A 21st Century CAMILLE 2000

Danièle Gaubert as the tragic heroine of CAMILLE 2000.

I first saw Radley Metzger's CAMILLE 2000 (1969), his erotic haute couture retelling of Alexandre Dumas' "La Dame aux Cammelias", in the late 1990s when First Run Features brought it to VHS. Since I reviewed the film in VIDEO WATCHDOG #48, it has become a personal favorite, its appeal rooted not only in the remarkably touching (and, sadly, prescient) performance of Danièle Gaubert -- who succumbed to cancer in 1987 at the age of 44 -- but in the hauntingly lyrical and spacious beat score by Piero Piccioni, surely one of the most visionary Eurocult soundtracks ever. As much as I've embraced this film in the years since, I have deliberately watched it sparingly because the First Run Features transfer looks so stale; I hoped that someday there would be a DVD release that would put some gloss back into it. So, last week, when I read on the Mobius Home Video Forum about a new German release (from E-M-S) called KAMELIENDAME 2000, with an English audio option, I pounced on it.

Marguerite (Gaubert) warns Armand (Nino Castelnuovo) not to fall in love with her.

The disc is not perfect, but it is anamorphic (a great leap forward in itself); it doesn't have the digital sharpness of an internegative transfer, but for a 35mm-sourced transfer, its film-like qualities are quite acceptable.

The lovers admire themselves in the 360° mirror surrounding Marguerite's circular bed.

Seeing the film again for the first time in a year or two, in this enriched presentation, I was more deeply impressed by Metzger's ability to combine the arch artificial look of Italian pop cinema of this period and a dimension of genuine tragedy. He uses the décor -- color cubes, clear inflatable sofas, mirrored walls -- in a Fitzgeraldian sense, much as Fitzgerald used the flapper era to reflect a hellbound emptiness at the core of the youth culture of his day, and he explores it to a more satisfying and moving degree than any filmed adaptation of Fitzgerald (or Dumas' original story, including George Cukor's CAMILLE) has achieved to date.

Armand goes to Marguerite's friend Prudence (Eleanora Rossi-Drago) for advice in a scene found only in the German version.

The E-M-S disc features the German version of the picture, which features some unexpected variations. If one selects the English viewing option, the film is preceded by a card in German (not too helpful for some of us!) that reads, in translation, "Dear Film-friend: We apologize for the fact that some scenes in this English language version are worded in German. These scenes were cut from the English edition." The presentation includes four instances where German dialogue has been inserted into the English version, most of them less than 10-15 seconds in length. The exception is a 1m 30s scene that occurs between 63:33-65:04, in which Armand (Nino Castelnuovo) visits Prudence (Eleanora Rossi-Drago) in her dress shop to discuss his problems with Marguerite (Gaubert). Most startling of all is the discovery that the German version has a different, less satisfying ending. The US ending is included as a supplementary item, evidently ported from the FRF DVD.

It's incredible to me that Roger Ebert, of all people, could have detested this movie, especially in the same year that he wrote BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS; if your jaw hasn't dropped in awhile, you should read his hideously condescending dismissal of it. As for me, I'm not certain whether CAMILLE 2000 is Metzger's best film -- THE LICKERISH QUARTET, which I haven't seen in many years, enjoys that reputation -- but I feel confident in saying that it's a masterpiece of its kind, an erotic film invested with taste, sophistication, and real emotion.

To the best of my knowledge, the E-M-S disc is presently available to US customers only from Amazon.de. I ordered the disc and had it in my hands inside a week, so I can recommend Amazon.de as a source absolutely. [Update 1/27/08: It is also now available from Xploited Cinema.] A more complete review will appear in a future issue of VIDEO WATCHDOG.