The girlfriends Françoise (Mireille Saunin) and Anna (Michèle Perello) are traveling through the countryside of France by car. They stop at a roadhouse to drink wine and buy coffee, and the owner advises them to return. However they proceed their trip but they get lost on the road.They decide to spend the night in an abandoned barn. In the morning, Françoise does not find Anna and she seeks her out. Out of the blue, the dwarf Gurth (Alfred Baillou) asks her to follow him and he shows a castle in an island where Anna would be.Françoise takes a boat that sails alone and brings her to the castle. Sooner she learns that she has reached the lesbian realm of the witch Morgane (Dominique Delpierre) that proposes Françoise to stay in her kingdom living in eternal youth and beauty with her favorites Yael (Régine Motte), Sylviane (Ursule Pauly) and Sarah (Nathalie Chaine). Otherwise she would be doomed to get older and older in the dungeons of the castle. Further, Françoise learns that Anna has given her soul to Morgane and will stay in the place forever. But Françoise does not want to stay and plots a plan to escape."Morgane et ses Nymphes" is an erotic tale about a woman that is trapped in an oneiric castle of lesbians mastered by the evil witch Morgane. The director Bruno Gantillon succeeds in the atmosphere of dream, supported by gorgeous actresses and wonderful music score. But the film is disappointing since I was expecting much more from the synopsis. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Morgana e as Ninfas" ("Morgane and the Nymphs")

Before you read this review, please familiarize yourself with the wonderful world of Mondo Macabro. They are a DVD label that specializes in releasing older obscure fantasy, science fiction, and horror films in North America and the United Kingdom. I've encountered the great films of Mexican director Juan López Moctezuma through them. Not everything they release is worth being discovered, though. Occasionally, a dud from forty years ago miraculously gets a special edition release. The following review is of one of those duds, and I might as well write on it since I will never see it again. If you have Netflix, consider getting Moctezuma's "Alucarda" and "The Mansion of Madness" before they become unavailable.Morgane et ses nymphes (translated as Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay) was released in European cinemas in 1971, during the erotic craze. It was another movie made for very little money hoping to empty the pockets of its young male audiences. Mainstream nudity was still a decade or so away, even in Europe, so people had to quietly sneak around to watch films like this. Making a good erotic film sounds a lot easier than it is. Beyond seeing lubricious women fondle things (preferably each other), an underlining plot has to be there. Otherwise the movie becomes boring, and making a boring sex flick is deplorable.Girl Slaves won't do as erotic film, and the problem lies with the filmmakers. On the DVD extras, director Bruno Gantillon says that he wanted the film to be "high art." See if you can reconcile these two: making a "high art" film for people who have only sexual interest in seeing the film. It can't be done, and the director deserves the blame for deceiving his audience. We see this pretentiousness manifest itself early when the protagonists are forced to spend the night in an abandoned building. They sleep close to each other but nothing happens beyond that. Why shouldn't we have seen something? The women find themselves at a magical castle inhabited by the titular Morgane and her beautiful captives. Morgane exists in the world of bad screenplays where issues like motivation for doing, well anything and plot progression don't exist. They are suggestive grooming sequences and interpretive dance. Morgane possesses the ability to transport herself. Some occasional nudity throughout this middle section would have helped a whole lot. It would have made the film more honest. Eventually we learn that prospective slaves may be granted eternal life in Morgane's harem or live out the remainder of their lives in the dungeon where they will become old and ugly. Gantillon fetishizes youth to extreme measures by placing the camera close to the face of old women several times. Again, it really hinders building any kind of atmosphere, which can substitute for nudity if done properly.We finally see the expected girl-girl scene, and it is ineffective due to some crazy idea of rapid cutting. There is one that lasts long enough to satisfy, if only the characters hadn't met only a few moments earlier. Gantillon actually succumbs to the lowbrow necessity of proving love scenes and fails to make them meaningful by just thrusting them in there. It would be refreshing if we actually had a dramatic, progressive narrative spliced with teases and a relieving payoff.The movie isn't stylistically better either. It doesn't appear that Gantillon spent time designing sets. His costume designer had to compensate for this lack of effort by providing unnecessarily weird outfits to be unfortunately worn too often. He also cast a dwarf actor to serve as Morgane's caretaker and unreciprocated love interest. Incompetence and exploitation are combined in Girl Slaves.Not Recommended

One of the things that makes the 70's a superior era over the 80's for film is the soundtrack. Morgane et Ses Nymphes is no exception to this. The music is charming, without being tacky. Melodic without being intrusive and turning the mood sappy. In the 80's you could have a good film and then when the dischordant synth chords come through, it just always seems to detract rather than enhance. I felt like the composer was very familiar and must have been a very prolific contributor to many films of this genre/era, but I noticed that only one other film has been credited to him. The 3rd Man kept coming to mind... Not that this movie is a masterpiece, but the subject matter is interesting, in the Jean Rollin vein, and it's always an immense pleasure to see women in their au naturel state, pre-silicone. It's easy to see how it could have been perceived as borderline pornographic in 1971. The extras on this DVD are highly recommended. The short film made by the same director is worth a look for sure.

Inspired by the exploits of the famous witch found in Arthurian legends, this film has an appropriately medieval feel to it - not least because of its authentic castle setting and the evocative score by Francois de Roubaix (using the pseudonym Cisco El Rubio!). While it was sold as exploitation on the strength of its copious nudity (the mostly female cast also entailing lesbianism), the script - where characterization is given its due, which is more than can be said for most "Euro-Cult" titles! - is surprisingly literate. In this respect - not to mention having the titular character's dungeon crammed with a bevy of mostly willing slaves! - the film anticipated the "Elizabeth Bathory" segment in Walerian Borowczyk's IMMORAL TALES (1974). Speaking of Bathory, Dominique Delpierre's Morgana here actually reminded me of that character as incarnated by Delphine Seyrig in DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS (1971) - which, incidentally, was also scored by De Roubaix!The sustained dream-like mood here results in a languorous pace, which is actually typical of low-budget fantasy films made in France during this time: its main purveyors were Jean Rollin and Jess Franco, but Gantillon's effort is ample proof that others (whose career wasn't as prolific and, consequently, faded into obscurity) were, at least, equally adept at this sort of thing; though it often descended into camp - which the title under review here, thankfully, doesn't! - Michel Lemoine's SEVEN WOMEN FOR Satan (1974), incidentally also a Mondo Macabro release, is another one of its kind I enjoyed a good deal.Besides, the film's production values (primarily - and economically - utilizing natural resources), accentuated by Jean Monsigny's odd framing, impart the film with an effortless classiness not usually found in lowbrow "Euro-Cult" ventures. That said, the lengthy feast/lesbian orgy towards the end stops the film dead in its tracks and the unresolved ending may seem like a cop-out (though I took it as merely another bizarre touch in a movie filled with unconventional detail).With respect to casting, this too appears to have received some uncommon consideration: the sinister-looking Alfred Baillou is memorable as Morgana's love-struck (yet jealous) dwarf henchman!; Delpierre (who is able to materialize wherever she pleases, as is demonstrated in the final moments of the film) and Regine Motte (as one of her three favored nymphs endowed with psychic powers: in fact, one of the most striking scenes in the film is when they relate to Morgana the movements of the fleeing heroine beyond the castle walls - which is shown in a form of stylized choreography) are the loveliest of the six leading ladies, but also the most able performers.