The Lickerish Quartet - Lilith Likes to Watch

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Title: The Lickerish Quartet
Year: 1970

Starring: Silvana Venturelli, Frank Wolff, Erika Remberg, Paolo Turco

Director: Radley Metzger

Synopsis: A jaded, wealthy couple watch a blue movie in their castle home along with her adult son. The son is testy, so they go into town and watch a circus-like thrill ride. The daredevil woman in the show looks exactly like one of the women in the movie, so the man invites her to join them for a nightcap. Tensions among the family seem to rise. She stays overnight, and during her 24 hours in the castle, each of its three residents involves her in a fantasy. She, in turn, keeps asking, “Who has the gun?” Will there be violence before it’s over? - via Letterboxd.com

Lilith's Notes: And we're back to the art of Radley Metzger

Buy: Amazon | PinkLable.tv

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"But that's just a girl in a film, and what happens in the film doesn't really happen to her. Or to me."

It has been literal years but we’re once again scrutinizing one of the biggest names in artsy, golden age porn. For the final review of March, we close out with the one and only Radly Metzger.

You can thank us later.

The Lickerish Quartet, for which I have no idea why it is named that, is one of his earliest films, and already has his fingerprints all over it. From the first scene, it is clearly a Metzger movie. Visually, slotted right in line with Barbara Broadcast. We open with a husband (played by Frank Wolff) , wife and legal-age son (played by Paolo Turco ) watching a pornographic film reel. The set up brought to mind The Private Afternoons of Pamala Mann, since it featured playing with a film projector, manipulating the film back and forth. Some artists just have signatures. Acts of self-referential humour continue when the wife (Played by Erika Remberg), decides to MST3K the film and call the lesbians on-screen Therese and Isabelle, which was one of Metzger’s earlier films.

Later that day, they family go to the fair and see a daredevil (played by Silvana Venturelli) who looks exactly like one of the ladies in the porno they watched. So, they invite her over to their majestic castle home, with not entirely pure motivations.

This movie has a good sense of humour. It’s sly and slippery, teasing and it made me chuckle once or twice.

The majority of the film takes place in a castle, so outside looks like a renaissance landscape but inside, there are rooms that are all 70’s groove or bizarro, idiosyncrasies. Obelisks and orbs of pure crystal will be on display on a fireplace mantle, while a library is clinically, meticulously laid out and colour coordinated, if not for the giant dictionary pages painted on the floor against which characters can fuck!

The aesthetic is discordant and fun, and does a great deal to carry the film because, oh boy, the film…

First of all, let’s assume we disregard the in-universe porno they're watching. If we do that, then the first erotic scene is 50 minutes into the film. Not only that, but it’s simulated and softcore. Which is surprising and disappointing in equal measure. Perhaps Metzger thought he could break into mainstream with this movie. It is just shy of the Golden Age. A few more years and it would have been ripe for the hard core plucking.

With the exception of one scene, the sex isn’t great. The Visitor always looks bored or inconvenienced. The only time she seems into it is during a seduction scene with the mother. Which happens to be the best scene in the film. Yes, we see nothing sordid or salacious, but as the Visitor’s hand trails down, her finger dances around the mother’s navel, and it trembles lightly. It’s an honest detail, human and real and the scene, and movie as a whole, is much better for it.

There is more to this movie than there seems, stories within stories, hidden histories played out in black and white celluloid of hazy memory, but it kind of feels forced in a way? Maybe confused?

We're still half a decade away from the genre-shifting landmarks of Misty Beethoven and The Image, but there is something here. Even if this movie doesn’t completely function, the promise of Metzger’s skills and talent are evident in this work. He will go one to be a problematic auteur, as so many auteur prove themselves to be, but for this quartet, I think we can allow ourselves to just tilt our heads and go “...huh. Alright. Sure!”

Best Moment: The belly button tremble!

Worst Moment: How dare you be simulated soft-core! The audacity

LILITH'S SCORE: 3/5

Until next time, my voracious voyeurs. I’m Lilith, and I’m always watching.