Bernard Launois
Directing
Biography
Bernard Launois is a French exploitation film director, screenwriter and actor. As an actor, he sometimes used the pseudonym Bob Gary. He was born in Mézières , France. Having studied pharmacology for two years in the university, he sought a career in the film industry instead. He worked as a trainee editor and then as an assistant director. In 1953, he was employed by Paramount 's programming department in Paris. [ 2 ] During the 1960s, he worked for several film distribution and production companies, such as Parafrance ( fr ) and Les Films Copernic ( fr ). In 1979, he founded his own company, Lancaster Film, to finance the films he wrote and directed. He also edited film trailers and played minor roles as an actor. His debut film as director, Unleash the Bitches ( lit. ' Unleash the Bitches ' , released in 1972), was an improvised work that he wrote in three days. He founded Delta Films and bought a four-theater multiplex in 1987. He retired from the filmmaking business at the end of the 1980s. Devil Story, his seventh and last feature film, has gained a cult following because of its reputation as one of the worst films in history. It was restored in 4K resolution from its 35mm original camera negative and released on Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome, an American home video distribution company, in 2021.
Known For
Philippe, a photography enthusiast, is attracted to his young aunt so he makes a plan to get his uncle involved with their maid in order to get the chance to have sex with his aunt.
Chaleurs
A young girl marries the wealthy father of one of her male friends at college, but she soon finds herself falling for her new husband’s son. The husband finds out about the two, and comes up with what he believes to be a foolproof plan: he will frame his wife and his son for his own murder, then have the pair locked in a room in his remote, isolated estate–with his own dead body.
Two Males for Alexa
After their car breaks down in the French countryside, a young couple must fend off a Nazi mutant and his gypsy mother, a mummy, and a possessed horse.
Devil Story
In a shabby corner of Paris, Gigi (Monique Vita) a prostitute attempts to settle scores with the pimp who controls her life and income, drifting through cheap interiors and tourist-friendly views of the city, repeatedly interrupted by erotic encounters and lingering close-ups of an antique Métro train. The confrontation offers no escape, only a return to the same cycle of exploitation and dependence.
Slot Machines
Partisan of total sexual freedom, a young woman with perfect physique leads, by her example, a married friend to live like her. The two friends then engage in all kinds of erotic experiences at random from their meetings with various gentlemen, but also between them.
Erotic Love-Games
Carl is a handsome Austrian who hunts for a Nazi-buried treasure in a haunted Norman castle, hidden there before the liberation.
Let the Bitches Loose
Gaëtan (Sim), a small-town hotelier, schemes to scrape together enough money to travel to Paris for a belote tournament, resorting to increasingly dubious tricks and hiding his savings inside his beloved bagpipes.
Don't Touch my Bagpipes!
Julien, the son of a minister has just married Birgitt, a Swede she met during her holidays on the French Riviera. She was recovering, having come to rest with Julien's father, a friend of her family. During the wedding cocktail, Julien remembers these holidays.
The Adulteress
In 1968, in a small village in the south of France, while the rest of the country was gripped by insurrectionary fervor and the search for a few liters of gasoline, life flowed peacefully. However, the tranquility and good humor of everyone were called into question by the announcement of the brigade's transfer to a less remote location.
Sacrés gendarmes
A bourgeois couple secretly employ Charlie, a pimp, to procure women for their decadent pleasures. When their son becomes emotionally entangled with one of them, the arrangement begins to unravel.
The Depraved of Pleasure
Paris, 1956. Three sisters, three actresses willing to do almost anything to make it big. Their lives, their loves, their dramas. A savory satire of the world of show business and cinema in particular.
Pity for the Vamps
Making of documentary on the brain damaged 1985 French film, Devil Story (Il Etait une Fois le Diable)
Once Upon a Time... Devil Story
Cain has been traveling for a long time throughout Europe. Back "home" he knocks at the door of his parents' trailer only to be rejected by his hateful mother, who once again blames him for his laziness and once again compares him to his brother Abel, a successful businessman and a right guy, good to his parents and stuff. As for his father, now blind and crippled, he escapes his wife by being permanently drunk and he is of no help. In disgust, Cain runs away from the place and contacts Abel, the perfect son, to borrow money from him. But, although Abel tells him he doesn't mind helping him, Cain shoots him down with a gun found in his brother's car.
Cain from Nowhere
A gang uses Marina, a naive striptease artist, on a tour of Asia, to make a microfilm out of the country. As soon as the girl arrives at Orly airport, she is followed by smugglers.
Pigalle Crossing of Illusions
A loose series of encounters brings together French and Swedish men and women exploring sexual freedom across apartments, country houses, and holiday settings. Any hints of character or conflict quickly dissolve into episodic group situations, with the film favouring atmosphere and fantasy over narrative resolution.