Too much of everything

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Yes, this movie is very sexy, but unlike 9 1/2 Weeks to which it has been compared, this one has real depth. The sexually charged submission is meant not merely for titillation, but also to underscore the connection between violence and submission. The fact that the movie is set in France during the opening years of WWII is not coincidental. Yes, it's fair game to an extent to refer to the French as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" but as this movie shows, there are two sides to submitting to another's will.The movie examines how the French and so many others could so easily give away their freedom and perhaps even come to enjoy it on a certain level. Look around you today: Polls show that a staggering majority of Americans are still willing and eager to give up certain rights in freedom and privacy in exchange for the promise of security and protection. This movie, and when I saw it was under the title "Submission" takes that frightening concept to its logical, or perhaps illogical, extreme. Would any of us walk naked down a street if an employee ordered us to? Yes, we would, provided we were getting something in return.In the movie, the shopowner is outwardly forceful, even intimidating, to most people. Beneath that lies a deep sense of wanting to be taken care of. Watch this movie at first for the truly erotic qualities, but then watch it again with an eye toward its deeper levels of meaning. That it can be enjoyed as a particularly perverse soft-core sex flick and also as one of the most subversive political statements made on film during the 70s is a testament to its power.

This is perhaps the sexist movie I have ever seen, not only because of the truly believable performance of the beautiful Lisa Gastoni, but also because of the movie's undercurrents of tension between submission and control, and between explicit and implicit sexuality. The 1940 setting creates an atmosphere of tension; the professor-husband's indifference adds realism; and Eliane's descent into complete emotioanl and sexual submission--as evidenced so exquisitely by her midnight walk outside the pharmacy--throbs with excitement. Although originally titled Scandal, the title Submission is more fitting, since it captures the film's ironic portrayal of a strong woman's submission not only to her lover but also to her fate as wife and mother. It's a shame that this gem is not available on DVD or video.

Armand (Franco Nero)is a shopboy, living with his mother in 1940 France. Elianne (Lisa Gastoni)is the unfullfilled wife for whom Armand works in the Pharmacy below the apartment where she lives with her husband and daughter.The Germans are due to arrive in Paris. One night Armand gropes a woman he believes to be Juliette the shopgirl in the dark at closing. It is not Juliette, it is Elianne. Elianne is incensed but when she tries to tell her husband, he interrupts and tells her about his latest treasured art discovery. Distracted and disgusted with her husband, Elianne decides not to tell him at all.Armand, aware that he has groped the wrong woman, waits several days for the ax to fall. When he is not fired, he is perplexed: "Is it possible, does the woman like me?" In a few days he gropes her again. Voila! It appears she does like him.From there it is a slide down a slippery slope. Armand takes more liberties with his mistress. Gradually he can't be bothered to boff Juliette any longer. Except on one occasion he forces Elianne into an humiliating sexual triangle with Juliette.Armand finds new ways to humiliate his mistress. On one occasion, he forces her naked out onto the nighttime sidewalk in front of the Pharmacy. From inside Armand baits her to strut her wares like a prostitute, walking up and down the street like a strumpet. An amiable drunk emerging from the bar across the street spots her. But by the time he has alerted his companions, Elianne has disappeared back inside the pharmacy. Where Armand finds her laughing uproariously and in good spirits. It turns out Elianne loves the erotic dare.Now, with the German army closing in, Armand must find still other ways to bring down his aristocratic boss. And upstairs, Elianne's life with her distracted husband is imploding. She whispers a midnight confession of her infidelities with Armand to her sleeping husband's back. The Camera cuts to her husband. He is awake. And now he knows. But he does nothing.Bombs are exploding in the distance and sirens warn of the approach of the Germans. Disaster is imminent for the French, and implicitly, for the family of Elianne and her husband, Professor Henri Michaud, collector of treasured artifacts.Armand now directs his erotic gaze at Justine the couple's daughter. Elianne is appalled, but with war approaching and her husband distracted, there is little she can do.The drama continues, the sirens blare, the war comes closer. And the audience waits for the denouement. Its a wonderful tragedy with a soundtrack that crosscuts between sounds of the approaching war and a salacious piece of music that heralds another erotic episode between Armand and Elianne.Under whatever name; Scandalo, Scandal, Submission, this film is one of the most erotic ever made.

Not the best movie ever, but for it being set just before the invasion of France in 1940, it has the style and moments to keep your attention. If nudity and sexual content offend you, do not watch this movie. Lisa Gastoni shows you that nudity can be as beautiful as art!