This film is based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant. There are two versions of the film on the Blu-ray that I watched today. The first was made in 1968, the second in 1980. They were both directed by Erwin C. Dietrich. That's interesting. How often has a film been remade by the same director? I can only think of two examples. Alfred Hitchcock made "The Man Who Knew Too Much" in 1934 and 1956. Jess Franco made "Eugenie" in 1970 and 1980. In both cases the director thought he could improve on the original. Neill Blomkamp has said that he wants to remake "Elysium" if it's possible to finance it. He says that the film has a lot of good ideas, but he's unhappy with the way it turned out.
It's not easy to translate the film's title. "Oberst" is a German military rank that has no direct equivalent in the American army. It's a high ranking officer, so it's usually translated as colonel. The story by Guy de Maupassant is called "The colonel's cousins", so I'll stick with colonel. "Frau Oberst" isn't a female colonel, the title refers to a colonel's wife. That means that the full title is "The nieces of the colonel's wife"; not cousins. When the film was released in America, no attempt was made to translate the title. Instead, it was called "Secrets of a French Maid". Ugh! That makes no sense at all in the context of the film. Yes, there is a maid, but (1) she's not French, and (2) she's a minor character with only five minutes screen time.
Foolishly, I watched the 1980 version first. I should have watched them the other way round. Sorry. I'll watch the 1968 version tomorrow.
The colonel's wife is a a young widow. She lives in a large mansion. The film takes place in a time when army officers were rich nobleman. It's probably the 18th or 19th Century. She has two young nieces in her care, and she's trying to find husbands for them.
Julia is played by the stunningly beautiful actress Brigitte Lahaie.
Florentine is played by Pascale Vital in her first film role.
The trouble is that Julia and Florentine are more interested in one another than in men. They're both still virgins. The colonel's wife encourages them to find men. They do what they're told. Julia has sex with the stable boy. He's not very intelligent, but he's good at sex. Florentine wants to have sex with the gardener, but she finds him so repulsive that it takes a few days before she can bring herself to do it.
The colonel's wife takes her responsibility as her nieces' legal guardian very seriously. She goes to bed with the stable boy and the gardener to test them. She wants to know whether they're good enough to satisfy her nieces.
At some point the plot breaks down. There are multiple sex scenes with various men and women. The colonel's wife has a large sexual appetite and devours every man she sees. Not just men, she also has sex with her maid.
This is a highly erotic film. The men in the film are just being used by the three women, especially the colonel's wife. It's not a film that won any Oscars, but it succeeded in its goal of presenting beautiful eye candy. The cinematography is outstanding. The scenery is tranquil and relaxing, emphasising the gentle erotic nature of the film.
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