Un Chant D'Amour (Song of Love) Review

Distributor: Cult Epics Edition Details: Standard Streaming Movie Specs: Genres: Classic (1950s Shot on Film), Short Film, Gay Also known as: Song of Love Run Time: 25 minutes Rated: not Release Year: 1950 Director: Jean Genet Written by: Jean Genet Director of Photography: Jacques Natteau, Jean Cocteau Cast: Lucien Sénémaud, Java, André Reybaz, Coco Le Martiniquais, Bravo, Jean Genet Release Specs: Audio: none Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: Streaming Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): N/A Number of discs: N/A

Un Chant D'Amour is an early gay black and white silent short film from the late French novelist and playwright Jean Genet. Un Chant D'Amour is the only film that Jean Genet ever made. Jean Genet's writings often had the themes of homosexuality and criminology, which he also used in Un Chant D'Amour.

Un Chant D'Amour was distributed initially in France as limited edition prints made for porn collectors, similar to how adult loops would be distributed. Un Chant D'Amour was ultimately banned in France and only available in censored versions in the United States until this release from Cult Epics.

Un Chant D'Amour takes place at a jail, where the male prisoners are kept in solitary cells with little view of anything else and no view of each other. The film focuses on the lack of intimacy the prisoners face, focusing on two prisoners (Lucien Sénémaud and Bravo) and the guard who spies on the two (André Reybaz) through the peepholes into their cells.

Un Chat D'Amour has little material that could be considered hardcore, basically just some self-masturbation. However, the short film is loaded with phallic innuendo in the visuals. Jean Genet, cinematographer Jacques Natteau, and rumored cinematographer Jean Cocteau have done a great job with the visuals. Since Un Chant D'Amour is entirely visually driven, this is extremely important.

In Un Chant D'Amour, Jean Genet manages to do a lot without showing very much at all. Modern pornographers could learn a lot from viewing what he did in this film. His only huge shortcoming, in the eyes of this reviewer, is the ending. This reviewer won't reveal what happens at the end; however, this reviewer feels the short film would have been far stronger had the very end been cut entirely as it lessens the intensity that Jean Genet had kept strong throughout the rest of the short film. Un Chant D'Amour is well worth watching as both an erotic short film and as a view into the past of adult film making.

The edition of Un Chant D'Amour screened is the streaming-only edition available on PinkLabel.TV.

Cult Epics has done a nice job with their streaming-only release of Un Chant D'Amour. Un Chant D'Amour was shot on 35mm film, and it looks like Cult Epics has used a scan of a 35mm print for this release. Un Chant D'Amour is presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 pillarboxed to 1.78:1. The print is rather beat up with substantial print damage and visible splices. There are also artifacts and grain present. Given the limited availability of Un Chant D'Amour, it seems remarkable that Cult Epics found a print in this good of a shape.

Un Chant D'Amour doesn't contain an audio track. This actually isn't a mistake. Un Chant D'Amour never originally had any audio track. In fact, the first musical track for the film wasn't created until over 20 years after the film first came out.

Cult Epics hasn't included any extras for their streaming-only edition of Un Chant D'Amour.

Un Chant D'Amour is a fascinating early gay short film from writer and director Jean Genet. Un Chant D'Amour doesn't have much that can be considered even close to hardcore but is laced with innuendo, and it is easy to see why the film was so controversial when it came out. Un Chant D'Amour offers the viewer a better story than would later be available in the far more hardcore short films and loops to come. Cult Epics has done a nice job with their streaming-only edition of Un Chant D'Amour on PinkLabel.TV with better than expected video quality.

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