This adult feature from France finds an insatiable author struggling to find partners to keep up with him, so he builds a sexbot to fill his needs. It starts off a little slow and feels a bit like a miss, but once stunning Marilyn Jess appears as the bot not only does the film liven up, but ideas come forward that take this one in an unexpected direction. Enough can't be said of the performers, and especially Jess, and all in all this one ends up being an interesting character study that more than holds its own in the genre.
4 Reviews
Your wish is my command - maybe
augustian17 January 2017
Warning: Spoilers
For the more intellectually inclined, this film poses some interesting questions such as, who has the greater libido, men or women? How persuasive can a man be in his quest for sex? Can a man-made object such as a robot ever become a sentient being? This is, first and foremost a hard core porn film so any deeper meanings and analysis will have to be left to the more erudite viewers.
The one thing lacking in this film is emotion. There is plenty of sex, obviously, but little or no actual passion. Nicolas (Richard Allan) and Sabine (Helene Shirley) do their coupling with barely a smile or a word. The same goes for Nicolas and Lucille (Laura Clair); and Nicolas and Olga (Nadine Roussai). Even Sabine coming home and finding Nicolas and Lucille together hardly alters their deadpan faces. This lack of feeling reaches its peak with the creation of Nicolas' very own sex slave Kim, (Marilyn Jess) La Femme-Objet.
At first Kim does everything that Nicolas wants but gradually Kim develops her own will, such that she seduces Sabine and the janitor. Thus thwarted, Nicolas builds another robot, Kim 2 (Catherine Marsile) but she also turns away from Nicolas and he finally realises that, in his own words, he has become L'Homme-Objet, the man-object, surely the ultimate irony.
The one thing lacking in this film is emotion. There is plenty of sex, obviously, but little or no actual passion. Nicolas (Richard Allan) and Sabine (Helene Shirley) do their coupling with barely a smile or a word. The same goes for Nicolas and Lucille (Laura Clair); and Nicolas and Olga (Nadine Roussai). Even Sabine coming home and finding Nicolas and Lucille together hardly alters their deadpan faces. This lack of feeling reaches its peak with the creation of Nicolas' very own sex slave Kim, (Marilyn Jess) La Femme-Objet.
At first Kim does everything that Nicolas wants but gradually Kim develops her own will, such that she seduces Sabine and the janitor. Thus thwarted, Nicolas builds another robot, Kim 2 (Catherine Marsile) but she also turns away from Nicolas and he finally realises that, in his own words, he has become L'Homme-Objet, the man-object, surely the ultimate irony.
De-Programmed For Pleasure
Nodriesrespect21 April 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Not just the last movie the late Claude Mulot (a/k/a "Frédéric Lansac") made for French adult theater giant Alpha France, but his hardcore swan song as well before a belated return to the relatively mainstream (albeit with soft porn epic L'IMMORALE, initially intended to signal the cross-over from X to R for luminous lust legend Brigitte Lahaie who bowed out at the eleventh hour), LA FEMME-OBJET remains a peculiar beast in the history of Continental carnality. Originating from an intelligent and literate script that proves a particularly cruel spin on the Pygmalion myth with a dash of Frankenstein, the film offers an incisive critique on the pornographic representation of men (as virile and irresistible) and women (as available and accommodating) by expanding upon these stereotypes, taking them to grotesque extremes. Frustrated by the genre's limitations, Mulot proceeded to give adult audiences "exactly what they wanted". Whether the audience's desire to view anything is dictated by what a movie-making industry has come to dictate through repetition or an active influence on said industry remains open to debate and will forever fuel many an analytical paper.
Parisian author Nicolas (veteran performer Richard Lemieuvre a/k/a "Richard Allan" in an appropriately dispiriting, dead-eyed turn that's hard to shake) is no longer the debonair man about town that pornography has accustomed us to but a pathetic slave to an obsessive libido that quite literally forces him to have sexual encounters many times a day. This eventually makes him a nuisance to any female partner he might possibly be able to connect with on an emotional level, like sensuous, classy Sabine, played by radiant Nicole Segaud a/k/a "Helen Shirley", the pimping mom from Francis Leroi's sulfurous MA MERE ME Prostitute. A temp secretary typing out his latest manuscript, Lucille (lovely Laura Clair, the Doppelganger from Gérard Kikoïne's excellent CHAUDES ADOLESCENTES), offers rather appropriately only temporary solution as the poor girl is so exhausted that she ends up falling asleep in the midst of Nicolas' umpteenth attempt at what can now no longer be described as "lovemaking" ! Inspired by one of his own sexy science-fiction novels, currently in the process of being filmed by an aspiring young director named Byron (Frédéric Carton), whose assistant (creamy blonde Christina Maffei a/k/a "Chatsy Duenner", the imperious Madame from Jean-Claude Roy's LES APRES-MIDI D'UNE BOURGEOISE EN CHALEUR) he casually ravishes, Nicolas decides to build his own woman, a servile, anatomically correct, sexually insatiable robot : Kim (superstar Marilyn Jess). Though not equipped with the power of speech, Kim does not accept her status as "object-woman" for very long and – in a clear case of "be careful what you wish for" – begins to usurp her creator's authority of his own life, orchestrating carnal encounters that are no longer under his control (symbolized by the ever more pathetic remote he's manically weaving to diminishing effect) with the janitor bringing the mail or Sabine coming to pick up her belongings. In a last attempt to spite (and regain power over) Kim, Nicolas builds a second robot, tellingly a black girl, therefore less likely to rebel. By now however, Kim has evolved into a vengeful goddess for all women her maker has so casually used to satiate his enormous appetites throughout his life and forcefully takes his place in the bed while he's test-driving his new creation. Finally enslaved to a woman (ironically of his own making), unable to act of his own accord but answering to every demand made by remote control now wielded by Kim as a weapon of justice, Nicolas expires, empty and exhausted
Staying true to the f*ck film form, albeit with often intentionally joyless encounters, Mulot's explicit testament falls into that small niche of pornographic pictures that use the tools of their trade to question their own nature, movies that in retrospect have me wonder just how the average adult audience responded to them at the time of their first release. By their aberrant ideology, most of these films ultimately acquire cult status. Stephen Sayadian's equally unique CAFE FLESH would be another good example of such idiosyncrasy. Both movies share a stark black and white contrast between unsatisfying "enforced" sexual performance and the fulfillment of its loving "humane" counterpart. Without dialog for benefit, Marilyn Jess achieves amazing eloquence in the evolution of blank-eyed "love doll" to erotically autonomous liberated woman, a "monster" to the manipulative Nicolas and, by extension, the stereotyped "male" (rather than man because an abstraction, an addition to his penis) of pornography ? Whether one agrees or not, this film presents at least as much food for thought as it does for one's libido. Contrary to CAFE FLESH, several sex scenes here are indeed played for powerful erotic effect – further enhanced by veteran cameraman François About's exquisitely colorful, brightly lit cinematography – as women take charge, a move Mulot perhaps felt was necessary if porn was to survive as a genre and even art form, the only chance it stood of surmounting the boundaries that had become unbearable to him.
Parisian author Nicolas (veteran performer Richard Lemieuvre a/k/a "Richard Allan" in an appropriately dispiriting, dead-eyed turn that's hard to shake) is no longer the debonair man about town that pornography has accustomed us to but a pathetic slave to an obsessive libido that quite literally forces him to have sexual encounters many times a day. This eventually makes him a nuisance to any female partner he might possibly be able to connect with on an emotional level, like sensuous, classy Sabine, played by radiant Nicole Segaud a/k/a "Helen Shirley", the pimping mom from Francis Leroi's sulfurous MA MERE ME Prostitute. A temp secretary typing out his latest manuscript, Lucille (lovely Laura Clair, the Doppelganger from Gérard Kikoïne's excellent CHAUDES ADOLESCENTES), offers rather appropriately only temporary solution as the poor girl is so exhausted that she ends up falling asleep in the midst of Nicolas' umpteenth attempt at what can now no longer be described as "lovemaking" ! Inspired by one of his own sexy science-fiction novels, currently in the process of being filmed by an aspiring young director named Byron (Frédéric Carton), whose assistant (creamy blonde Christina Maffei a/k/a "Chatsy Duenner", the imperious Madame from Jean-Claude Roy's LES APRES-MIDI D'UNE BOURGEOISE EN CHALEUR) he casually ravishes, Nicolas decides to build his own woman, a servile, anatomically correct, sexually insatiable robot : Kim (superstar Marilyn Jess). Though not equipped with the power of speech, Kim does not accept her status as "object-woman" for very long and – in a clear case of "be careful what you wish for" – begins to usurp her creator's authority of his own life, orchestrating carnal encounters that are no longer under his control (symbolized by the ever more pathetic remote he's manically weaving to diminishing effect) with the janitor bringing the mail or Sabine coming to pick up her belongings. In a last attempt to spite (and regain power over) Kim, Nicolas builds a second robot, tellingly a black girl, therefore less likely to rebel. By now however, Kim has evolved into a vengeful goddess for all women her maker has so casually used to satiate his enormous appetites throughout his life and forcefully takes his place in the bed while he's test-driving his new creation. Finally enslaved to a woman (ironically of his own making), unable to act of his own accord but answering to every demand made by remote control now wielded by Kim as a weapon of justice, Nicolas expires, empty and exhausted
Staying true to the f*ck film form, albeit with often intentionally joyless encounters, Mulot's explicit testament falls into that small niche of pornographic pictures that use the tools of their trade to question their own nature, movies that in retrospect have me wonder just how the average adult audience responded to them at the time of their first release. By their aberrant ideology, most of these films ultimately acquire cult status. Stephen Sayadian's equally unique CAFE FLESH would be another good example of such idiosyncrasy. Both movies share a stark black and white contrast between unsatisfying "enforced" sexual performance and the fulfillment of its loving "humane" counterpart. Without dialog for benefit, Marilyn Jess achieves amazing eloquence in the evolution of blank-eyed "love doll" to erotically autonomous liberated woman, a "monster" to the manipulative Nicolas and, by extension, the stereotyped "male" (rather than man because an abstraction, an addition to his penis) of pornography ? Whether one agrees or not, this film presents at least as much food for thought as it does for one's libido. Contrary to CAFE FLESH, several sex scenes here are indeed played for powerful erotic effect – further enhanced by veteran cameraman François About's exquisitely colorful, brightly lit cinematography – as women take charge, a move Mulot perhaps felt was necessary if porn was to survive as a genre and even art form, the only chance it stood of surmounting the boundaries that had become unbearable to him.
Programmed for Pleasure
Michael_Elliott26 December 2020
La femme-objet (1981)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Nicolas (Richard Allan) is a science fiction writer who has an insane need for sex. He will take sex from pretty much any woman but he has yet to find exactly what he desires. This leads him into creating a female robot (Marilyn Jess) who is programed to give him his ultimate desires.
LA FEMME-OBJET comes from writer-director Claude Mulot who messed around in several genres in his short career. This includes horror (THE BLOODY ROSE), sexploitation (SINS OF THE FLESH) and hardcore. He has several famous hardcore pictures including the infamous PUSSY TALK but there's no question that most people consider LA FEMME-OBJET, also known as PROGRAMMED FOR PLEASURE, to be his masterpiece.
What's so remarkable about this picture is that it actually mixes various genres quite well as the story itself is basically the Dr. Frankenstein and monster. You've got a man who creates a robot to do whatever he says but soon that robot is in charge of things. I thought the story was told extremely well and it certainly helps that the performances are also a lot better than you'd typically see in a film like this.
Allan is perfect in the role of the writer who just can't get enough sex. Helene Shirley, Laura Clair and Nadine Roussial are among the ladies who take their turn with him. Then you've got Marilyn Jess who easily steals the picture as the beautiful blonde. Her performance is right on the mark as she's basically playing an emotional-less robot who is just here for one thing.
The cinematography is another major plus here as the sex scenes are filmed extremely well as are the scenes without any sex. LA FEMME-OBJET is certainly one of the better adult pictures ever made.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
Nicolas (Richard Allan) is a science fiction writer who has an insane need for sex. He will take sex from pretty much any woman but he has yet to find exactly what he desires. This leads him into creating a female robot (Marilyn Jess) who is programed to give him his ultimate desires.
LA FEMME-OBJET comes from writer-director Claude Mulot who messed around in several genres in his short career. This includes horror (THE BLOODY ROSE), sexploitation (SINS OF THE FLESH) and hardcore. He has several famous hardcore pictures including the infamous PUSSY TALK but there's no question that most people consider LA FEMME-OBJET, also known as PROGRAMMED FOR PLEASURE, to be his masterpiece.
What's so remarkable about this picture is that it actually mixes various genres quite well as the story itself is basically the Dr. Frankenstein and monster. You've got a man who creates a robot to do whatever he says but soon that robot is in charge of things. I thought the story was told extremely well and it certainly helps that the performances are also a lot better than you'd typically see in a film like this.
Allan is perfect in the role of the writer who just can't get enough sex. Helene Shirley, Laura Clair and Nadine Roussial are among the ladies who take their turn with him. Then you've got Marilyn Jess who easily steals the picture as the beautiful blonde. Her performance is right on the mark as she's basically playing an emotional-less robot who is just here for one thing.
The cinematography is another major plus here as the sex scenes are filmed extremely well as are the scenes without any sex. LA FEMME-OBJET is certainly one of the better adult pictures ever made.
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