Les délices du tossing

Usually considered one of the weaker works by the ardent anarchist of the French adult industry, Gérard Kikoïne, this movie unfortunately lives down to that reputation, a screenplay credit for the late Claude Mulot (billed under his real name rather than the customary "Frédéric Lansac") notwithstanding. A few token kinky touches (such as lit candle sticks protruding from ladies' rectums) and the occasional high energy hardcore encounter aside, there's little here to distinguish LES DELICES DU TOSSING from the run of the mill fare cranked out by lesser luminaries among the director's contemporaries.

In spite of its pedigree, the plot proves plain silly. Stalwart Alban Ceray runs a messenger facility called Mini Services with pretty girls in white overalls on bikes wreaking havoc all over Paris. Ringleader Francine (tragic Cathy Stewart, who passed away from sustained substance abuse in the early '90s) has picked up on a popular American habit known as "tossing", which means something entirely different if you're British, by the way ! This consists of a mere tell-tale wink at the object of your desire to let him or her know that you're interested in having it off with them right there and then. This flimsy set-up leads into the film's moderately well-handled sexual set pieces such as an upper crust orgy involving Mini Service maidens Christine Schwartz (shining star of Claude Bernard-Aubert's excellent LES BAS DE SOIE NOIRE) and the always welcome Marianne Aubert attending the perverse party thrown by wealthy matron Mascha Mouton, pressing docile domestic Carole Pierac into duty with Ghislain Garet, who played the intrepid reporter in Kikoïne's FANTASMES TRES SPECIAUX. This is but one scene spectacularly embellished by the gorgeous ambient lighting and muted color scheme concocted by DoP Gérard Loubeau, himself a fornication filmmaker of some note as his minor masterpieces RAPT IN LOVE and SECRETS D'ADOLESCENTES eloquently attest.

A dramatic development of sorts kicks in when fiery Francine has a go at hunky surgeon Dominique Saint-Clair (a/k/a Gil Lagardère) in the hospital's photo booth. Though he's wearing a medical mask throughout, she somehow decides he's the man of her dreams and enlists the help of friends and co-workers – including top-billed superstar Marilyn Jess, in addition to those already mentioned – to track him down. As she only has a set of photos of his erect manhood, the plan boils down to drugging nurse Charlotte Millet (from Michel Jean's sturdy DER FRAUENARZT VOM PLACE PIGALLE) into having sex with the entire surgical staff – all three of them – with the girls busting in to compare penile packages to assure that their friend can live happily ever after !

French fornication film fans should fore-go narrative and focus on the talent instead. Stewart always made the most of the material she was given and every leading role is a bonus, even in something as inane as this. Little-seen Patricia Samba played a streetwalker in Andrew Whyte's melodramatic Olinka vehicle HATE AND LOVE and appears as the office girl continually harassed by boss man Alban, with a disappointingly fleeting pay-off. Lemoine regular André Kay, particularly memorable as Olinka's small town boyfriend in the wonderful ROSALIE SE DECOUVRE, plays the postman initially spurned by Schwartz but subsequently consoled by all four starlets in another way too brief encounter. Suave Gabriel Pontello was at the height of his male model good looks, sort of like the Rocco Siffredi of his day, and does a steamy stairwell number with the succulent Stewart. Possibly the hardest working men in the French porn industry at that time, Jean-Pierre Armand and Dominique Aveline grab a quick paycheck as masked surgeons in the downright weird hospital theater group scene that serves as the narrative's catharsis.

I have a lot of respect for the creators (directors, cameramen, actresses, everyone) in watchable full-feature-length porn movies. Those that are entertaining and titillating and worth your time. It's a hell of a feat. You will get absolutely no love from critics, and very little respect from punters. In a way, it really is art for art's sake.

Director Gérard Kikoine is one of the stalwarts of this genre, but unfortunately, this movie is a bit of a let-down. We follow the fates of a group of sexy girls on mopeds working for the "Mini Services" company in Paris. The plot doesn't sound that complicated, but nevertheless it gets confusing. First of, what on earth is the "Tossing" alluded to in the title? Apparently it's the act of the girls flirting with their handsome customers. One of the girls somehow wants to move to the US. Then there is an orgy where some girls have burning candles stuck up their butts. Then there is an entirely different plot involving a masked surgeon with a huge dick. One of the Mini Services girl is so enamoured that she goes around with a life-sized photograph of this precocious pecker comparing it to every other sample she comes across.

The sex doesn't sizzle, the girls don't shine, I'd give this one a miss.