The first feature length film from TV director Bruno Gantillon, Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay has a familiar horror film beginning where the main characters - Anne and Francoise - are on the road and traveling through unfamiliar territory as nighttime approaches. After a stop for refreshment at a dismal village pub, they are warned by the apprehensive barkeep to continue on their way as quickly as possible. Once they are out of the village, however, they develop car trouble and have to hike through the darkness before finding shelter in an abandoned barn. At this point in the film the narrative veers off into a rabbit hole becoming as illogical as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but much more provocative. The elliptical dreamlike structure begins with a tender seduction scene between Anne and Francoise and culminates with the two women's imprisonment by the sorceress Morgana Le Fay in her private castle in the middle of an enchanted lake. What happens in between is a mixture of mythology, French poetry, stylized art direction, female nudity, lesbian orgies and mild sadomasochistic rituals. Anyone for bondage by purple velvet cords, administrated by sexy women who look to Barbarella for their fashion sense?
Clearly inspired by the vampire sex films of Jean Rollin (Le Viol du Vampire (1967), La Vampire Nue, 1969) and other French horror films such as The Blood Rose, 1969), Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay is a much more subtle and subdued approach to the genre. At times, the film's almost fetishistic attention to set details and fluid visual movement recalls Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946). Go ahead and laugh but there are moments of true beauty here and not all of it involves bare flesh. Gantillon even stated that he wanted to make a movie in which "each scene should have the beauty of a Leonor Fini painting, the mastery of an Andre Deluaux and the zest of a Polanski." While the final result is not exactly a masterpiece, it's also unlike any other French exploitation film you are likely to see. The actresses are beautiful, the lush natural settings enhance the Euro-fairy tale ambiance, and the music score lulls you into a hypnotic drug state.
Originally Gantillon wanted to make a political thriller, Dors tranquille Catherine, based on the novel by Charles Exbrayal. Instead, he was convinced by producer Catherine Winter, a celebrated hero of the Resistance and documentary filmmaker, to start with something less ambitious. Gantillon had already established himself as a successful TV director with the cult pop culture show, "Dim, Dam, Dom" (Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd were among the featured musical guests) but was finally convinced to make his film debut with a short entitled Un Couple d'artistes. A macabre tale of an elderly couple who victimize boarders in their home, the film won awards and paved the way for Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay. Through a stroke of luck, Gantillon was able to film in the 15th century castle of Val in the Auvergne region of France, near the Bort-les-orgues.
By today's standards, Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay is relatively tame when compared with other softcore exploitation films but at the time, the film ran into censorship problems in France where several scenes of female nudity and lesbian sex were deleted. Mondo Macabre presents the film in its original uncut form. The extras include three deleted scenes of varying visual quality, an informative interview with the director, his film short An Artistic Couple, an essay on the film's background, and the original trailer. As long as you don't expect the wild debauchery promised by the DVD cover, you might enjoy Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay for what it really is - a slight but captivating curiosity brimming with sensuality and psychedelic colors.
For more information about Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay, visit Mondo Macabro. To order Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay, go to TCM Shopping.
by Jeff Stafford
