User Reviews

This film is made up of three stories by Guy du Maupassant--all of which have something, apparently, to do with pleasure (hence the title). However, this connection is very tenuous to say the least.

The first is about an old man who is vain and wants to remain young. He does this by wearing a mask as he dances. Nothing interesting here other than a sad old vain man.

The second is by far the longest one. It's about a brothel in a small town and it actually has two part. In the first one, it shows the reaction of the men in the community when the place found unexpectedly closed. The second consists of these women going to see the christening of the niece of one of the sex workers. All this is well acted--very well acted. Other, however,than perpetuating the 'hooker with a heart of gold' notion, this one didn't seem to have much of a point--more just a slice of life.

The third is about an artist who falls in love with one of his models. However, once they begin cohabitating, they soon get sick of each other. But, through a twist of fate, they are stuck with each other. Pretty depressing.

Apparently I am in the minority on this one. While its overall score is almost 8.0 and Stanley Kubrick apparently adored the film, it left me very flat. Now this is not because of the acting or direction--it was first-rate all the way and very lovely to watch. No, my problem is that none of the stories were that interesting--particularly the first and third ones. And the stories also didn't seem to have a lot of meaning or significance or irony.

There is a certain mood that I am subject to which can be satisfied only by a sunny, quiet, late Sunday afternoon on the couch with Maupassant. (I suspect that Proust would do even better but I lack the stamina.) My wife and I discovered Ophuls by watching The Earings of Madame de... on instant Netflix. When I saw that Le plaisir was Maupassant my heart leaped and, after viewing it, I can now report that the film is as exquisite as the stories themselves (minus the soft Sunday afternoons, of course).

The film contains three stories each of which depict an aspect of pleasure: the pleasure of youth, the pleasure of innocence and the pleasure of fate.

The second tale, La maison Tellier ('Madame Tellier's Establishment' in my translated collection of Maupassant stories) is the centerpiece of the film. It describes a trip to a small country village by a madame and her platoon of lovable ladies in order to attend the first communion of her nephew where pleasure meets innocence. The scene in the church where Rosa, overcome with memories of her lost innocence, starts to weep and then everyone in the church is soon weeping, is one of the most poignant I have ever seen on film. It is a depiction not only of the seriousness of lost innocence but it's universality as well and serves to show Rosa's sins, on display for all to see, joined in one spontaneous flood of remorse and gratitude by the hidden sins of all the respectable village folk. See if you don't fall into tears as well.

If you have not read Maupassant, doing so before viewing the film will heighten your enjoyment. For those who have decided to view the four major Ophuls films, I offer the opinion that this is the best of them and would be a good place to start.

Social Commentary: Never having visited France, I cannot say whether the charming French idea of innocent naughtiness has given that country a better life. But if the concept of 'a little sin is the spice of life' adds something to the life of the well off (and I doubt it), it certainly does not work for the poor. Drive through any blighted urban neighborhood for the proof. So-called rigid bourgeois values may not make for good stories or movies but they are essential for those who have it in mind that their children do well in school and go on to live decent lives. Enjoy these stories and, yes, acknowledge the hypocrisy of middle class morality, but do not transplant la belle vie into your own family or you will live to regret it.

Synopsis:

The film is divided into three episodes in which the central one occupies most of the film's minutage. In the first episode, La Masque, is told the short story of a certain Mr. Grandval who, drunk at a party altolocata, has a sudden illness and falls to the ground. Later he is taken to a secluded room where he is taken off the mask he was wearing and was suffocating him, then finally is accompanied home. Then opens the second episode with Mme Tellier, widow owner of a brothel, Maison Tellier (hence the title), where she and her girls can pretend to be aristocratic in a seemingly mundane environment, but that essentially remains a mere house of pleasure. Mme Tellier is authoritarian, as evidenced by her reactions towards people she does not know, especially men. Then she goes to her brother's request at the campaign where she must attend the first communion of her granddaughter. In that pleasant, calm and silent place, Mme Tellier and the girls remember their past and their lost innocence, before returning to daily life in the city, where they escaped from the restrictions and nostalgic melancholy through the satisfaction of their pleasure needs. Finally, the last episode, Le Modèle, a young artist becomes infatuating with a woman who becomes his muse, sweetening her with kind words that, however, wither under the mantle of monotony that covers their relationship, now marked as habit. For this reason the artist becomes more and more grumpy and distant towards the woman, to the point that she wants to marry with another. Delegated the task to a friend to report the woman his intentions, she distraught finds him and threatens suicide. To the aggressive and uncaring response of man, she then throws himself out of the window, remaining paraplegic but eventually obtaining his love, aware of his misteake and willing to remedy it.

Comment:

The pleasure is presented here through the stories intertwined by this thread, as a difficult achievement, something that, to be obtained, needs the loss of something else: M. Grandval renounce to his own self, his identity (disguising himself behind the mask which is also a character, only apparent), using alcohol and feasts as means. Mme Tellier, on the other hand, renounce the past and her lost innocence, obtaining pleasure with sexual fulfillment and the wrong dignified status she creates (similarly Mme Rosa, with the difference that she satisfies herself by making men falling in love, in some way marking and illudating them, as happens with the brother of Mme Tellier). Finally, the artist renounces his own freedom and, yielding to his own morality, satisfies his own pleasure by doing what is right to him, even renouncing his own dreams (in parallel, his girlfriend renounces her own health to satisfy herself with the achievement of pure love), which converts in love for the girl and will of redemption. These are three stories with a happy ending that conceal a profound drama, also because the narrator, breaking the 4th wall and communicating with the viewer literally, introduces the various episodes linking pleasure to love, purity and death (moral). The theme is expressed almost as an alchemic principle of equivalent exchange, the fun is to forget its regrets, its own sufferings and nostalgia, which constitute an integral part in obtaining pleasure, a troubled path dismayed of renounce to his own dignity and his own possibilities, as well as dreams. The film anticipates fellinian "La Dolce Vita" without having the intention to exhibit a profound critique, but to focus on the characters and what they feel, also fact that will influence extremely, especially the two episodes La Masque and Maison Tellier, the kubrickian masterpiece "Eyes Wide Shut" in the themes, in the means, in the symbols used to expose them (for example the mask) and also in the direction, characterized by magnificent long shots revolving around the actors (masterfully expressed in both films). A movie that interacts with the person who looks in a friendly, carefree but refined and elegant manner, at times philosophical.

This movie has three stories taken from three tales by the famous French writer Guy De Maupassant. They are all about pleasure though in different aspects. The first one is related to the old age of someone who tries to seem young and disguises himself and goes to a public ball to dance with girls. The second one is related to the contrast between purity and debauch showing a visit that a group of whores does to a village where the niece of their mistress is having first communion. These are the more or less merry ones. The sad one is the third that tells the dramatic story of two lovers when the man stops (or it seems so) loving his woman partner which brings a conflict in which the woman even threatens the man saying that she will commit suicide if he leaves her, which she tries and escaping with permanent broken legs thus succeeds in having him marrying her. The movie is very good chiefly by the excellent performance of all actors and actresses and efficiency of the portrayed scenes in a 19th century atmosphere with its particular social views, behaviours and values.

The screen is pitch black and we hear a voice..."I'm so happy to be talking in the dark as if I were beside you, and maybe I am." The speaker is Guy de Maupassant (voiced by Jean Marais), and Le Plaisir is three of his stories filmed by the great director Max Ophuls. The connecting thread? That pleasure, or even love, lies in how people intermingle their lives, with a shrug, assumptions, an apology, a thank you. Le Plaisir is not so much a sophisticated film of attraction and hope as it is a film of rueful wisdom. It's best to keep in mind while watching this movie that while life can be enjoyed, there are times when hope can disappear.

The three stories consist of, first, La Masque. We are in 19th Century Paris at the Palais de la Dance, where great, swirling balls are held. This is a place where young women hope to find pleasure and rich men; where old women chase memories and young suitors; where prostitutes and their pimps gather, where the men are young bucks and old goats, where "rough cotton to the finest cambric" can combine. One slender man in full dinner dress rushes into the palace and begins to dance with a beautiful young woman. He prances and kicks, yet his face is like a frozen mask of youth. He collapses on the dance floor and a doctor is called. When the doctor loosens the man's clothes, he finds...well, let's say that when the man is delivered home to his wife by the doctor, she tells him a story of the battle between pleasure and love.

In La Maison Tellier, we learn all about a cozy, friendly and long established brothel in a small town on the Channel coast. The bourgeois men of the town are as well-known there as they are to their wives. Then Madame decides to close her establishment for a night so that she and her girls can travel into the countryside to attend her niece's first communion. They have one or two adventures on the train. In the small village they spend the night with Madame's brother and meet the young girl. They attend the communion in the village church. They collect flowers on the way back, and are met with genuine affection and with great gaiety when Madame reopens her place of business the following night. We witness a touching story, as de Maupassant tells us, when pleasure and purity come together.

Le Modele gives us a story where pleasure struggles with moral decay, where "happiness is not a joyful thing." We witness a painter and his model meet, rapturously embrace lust and, as lust tires, recrimination grows. The love which endures as the story plays out may not be most people's idea of happiness.

This is a marvelously told series of stories. La Masque and Le Modele are relatively short bookends to the major tale of La Maison Tellier. With this one, it would be difficult not to become delighted and engaged with Madame and her girls and her brother. Even the puffed up townsmen are not without a sympathetic side; which man among us wouldn't mind being flattered, even for a price, by Madame's girls?

To the resonant narration of actor Jean Servais, this movie surprises with its gentle moments of truth about love -- all flowing from the pen of a master of world literature.

My late father always admired the fiction of Guy de Maupassant, and he would have enjoyed an opportunity to experience this quiet gem.

This evocative film presents three visions of pleasure, each bittersweet, from the French master. In the first, based on "Le Masque," we're swept into the frenzy of a masquerade ball. All types converge onto the dance floor -- including "rich, old, diamond-laden women chasing their youth." In the midst is a hoofer so dynamic that he collapses into a faint. It's no wonder, perhaps -- he's an old man in the guise of a young buck, experiencing "regret at not being what he once was...A man changes, quickly." A kindly physician escorts the man home, where he is descends into sleep and the care of his spouse. We recognize these souls, perhaps in ourselves.

The second tale, "La Maison Tellier," introduces the perplexed clientele of a bordello inexplicably closed one evening. The ladies are off to Normandy for a rare few hours of respite. A steam-locomotive jaunt into the countryside -- check out the peasant woman in their coach ("Hussies -- just like in accursed Paris!") -- a chance to imagine the domesticities of what might have been, unexpected tears in a country church, intriguing repartee between one of the women (Danielle Darrieux) and a local cart driver (Jean Gabin), and fleeting minutes of flower-gathering on the hurried trek back to the train station. This segment reminds us of what might have been -- and of what might still be. ( Did anyone else wish Gabin showed up at Tellier's?)

In the final tale, "Le Peintre," we ponder the tragedies of physical pleasure. Just when we think we've secured our ideal...oh, how terribly deluded we find ourselves to be! Here we meet impetuous artist Jean (Daniel Gefin), who pursues winsome Josephine (Simone Simon), who, "as she passed...had no idea her fate had been settled." And, for Jean's part, "he never noticed that Josephine was like all models." His ardor cools as he grows to know the possessor of that tiny waist. This tale builds in unexpected horror and suspense. I think it must have inspired "Fatal Attraction."

The cinematography here is exquisite. I had DVR'd the film, and luxuriated over it for a week.

A wonderful thing about my Penn State education in the Seventies was the French film festival organized by one of my French profs. This profound film took me back to that basement screening room. Like the doctor in "Le Masque," here we "learn a valuable lesson."