Aside from the Emmanuelle series, I’m not too familiar with the filmography of Sylvia Kristel. Sure, there’s Private Lessons (1981), but most titles have passed me by. A few months back, while listening to The Video Archives Podcast, the hosts, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avery, and his daughter Gala, discussed a rarity of a film called Julia (1974). If you’re unfamiliar with the podcast, the hosts watch and discuss films on VHS. Genre is inconsequential, they’re all over the board, and their talks dig deep into the films’ core. Julia was no different, and their intelligent and insightful conversation sparked my interest to check it out. Luckily, Cult Epics has kindly sent a review copy of their newly restored Blu-ray.
The summer has arrived, and Pauli (Ekkehardt Belle), who has been away at boarding school, is returning to a small seaside town to be with his dad. On the train ride there, he talks with a pretty woman named Yvonne (Teri Tordai), who he witnesses going off to have sex with a complete stranger. When his father, Ralph (Jean-Claude Bouillion), pulls up to the train station, Pauli is shocked to learn that Yvonne is his father’s new love.
Back at their villa, Pauli is crowded with numerous family members, but everything takes a turn for the better when his old neighbor Andrea (Sylvia Kristel) comes back into his life. The two teenagers are both virgins, and this summer, they may lose their innocence, but will it be with each other?
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Right out of the gate, I could tell that Julia would be a far different film than one would expect from it. Sure, it’s a sexy film with a fair amount of nudity (though not as much as you’d expect), but it also has heart, romance, and a healthy dose of comedy. Director Sigi Rothemund knows his way around a film set and never allows it to fall into an over-indulgence of anything it could possibly exploit. For many years, this West German film was relatively obscure. Kristel fans can now rejoice since this new transfer looks pretty stunning, complementing the superb camera work of cinematographer Heinz Holscher.
Cult Epics delivers Julia with a brand new 2K HD transfer and restoration from the original negative, an audio commentary by Jeremy Richey (author of Sylvia Kristel: From Emmanuelle to Chabrol), trailers, a promotional gallery, a reversible sleeve, and a booklet with an essay from writer Ulrich Mannes which is limited to the first printing.
German arthouse erotica has never been my thing, but the ones I have watched over the last month have given me an all-new appreciation for what was being accomplished and achieved with these films. Hopefully, Cult Epics will continue its classy treatment of the material, bringing these classics to a wider audience.