TRUCK STOP

(A.k.a. L'AMOUR CHEZ LES POIDS LOURDS; CONVOI SPECIAL; EROTIC ENCOUNTERS; I GROSSI BESTIONI; TRAVELLING COMPANIONS)

TRUCK STOP opens with middle-aged trucker Jeffrey pulling over his lorry while colleague Eugene (director Jean-Marie Pallardy) sleeps in the back. Sweltering in the French countryside heat, Jeffrey takes a stroll - and is met by three near-naked honeys beckoning him in their direction, while fingering themselves.

Jeffrey watches panting as the threesome get it on with one another. But then Eugene awakens and rushes to find his pal. Aw, Jeffrey - it was just a mirage, you old fool!

Next we meet JoJo (Georges Gueret), who pulls up his own truck at a service station elsewhere and marches his ludicrous moustache to the men's toilets - where he meets a transvestite who asks him for a lift to Marseilles. JoJo agrees, but only if the tranny will sleep with his partner John in the back of the truck. The tranny obliges, and John unwittingly gets his birthday oats with a man in drag. It ends in tears ... of laughter.

Jojo and his driving partner John then truck on, making their way to a farm where Jojo gets information from the farmer about a local inn for truckers. Moments later, the duo are fleeing from the farm, after the farmer discovers John fucking his daughter in the pigpen.

Eventually this seedy pair get to the trucker's inn, ran by the comely Pamela (Elizabeth Turner). It turns out that everyone who frequents the inn wants a piece of Pamela, and they're convinced they can get into her. After all, as Jojo states, her fella - likeminded trucker Eugene - has been away travelling for over a year ...

After an early ruckus in the truck stop's dining area, where all the patrons - male and female alike - make it clear that they have designs on their hostess, Pamela explicitly tells them all that Eugene is the only man for her ... and she is prepared to wait for his return.

From here on in, TRUCK STOP becomes an increasingly sloppy slew of bawdy episodes, fusing genteel humour with over-acting and quaintly discreet softcore set-pieces as we endure the various patrons rutting in-between silly escapades.

The film goes nowhere and offers nothing. It lacks the nihilism of MY BODY BURNS and has nothing to rival the occasional surreal joys of EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK.

Peppered with the odd slapstick scuffle, replete with vaudeville-type music signposting our cue to laugh, this is at times painfully outdated fare. It's likeable to an extent, but is undoubtedly the weakest of the three Pallardy films recently released onto DVD by La Chat qui Fume.

Cinematography is nice and some of the female cast members are very easy on the eye. But for an erotic comedy, this is neither funny nor bonk-on inducing. And the score, by Georges Bacri and Eddie Warner, may well have driven you insane by the finish.

Throw in some armed robbers midway through, and the fact that the script (co-written by Pallardy and THE RED NIGHTS OF THE GESTAPO screenwriter Oscar Righini) is based loosely on Homer's Odyssey, and you'd think that this was going to be something quite worthy. But, no.

It's a shame, because the cast not only includes Turner (CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE; BEYOND THE DOOR; SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK) but also features Ajita Wilson (MACUMBA SEXUAL; SADOMANIA) in a minor role. Beyond these small points of interest though, there's little to recommend here.

La Chat qui Fume present TRUCK STOP uncut in a fairly shabby, somewhat grainy at times, non-anamorphic 2.35:1 setting. Although "remastered with elements provided by the director", the overall image is a tad worn and disappointingly 'wobbly'. Detail is reasonably clear and bright but colours are faded and age can be felt through each scene by way of grain and/or minor specks.

English audio is presented in a so-so 2.0 mix. The dialogue is clear enough, but undeniably hampered by occasional hiss and - worse - the odd drop-out. It's no doubt a flaw in the original elements rather than the disc authoring, but it's impossible not to comment upon nevertheless. As with the releases of EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK and MY BODY BURNS, it's disappointing to note that the original French audio track has not been offered.

An animated main menu opens the disc. There is no scene-selection menu but the film can be navigated through by way of 7 chapters.

If you've read the reviews for LUMBERJACK and MY BODY BURNS already, then you may as well skip the next segment of this critique: the bonus features are, once again, a duplication of the ones on those two discs:

They begin with a sterling 61-minute career-encompassing interview with Pallardy, entitled "The Erotic Journal of Jean-Marie Pallardy". It's actually listed on this disc as "Interview: The Erotic Diary of Jean-Marie Pallardy" - but it is the same extra.

Anyhow ...

This excellent documentary finds the white-haired director speaking to the off-screen Nicolas Felgerolles in relaxed manner about his career at length. He chats affably about how he was a farmer prior to breaking into the industry via short films, and about how most of his films were financed by Italians.

Pallardy is honest enough to talk about the bits of his films that don't work, as well as blaming his own direction for some of the actors' less impressive performances. Elsewhere, Pallardy explains why he shies away from hardcore sex ("I don't want people to smell all of the nauseous odours of sex").

Interspersed throughout the enjoyable, well-edited and entertaining featurette are windowboxed clips from several Pallardy films, including LUMBERJACK, UNSATISFIED, MY BODY BURNS, NAKED AND LUSTFUL, A VERY SPECIAL WOMAN and AN EROTIC JOURNAL OF A LADY FROM THAILAND (which affords the opportunity to enjoy some naked Brigitte Lahaie, as well as listen to Pallardy's own memories of first meeting her).

The interview segments of the documentary are presented in anamorphic 1.78:1. The whole documentary boasts French 2.0 audio with optional English subtitles. Remote access allows you to flick through the featurette by way of 9 chapters.

Next up we get original trailers for MY BODY BURNS, LUCKY LUCKY & THE DALTINES, GUNFIGHT AT THE OQ CORRAL, EROTIC DIARY OF A LUMBERJACK and TRUCK STOP. All are presented in non-enhanced widescreen with French audio and no subtitles.

Finally, there's a superb gallery of stills from Pallardy's personal archives, offering 100 photographs over the course of almost 13 minutes. There is a lot more softcore footage to be enjoyed here, as the gallery runs the course of several Pallardy films. However, it would've been nice if this well-edited feature was accompanied by audio of some description.

Le Chat Qui Fume's release of TRUCK STOP is most welcome as a curiosity piece. However, it's unfortunate that its presentation is not as solid as that of LUMBERJACK or MY BODY BURNS. It's also unfortunate that the extras are duplicated on each disc.

Still, taken on it's own merit, TRUCK STOP is a well-shot if not thoroughly engaging film with it's share of flaws. And yet, it's nice to see it on an English-friendly DVD. If bought by itself, it is indeed a solid package with some excellent extras. It just seems a shame that La Chat qui Fume have seen fit to repeat the bonus features across all three of their Pallardy releases, as I'd imagine fans would want to own all of these DVDs ... but perhaps feel short-changed by forking out in triplicate for the documentary, as excellent as it is?

Review by Stuart Willis