Q [DVD] by D?borah R?vy

I watched this film, initially, on Prime but enjoyed it enough to buy the dvd and watch again, with the added bonus of director and actress' interviews. On the surface it is one of those films that the French do so well: it is an entertaining trench of life involving a bunch of twentysomethings in a French channel port (Caen is mentioned in the dialogue) all of whom, with the exception of Matt the mechanic, appear to be unemployed, with most of the (disenchanted) male characters involved in petty crime/revenge against a dodgy employer, including car theft. However the film revolves around the sexual antics of the feisty Cecile whose father has recently died and whose ashes she has to decide what to do with. This seems to be a tenuous reason for her sexually provoking a string of men, and one woman, of varying ages, despite having a steady boyfriend, though she is frustrated with their sex life. There isn't much of a plot, although the film is book-ended with the matter of her late father's ashes. It is more a loosely linked set of situations interspersed with some highly charged and erotic sex scenes. The acting's not very good, the dialogue is rather pedestrian and the direction's not great but the sex scenes are great and pleasingly explicit! You get everything here: oral sex, lesbian sex, female masturbation, penetrative sex, etc. Interspersed through the film is monochrome film of naked women, only viewed from the neck down, showering together and talking about men and sex. PLOT SPOILER: They turn out to be the main female protagonists preparing for the final scene of the film - a sex party for which all the male 'guests' have paid. Another scene, which helps lift the film out of being soft porn to being more of an art film is the scene outside the cafe where the action transfers from one character to another and back to the original, all of whom are talking on their phones! There is a lot of 'sobbing' in the film: e.g. Alice has a good cry after masturbating in one totally disconnected scene, one of the 'men' sobs into his phone while begging his girlfriend to come back to him. Altogether, a very brave film: none of the main actors' careers seems to have blossomed after making this film...

Feel as one may about French films, it must be admitted that they bring something to the field of erotic cinema that is refreshingly 'real' , and the film 'Q' ('Desire') carries on this tradition. In an interview in the 'extras' section on the disk the director (Laurent Bouhnik ) states that he was attempting to present a more 'honest' and 'feminine' view of human sexual relationships. The mechanism that he uses to achieve this goal seems to centre on focusing on the female characters in the story as they relate to life circumstances and men. The plot revolves around a group of young 20 somethingish individuals, who appear to all be acquainted, living in a small sea-side town. Played out against the grim economic realities of present times we follow the action of the principal female character, Cecile, as she comes to grips with her father's recent death. Apparently a bit 'un-hinged' by her personal loss she appears to be casting about for some satisfaction/resolution through a series of sexual dalliances and relationships. She is having 'issues' with her 'steady' boyfriend so she 'teases' some other guys into having sex with her and also gets involved in some sapphic action with the sexually naive & frustrated Alice. To a lesser extent the plot also attempts to track the sexual flounderings of some of the secondary characters and it can get a little confusing, on first viewing, as to who is with who and why they're doing what they're doing.Indeed, 'frustration' is a key concept in this flik as the director, again, makes his point that, in the real world, sexual relationships are not always 'smooth' and 'hot' as depicted in the porno cinema. This film IS quite explicit in showing intimate sexual situations and full female (& male) nudity abounds. There are scenes of oral and auto eroticism, as well as hetero and lesbian liaisons - but no penetration, and the sex is all woven into the context of the story-line so that it does not come off as 'gratuitous'. In the final analysis, the film doesn't come to any grand conclusions - it is essentially a 'slice of life' examination of human relationships - but the 'thespians' are all very attractive and get naked a lot. I would say that the director achieved his objective in providing a more 'realistic' vision of eroticism, which ironically may lower its' actual erotic potential, but it is an easy and enjoyable watch (with lotsa naked bodies) and even has a (relatively) happy ending!

I do quite like this movie. However be warned it is rather sexually graphic on a number of occasions, verging on the porn graphic without sinking too deep into the genre of illicit porn.Cecile is a 20 year old female who is struggling with the loss of her late father. She finds release from her upset mind by indulging in a spree of sexual encounters with her friends and a previously unknown man.Her friend Alice lives with the controlling element of her conservative family and is looking for love if only her parents would allow it.Ultimately it all comes together in a sensual, emotional, and sexual manner.It's a film with a story as opposed to an excuse to use its graphic depiction of real sex purely for the purpose of sexually exciting the viewer.French filmmaker Laurent Bouhnik leaves little to the imagination in this story of a group of young adults battling with the conflict of desire and morality.