Dir: Just Jaeckin
Star: Françoise Fabian, Murray Head, Dayle Haddon, Klaus Kinski
a.k.a. Madame Claude
After having had two global hits with Emmanuelle and The Story of O, Jaeckin went for a more ambitious film as his third feature. It’s based on the real life exploits of Fernande Grudet, better known as Madame Claude. She was to French society in the sixties and seventies what Heidi Fleiss was to Hollywood in the nineties: a purveyor of top-notch female company to the rich, famous and powerful. In Claude’s case, her diverse clients reportedly included French Presidents De Gaulle and Pompidou, John F. Kennedy – who supposedly asked for a girl like his wife Jackie, “but hot” – the Shah of Iran and Frank Sinatra.
This film is considerably more circumspect, naming no names. While there is an American President to whom Claude caters, it’s a fictional one. Part of this may be because, at the time the film came out, its subject was in legal hot water. Her long protection from the law had faded after a change in government, and charges of tax evasion eventually forced Claude to flee for sanctuary in America. About as close as it gets to explicit contemporary commentary, is a few nods to the Lockheed corruption scandal of the early seventies, such as the US President advising Claude to buy shares in the company!
However, the viewer can still read between the lines, to try and figure out, for example, who the member of Arab royalty with a taste for watching lesbians, is intended to be. Similarly, Greek shipping magnate Alexander Zakis (Kinski) may be s reference to [REDACTED ON LEGAL ADVICE]. Crafted rather more out of whole cloth is the character of David Evans (Head, best known as the singer of One Night in Bangkok). He is a photographer who hangs around with and occasionally beds Claude’s girls, much to her chagrin (why give it away for free, she reckons), and has a nice collection of blackmail pics showing them in action with their clients.
That’s where the film differs markedly from Jaeckin’s previous works, since the focus is not entirely on sex. A good chunk of this a borderline paranoid political thriller, with various parties working to locate the elusive Evans, since his photo album could prove very useful to said elements. Evans’s actions also bring the heat down on Claude, with some believing she is behind the pictures. The final shot of the film has her being handed a set of prints by a shady intelligence officer, and asking “Where are the negatives?” There’s no answer, and it’s implied Claude will have to become an informant to the authorities – something apparently rooted in fact, and partly explaining why she was allowed to operate.
Of course, this is still a Just Jaeckin film, which means plenty of attractive, naked women as well. Leading the pack there is Haddon, looking like a young Isabelle Adjani in her role of Elizabeth. She is recruited by Claude after being caught shoplifting in a boutique, and eventually agrees to work for the madam. One of her first commissions involves her being hired out to Zakis, on his yacht in the Bahamas. Not for the tycoon himself; he wants Elizabeth to take his son’s virginity and “make him a man.” Afterwards, he tells his offspring that Elizabeth is a professional, and he doesn’t want to see her any more. What a bastard.
Zakis also plays an important role at the end. The net is closing on David, and he flees Paris, attempting to find shelter at the tycoon’s country estate, where the businessman is have what can only be described as a Middle Eastern-themed orgy. He wants nothing to do with the photographer, and has him unceremoniously thrown out the back-door. David is gunned down shortly thereafter in the woods nearby, by persons unknown [though you’ll have your suspicions], proof that discretion is indeed the better part of valour.
I have to shoot the film Madame Claude here in Paris. The pay is a disgrace. The producer wants to trick me, but I always need money. And the girls who are Madame Claude’s whores, the extras and mannequins, very young and in their twenties, are excellent fuckers. I can fuck the married ones only when their men are out of town for a short while or haven’t yet come home in the afternoon.
All You Need is Love, p.226
The producers had qualms about Jaeckin’s desire to cast Kinski, based on his reputation. However, despite the quote above, Kinski was apparently professional on set. And there’s another Kinski/Claude connection. Oddly, this is mentioned in Kinski Uncut, but largely missing from All You Need is Love. One of his girlfriends, Jasmin, talks about working as a call-girl in Paris. She says, (p. 112), “Our madam is an ex-hooker – Madame Claude. Her office is on Rue Lincoln in the Eighth Arrondissement. Everything goes through her office, the calls, the appointments, the payments, everything. We have nothing to do with any of it. She keeps thirty percent of the fee, and we get the rest.” There’s a lot more lurid detail about Jasmin’s employment, almost entirely absent in Love.
The subject of the film was apparently delighted with her portrayal, saying, “Françoise Fabian is exactly like me”. She liked the film so much she sent its director a thank-you – in the form of one of her best escorts. No record on what Jaeckin did with the “gift”. Fabian, on the other hand, was less impressed with the madam, whom she met as part of her research for the role, The actress called her “Une femme terrible… She despised men and women alike. Men were wallets. Women were holes.” After her time in America, Claude eventually returned to France almost a decade later, serving a four-month sentence. But you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and she was convicted of procurement in 1992.
She died in 2015, and there’s another biographical film, also called Madame Claude, which came out on Netflix in April. I haven’t seen it but. I may be intrigued enough to check it out. I will admit this is a lifestyle of the rich and famous which appeals to my prurient interests. Though I imagine it likely won’t be as kind towards its subject as this one seems to be.