THE THEATRE OF MR. AND MRS. KABAL (1967) (Blu-ray Review)

THE THEATRE OF MR. AND MRS. KABAL (1967) 

Label: Olive Films 
Region Code: A 
Rating: Unrated 
Duration: 78 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: French DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono with optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Full Frame (1.33:1) 
Cast: Pierre Collet, Louisette Rousseau 

Director: Walerian Borowczyk

Synopsis: Walerian Borowczyk’s The Theatre of Mr. And Mrs. Kabal (1967) is a glimpse inside the weird and wonderful world of the theatrical Kabals. The henpecked Mr. Kabal, prone to ogling young females through his binoculars, is never quite beyond the reach of the statuesque and domineering Mrs. Kabal who flutters about (quite literally when butterflies appear inside of her stomach) in a connubial reign of terror. Although it may not always be le beau mariage, Mr. and Mrs. Kabal are nonetheless made for each other.

The Theatre of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal (1967) was Polish-born
filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk's feature film debut, and apparently his last animated film, based on characters he dabbled with in the '62 short film The Concert, we have the monstrous Mrs. Kabal and her diminutive mustached husband Mr. Kabal as they set about on a series of weird and surreal adventures. Borowczyk used a blend of crude, hand drawn and cut-out animation with live action clips peppered throughout to make the surreal slice of avant-garde animation, mostly black and white with some splotches of color, even Borowczyk himself shows up in the beginning to introduce his characters and the film, beginning with Mr. Kabal seemingly being assembled like a robot trying on different heads, before settling on one and then addressing the director in her odd staccato chirp of a voice. Right from the get-go you get the notion that this is gonna be a strange trip, at boy is it ever.

The animated film plays like a series of day-in-the-life vignettes of the Kabal's, as the oddball couple set about going to the beach, making large caliber ammunition, preparing dinner and attending the movies, all the while plagued by an endless barrage of irritating butterflies who are ever present, as are a series of small animals, including a two-legged reptilian rat creature and a large bird which drops blue eggs onto the sparse landscape. Peppered throughout the film are live-action shorts of pretty women in various states of undress that Mr. Kabal spies upon with his trusty telescopic binoculars, these women are usually accompanied by a bearded old man, which seems to upset Mr. Kabal quite a bit.

Mrs. Kabal is quite annoyed by the presence of the butterflies, they cause her to fall ill, forcing Mr. Kabal to saw off his wife's head and enter the inner workings of her body to retrieve and dispose of the culprit butterflies, the source of her illness. The interior of her body is a labyrinth, at times recalling the world-warping illustrations of M.C. Escher, including staircases, waterways and oddball architecture.

Like all of the Borowczyk short films from The Walerian Borowczyk Short Films Collection (1959-1984) this animated movie is enhanced by some trippy sound design, adding crisp punctuation to the oftentimes nonsensical drawings performing grotesque and bizarre actions. I thought to myself more than once that maybe I needed to be on drugs to get the full effect of this film, because it is so damn weird, Borowczyk's humor is hard to grapple with at times, but I found it fascinating, I'm just not sure I would ever watch it again, unless it was a "you have to see this" sort of scenario with a group of friends, you know?

Honestly, I found it a hard to stay tuned into it, it's damn near impenetrable at times, loaded with bizarre animations, there's no real narrative and the overpowering hallucinatory weirdness turned out to be a slog. I can only see this appealing to the most curious of cult-cinema weirdos, even I, a lover of all things oddball,  struggled to appreciate how damn weird this thing was. I guess I am more in-tuned with his perverted arthouse films of the 70s and 80s along the lines of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Hyde (1981), Immoral Tales (1974) and The Beast (1975), more so than his early lunatic animations. That said, adventurous cinema fans out with some serious weirdness stamina might find this to be worth a peek. 2.5/5  

THE WALERIAN BOROWCZYK SHORT FILMS COLLECTION (1959-1984) (Blu-ray Review)

THE WALERIAN BOROWCZYK SHORT FILMS COLLECTION (1959-1984) 

Label: Olive Films 
Rating: Unrated 
Region Code: A
Duration: 152 Minutes
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1), Full Frame (1.33:1) 
Audio: French DTS-HD MA 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Walerian Borowczyk

Polish-born filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk was a weird guy, a movie poster illustrator who moved to France in the 50's and became an avant-garde filmmaker whose later work were sometimes, and not wrongly, called artful pornography. Among these dirty works of cinema was the infamous Immoral Tales (1974), and while he never rose to prominence as did his fellow Polish filmmakers Roman Polanski (Repulsion) and Krzysztof Kieslowski (The Double Life of Veronique), his labors have had a recent reevaluations from the likes of Arrow Video, and now US distributor Olive Films. who are releasing a handful of the director's works, including Theatre of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal (1967), Goto, Isle of Love (1968), Blanche (1971) and this one, a compendium of 15 short films he made between 1959-1984, and they're just as weird and wild as I had imagined after viewing a few of his later films.

Borowczyk began his career as illustrator, and that comes through clearly in his early works, shorts made with still images and cut-out animations. I found hard to comprehend a lot of this to be honest, but something I did take away from it was the obvious influence his early animated work seems to have had on Terry Gilliam's animated works for comedy troupe Monty Python, he even does a brief introduction for the Blu-ray, acknowledging Borowczyk lasting impression.

The shorts:  

The Concert (1962) aka Le Concert de M. et Mme. Kabal (7 min) HD
An animated short about a married couple known as The Kabals, the Mrs. of which seems to be a concert pianist who doesn't appreciate her husband snoring his way through her recital. It all ends in bloodshed and dismemberment, wonderful use of music. These characters would be more fully fleshed out Borowczyk's animated film Theatre of Mr. and Mrs. Kabal (1967), also available on Blu-ray from Olive Films. 


The Astronauts (1959) aka Les Astronautes (13 min) HD. A man invents a spaceship, made from cardboard and newspaper, uses it to fight a space-war, sneak a peek of a nude woman, and surreal weirdness ensues. A mix of cut-out animation, illustration and stop-motion, this one is yet again very surreal, and the music cues and sound effects brought to the early LSD-fueled psych outs of Pink Floyd.   

Angels’ Games (1964) aka Les Jeux des Anges (12 min) HD. This one begins with some static shots of a train ride, it looks like we are looking out the window of a train in the dark, hearing the rhythmic clack and clank of locomotion, before we move into some sparse, dark rooms, there are organ pipes and organ music, then the Angel wings begin to be sawn off. Dark, weird and affecting, and again the music cues are essential to the cinema of the piece. 

Renaissance (1963)(9 min) HD. In this one a series of photographs depict a roomful of destroyed objects, which include fruit, an own, paintings, a doll and a horn, reconstituting themselves, until we see what caused the mayhem to begin with, this one has a great sound design, including the use of typewriter keys and rhythmic sound.

Joachim’s Dictionary (1965) aka Le Dictionnaire de Joachim (9 min) HD. A crudely drawn man illustrates a word for each letter of the dictionary with a nice muted horn accompaniment. 

The Greatest Love of All Time (1978) aka L’Amour Monstre de tous les temps (9 min) HD. A sort of wordless documentary French surrealist painter Ljubomir Popović accompanied by the soaring music of composer Wagner, nine minutes of the painter on the streets and painting on close-up, ending with the a view of his finished work.  

Diptyque (1967) (8 min) HD. In this film an elderly man is seen farming his land, enjoying the company of his dog, and driving into town from his rural estate. Then we are treated to a series of images of attractive flowers arrangements intercut with a kitten playing with a ball of yarn.  

Grandma’s Encyclopedia (1963) aka L’encyclopedie de Grand-Maman
(7 min) HD. A fun journey through time and illustration depicting three modes of transportation with some fun mishaps along the way. 

Venus on the Half-Shell(1975) aka Escargot de Venus (4 min) HD. Along the lines of The Greatest Love of All Time (1978) this one is a mini-doc of sorts from Borowiczyk documenting the erotic colored pencil artworks of artist Bona Tibertelli de Pisis with her narrating over it,its gorgeous, erotic and surreal. 

Gavotte (1967) (11 min) HD. A 18th century costumed dwarf  struggles for a comfy seat while a second dwarf endeavors to ruin his day, it's a brief bit of farce. 

The Phonograph (1969) aka Le Phonograph (6 min) HD. An antique phonograph which plays wax cylinders in both real-time and stop-motion photography, we glean the portrait of a young girl throughout, the piece ends with the sounds of gunfire and the wax cylinders and portrait being destroyed in the process. 

Rosalie (1966) (15 min) HD. With this one we have a harrowing confession by a woman on trial for the murder of her baby, very effecting, a powerful performance from Borowczyk's own wife Ligia. Powerful stuff, this is the most affecting and emotional short in the collection, adding punctuation to the emotion are images presented as evidence during the trial, including cloth that wrapped the baby, pillow, and a shovel.   

Scherzo Infernal (1984)(5 min) HD. A fun and blasphemous animation about an Angel named Purea and a devil down in Hell named Mastro, both coming of age and proving to be disappointments to their respective families, with Mastro fleeing to Heaven where he meets Purea and red-cocked sex ensues. This was my favorite of the animated shorts, loved the style and execution, good stuff that showcase some of Borowczyk's artful smut, and to be honest, that's the stuff i tend to enjoy the most about his work.   

A Private Collection Long Version Censored aka Une Collection (14 min) HD. This 14-min doc is a collector walking s through his private collection of vintage and antique erotica and erotic devices. We get everything from vintage prints and photographs, illustrations, and coin-operated machinations, and we get quite an eyeful of vintage smut, including imaged hidden with seemingly innocuous illustrations, an ivory dildo, vintage film reels, smutty pics, and a censored scene involving Victorian era bestiality! All proving that there have been pornography obsessed people since, forever! There's also a shorter version of the same film, running 12-min.  

Audio/Video: The Walerian Borowczyk Short Films Collection (1959-1984) arrives on region A Blu-ray from Olive Films on a single-disc release looking very nice, preserving the original aspect ratios. I do believe this is the same restoration work that Arrow Video released in the UK as part of their Walerian Borowczyk Short Films and Animation release in 2014, restored from the 35mm elements. The DTS-HD mono French audio sounds just fine, it's limited in how dynamic it can be, but the dialogue and score sounded just fine, the music accompaniments are integral to the shorts, optional English subtitles are included.   

Looking at the extras, we begin with an introduction by filmmaker and animator Terry Gilliam, plus the 28-min Film is Not a Sausage documentary about Borowczyk’s animated work featuring Borowczyk, producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant André Heinrich and composer Bernard Parmegiani. Both the intro and doc are straight from the Arrow Video release, though, notably, Olive's release also contains Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) and A Private Collection, both the Long Version Censored and the short versions. Arrow's collection did not have either, though both versions of A Private Collection are available on Arrow's  Immoral Tales (1974) Blu-ray release. Fairplay, missing from the Olive release is the Blow Ups, a visual essay by Daniel Bird about Borowczyk’s works on paper, and the Borowczyk directed commercials Holy Smoke (1963), The Museum (1964), Tom Thumb (1966), which are found on arrow's shorts collection, so there's some give and get between the two releases, though I am quite happy with the Olive release, which is more affordable, minus a few bells and whistles. 

Special Features: 
- Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam (1 min) HD 
- Film is not a Sausage: Borowczyk’s Short Films – Interview program featuring Borowczyk, producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant André Heinrich and composer Bernard Parmegiani (28 min) HD

The Walerian Borowczyk Short Films Collection (1959-1984) is a wild ride, a stupendous and surreal compendium of the shorts from the very unusual mind of Polish born filmmaker Borowczyk. I wouldn't recommend this as a starting point for your entry into his filmography, this is surreal and abstract stuff that can be an assault on the senses and values at times, but if you've had a taste for his cinema and crave more, you might want to dip into this collection, or just throw yourself in and go for it you brave cinema-loving soul. 3/5 

Olive Films to release four Walerian Borowczyk Blu-rays on April 25th

THEATRE OF MR. AND MRS. KABAL (1967) 

PIERRE COLLET
(Greed in the Sun, Le Cercle Rouge, French Connection II)
LOUISETTE ROUSSEAU
(War of the Buttons, A Horse for Two, Run for Your Wife)

Directed by
WALERIAN BOROWCZYK
(Blanche; Immoral Tales; Goto, Isle of Love)

Walerian Borowczyk, the director of the controversial live action films Blanche, Immoral Tales and Lulu, would show his more playful side with his animated feature Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal. 

GENRE: ANIMATION COMEDY
LANGUAGE: FRENCH (with optional English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 78 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO:  1.33:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR and B/W
AUDIO: MONO

Walerian Borowczyk’s (Blanche) Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal is a glimpse inside the weird and wonderful world of the theatrical Kabals. The henpecked Mr. Kabal, prone to ogling young females through his binoculars, is never quite beyond the reach of the statuesque and domineering Mrs. Kabal who flutters about (quite literally when butterflies appear inside of her stomach) in a connubial reign of terror. Although it may not always be le beau mariage, Mr. and Mrs. Kabal are nonetheless made for each other.

The years-in-the-making feature length animated film from the controversial director of Goto, Isle of Love and Immoral Tales, featuring the voice talents of Pierre Collet (Greed in the Sun) and Louisette Rousseau (War of the Buttons), is akin to other Borowczyk animated works such as The Astronauts, Renaissance and Angels’ Games.

GOTO, ISLE OF LOVE (1968) 

PIERRE BRASSEUR
(Port of Shadows, Eyes Without a Face, King of Hearts)
LIGIA BRANICE
(Blanche, La Jetée, Interno di un convento)
GUY SAINT-JEAN
(The Killing Game, Kiss Me General, Life Upside Down)
JEAN-PIERRE ANDREANI
(The Story of O, Carré blanc, A Kid)

Directed by
WALERIAN BOROWCZYK
(Blanche, Immoral Tales, The Beast)

Goto, Isle of Love is one of several collaborations (including Blanche and Interno di un convento) between director Walerian Borowczyk and leading actress and wife, Ligia Branice.

GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: FRENCH (with English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 94 mins
RATING: N/R
ASPECT RATIO:  1.66:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR / B/W
AUDIO: MONO

EXTRAS
- Introduction by artist and Turner Prize nominee Craigie Horsfield
- The Concentration Universe: Goto, Isle of Love – Interview program featuring actor Jean-Pierre Andréani, co-writer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, cameraman Noël Véry and camera assistant Jean-Pierre Platel

With Goto, Isle of Love, director Walerian Borowczyk (Blanche) would cement his status as a visual stylist, weaver of erotic tales, and a filmmaker whose work would both confront and celebrate society’s taboos.

Goto, Isle of Love is a tale of infidelity, revenge, and repressed love, both chaste and illicit, starring Pierre Brasseur (Port of Shadows) as Goto III, an unstable and jealous dictator married to the beautiful Glossia (Ligia Branice, Blanche). Unbeknownst to Goto III, Glossia is carrying on an affair with one of his guards, the handsome Lieutenant Gono (Jean-Pierre Andreani, The Story of O). Also lusting after the dictator’s wife is Grozo (Guy Saint-Jean, The Killing Game), a petty thief who, by winning the confidence of Goto III, plans to win Glossia for himself. Simmering passions will boil over on the isle, leading to a surprising denouement.

Shot in haunting shades of black & white and color by cinematographer Guy Durban (Immoral Tales), Goto, Isle of Love is written for the screen by director Borowczyk with additional dialogue by Dominique Duvergé.

        

BLANCHE (1971) 

MICHEL SIMON
(L’Atalante, Port of Shadows, Bouda Saved from Drowning)
GEORGES WILSON
(The Three Musketeers, Not Here to be Loved, Les destinées)
LIGIA BRANICE
(Goto, Isle of Love; La Jetee; Interno di un convento)
JACQUES PERRIN
(Cinema Paradiso, Z, Brotherhood of the Wolf)

Directed by
WALERIAN BOROWCZYK
(The Beast, Immoral Tales, Love Rites)

Walerian Borowczyk’s Blanche, the winner of the Berlin International Film Festival’s Interfilm Grand Prix Award (1972) features actress and frequent collaborator Ligia Branice (Goto, Island of Love) in the lead role.

GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: FRENCH (with English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 94 mins
RATING: N/R
VIDEO:  1.66:1 Aspect Ratio; COLOR
AUDIO: MONO

EXTRAS
- Introduction by director Leslie Megahey
- Ballad of Imprisonment: Blanche – Interview program featuring producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant director André Heinrich, camera operator Noël Véry and assistant Patrice Leconte
  
Set in medieval France, an elderly noble baron (Michel Simon, L’Atalante) and his much younger bride, the beautiful Blanche (Ligia Branice, Goto, Isle of Love) welcome a visiting King (George Wilson, Les destinées) and his handsome page, Bartolomeo (Jacques Perrin, Cinema Paradiso) to their castle, and sets in motion accusations of disloyalty and marital infidelity, turning what should be a fairytale into a nightmare.    

Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast), whose stylized vision of a bygone world, is key to the overall look and feel of Blanche, which despite its period surroundings, embraces very modern sensibilities.

Blanche, written and directed by Walerian Borowczyk (based on the poem Mazepa by Juliusz Slowacki), features performances by Jacques Perrin (Cinema Paradiso), Denise Péronne (Forbidden Games) and Lawrence Trimble (Meetings in the Forest).

        

WALERIAN BOROWCZYK – SHORT FILMS COLLECTION (1959-1984) 

Directed by
WALERIAN BOROWCZYK
(Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal, Blanche)

Borowcyzk’s The Concert (Le Concert de M. et Mme. Kabal) was the Special Jury Prize winner in 1963 at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. 

GENRE: DRAMA
LANGUAGE: FRENCH (with English subtitles)
LABEL: OLIVE FILMS
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 152 mins.
RATING: N/R
ASPECT RATIO:  1.33 and 1.66 Aspect Ratios; COLOR / B/W
AUDIO: MONO

EXTRAS
- Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam
- Film is not a Sausage: Borowczyk’s Short Films – Interview program featuring Borowczyk, producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant André Heinrich and composer Bernard Parmegiani

SYNOPSIS:
Featuring fifteen of Walerian Borowczyk’s (Theatre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal) short films and animated treasures, the Short Films Collection includes:

The Concert (1962) aka Le Concert de M. et Mme. Kabal
The Astronauts (1959) aka Les Astronautes
Angels’ Games (1964) aka Les Jeux des Anges 
Renaissance (1963)
Joachim’s Dictionary (1965) aka Le Dictionnaire de Joachim
The Greatest Love of All Time (1978) aka L’Amour Monstre de tous les temps 
Diptyque (1967)
Grandma’s Encyclopedia (1963) aka L’encyclopedie de Grand-Maman
Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) aka Escargot de Venus
Gavotte (1967)
The Phonograph (1969) aka Le Phonograph
Rosalie (1966)
Scherzo Infernal (1984)
A Private Collection Long Version Censored aka Une Collection Particulière – Version Longue Censored (1973)
A Private Collection Short Version aka Une Collection Particulière – Short Version (1973)

IMMORAL TALES (1974) (Arrow Video Blu-ray Review)

IMMORAL TALES (1974) 

Label: Arrow Video
Region Code: A
Duration: 103 Minutes
Rating: Unrated
Audio: Uncompressed French Mono 2.0 PCM Audio with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Director: Walerian Borowczyk 

Cast: Lisa Danvers, Paloma Picasso, Fabrice Luchini, Charlotte Alexandra, Pascale Christophe, Florence Bellamy, Jacopo Berinizi, Lorenzo Berinizi

Synopsis: Walerian Borowczyk's first explicitly erotic feature, Immoral Tales presents a veritable cavalcade of depravity: cosmic fellatio, transcendental masturbation, blood-drenched lesbianism and papal incest. It tells four stories, each delving back further in time, as if to suggest that the same issues recur constantly throughout human civilization, whether involving notorious historical figures like Lucrezia Borgia and Erzsébet Báthory, or present-day teenagers. Capitalising on the relaxation of censorship laws, Immoral Tales would transform Borowczyk's image from brilliant but obscure avant-garde artist to one of Europe's most confrontational filmmakers when it came to trampling on sexual taboos.

This Borowczyk anthology of strongly-sexual subject matter is quite a fantastic watch, an arthouse exercise in pushing the boundaries of taboo cinema and one that might surprise even the most adventerous lover of Eurocult with the exploration of incest, bestiality, faith-fueled masturbation, the deviant behavior of the clergy and the blood-laced orgies of the infamous Elizabeth Bathory.

The first tale 'The Tide' involves a pair of teen cousins and a bicycle trip through the countryside to an ocean beach where the slightly older male of the pair coerces his more naive cousin down the beach to a spot that strands them alone on a rocky outcropping during the high tide. Once there he confesses to her that he brought here there to teach her a lesson about the power of the tides, a lesson that involves the gorgeous freckle-faced Julie (Lise Danvers) wrapping her innocent lips around his cock until he spills his life's fluid into her throat. This is a gorgeous slice of exploitation with a sweet cumming of age innocence about it. 

The second erotic tale 'Therèse Philosophe' has young Thérèse M. (Charlotte Alexandra) returning home late from Church one day, she's running late as she she was distracted while fondling and caressing varous phallic objects around the church. Her angry granny punishes her by locking her away in room for three days during which she discovers an old trunk of clothing and erotic drawings, which sends the young lady into an erotic religious fervor as she masturbates with zuchini before meeting her unfortunate fate at the hands of lecherous vagrant, which is foretold at the start of the short.

The third tale, at least on the longer L'Age D'or Cut of the movie, is 'The True Story of the Beast of Gévaudan', a beastiality heavy version of Beauty and The Beast that goes places I did not expect it to, a completely over the top tour de force of weirdness starring Sirpa Lane as a countess who wanders away from her home into the woods where she is attacked by a hairy beast with an enormous horse-like cock, the creature rapes the poor woman, who in a Straw Dogs type manner comes to enjoy the rough encounter, a wildly cum-drizzled tale of perversity that you have to see it to beleieve it, I just cannot imagine how this went over in 1974! This segment was removed for the final theatrical cut of the film and Borowczyk later expanded the short into the feature film 'The Beast' which I must now certainly watch.

The fourth entry is somewhat less erotic but no less perverse, 'Erzebet Bathory' stars Paloma Picasso as the notirous blood-thirsty Elizabth Bathory, who at the start of the short is searching the countryside for virginal young women whom if chosen will have the honor of touching her lace and pearl laden gown. The young women are taken back to her castle where they enjoy a communal shower before being placed together in a room completely nude. Bathory then enters the room wearing her infamous laceand pearl robe and the many young women proceed to touch it, working temsleves up into a ferver, tearing it apart before tearing each other into pieces in an orgy of greed, thus supplying a fresh bath of virginal blood from which Bathory can restore her youth. This is probably the most cinematic of the bunch, it definitekly feels more of the arthouse than it does the grindhouse, with a nice stinger of betrayal at the very end.

The final segment 'Lucrezia Borgia' is a clear stab at the corruption of the Church, not sure what Borowczyk's relationship with the Church was but he certainly didn;t seem to be a fan. We have friar Savonarola (Philippe Desboeuf) decrying the Church and the inherent corruption thereof, this corruption is shown through the incestual exploits of Pope Alexander VI (Mario Ruspoli) with his own daughter Lucrezia's (Florence Bellamy) and son, the three involved in an unholy eye-popping threesome.

Seemingly designed to shock and offend the movie succeeds mostly, as I was honestly shocked by what I saw - especialy by 'The True Story of the Beast of Gévaudan' - though hardly offended. Each segment offering some form of taboo or deviant behavior that wouldn't be out of place in a standard slice of exploitation cinema, but as this is a Borowczyk film each has an arthouse aesthetic, they're gorgeously shot, and each has a fairytale quality about it, which could make it easie swallow for some, if you're gonna watch smut you might as well watch it with style.

Audio/Video: Immoral Tales arrives on Blu-ray from Arrow Video with a barnd new high-definition restoration by Argos Films. The image quality is strong throughout with some modest depth and a layer of film grain, with the second tale looking a little rougher than the others having been shot on 16mm from the look of it, a bit grainer and softer, but looking good just the same. The mono French audio is predictably non-dynamic, but it clean and balanced, optional English subtitles are provided.

The bonus material is pretty great, beginning with the option to view the standfard four-part version or the the original five-part 'L'Age D'or Cut' which includes the 'The Beast of Gévaudanan', for the sake of this review I only watched the longer cut. We have an introduction from Borowczyk expert Daniel Bird, a brief featurette with production manager Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin and cinematographer Noël Véry and an hour long archival interview from the BBC archives with the filmmaker discusses painting, cinema and sex. This interview was never aired and makes its debut on this disc, having been newly edited.

Additionaly there's a visual essay by Daniel Bird about Borowczyk's early works on paper showcasing his impressive visual style in the context of his early commisioned artwork. Lastly we have the theatrical trailer for the film, a sleeve of reversible artowork and a booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and an archive piece by Philip Strick. Apparently there are some differences between this version and the one that Arrow released in the UK last year, though I am unsure of the specifics, each having their own exclsive content from the looks of it.

Special Features:
- New high definition digital transfers of two versions of the feature, the familiar four-part edition and the original five-part conception including the short film The Beast of Gévaudan - which later became the feature The Beast.
- Immoral Tales (L'Age D'or Cut) (120 Mins)
- Introduction by Borowczyk expert Daniel Bird (5 Mins)
- Love Reveals Itself, a new interview programme featuring production manager Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin and cinematographer Noël Véry (17 Mins)
- Obscure Pleasures: A Portrait of Walerian Borowczyk, a newly-edited archival interview in which the filmmaker discusses painting, cinema and sex (63 Mins)
- Blow Ups, a visual essay by Daniel Bird about Borowczyk's works on paper (5 Mins)
- Theatrical trailer (2 Mins)
- Reversible sleeve featuring Borowczyk's own original poster design
- Illustrated booklet containing new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and an archive piece by Philip Strick

Walerian Borowczyk's Immoral Tales looks fantastic on Blu-ray from Arrow Video with some great extras that will no doubt further inform susbsequent viewings, and this is definitely something I will watch again. I loved the blend of the erotic and perverse subject matter with the European arthouse aesthetic, highly recommended for the adventurous movie watchers. 4/5