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Released by: Severin Films
Released on: June 4th, 2022.
Director: Michel Caputo
Cast: Brigitte Lahaie, Michel Modo, Pierre Oudrey
Year: 1982
Purchase From Severin Films
The Female Executioner – Movie Review:
Directed by Michel Caputo, who co-wrote the script with producer Rene Chateau, 1986's The Female Executioner (a.k.a L'exécutrice en Francais) is one of a few roles that the film's lovely leading lady, Brigitte Lahaie, took around this time while trying to get out of the adult films that she'd been making for a while at this point (and which made her quite infamous both in France and abroad).
The film focuses on a sexy lady cop named Martine (played by Lahaie, of course!). Early in the story, she takes down a gang dealing in kiddie porn. Understandably determined to bring the rest of these bad guys to justice, when she learns that the ring was headed by one Madame Wenders (Dominique Erlanger), she makes it her personal mission to go right to the top and put a stop to all of this.
As Martine works her way through the French criminal underworld, it seems like the closer she gets to Wenders, the more interference she gets from the Commissioner (Michel Modo). While all of this is going on, Madame Wenders and her son kidnap a girl. Wanting to get her before it's too late, Martine pairs with Martine Valmont (Pierre Oudrey), a cop who we can charitably describe as rough around the edges and who lusts for revenge against the man who killed his last partner.
Caputo, who had directed a load of adult films under various pseudonyms such as Michel Baudricourt, Michel Anthony and Paul Kerman, keeps things moving at a good clip, though the storyline is fairly clichéd and not all that original. Still, the film features a few decent action set pieces, some nice location work and a reasonably seedy atmosphere to keep things interesting. It never goes as over the top into exploitation territory as you might hope it would, but we still get a fair amount of nudity and some fairly violent action set pieces to keep us entertained.
The main reason to see the film, however, is for Lahiae. She proves here that she really could and should have had a bigger mainstream career than she wound up having as she handles the role really well. It doesn’t matter if it’s the action scenes, the love scenes, the more dramatic moments in the film or the harder edge finale that she’s dealing with, she proves more than capable of handling it all and uses her interesting and unique screen presence to create a pretty strong character. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she’s gorgeous, but even if you remove that from the equation, she delivers in this picture.
The rest of the cast is pretty fun. Pierre Oudrey chews a lot of the scenery and makes for a pretty entertaining comrade in arms for Lahiae’s Martine. His character is a jerk but he’s not without his merits in his own screwy way. Dominique Erlanger is enjoyable to watch as the film’s main heavy and Michel Modo is fun as the Commissioner even if anyone who has seen a cop movie before will be able to figure out what his character is up to. It’s also worth pointing out that one of France’s most popular adult film leading men, Richard Allan, who co-starred in plenty of Lahaie’s adult pictures, has a small supporting role in the film.
The Female Executioner – Blu-ray Review:
Severin's AVC encoded 1080p high definition region free Blu-ray release of The Female Executioner, which is framed at 1.66.1 widescreen, is really solid. Using up 30.6Bs of space on the 25GB disc and transferred in 2k from the original 35mm negative, the image leaves little room for complaint. There’s loads of detail here and plenty of depth to the image. The elements used were clearly in excellent shape as there isn’t really much print damage to discuss, although the film’s natural grain is preserved. Colors look really strong and we get nice black levels and accurate looking flesh tones. No problems to note with any noise reduction or edge enhancement and compression artifacts are never an issue.
24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono audio options are provided in French and English with optional English subtitle tracks available for both tracks. Audio quality is problem free. There’s a good amount of depth, there are no problems with any hiss or distortion and the gun shots and foley work has some decent punch to it. The film plays better in French than English and the English track does have a bit of mild sibilance, but it’s great to have both options included here.
Extras start off with The Cop In Nylon Stockings, an interview with director Michel Caputo and actress Brigitte Lahaie that clocks in at nineteen minutes. They talk about how the project came to be when Caputo wanted to get out of comedy and make a hard-edged detective/cop movie, casting Lahaie in a role that she had never played before, the influence of the movies Belmondo was making at the time, appreciating the fact that Lahaie could actually act, her thoughts on the script and playing a different role, having to handle a gun on the shoot, shooting a movie with a bigger crew, shooting at the actual police headquarters, the trust that the two of them shared while making the movie together, bringing the film in on a modest budget, marketing the film and how they feel about it overall.
Hold On Tight, Girly! is a location visit with Caputo and Lahaie that runs a quick two minutes. The visit the country home featured in the film and we see how it looks today compared to how it appeared in the film.
Les Volets Bleus (The Blue Shutters) is a short film from 1987 directed by Haydée Caillot that stars Lahaie as Anne. It runs forty-four minutes. In it, Lahaie cruises the streets of a French city exploring a market and then taking flowers to a grave. From here, she wanders around a bit more and then hangs out with Marinette. A man named Garry hangs about and Marinette reads the Tarot for him. Anna is approached by a man on the street from her past named Francis (Jacques Mandréa ) and they spend the day together. They head to the coast and make out while reminiscing about old times until she becomes angry with him. They play head games as they take in the scenery and then head back to his place where the flirting and head games intensify. It’s an interesting and nicely shot piece with some good performances and gorgeous camerawork.
Finishing up the extras on the disc is a trailer for the feature, menus and chapter selection options. Severin packages this release with a very cool slipcover featuring a provocative picture of the film’s starlet on the front.
The Female Executioner – The Final Word:
The Female Executioner is pretty entertaining stuff and it does give the lovely Ms. Lahaie’s fan base the chance to see her headline in an action movie – there’s definitely some novelty to that, but she plays it straight and handles it well! Severin’s Blu-ray release offers up this exploitation gem in excellent shape with some pretty nice extras too.