La Grande Baise

It may seem that the title La grande baise (literally, “The Big Fuck”) is somewhat inappropriately vulgar for a film that presents a sensitive, intimate look into the relationship of two lovers and their distressing separation due to infidelity. However, the title, which was originally intended to be used for Mulot’s earlier project Mes nuits avec… Alice, Pénélope, Arnold, Maude et Richard, suggests that the primary plot in this case is only one level of the film. It is both an editing experiment by Mulot and a subversive reflection on the state of French porn production at the time. At least two-thirds of the film is composed of recycled shots from various older films, which are used in combination with new material and dubbing to tell a new story. The reuse of sex scenes from earlier films by the same producer was not unusual in contemporary French porn production. After all, we also find in Mulot’s Shocking a scene from another film with Karine Gambier that is narratively framed as a memory. This time, however, Mulot does not use older sex and plot sequences from his own and other films – particularly Le sexe qui parle (1975, Mulot), Échanges de partenaires (1976, Mulot), Les plaisirs solitaires (1976, Francis Leroi), Délires porno (1977, Didier Philippe-Gérard) – in their entirety, but rather plays with ways to create a false impression of continuity with the new material through the appropriately arranged mise-en-scene. If it weren’t for the two new sex scenes, this would have resulted in a porn flick in which well-known porn actors, with contemporary star Karine Gambier at the fore, were paid only for acting, as the copulation scenes were merely recycled from the archive. This creative trickery can be seen as a caustic commentary on the contemporary practice of French porn productions, or rather on their creative decline in the second half of the 1970s. Apart from the fact of the reuse of older sex scenes and the rising trend of superficially vulgar titles, La grande baise also points out the increasing tedium of the films, which, due to the limited number of actors and actresses, began to seem like a bizarre universe where the same faces always appeared in identical situations. In comparison to the competition, however, Mulot created, through his editing work, a very good psychological film dealing with the ambiguity of the ethics of relationships, where sex can be not only a manifestation of long-term love or momentary passion, but also a catalyst for relationship dynamics and an instrument of power. (2015.01.25)