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Shut Up, I Love You!
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (20th June 2025). |
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The Film
 Eager to impress erotic film actress Fanny (A Virgin Among the Living Dead's Anne Libert), Marco (Luxure's Pierre Danny) takes her along for a potential dirty weekend driving a BMW sports across the country to its new owner. When he attempts to show her the novelty of reclining seats, a handbrake malfunction careens the vehicle into a utility pole. Marco gets hold of the local Mercedes dealership and garage and is surprised to discover its owner is Algerian war buddy Henry (Erotic Sex Games' Henry Czarniak) who invites him and Fanny to stay the weekend while the car is being repaired. Upon arrival, Marco discovers why Henry is so pleased that he is still single because he is trying to find someone, anyone, to deflower his sixteen-year-old daughter Sylvie (James Bande 00 Sexe's Cathy Stewart) who has fallen into a depression since her rock musician fiance was cut in half by a train and has not warmed up to her staunchly lesbian hired companion Ingrid (Fascination's Brigitte Lahaie). Marco is considering it since Fanny has insisted on a separate room, even preferring to bunk with Ingrid if need be; whereupon, Henry and his wife Simone (The Blood Rose's Michèle Perello) proposition her for their daughter. The weekend holds more potential for everyone to get in on the action from frustrated Marco and Ingrid, perennially unsatisfied Fanny, Henry and Simone who have not touched each other for since the night Sylvie was conceived, Henry's curate brother Charly (Jean-Paul Regat) who knows he has seen Fanny's thighs somewhere, nymphomaniac maid Herminia (Oasis of the Zombies' France Lomay) who is in a union so they cannot fire her for screwing her fiance and Henry's assistant Eduoard (Carlo Dorelli) on the job or anyone else who strays past her room, and delivery man Pip (Lips of Blood's Jean-Loup Philippe) who arrives with a shipment of yoghurt two years overdue. Shut Up, I Love You!, from director Serge Korber who started in mainstream films like The One Man Band and moved by choice into erotic filmmaking with the censor-baiting L'essayeuse, is a sexed-up French farce with a enough characters to allow for the potential multiple permutations of hookups complete with a corridor characters run up and down and either peep or get dragged into bedrooms. There is copious nudity and potentially outrageous elements like underage virgins and horny clerics, but the sex itself is pretty tame and for the most part comic fodder rather than titillation. Making up for it is the pleasant cast and settings, attractive photography by Gérard Loubeau (The Tale of Tiffany Lust), and scoring by Roger Candy. Despite the ensemble nature of the characters, it is perhaps fitting that this Blu-ray release's artwork highlights Lahaie and Czarniak since their shared scenes late in the film are surprisingly tender and moving in spite of their offensively retrograde approach (apparently both characters just need a good "seeing to" and an understanding of ergonomics in order to embrace heteronormative standards). The film was co-produced by distributor Avia Films who distributed a number for Jean Rollin films – Paul Bisciglia from Rollin's Les demoniaques cameos as Fanny's director – and produced his last three in the nineties: Two Orphan Vampires, Dracula's Fiancee, and Night of the Hourglass. While there is no shortage of softcore erotic films at the height of hardcore in the late seventies, Korber's Shut Up, I Love You is one that does not feel "frustrated" by the need to heat things up without crossing over or shooting hardcore inserts for an alternate version and satisfies as a sexy comedy. 
Video
Unreleased theatrically in English-speaking territories, Shut Up, I Love You! was previously released in France on DVD in the Classiques de l'érotisme boxed set in 2016. Presumably the HD master was also used for 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray is one of the better-looking titles licensed from LCJ Editions. Night exteriors can look noisier and focus lags during these sequences – particularly during the car scenes as if the focus puller measured the distance from the camera to the windshield rather than the people behind it – but bright scenes look sharp and colorful, flattering the faces and sometimes bared bodies of the cast along with the locations and décor. The opening credits are framed at 1.33:1 but it does not appear to be sourced from different materials. 
Audio
The sole audio option is an LPCM 2.0 French post-dubbed track. The track is clean, conveying the dialogue crisply along with the music score and vocals which seem to have been written specifically for the film with one cue's only intelligible lyric being "Monsieur Pip!" The optional English subtitles are free of errors, once on realizes that "Herminia" refers to the name of the maid and is not a misspelling of the abdominal pains of a character just ravished by her. 
Extras
The sole extra is "Brigitte, I Love You (17:02), an interview with actress Lahaie who at the time was relieved to not be asked to do any more hardcore films and found working with Korber a more favorable experience than with Rollin. She liked the opportunity to work with friends Lomay and Stewart – with whom she would also appear in Rollins' Night of the Hunted – also discusses the questionable elements of the plot including the power dynamics of her character's relationship with her employers while also noting that the script did allow her to play more faces of character than usual. She also provides some background on Korber, suggesting that L'essayeuse was scapegoated by the government censors but that Korber really did think erotic films could provoke and improve society rather than just being a means of making a living. 
Overall
While there was no shortage of softcore erotic films at the height of hardcore in the late seventies, Serge Korber's Shut Up, I Love You is one that does not feel "frustrated" by the need to heat things up without crossing over or shooting hardcore inserts for an alternate version and satisfies as a sexy comedy.
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