Producer Pierre Braumberger brought three top directors of erotica known to the French (Just Jaeckin had directed EMANUELLE and STORY OF O, Borowczyk had done IMMORAL TALES and THE BEAST; and Shuji Terayama had directed producer Anatole Dauman's STORY OF O follow-up FRUITS OF PASSION) to produce the three short films that make up PRIVATE COLLECTIONS. Just Jaeckin's tale of a shipwrecked sailor encountering an island of beautiful, sensual women with unsual apetites is the weakest but sports stunning photography (Jaeckin makes Laura Gemser look even more gorgeous and golden than she does in Joe D'Amato's BLACK EMANUELLE films) and a score by Pierre Bachelet who scored the aforementioned Jaeckin films. Terayama's segment "The Glass Labyrinthe" is the longest and most aggressively erotic and horrific and worth the price of the disc alone. Borowczyk's story (the shortest) of an encounter between a man and a Folies Berger prostitute has the trademark Borowczyk gorgeous visuals, editing, and scoring but is ultimately a minor work. Borowczyk is better served by his other features as well as the anthologies IMMORAL TALES and IMMORAL WOMEN (the latter also released on DVD by Severin).

Eric Cotenas