brief moment of wondering

whether I should continue.

For 2 or 3 days I asked myself that question.

Then I told myself, "This is terrific.

"I'm doing something original."

I think I was very naive.

At the same time, I've got an animal side.

Well yes, sex is natural for animals.

You said you started by shooting

scenes that were used to spice up certain films.

- One. - One scene used to spice up other films

that were not themselves pornographic

at a time when there was a large demand for…

It was during the explosion of pornographic films,

in 1976, which was one of the years

when more films than ever were released.

It was the year the loi X came into effect,

which created the adult film genre.

Before that, for a few months, it was rather chaotic.

There were pornographic films shown on the Champs-Élysées

between The Towering Inferno and Le vieux fusil

in the large Parisian plexes. Then the law was enacted

and structured the production of films in France.

The loi X was voted.

It was a 33% value-added tax on any film that included pornographic images.

The aim was obviously to hamper the escalation of pornographic films,

because there were more and more posters in the streets,

and it was clearly…

- It was a virtuous call to order. - Exactly.

There were virtuous deputies screaming their heads off

at the National Assembly and making Freudian slips.

Notably while the law was being voted on, this one deputy…

- André… - Robert André.

Who yelled,

"Minister, you must harden your sex."

Instead of "Harden your text."

It was in fact a law which subjected pornographic cinema

to drastic taxation,

but which also made it into a free space.

Which is quite peculiar.

From the moment the loi X was passed,

to continue shooting pornographic films

was much less profitable, and in a sense,

and that is what's so different from today's situation,

in some sense, it was only those people who really wanted

to shoot these kinds of films who remained.

All the people who were looking to quickly make money…

It wasn't so profitable anymore.

I think that's what explains

that between '76 and the advent of video in 1980…

That's why we call it the golden age of adult films.

It's the three-year period

when there was a sort of subterranean creativity

coming from people who wanted to thumb their nose at society,

which at the time still wasn't quite sexually liberated.

Absolutely. Those are the three years during which

you worked in pornographic films.

- I was lucky. - The best years.

The directors you worked with came from the film industry.

They were people who'd already had careers in film

before the advent of pornography.

Absolutely. They had made other films.

They were either doing this because they couldn't make traditional films,

like Jean Rollin, for example, who needed to make a living.

Or, as was the case for Francis Leroi,

it came from a desire, which I shared, to thumb our noses

and to prove that sex could, in fact, be shown.

It doesn't have to happen in the dark.

Exactly. They're all great pornographic films.

It's a notion that may be hard to grasp nowadays,

but since you mentioned Francis Leroi,

you played in some great films.

I'm Yours to Take is a film that is influenced

by both Hitchcock and Claude Chabrol.

Speaking of which, let's watch…

At the time, I'm Yours to Take even had

a very positive review in the Cahiers du cinéma.

Let's watch a trailer for I'm Yours to Take.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce my wife, Hélène.

Bravo!

What a piece!

I've never seen anyone like her.

It's our turn.

About what we've just seen, I'd like to say…

Here, the tone is immediately clear.

Meaning that it's not a film you'll necessarily masturbate to.

The trailer is already telling the audience,

"This will stress you out."

It even has Hitchcock's glass.

I'm Yours to Take tells a story obviously with a lot of…

It's about sex, but it tells a story.

It's also a very referential film.

Yes, and it's by people who had been making films for 10 years,

15 years, who had a lot films under their belt.

There's Francis Leroi, and also Claude Bernard-Aubert.

That's someone you worked with often.

I made many films with Claude Bernard-Aubert,

who adopted the pseudonym Burd Tranbaree.

Yes, it's true that there was a very good atmosphere on set,

but at the same time, it was very strict.

There was a script, things we had to do each day.

- These were professional shoots. - Absolutely.

A bit more fast-paced, of course. We wouldn't do 15 takes

because we didn't have either the time or the budget,

but it was cinema.

It was cinema. For example, Claude Bernard-Aubert

was someone who had made numerous films,

who previously had been a war reporter,

and who at one point suffered a stroke of bad luck

and was financially ruined when one of his films flopped.

Francis Mischkind knew

that he was a very professional and efficient filmmaker

and signed him on for a series of films.

He did it somewhat reluctantly at first, as he explained to us,

but as it turns out, he made some of the best films of that period.

And you were in many of those.

Some yes. I don't recall how many I made.

- Nine. - Yes, a dozen.

It's true that Burd Tranbaree is quite interesting

because he was someone who thought a lot,

who would prepare his scripts,

who came up with new types of fantasies,

and who really had a creative process.

What was rather surprising to me,

because he was already a man of a certain age,

and today he must be quite old,

was that we really had the sense that he was doing a shoot,

that he was making films.

While with certain directors,

you could very well see that they were somewhat lecherous.

With Claude Bernard-Aubert, on the other hand, there never was…

he never behaved inappropriately.

We truly were in a professional relationship.

That's not quite how things are today, I believe.

- To him, it was cinema more than anything else. - Exactly.

THE HOUSE OF FANTASIES

Mr Mathieu…

I would like you to help me turn my daughter into a great whore.

He threw me onto the bed. He nailed me like a beast.

- And the little maid? - Her presence was reassuring.

But she still took advantage of me.

She took me with a strange object

while the man pounded on my belly.

Did you like it?

Stop, I'm begging you!

What you just said reminds me that another director

whom you know very well, Michel Barny,

has a saying to describe the era.

He says that before, film professionals would pivot to sex,

and now, it's sex professionals who try making films.

She gives great head!

- The blonde from last night? - No, I just fucked that one.

No, I'm talking about the redhead with huge breasts.

Fuck me, I've got a boner just thinking about her! Really, I've got a hard-on!

Alright, girls, we're going home. It's 7 in the morning.

You won't have much time to sleep before work.

Mr José, can't you at least take off your hat?

Never! I never take off my hat.

I never take it off.

We'll live like them, the three of us.

Like them?

Drink, work, fuck.

- You think it's possible? - Yes.

He's cute!

He's nice…

EXQUISITE PLEASURE

Watch out!

We'll use the gift that nature gave us so generously.

Use the gift that nature gave us so generously.

Mimi!

I'm coming.

Vice squad.

Please follow me, the three of you.

We can also briefly mention Gérard Kikoïne.

Of course, yes. I didn't make many films with Gérard,

but I made one that is certainly considered

to be one of the best in the genre: Indécences 1930.

Also known as Education of the Baroness.

Education of the Baroness, exactly.

What, Solange? I'm fed up, fed up!

Have you gone mad? What's wrong with you?

I'm fed up, I'm sick of this!

Don't you understand? I can't take this anymore!

You're driving me insane! I don't even know you.

- I've never seen you before. Go on, get lost! I've had it! - Enough!

Those films had several titles,

because their release could be a little chaotic.

They could be submitted multiple times to the ratings board…

Above all they needed catchy titles

because there was no way to see images.

Outside the cinemas, you could only see the title.

So naturally, the title needed to catch your eye,

like for example Pussy on a Hot Tin Roof

or The Train Will Whistle Three Times

That's why they would use titles

that referenced traditional films in order to attract passers-by.

It was forbidden to represent bodies

or organic shapes on adult film posters,

so the posters only used typography. Many of them were very creative.

There is a book dedicated to this, an anthology that should come out soon.

It focuses on all those posters.

There was also creativity on the part of the distributors and the publicists

in order to promote films that couldn't be shown.

They couldn't be seen outside.

Films were often given new titles by the distributors.

There is one film whose title when it was originally screened

was Hot and Horny, which is a little base.

For its video release, Francis Mischkind changed it to…

Hunting Parties In Sologne.

I don't know about you,

but that got my adolescent brain working hard.

What was behind that title?

If I remember correctly,

it's a film where we're supposedly hunting.

It's a very loose film,

in which people simply meet inside a house.

They fuck, kill some animals, eat those animals, and then fuck.

My dear friends…

- Hello. - Oh, hello. How are you?

How is Hélène?

Come. She's very busy, but she's expecting you.

Get in there, dear.

Hello.

Hi, honey.

What's new with you?

Hi, you handsome gamekeeper.

Bravo!

Bravo!

Fantastic!

Bravo!

It's astounding.

It's a true expression of that moment, of '78.

There's nothing else like it.

What you just said about the titles

and the fantasies that people of our generation

may have held and developed about those titles,

is in my opinion also quite important in shaping the man you've become,

because to tell the truth, we've thought a lot about the titles of your films.

Christophe Lemaire, who's not with us tonight,

was telling us how much he'd fantasized about your name

which he saw in Pariscope when he was still too young

to be allowed to go see your films.

He would religiously read the cast of the films

he wasn't allowed to see in Pariscope.

Your name came up a lot, and he imagined a lot of things about it.

He'd already built up a whole world inside his head before he ever saw you.

If you look hard enough, you'll start seeing things.

Speaking of directors

who tried their hand at pornographic films

as a space for free expression,

we could mention Bénazéraf, who was a peculiar individual

and who, as we'll see shortly in an excerpt,

could insert in his films things that would…

That would be completely prohibited today, I think.

Some of it would be prohibited,

but there's also things that would never cross the minds

of the people making pornography today.

Let's watch a brief excerpt from Hurlements d'extase.

I don't know which one that is.

Bernard-Henri Lévy as a thought leader for the 21st century.

He's a ballet master, isn't he?

Him, the late Clavel, and Glucksmann in '74,

they flipped sides after the presidential elections.

And now they realize that it's not modern society,

but Marxism that is the cause of all our ills.

It's the famous equation: Marxism equals gulag.

We're lucky our names aren't plastered on the walls.

To be clear: that is not Brigitte Lahaie's voice.

It's true that in most adult films,

it's quite rare that we hear your voice, because the films were dubbed.

That's right. The films were dubbed,

and anyway, at the time, my voice was a little high-pitched.

Still, there's a few films where you hear my voice.

It's true that my voice is more controlled now.

Fortunately. It works better for radio.

In your first film with Jean Rollin you play a psychoanalyst.

Visibly a bit young to have undergone an analysis…

- In which you have many lines. - That's true.

- And you got by… - Not too bad.

I must say your dream is quite fascinating.

It shows how your spirit has a true gift for poetry.

This can be inferred from the way you tell it.

If we stick to the facts,

you have had an erotic dream in which you participated

by making love to one of the characters.

But in your narration,

you shroud the story in an intellectual language

which on the one hand magnifies it,

and the other, completely erases its obscene character.

About dubbing,

we could mention that there was another reason

which is entirely pragmatic and rather interesting.

It's that the cameras used on those shoots were,

unlike the Cameflex cameras that were used on traditional shoots,

a model called the Rolleiflex, which was less expensive to use

and more importantly, its film magazine was on top of the camera,

making it possible to place it at the ground level,

which obviously was useful for certain types of framing.

- But noisier. - But much noisier.

In fact, it was…

It was the reason why the majority of those films were dubbed.

Because live sound recording was impossible.

- It sounded like a coffee maker. - Like a coffee maker.

And for that reason, tons of actors

who did traditional dubbing, even renowned ones,

had fun dubbing adult films.

We would hire seasoned actors because dubbing is expensive,

and we needed actors capable of immediately…

Take for example Gérard Hernandez,

who in Exquisite Pleasure dubs Dominique Aveline.

- You've got pretty eyes, you know… - Don't kiss me.

I'm faithful. You're crazy! I'm faithful, I am!

Miss, I'm a married man!

I am married! You cannot touch.

No touching…

You are tickling me…

No, not lower!

I want to clarify about Claude Bernard-Aubert,

who came from traditional cinema and had to make pornography.

He was a bit like Jean Rollin, in the sense that…

he had preconceptions about pornography,

and it didn't especially interest him to shoot penetration scenes, anyway.

Those two directors had this in common at the start:

they would leave when the time came to shoot.

The would position their camera, very professionally,

because they're both real filmmakers,

but after that, they'd go outside to smoke their pipe.

- The cameramen would do it. - They would do it all.

Staging-wise, were were quite free for the hardcore scenes.

We'll touch on Jean Rollin later,

because it's a very important collaboration

since it took you to…

it broadened your filmography.

About the shoots,

can you tell us about the atmosphere on the sets

and the particular spirit that prevailed there?

We were a family.

We would see each other quite often,

whether it's actors, directors, or crew members.

There weren't too many of us making these kinds of films,

so we'd see each other very often.

There really was a sort of community, so to speak.

Whenever we shot in the countryside especially,

which happened sometimes…

We really had the feeling that we were thumbing our noses at society.

Maybe some of us were trade unionists before, but…

It was astonishing, because in fact,

we'd shoot our films and no one, not our neighbors, not our families,

no one could guess what we were doing,

since anyway you could only see it in darkened rooms.

No one would come up to us and say, "I saw you in a movie"

because that would have meant they'd gone to see those films.

I even remember being invited to a festival in Düsseldorf, Germany.

It was a film festival.

The moment the lights went up, I went onstage.

There were more men than women in the room.

At the time, it was a mostly male audience.

And all the men bowed their heads.

On top of that, they were German.

It was completely ridiculous.

They were the ones who looked ashamed

although it was me who'd shown myself completely naked.

You really have to understand that it was a different era.

Today, actresses who star in pornographic films

go to conventions, sign autographs, do meet-and-greets, etc.

At the time, no one ever came up to me on the street

to tell me they'd seen me in a film or to ask me for an autograph.

Ultimately it was rather easy to be in…

We had the feeling that we were doing utterly forbidden things.

It was quite fun.

And it was all very joyful.

Of course, we had hardcore scenes, which wasn't always easy,

and there were some difficult moments, because the actor couldn't perform.

Back then, there was no Viagra, no intracavernous injections, etc.

If the actor couldn't perform, we still had to figure something out.

But frankly it was…

I have very few bad memories of that era.

And I have two or three…

I mostly have this one girlfriend I've stayed in touch with.

It's the same for her: she has good memories of those years.

What were difficult, on the other hand, although I never did this,

were the porno theaters,

because there also were small theaters

where hardcore scenes were performed onstage.

People would go to the theater to watch that like a regular play,

except it was sex acts.

I never did that, but I told myself it was a bit tough

because there sometimes were two consecutive shows.

When you were talking about this kind of unawareness

of what those films would later become…

No one could have imagined that one day you'd see that on television.

It was absolutely unimaginable.

You were living it in the moment.

However, you were starting to get noticed by the audience,

by the handful of journalists who talked about those films.

I was not aware of it.

Nevertheless, you films gradually became successful

especially in other countries, in Germany in particular.

On certain posters, your name became Brigitte Bordeaux.

And in Italy, too.

In fact, Italy was not producing pornographic films.

They only started making them in 1985.

Your films would come out in Italy.

There, they had the right to make posters,

but because no visuals existed,

they would make their own posters, they would paint them

with beautiful blondes that quite rarely resembled you.

But they always bore your name.

Before returning to Jean Rollin and to move onto…

it's a mistake to say "the next phase of your career"

because in fact, your adult film career

is intertwined with your career in genre films.

You started in 1978 with Jean Rollin.

Absolutely. The Grapes of Death is even '77, no?

The shoot was. I think the film came out in early 1978.

It was shot in winter.

We saw it in the first scene, in the first excerpt,

where you're at the top of a stairway.

It was in winter, in the Cévennes.

Yes. It was minus 20.

We'll also watch a trailer from the era.

Earlier we talked about creativity in terms of promoting films.

This is the trailer for a film directed by Jess Franco

called I Burn All Over.

I… I don't know what to say.

I Burn All Over, a self-sufficient film.

I Burn All Over

A film that needs no publicity.

That's why have decided ourselves

not to show you images from I Burn All Over.

I Burn All Over, rating certificate number 49084.

I Burn All Over does not need a catchphrase

to encourage you to return to this room soon

and see the adventures it will reveal to you.

I Burn All Over

Women, girls

who are disillusioned, lustful, victims of their own bodies,

subjected to every kind of depravity,

slaves to all kinds of perversions.

I Burn All Over

A wonderful villa

built on rocks whipped all year long

by the raging sea.

I Burn All Over

Smugglers, policemen, dead people.

I Burn All Over Naked women.

Men's hands. Shrieks.

I Burn All Over

A heavy atmosphere, a peculiar climate.

I Burn All Over

An evening of thrills, of desires, of fear.

I Burn All Over, coming soon to this theater.

It's a trailer that was made by people who hadn't seen the film.

It's a film about white women being trafficked.

Here, we realize that the trailer perhaps has

a narration that's more interesting than the film.

That being said, he's right about the house. I mean, the villa.

There is a villa. There are victims.

It's all true.

Let's go back to Jean Rollin and The Grapes of Death.

How did you end up working on this film?

Well, I had shot a film with Jean in '76,

and for a year and a half, Jean would send me postcards.

"I'll give you a real part in a film."

And sure enough, The Grapes of Death came into being.

I've got her!

Come on.

It's a film where I don't play a big part,

but it's a real part.

It's the first time I had the opportunity to play a part.

When I arrived on the set, it was all professional actors.

And then I immediately understood that…

That I was the black sheep.

Unfortunately, this followed me around for many years.

I must admit that I hadn't really understood the extent to which…

At that moment, I realized that shooting pornographic films

perhaps wasn't well looked upon by society.

And Jean?

In that respect, you have to give it to Jean:

he insisted on my presence, and that was that.

But that didn't solve it.

One night, the producer walked into my room

to come onto me because he thought it was normal

since I starred in porn films.

Fortunately I had my two Dobermans with me,

so he didn't really insist.

Anyway, he wouldn't have raped me, that's not what I mean,

but you have to understand that to the minds 90% of people,

"porn star" means "whore".

- But not to Jean Rollin's mind. - No, of course not.

You worked with him again…

When I shot Fascination with Jean Rollin, it was the same:

at one point there was a sort actors' revolution.

They didn't want my name on the poster.

Of course Jean stood his ground.

It's funny, because Fascination came out in 78… or 79. It doesn't matter.

It was ridiculous to me, because no one knew who I was anyway.

I had little… But that sort of anecdote…

Those who sidelined you

were people who did not know pornography either.

Of course.

They acted purely out of precaution.

- They were imagining things. - Maybe it rubs off.

Perhaps they didn't know about Jean Rollin's double career.

Jean Rollin, like other directors, worked under a pseudonym

and made adult films, which allowed him to work regularly,

since greenlighting an adult film was very quick.

There was no long process based on returns, no case to be made.

It could be done overnight.

He would alternate between that and his career as a fantasy film auteur

and his own universe, which perhaps Nicolas could talk about.

Jean Rollin said himself

that his personal films, his fantasy films,

and especially his vampire films, he would sign with his real name.

All the other ones, he would sign under the pseudonym Michel Gentil.

French genre cinema

is very much focused on comedies.

If there is one auteur in France

who epitomizes the fantasy genre, it's Jean Rollin.

With a very peculiar universe molded by surrealism.

It is in fact one his main inspirations,

along with paintings by Clovis Trouille,

as Jean-Pierre Bouyxou told us.

- Max Ernst. - Also.

It's an extremely distinctive universe

that is in sharp contrast with the funfair entertainer reputation

that directors like him sometimes had.

Let's watch the trailer for Fascination.

Jean Rollin and Michel Gentil, those are all his real names.

I think his name was Jean Michel Gentil Rollin.

Alright.

Earlier, when Cédric said that

Jean Rollin instantly made you an icon and a cult figure,

it was essentially in reference to this character

and to this figure of a young woman

armed with a scythe and wearing a single piece of cloth

which has become absolutely iconic, especially overseas,

in particular in the United States and in Great Britain,

perhaps even more than in France.

I was in New York about 20 years ago

with Jean Rollin, who had been invited to the United States,

and indeed I was surprised by the number of Americans

who asked me to sign photos.

Jean had a…

It was a small audience, knowing the size of the US population,

but there really was a an audience.

Jean Rollin is not very well recognized in his home country.

There are many reasons for that,

one of which being that a certain cable station

bought his films at a price no one could compete with

in order to meet quotas, and would constantly play them at night

which does not help.

Sure, they need some screen time, but that's one of the reasons.

And indeed, cinephiles,

fans of genre cinema, of horror and fantasy films

from the US, the UK and Germany do him better justice.

The fact remains that it's a very peculiar kind of auteur cinema.

We have to recognize that it doesn't have mass appeal.

He has his own rhythm. It's mostly about images.

Jean Rollin would explain that he gave life to images

stemming from his own imagination, with some movement.

So there's a rhythm that is rather distinctive,

which is not easy today for a young audience, for example.

Yes, it's a very distinctive kind of cinema.

Besides, he's not great at directing actors.

Sometimes it could be said that his actors aren't always…

To some, it's a flaw.

He got better over time, but at the beginning…

However it's through working with him,

as you've told me once, that you aspired to become an actress.

Well yes, but I think I wanted to be an actress from the start.

In any case, I wanted to…

I was an exhibitionist, in the sense of wanting to show myself, of course.

But it's true that Jean Rollin in some way gave me the impression

that I could become an actress.

This film, Fascination,

shows well how Jean Rollin had a way of creating more like a painter

than a filmmaker, in fact.

He doesn't have the rhythm,

he doesn't necessarily know how to connect all the scenes,

but each scene on its own is extremely strong.

So it's more akin to… He's a painter.

In any case, that's where all his references lay.

He put his stamp on it, in the sense that this is auteur cinema.

In the etymological sense of the term.

In 1980, you decided to bring an end

to your career in pornographic cinema

with a film called Les Petites Écolières.

It's your farewell to the genre.

It's the moment when you decided

to exclusively dedicate yourself to traditional cinema.

This will guide

the rest of your career.

You will often work or rekindle with

people you had previously encountered.

Either because you had already started making films with them,

or because, as with Jean Rollin's example,

they offered you new parts.

There was also Claude Mulot, with whom you made Les Petites Écolières.

Or there's people you could have crossed paths with,

like for example Michel Caputo, with whom you later worked.

But you never worked on a Jean-François Davy production.

No, that's right.

Jean-François Davy was one of the most important producers.

I think that Jean-François Davy had shot films before,

but he probably didn't direct many films when I was…

He directed very few films. However he produced a lot of them.

For some reason,

you never worked in a Jean-François Davy production.

I think I did make one film with Michel Caputo.

I don't know. You seem to know my career better than I do, so…

- L'Exécutrice, isn't it? - I'm not too sure about my career.

Yes, L'Exécutrice. It's true that we focused on…

This is where the public interest aspect becomes evident.

There are over 100 films throughout Brigitte's career.

We're talking about 100 feature films,

about 100 feature films that played in theaters,

which aren't equally interesting.

- You could say that, yes. - It's uneven.

We did in fact dedicate ourselves,

Cédric, Nicolas and I, to watching them all.

Which spares you the trouble of getting lost

among those that aren't necessarily worth it.

Some of them are mostly interesting for their trailer.

We'll show you the trailer of a film in an intermediary genre.

It's an erotic film

which had inserts spliced in

by inconsiderate distributors

perhaps in cities outside of Paris or…

There was this practice of showing erotic films to the ratings board,

and at the slightest shot,

no matter how harmless,

of people starting to kiss, you'd see shots…

- Of cars. - Of cars, of people wandering around Paris…

Of birds tweeting.

And once it had gone through the ratings board,

the copy would go back to the editing desk,

and instead of these shots of cars, hardcore inserts would be spliced in

which might have been shot in a hotel room by…

one Claude Sandron, for example.

What's fascinating about these hardcore inserts

is that you could watch a film…

You'd get a shot of a man and a woman kissing.

Cut to inserts of genitals.

What you're seeing is not necessarily that man and woman having intercourse.

It's not necessarily in the same place, since for example Claude Sandron

was a man who would accost couples coming out of Gare du Nord

and would invite them to make insert shots in a hotel room.

He owned a collection of bedspreads of different colors

to get some vague sense of continuity. He even had grass-colored bedspreads.

And in order to add detail,

if the scene took place in a barn,

at times he might have added

maybe not a whole bale of hay, but a few…

Two or three bits of hay on a yellowish bedspread.

On that subject…

the first shots you appeared in.

The first time you met those characters,

we don't know what films your shots ended up in.

And I mean films, plural. Somewhere, there's a film…

- Where you have inserts… - Several films.

… of Brigitte, and no one knows where they are.

Gérard Kikoïne, who was an editor…

Let's organize a game.

Gérard Kikoïne, who was an editor before becoming a director,

told us that he had used the same scene dozens of times

in many different films.

We're in search of the lost shot.

I wish you the best of luck finding it.

Let's watch the trailer for a film whose title speaks for itself.

It's a totally erotic film

that was shown in theaters. It even had several releases,

because at the time of L'Exécutrice,

it was re-released on video under the title L'Exécutrix.

Let's watch the trailer for Touchez pas au zizi.

- That's crass. - Yes, that's crass.

The film isn't too good, but Brigitte is great in it.

HANDS OFF THE WILLY

A burlesque and ironic comedy with atmosphere that's sensual.

Quite sensual.

An erotic film with a style that's different.

Quite different.

Gallic sauciness mixed with Swedish shamelessness.

An unusual story. An insolent and licentious tale.

The extraordinary adventure of Achille.

He's soft, he's a dreamer. He's a good boy.

He loves women, but alas! He's a disaster in bed.

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

Until the day the fairy Erotica appears.

With one wave of her magic wand…

Achille becomes Supersex himself.

Touchez pas au zizi

A stream of disturbing situations.

An innocent little lie causing an avalanche of funny complications.

HANDS OFF THE WILLY

A gallant and libertine journey

with voluptuous and enterprising girls found along the way.

Touchez pas au zizi,

a titillating, sparkling, spicy film.

A film that will arouse your desires.

HANDS OFF THE WILLY

Coming soon.

Was we just saw is a fatwa against Brigitte.

Many thanks to Emmanuel Rossi

who had this trailer in his personal collection.

It's not the version he put at our disposal,

because his copy had hardcore inserts spliced in

with bits of tape directly onto the film,

which came from other sources entirely.

We didn't show it to you because it's besides the point.

That is interesting. They are hardcore inserts for the trailer,

in order to pre-excite the audience,

but the hardcore inserts in the film itself aren't the same.

It's very unlikely that they're the same.

The film itself is worth its weight in peanuts.

There is a film that's almost a cousin to this one,

because Patrice Rhomm, the director,

explained to us that he would always shoot two films at the same time.

That way he would only hire one crew, and likely used a single location,

and shot two films that way.

There is another film that came out within weeks of the other one,

called Le Bijou d'amour.

The Love Jewel

A film that opens up the most secret doors of sexual inferno.

Le Bijou d'amour

A mysterious ring holding evil powers

making the most perverted fantasies a reality.

Casanova's ring, which gives its wearer

the ability to seduce all women.

Having surrendered to the obscene temptations of seven lustful she-devils,

a man dares to face these succubi,

demonic creatures who suck the energy from their victims.

Le Bijou d'amour

The round of deadly and heady sins.

A dizzying dive into the murky sensory realm of repressed desires.

On an assignment for Strange Secrets,

a reporter is taken prisoner by a Satanic cult.

How to escape from the sick and depraved seductresses

emanating from his own mind?

Le Bijou d'amour

Orgies and magic.

Adventure and lust.

Vice and abuse.

As with vampires, the succubi's greatest strength

is that no one believes in their existence.

And yet…

Le Bijou d'amour

The most fantastical erotic film.

The most erotic fantasy film.

Succumb to the temptation.

Come and see Le Bijou d'amour.

Coming soon.

Strictly forbidden to anyone under 18.

The Love Jewel

This erotic film also evokes a characteristic of the parts you've had

throughout your career after adult films,

which is that clearly, you had no trouble taking your clothes off.

No.

It was a superpower that was very much appreciated

around the time you started.

Namely by Jean Rollin,

whose signature was naked vampires.

That was my work ethic.

If you ask me to get undressed, I get undressed.

I don't see where the problem is.

I can tell you a story.

I was part of a jury…

At the Grand Rex theater, there was a fantasy film festival

and one year, I was part of the jury.

It was around '86, I think.

It was a horror film festival,

and I can assure you those kids were out of control

and would throw cans

of soda or beer at the stage.

I was told, "You'll see, it'll be dramatic," etc.

I get onstage, and everyone starts yelling,

"She's got no panties on!"

I was wearing a miniskirt.

I did have panties on, so I lifted my miniskirt and showed my panties.

And then… Well, everyone applauded

and they threw cans at everyone but me.

So being able to undress is useful.

In those trailers, you're announced as a Scandinavian.

That's something that was often…

In particular, there's this Swiss German director

called Erwin C. Dietrich,

whom you worked with on five occasions.

Yes, I made five erotic films,

which weren't at all pornographic, by the way.

No, they're not.

And Erwin C. Dietrich…

- That was after my adult film career. - Exactly.

After porn, you made various erotic films.

Some of which are quite beautiful, like the one some of us saw yesterday,

Erotica.

Erwin C. Dietrich was a sort of…

He's sometimes referred to as the Swiss Roger Corman.

Because he's someone who for some thirty years produced

exploitation films of all kinds.

At Nuit excentrique, they showed a Swiss-Spanish Mad Max

called Mad Foxes,

then there's this series of five films,

at least three of which you play a Swede in,

or are supposedly Swedish, along other actresses who are just as French as you.

Then there's this women's prison film, screening tonight at 9:30.

This is Tago Mago, a small island

off the South American shore,

now a prison island for…

CAGED WOMEN

You won't escape this place!

Even if you reach the sea…

it is infested with sharks!

Any escape attempt…

will be severely punished.

The island's commander…

is a beautiful, heartless woman…

who arouses love… and hate.

CAGED WOMEN

The girls are expecting us!

Leave him! You've won!

The President will kill you for this!

Mr President…

you're in grave danger.

Should I examine you thoroughly?

Yes… from top to bottom!

Is he dead?

Let's get out of here!

If you don't find them…

you'll pay for it with your own skin!

Where are you going?

There is no hope of escaping…

from this hell!

Do you remember shooting with Erwin C. Dietrich?

Yes, it was quite good-natured. He had this side of him…

I think that what he liked the most was to see us running topless.

That made him very happy.

It was…

It was good-natured, really.

There was this Swiss precision,

meaning that the shoot

had a difficult schedule, we'd get up early,

but I have good memories of that man.

It was practical, because we'd shoot

a dozen days, maybe 15, we'd leave, come back…

- So conditions on the set were good? - Yes, absolutely.

He knew what he wanted. There was a script.

We had a sense that were making a film.

It was nice.

Tonight we'll watch the sequel of a film

produced by Dietrich

and directed by Jess Franco, in which Karine Gambier,

who plays the villain here,

played the poor prisoner who becomes a torturer in order to survive, hence…

For those of you who are staying, you'll understand what's going on.

It's interesting to think that Erwin C. Dietrich

made a fortune with one film,

which is the first one he made with you,

Secrets of a French Maid,

which is a remake of a film he had made in '68.

That's right. As he told us, he was on the verge of bankruptcy.

He directed a Maupassant adaptation in '68.

A rather loose adaptation which already was erotic,

but because it was impossible to make it in 1968, he remade the film,

which saved his company from bankruptcy in '80.

The Colonel's Nieces is the name of the novel by Maupassant.

What's interesting is that because he was frustrated with his '68 film,

the censorship board having cut out everything he wanted to show in it,

once attitudes had changed in '79, he remade the film with you.

So he put back in all the stuff he couldn't show in the other one.

And that's how he made his fortune.

Why do I mention this?

It's because later, he asked himself, "What am I going to do with this money?

"What do I like doing? I like making films.

"With naked girls running in the woods."

So he made four more.

It's a beautiful story, because here's a man

who made exactly what he wanted to make.

So at the end of your…

Once your adult film career was over, you got various proposals.

Many of those were for erotic films.

So there was Erotica and Dietrich, and at the same time,

you also started going through casting

and getting hired on various productions in minor roles,

but we start seeing you alongside Alain Delon or…

Yes, but in fact, I didn't answer many casting calls.

It was more through meeting people that I would end up in films.

For example, when I appeared in For a Cop's Hide,

in which I have a small part…

You will hear the call at 15:00.

Go down to the reception and you'll see Dr Malvou.

- Very well. Thank you. - You're welcome.

Actually, it's because…

one of my best friends was Alain's mistress.

So Alain hired both of us, and that was that.

It's not…

It's not at all because I'd gone through casting.

Anyway, I didn't answer casting calls,

because I was not at all recognized as an actress,

so the films I did make

were always thanks to connections I had.

Porn films also.

But we can talk about that some other time.

What about the Verneuil film, I as in Icarus?

I as in Icarus, I shot in '77.

Which means I was still making porn films, but it's similar.

My friend at the time

was a dermatologist

and one of his patients was the casting director.

That's how I got the part.

I assure you, it's the truth.

It's funny. I had a peculiar life.

You know how to use your connections.

Yes. Well, it all happened naturally.

Then there's this period which you describe as rather difficult,

between '83 and '85,

during which you didn't work enough to your liking.

'82, even '81. Even '80, maybe even before that.

Sorry.

No, but it's true. From the moment I quit porn in '80,

I left the man I was with, and he was making good money,

so surviving was a bit complicated.

Up until '84, '85 even.

That's when you start landing more important parts.

Once again, thanks to someone I knew, René Chateau,

because René Chateau bought a lot of video rights.

For example Joy and Joan.

I had met, and was friends with

the author of the book Joy and Joan,

but the producer, Benjamin Simon, was not too keen on hiring me

because of my career in porn and whatnot.

It's because René Chateau had bought the film's video rights

that I got the part, to tell the truth.

Your relationship with René Chateau was also personal,

since you also lived with him, and he had a large impact on your career.

Yes, absolutely.

He then produced Faceless…

He produced Faceless.

First he was a distributor,

of titles like L'Exécutrice, for example.

Yes.

In the case of L'Exécutrice, he bought the video rights,

but above all, he made a new poster.

Yes. We don't have a poster to show you, but it will be in the book.

Between the original poster and the one by René Chateau,

his mark is visible.

That's true. He applied certain techniques…

Many of you know René Chateau.

Nicolas, can you quickly explain who he is?

René Chateau is a distributor and a producer.

He is known for his publishing company

with a panther against a yellow background.

For people of Guillaume and Cédric's age,

it is seared in their psyches.

He's also the one who, through his promotional work,

introduced Bruce Lee to French audiences,

in his cinema, the Hollywood Boulevard located in the Grands Boulevards.

To go back to the poster for L'Exécutrice,

he also was for 15 or 18 years…

For 18 years he was Belmondo's associate.

He was responsible for Belmondo's image.

He designed himself most of the posters for Bébel's films.

He started his career in film as a publicist.

He was a publicist for…

The first film he worked on was Bonnie and Clyde.

Exactly. He worked on the release of Bonnie and Clyde.

The Gainsbourg song was his initiative, by the way.

He's the one who contacted Gainsbourg and pitched the idea.

He's a film lover, a cinephile.

He also did The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

He's the one who released The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in France.

For René Chateau, VHS was an opportunity

to give some visibility to films that didn't bend to censorship rules.

Extremely violent films, for example.

So there's also Maniac.

Flesh for Frankenstein.

Yes, probably.

Wasn't there a Romero?

He also did a George Romero.

Tinto Brass films also, like Salon Kitty.

He came up with a magical tagline for his collection:

"All the films you'll never see on television."

When we were young and weren't allowed to…

That made us dream. It's a different register, but anyway.

Like Hunting Parties in Sologne.

I would see the title in Vidéo 7…

So indeed, he was responsible for Belmondo's image,

his image during the most commercial phase of his career, as Bébel.

Cop movies with a huge gun and a leather jacket.

Not the Belmondo from Godard films or…

or from Resnais' Stavisky.

They had a falling out around the time you met René.

Yes, absolutely.

And it wasn't because of me.

We'll talk about Faceless

because it's an interesting film,

and it's one that largely contributed,

especially overseas, in Germany and in England,

to your image as a cult actress.

But also in France.

But just before that, let's watch a short video

we made during the campaign for the book.

It includes many images

from films of that period,

where you're also a bit of an action star.

Let's watch a video called

Mais qu'est-ce qui fait courir Brigitte?

Just what is making Brigitte run?

Before Faceless,

there was your second film with Jess Franco.

We talked about the previous one

which didn't give you any lasting memories,

called I Burn All Over.

No.

However, your second film with him was more ambitious.

It's a jungle adventure film called Dark Mission.

It was produced by a French production company

called Eurociné.

Can you tell us a bit about them?

So, Eurociné…

If you've ever been to a funfair,

you can picture the barker trying to sell you the bearded woman,

and telling you,

"Come, come and see! Trust me, it's a great show!"

So you enter the shack…

There is no bearded woman, or it's a woman wearing a fake beard.

Eurociné, with their films, is pretty much that.

Earlier, when were talking about pornographic inserts,

we mentioned the abusive re-use of footage.

Eurociné, even if officially they never made pornographic films,

also did that with their films, their actions films, etc.

When we spoke to them about this,

they told us, "But sir, when a scene is well-made,

"if it was expensive, what's the point of shooting it again?"

They would re-use footage both in trailers and in films.

Earlier on you had made a film with Eurociné

called Rape: The Great Fear.

It's a social problem film.

An indictment of rape.

Exactly yes. In which I castrate a man.

Where you avenge yourself in a truly radical way.

That's called a spoiler.

That's not giving away the ending.

That's not a spoiler.

It's the principle of the genre that calls for it.

The genre wants your revenge.

To plead against rape is to speak up.

To tell things as they are.

To condemn the silence.

The fact that women remain silent.

Because we've accomplished the feat

of turning rape into the only crime in the world

whose perpetrator feels innocent

and whose victim feels shameful.

Help!

Rape.

A problem that concerns… all of you.

What will I become now?

My life is ruined.

You, me, all of us.

Rape.

An authentic reenactment of real events.

Images of despair.

We've arrived, haven't we?

And of vengeance.

I was going to castrate them like pigs.

Like the filth they are.

A familiar story.

I have to find a way, Mom! I can't keep this child!

- I don't want to! - Calm down.

We'll find a way. We'll see. We'll think about it. We have to.

These harrowing stories will trouble you.

They are nonetheless true.

Their violence…

their audacity…

will surprise you.

They are nonetheless true.

Rape.

A must-see testimony.

- And you didn't defend yourself. - I did.

- They raped you anyway? - Yes.

You didn't call for help?

Of course I did, but the place is isolated.

It's as if you chose it as deserted as possible.

What you're insinuating is horrible.

Rape.

With Rika Dunkan

Joëlle Le Quément

Joan N'Guyen

Maria Catalard

and Brigitte Lahaie.

So yes, Eurociné…

There is a metaphor that Daniel Lesœur often used.

Eurociné was a family company founded by Marius Lesœur,

who was a carnie, by the way,

which his son Daniel later took over.

He was also a skilled shoemaker.

He'd say, "A shoemaker must make shoes that the public likes,

"but they can't be too expensive,

"otherwise there won't be any leather left to make the next pair."

But at the same time, even in the case of Erwin Dietrich,

these were people who,

according to their abilities, were trying to make films.

According to their abilities, of course.

So we get Dark Mission,

where, in their own way, they tried to make a superproduction.

For many years, Eurociné would make five films per year.

Indeed, to would re-use a lot of material.

Around the mid-'80s, they decided… The market changed.

That's around the time neighborhood cinemas were starting to close,

and television took over.

Cinemas could no longer absorb so many films.

So Eurociné decided to make less films, to make only one per year,

with more stars, and sold internationally.

It's within this context that Dark Mission is made in 1987.

With a gallery of stars.

Jess Franco is a director who made…

he's credited with directing over 200 films.

It's a little hard to keep track of

because he used around 50 different pseudonyms.

Some of those pseudonyms took inspiration from his passion for jazz.

Which means that if you reconstitute Jess Franco's pseudonyms,

you end up with a rather varied big band.

So we've got Jess Franco, but in Dark Mission,

we also have a somewhat heavyweight cast.

- There's Christopher Lee. - Hammer's own Christopher Lee.

Unfortunately, he left us before we got the chance to interview him.

I was going to say Christopher Lee from Star Wars.

Yes.

In the film, you've got more scenes with Mr Mitchum.

Yes, but that's Christopher Mitchum, Robert Mitchum's son.

Who does vaguely resemble him, but…

There's also a Spanish actress, Cristina Higueras,

who's well-known in Spain.

So the casting is… And there's Brigitte from France.

The casting is done in order to make the film

as profitable as possible in many different regions.

The plot is one where a wily and cynical CIA agent

is sent to undermine and bring down a drug cartel

that was set up by a former companion in arms of El Che, Christopher Lee,

who has gone insane after the death of his wife

and in his spare time has gotten into drug-dealing.

Do you know how your mother died?

- I always told me that… - I never told you the truth.

Your mother was killed by American imperialists

a few days after your birth.

They killed all the leaders of the Revolution.

They killed them all. Che Guevara, everyone. Everyone!

Except for me.

On the ground, the CIA agent,

who has some peculiar techniques…

What are you doing here?

I want to be with you, but if you want me to leave…

You were following me. You switched cars.

Of course, since you've got mine.

… meets his contact.

It's a very beautiful scene, by the way.

You're the agent. You're not seen at first.

We only see your eyes in a ray of light.

It's one of most beautiful shots of the film, which has Franco's signature.

It's a progressive and almost mysterious appearance.

Play their game, and don't forget about the rendezvous tomorrow morning.

361 Bolivar avenue.

How do I get in touch with you?

Don't worry about that.

Count up to 10 before making a move or you'll regret it.

Yes, I know.

It's a subdued film.

You weren't asked to get undressed, as it was meant to be an all-ages film.

No, I wasn't. The worst you get is a bikini.

The worst…

There are some remarkable action scenes

where you use a giant machine gun, which I think is Russian.

I don't remember, but yes.

There are helicopters from Aérospatiale.

Thanks to persuasive abilities above what one might expect of him,

Daniel Lesœur managed to convince

a commercial representative from Aérospatiale

he'd met at the Bourget trade fair

to provide some stock shots of their new Super Puma helicopter

and of a few others,

because it's not the same helicopter in every shot.

Stock shots are the short bits…

Or rather when you take footage

that does not come from the main shoot.

Meaning that when you don't have too much money, you use a stock shot.

Orson Welles used them in his own way in F for Fake,

but the result in these types of commercial films is:

"Oh! Look." Shot. Reverse shot. Stock shots.

What's also interesting at the beginning of Eurociné's Dark Mission

is that at one point, since you were talking about Che Guevara,

we've got Chris Mitchum watching archival footage

in sepia tone

with a voice-over that's supposed to be…

At one point, we zoom in. "Pay attention to this person!"

We're supposed to believe it's a computer,

that it's a synthesized voice. It goes on for 10 minutes.

Those who made a pledge for the book will receive a Dark Mission DVD,

which was made to coincide with the book from a new master.

We went to a lot of trouble,

but you may have to skip over that sequence

because it is torture for the ears, especially.

There is a question I'd like to ask.

Earlier, you were saying, regarding the making of love films,

as Gérard Kikoïne calls them,

that there was a family atmosphere.

On shoots for productions like Eurociné's,

was there also that kind of atmosphere?

Or were you surrounded by craftspeople

who would constantly say no?

Dark Mission had a friendly shoot.

It's always the same thing.

When you're making films

with a rather small crew,

immediately, it feels more like family.

While on the other hand, I remember the shoot

of Henri Verneuil's I as in Icarus,

where I had practically no interaction with the director.

I was dealing with the first assistant, maybe even lower.

It's the same with Yves Montand.

Otherwise he would have been chasing after a broom.

It's not the same.

I played in a Gérard Oury, for example.

I have one scene in The Umbrella Coup.

Likewise, I barely had the chance to…

The pool scene.

In small films like this one, you know the whole crew.

René Chateau is impressed with Dark Mission,

- He visits you on the set. - Absolutely.

And he decides to hire Jess Franco on the spot.

I think that for a long time

René wanted to really produce a film.

I even think he wanted, although he never allowed himself,

to become a director.

With Jess Franco, he realizes you can make a film

with a lot less resources than a Belmondo film, obviously.

I think he thought to himself,

"I won't make a film with a Belmondo budget,

"but I'll make a film with a vastly superior budget

"than Dark Mission and Eurociné."

That's how he got the idea to make Faceless.

It's true that the principle behindFaceless

is a film with a prestigious and international cast,

with a strong story, but multiplied by ten,

relative to Eurociné.

He had the means.

But they weren't unlimited either. It wasn't a cornucopia.

It's a film he financed entirely on his own, without any help.

It's got a relatively small budget for a French film,

but it's a film with a much larger budget than Dark Mission.

I think it was shot in six weeks,

whereas we only had 15 days to shoot Dark Mission.

We have to recognize the talent at play in bis cinema.

I don't even know how they managed to make films in fifteen days.

And they still looked like films.

The looked like films made by professionals.

It's also the case with Jean Rollin.

The Night of the Hunted, for example, took fifteen days to shoot.

When you see the film, you ask yourself how it was pulled off.

The Night of the Hunted was a bet with his distributor

that he'd manage to make a fantasy film on a porn film's budget.

Which is great. It's a very interesting Jean Rollin film.

We talked about it yesterday.

Yes, it's a film that… It's a film.

I'm not crazy about it, but..

On Faceless, the budget is visible onscreen.

That's what René Chateau wanted.

It's artful. It's a surprisingly tame film.

You're alongside Anton Diffring and Helmut Berger.

There's also Caroline Munro who starred in Maniac,

and who's quite sultry,

and Florence Guérin, who'd just made The Click.

Look. Isn't that Florence Guérin, the actress?

Yes, that's her alright.

Actresses are crazy.

They'll do anything to get famous.

And when they are, they hide behind dark glasses.

In terms of eroticism, there's especially

a quick and rather furtive kiss between you and Florence Guérin,

Otherwise, we don't see anything.

It's quite surprising.

It's also quite surprising coming from Jess Franco,

who was never one to be shy.

It wasn't an erotic film.

It was a fantasy film, a horror film.

There wasn't especially any reason to show scenes…

I understand your disappointment, but…

When you've got Caroline Munro, Florence Guérin and Brigitte Lahaie,

you might think…

When you know so much.

René Chateau told us

that it wouldn't serve the film's purpose to see…

Especially since…

You've told me that there could have been a way

for him to accept a higher level of eroticism.

It even was a game between Helmut and I.

We told ourselves, "Why don't we shoot a scene?"

Helmut Berger was handsome, after all.

I guess René was too jealous. That must be why. It's a shame.

Something wasn't too clear. What exactly did Helmut Berger want to do?

We both agreed and we'd spoken to René about it.

We wanted to shoot a scene, a real erotic scene.

I don't know how far we would have gone, but we thought it was a fun idea.

He says, "No, it wouldn't have worked."

René Chateau?

He says, "No, no, we thought about it.

"We talked about it, but it wouldn't have worked."

I'm not good at impressions, so I won't try.

It's one of the paradoxes of the film, which also makes it interesting.

It's an ambitious film that has a certain register.

The same car is often seen, an R25. Which may have been his.

I don't know if he owned an R25 at the time.

We see this one car that belongs to different characters.

Really? No, he didn't drive an R25.

In any case, someone on this shoot had an R25.

However, there are special effects.

- Don't you know everything? - We forgot.

On the other hand, there are special effects

of a quality that's rarely been seen in French productions.

Incidentally it was the source of a small quarrel

between René Chateau and Jess Franco, to give them their respective credit.

I think it was René who found… Gastineau, was it?

Jacques Gastineau.

The photos we'll include in the book,

which he provided us, show him during the shoot,

very much involved in preparing the special effects.

With the famous giant drill.

There's this guy with an absolutely unbelievable face

who's only been in two films.

Cross with Michel Sardou.

Michel Sardou made movies.

A cop movie from the '80s where he's a hard badass,

a little like L'Exécutrice. It was that era.

It was in fact the era when you made L'Exécutrice,

in which you play a detective with perfunctory methods.

It was around the time

when Belmondo and Alain Delon were about to hang up their gloves,

taking some respite from their status as French action stars.

The spot seemed to have opened up, since…

Daniel Auteuil, for example, was a contender for the job

in Sergio Gobbi's L'Arbalète.

Or in Les Fauves.

Francis Huster… There also was Florent Pagny.

In Justice de flic.

Robin Renucci.

Robin Renucci and even Frank Dubosc.

In film called…

Blessures? Is that it? No, Blessures, was with Florent Pagny.

Justice de flic was with Dubosc.

So why not Brigitte?

Exactly. It was a much wiser choice, even.

Let's talk about…

Let's talk about the last part of your career.

It's when you started to find your voice

in professional realms outside of cinema.

To find my voice, literally.

Yes, literally.

In particular with an interlude that's somewhat outside

of your career, which is mostly confined to genre cinema.

It's this film in which…

in which you played, under Haydée Caillot's direction.

It was produced for Arte by Eric Rohmer,

and it's called Les Volets bleus.

Let's watch the trailer.

Jacques Mandréa, Brigitte Lahaie,

who are you in this film, Les Volets bleus?

- I'm Christian. - And I'm Anne.

How would you summarize this film?

I would say that…

It's about a man desperately seeking to get raped.

And I'd say it's about a man desperately seeking to make you believe the inverse.

Ah. And how do you go about doing that?

We can't tell you, but in any case, we try to be funny.

Moving.

Sensual.

Even impertinent.

Impertinent? And where does all of this take place?

It all happens behind the blue shutters.

And around them, too.

The voice we hear off-camera

belongs to Jean-Luc Revol, who you could perhaps…

Jean-Luc Revol was a rookie assistant on the film.

He since has become a stage director of some renown.

Incidentally, he was your partner

and director on your one-woman show.

My one-woman show.

That's something that few people know.

No. It was a show that I performed mostly at the Point Virgule.

It's true that I didn't have a long run.

But it shows the diversity of your output.

Yes.

Because reciting a text onstage for a whole hour

in front of an audience is not like making a film.

- Wouldn't you agree? - Yeah.

That being said, she has a daily radio show.

It's around that time that

with regards to traditional cinema…

you decide to stop waiting for traditional cinema.

Then again, this is a curious film.

I look back on this film with tenderness.

I love this film

because I think it's where my abilities as an actress

to play with different registers, are the most visible.

I got this part because I do astrology,

and the director is also an astrologist.

In fact, I had been on the cover of an astrology magazine.

That's how Haydée Caillot contacted me.

She insisted on having me and was met with great resistance

because clearly, it wasn't easy for Eric Rohmer

to accept that I play that part.

Again, it's through some curious coincidence

that I was cast in this film.

It does indeed show

a side of your abilities as an actor,

which unfortunately haven't been put to good use often enough.

It's their loss.

It's their loss.

One of the paradoxes of your fame

is that it becomes much more important

more or less around the time

when you decide to, or rather stop making films,

or are close to leaving film behind.

In fact, I didn't stop making films.

It's the industry that no longer has anything to offer me.

So I stepped aside,

and started doing other things. I wrote some books.

What helped me survive

was that I started answering questions through Minitel, and on the phone.

It was the era of 08 numbers.

I would answer sexology questions.

- 3615 LAHAIE. - Yes, 3615 LAHAIE.

Each day, I would answer questions from regular people.

It's how I learned the ropes as a…

I don't want to say sexologist, because I wouldn't call myself that,

but yeah, I didn't know exactly how things would turn out

but I was…

I was waiting for a signal.

There's this moment, this turning point

that opened up other doors for you professionally.

It's when you published your autobiography.

That was in 1987. It was a bit before all that.

It's a book I wrote because I was a bit fed up

by how each time I'd do an interview,

for L'Exécutrice, for example, I'd be asked about my past.

I didn't particularly like… I didn't mind talking about it,

but I found that the questions were always a bit insidious.

It wasn't clear.

Because I've always been uncompromising, I told myself,

"I'll write my autobiography. That way, at least it will be written down.

"Yes, I made porn films. So what?"

It's funny, because at the time, René Chateau told me,

"Have you gone completely mad? You'll burn yourself for good."

I don't know, I felt it was important to release that book.

I incidentally got help from the author of Joy.

He helped me write this book, because I'd never written before.

The book was a phenomenal success, undoubtedly thanks to Bernard Pivot,

because I'd been invited to go on Apostrophe.

It freed me quite a bit from meeting with the press and the media.

It's how I got onto the small screen.

I started to appear quite often on very popular television shows.

I was on Les Grosses Têtes, on Patrick Sébastien's shows,

on Christophe Dechavanne, etc.

Suddenly I entered mass media as a sort of…

I was being invited because it was…

the show's somewhat scandalous side.

Little by little,

the general public became more and more aware of my name.

I owe a lot to Antoine de Caunes, and that's an interesting story.

Antoine de Caunes at the time did Nulle part ailleurs on Canal+,

and simply put, he kept mentioning me.

For example, he'd tell a seaman,

"Yes, you're going at 15 knobs per hour, like Brigitte Lahaie."

The jokes were always… It was always very funny.

I'm very fond of Antoine de Caunes.

I've met a lot of people who told me,

"At one point, we'd constantly hear 'Brigitte Lahaie'.

"Just who is this Brigitte Lahaie?"

He played an enormous role in getting people to know me.

Absolutely. This goes along the same lines

as what we were talking about earlier.

Which is to say that people from our generation

heard a lot about you,

and we also heard you, we saw you on television…

more and more frequently. You'd speak up, take position,

appearing clearly as a strong, intelligent, determined woman,

knowing at the same time that you'd done what you did.

That, for the young men that we were, had an effect…

I think it's widespread. It's something that we…

It's one of the main ingredients that make up your status.

It's the theory we've been working on for two years.

We've had a lot of evidence pointing to that, many people's accounts.

Regarding your status…

It's because you are who you are.

It's not only through the fortunate chain or circumstances

that allowed you to star

in adult films at the most blessed era

of the brief history of pornographic cinema

that you had this truly unique career.

There aren't many French actresses who have had such a diverse trajectory,

albeit a brief one, since it spans about 15 years.

Yes, something like that.

It's true that…

Today, I'm 60 years old.

When I look back on my life, on my trajectory,

I feel like I've led multiple lives. It's true.

Before proceeding to…

Burying me?

No! Before taking questions, we'll show a short video.

I'll end up as ashes, because I burned all over.

We'll watch a short video

called Toutes les couleurs de Brigitte.

DISCOVER ALL THE COLORS OF BRIGITTE LAHAIE

What have they done to you?

Ask no questions…

and you'll be told no lies!

Do we have time to take questions?

Yes? Does anyone have a question?

Good evening. As you said earlier,

when you were making adult films,

it was a small family.

You were always together: the same actors and actresses.

My question is:

other than you, all the other actresses have disappeared.

Have you maintained friendships with them?

Are you still in contact with these actresses

you used to shoot films with

for a few years?

One last question, second and last question:

what really motivated you to quit shooting adult films?

Was it boredom?

Was it also because of the arrival of the AIDS phenomenon,

since there were no preservatives used in your films,

and there was protection back then.

In short, what made you decide, "I quit"?

First of all, I barely have any news

from most of those actors and actresses.

I have a friend who lives in Belgium now,

Erika Cool, with whom I'm still very much in contact with,

and who was a very close friend back in those days.

As for the others, I don't know what they became.

Either Karine Gambier…

I know that Marilyn Jess is… but I…

Besides, I didn't make too many films with her,

so I wouldn't say she was a friend.

There is only one actress.

There is one actor, Richard Allan, who I'm still good friends with,

although we don't see each other often because our lives are so different.

The reason I quit… AIDS appeared quite a while later.

It appeared in '84. I quit in '80.

I must admit that the first time I took a test,

I was quite relieved,

but that was much later, so that's not why I quit.

I quit because I felt I was beginning to…

More precisely, I realized

that it was a dangerous occupation

from which you don't come out unscathed,

and it was time for me to quit if I wanted to make it out alright.

So I decided to quit.

The last film I made after I'd decided to quit was Les Petites Écolières,

because Claude had me a promise.

It's awful, because it was right when I decided to quit

that I got offers from the United States,

but because I'd decided to quit, I didn't respond to them.

Good evening. My question is simple:

how were you cast in Jean-Jacques Beneix's Diva?

That's a good question, because I don't remember.

I think…

I think that in this case, I must have answered a casting call.

If Jean-Jacques Beneix chose me, it's because he knew who I was.

But I…

At the time, I'd taken a pseudonym. I think I was called Brigitte Simonin.

I must answered a few casting calls.

But if I was chosen, it really was because of my past. He later told me.

But I thought I was incognito.

But yeah.

- Good evening. - Good evening.

One gets the impression when you say you were thumbing your nose

that it was something liberating, a youthful experience.

When you consider young people today

with sex being explicit online, omnipresent,

or implicit in publicity,

are there things that scare you,

are there things that give you hope

about the way young people may find their voice

and their path, and become adults?

I think that…

I think that sexuality, or rather sex in today's society

is rather anxiogenic for young people,

given that…

I always say that human sexuality certainly has an animal component,

but it has a whole phantasmatic component as well.

The problem with sex in today's society

is that it's not so phantasmatic anymore.

Which unavoidably

gives many young people

an early sex life that is rather mechanical.

Meaning that they'll masturbate for five minutes to some images

without really using their phantasmatic side.

And that's a bit unfortunate.

But I think that…

The problem of human sexuality is that it is dangerous politically.

In the broadest sense.

I'm not going to give you a political speech.

So what happens nowadays?

People are given sex and football, and as a result, they're not liberated,

they don't build a human identity.

They don't elevate themselves.

That's my opinion.

I think that the quality

of pornographic films from '75 to '80,

and that's what Lacan said,

is that we tried to give people a possibility to understand

that sex was not simply three thrusts in a dark room.

You seem to also have love for animals. You've always had dogs.

I also saw that you do horseback riding.

Perhaps you could tell us a bit about that?

Yes. I believe that my love of nature, of animals,

although I was born in the city and nothing in my upbringing…

I don't know where it comes from,

but I think that it's something truly essential for me.

I do believe that when we are close to nature,

we are closer to our own nature.

I think it's unfortunate that many humans

forget that they are first and foremost a body, a living thing.

If we over-intellectualize things,

we're perhaps missing out.

I know that…

For example, if I'm heartbroken, I get up on a horse,

I go for a ride, then I live again.

There's something in…

Our relationships to animals can't be faked.

Language makes us cheat enormously.

In our relationship to animals, there is no language,

so there's always something real.

Good evening. We see horses in some of the films

you've starred in.

Was that your idea, or the director's?

No, it was never my idea, but I think it was used

precisely because people knew I could rise a horse, I suppose.

For example, in La France interdite,

the trailer that you see, it's the same thing.

It's a film that was conceived by the author of Joy.

He had the idea to shoot that sequence to end the film on

because he knew I could ride a horse

and that I wouldn't have a problem with riding a horse in the nude.

And bareback.

No, there is a saddle.

Fantasies, fantasies!

Good evening.

Last night, before the screening of Erotica,

you talked about the ingenuity of youth.

I hope I'm not distorting your thoughts, since you're in the film.

The film gives an image of women that is nonetheless rather chauvinistic.

I was wondering if on the pornographic films you made,

as well as on Erotica and the later films,

if you at least had your say as an actress

in what you were going to show onscreen, either you or the other actors.

No, I didn't particularly have any say. I may have refused certain things.

As I always say, for example…

In no pornographic film can you see me perform an anal sex scene.

There were a few scenes where a double was used

because I wanted to maintain some privacy.

But no, I always did what I was asked to do,

certainly with good humor and spontaneity.

In any case, that's what actresses do in principle.

I think that if I didn't go any further in my acting career,

it's precisely because I was a little too free.

There are a few roles I lost

because there were some concessions I didn't want to make.

We'll show you… Let's end with some videos.

First, we'll watch La Bassat, then Saturday Night Erotica.

We should explain that La Bassat, is…

I think everyone will remember.

- You think? - Yes. For those who don't remember, it will come back to them.

Dad, can I have the car tonight?

Why isn't everything designed like the Bassat?

Dad?

I…

Why isn't everything designed like the Bassat?

Da…

That's a shame. The Bassat has washable seat covers.

A long time ago, in a very, very trendy nightclub....

Hey, Monti, what are you playing that shit for?

What are you talking about, baby?

Look at that chick, she's dancing, man. She's grooving.

- Joey. - Yeah.

You know that girl?

No.

- You ever see her before? - No.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I seen her here about a month ago.

She can dance, you know that?

She got the wrong partner, of course, but she can dance.

- Go ask her. - Fuck you.

Yeah? Which position?

Who the hell's that guy?