José Bénazéraf: The Forbidden Films

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This special limited edition spot gloss slipcover (designed by Stephan Zee) is limited to 3,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them. 

Pulse Video is a France based, genre film focused boutique label which specializes in creating ultimate home video releases of cult and X rated films. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is excited to help bring their extra features loaded editions across the Atlantic!

A unique figure in the history of French cult film, José Bénazéraf came from the nouvelle vague but focused his interests in eroticism rather than politics, while still creating work which was as socially relevant as it was sexually provocative.

A pioneer in fighting censorship of nudity and sexuality in French cinema, Bénazéraf was also amongst the first directors to make movies with hard-X scenes, both helping to invent and subvert the expectations of the genre. Now, for the first time, you can experience six rare and even lost films from Bénazéraf’s most controversial period, all newly scanned from the original negatives:

In BLACK LOVE (1973), the first film by Bénazéraf to include hard scenes, a young black American escapes to Paris to help assist in a Black Liberation uprising, but quality realizes that there is a traitor in his organization. In LA VEUVE (1974), infidelity in a country chateau leads to deadly consequences. In LES DEUX GOUINES (1975) a scheming bride-to-be experiences abuse and revenge against her wealthy and famous fiancé. In LA PLANQUE (1975) and LA PLANQUE 2 (1976) Bénazéraf explores hard eroticism in two different crime stories, one a violent thriller and the other a light comedy. Finally, in his award winning experiment, J.B. 1 (1976), Bénazéraf dispenses with all pretense of story, creating a part fiction/part documentary study about the making of a porn film, as the viewer witnesses the work of the production crew while seeing the orgies they are photographing through the eye of the camera.

directed by: José Bénazéraf
starring: Claudine Beccarie, Alphonse Beni, Béatrice Harnois, Joëlle Coeur
1973-1976 / 465 min (combined) / 1.66:1 / French Mono with English subtitles

Additional info:

• Region Free 3-Disc Blu-ray
• Newly scanned & restored in 2K and 4K from their original 35mm camera negatives
  
• Sequence Bis for Les Duex Gouines
• Newly translated English subtitles