Helena Review

Distributor: Impulse Pictures Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Golden Age Classic, Feature Film, Foreign, Roughie Also known as: La Villa, Le Jardin des Sévices, Le Feu au Ventre Run Time: 73 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1975 Director: Alain Nauroy Written by: Michel Vocoret (as Franck Barte) Cast: Valérie Boisgel, Yan Brian, Richard Darbois, Monique Vita, Martine Grimaud, François Ghersi, Gilbert Labat, Charlie Schreiner (as Charles Schreiner), Yves Collignon Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono (dubbed) Subtitles: none Video: Widescreen, 1.78:1 (anamorphic) Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Helena is a classic French roughie from writer Michel Voceret, using the pseudonym Franck Barte, and director Alain Nauroy. Helena is odd in its design as a film. Helena starts out as a seemingly innocuous film and dawdles along slowly until the film is roughly halfway through; at which point the film changes abruptly into being a roughie. The film continues with the rough tone from this point until the ending, which, quite honestly, is very misogynistic in nature.

The story for Helena is that Hélène Kanosha (Valérie Boisgel) gets an invite from Roy Karmen, whom she has seen sexually in the past, to come to his villa at the Côte d'Azur. There she is greeted by Frank (Yan Brian), a stranger to her who informs her that Roy is otherwise occupied with a young woman at the time. When Hélène goes to leave, Frank forbids her. Frank continues to toy with Hélène, while Roy remains occupied.

While Helena was made as a hardcore film, it appears that all of Valérie Boisgel's sex scenes utilize a body double for the hardcore segments. This may indicate that originally Helena was conceived of as a softcore roughie that was altered to become a hardcore film before production completed. Especially since some of the other actresses clearly perform their own hardcore sequences.

The sex scenes at the beginning of the film are enjoyable, however, they go downhill as the film progresses. This is due to the nature of the scenes not due to a deficiency with the sexual performances. The story itself is on the deficient side, the beginning of the film is slow and the ending seems to exist just for non-consensual sex.

The twist behind Helena is an interesting one, however, the full execution of the idea and where the idea ends up going as the film goes towards its conclusion seems to this reviewer to be a giant misfire. This reviewer doesn't have a problem with roughies when it fits well with the story, however, much of the violence seems unnecessary here and the ending is one that only an extreme misogynist could relate to. Most viewers will likely want to pass on this title.

Impulse Pictures has done a nice job with their DVD release of Helena. Helena was shot on film and it looks like Impulse Pictures has used a film print for their master for this release. Helena is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 in 480p. The image quality on the release is good. The image sports the expected artifacts, grain, and print damage. The colors in the film are good with flesh tones a little on the pink side.

Helena is presented with a dubbed English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track. There aren't any noticeable issues with the audio track and the dialog is clear and easy to understand. The only disappointment with the audio is that only the dubbed English audio track is included and the original French audio track isn't included with English subtitle options.

Impulse Pictures hasn't included any extras for this release.

Helena is an odd French hardcore film. While Helena is a hardcore film it almost seems like it was originally intended to be a softcore roughie and the tone of the film takes a drastic change halfway through the film. Fans of roughies may want to to give the film a watch but once the twist in the film is known replay value probably won't be that high. Impulse Pictures has done a really nice job on their DVD release of Helena so fans of the film will want to pick up this release.

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