Quiet Days in Clichy (1970)

Quiet Days in Clichy is a movie with no real identifiable plot to speak of, but therein lies what seems to be its point. The film is meant to be nothing more than a depiction of the comings and goings of its characters, characters who lead aimless lives in search of pleasure without the fear of consequences or analyzing their actions against short- and long-term prospectives. One character is infected with "the clap" during one of his routine encounters, and another fails to see the implications of paying a girl for sex with all the money he has to his name. Much of whatever loosely-developed plot there is is told through song that overlaps the picture, or via random thought bubbles or brief text-based identifiers that help the audience put various scenes into their proper perspectives. Ultimately, Quiet Days in Clichy is a film about sex not at its most glamorous and not at its most animalistic; it's simply about "sex" and the lives its characters lead during and in between sexual encounters, their lives defined by nothing and concerned only with pleasure until the high of the encounter vanishes and the realization of life out of bed and back in clothes comes into focus.

As a film with little plot and no real point, is there reason to watch Quiet Days in Clichy? That's up to the individual viewer, but there's is an artistic value to be found behind the parade of sexual encounters littered through the film. Sex is part of life, but the offensive part comes in the promiscuity depicted in the film and the lack of privacy or adherence to societal norms and more structured and traditional political and religious viewpoints. Quiet Days in Clichy is definitely an anti-establishment film, and potential viewers should know up front to expect a film that's unforgivingly blunt in its language and uncompromising in its depiction of sexual acts. That said, Director Jens Jørgen Thorsen's film works as an art-house-style playground for showcasing sexual liberty and doing so in what is oftentimes a playful way but not without delving into some of the consequences of such a free lifestyle, though they're reduced to secondary and tertiary status to be sure and, sometimes, not even quite clear in meaning or focus. For these characters, sex seems like a drug, but the repercussions of the addiction are not explored to the extent as might be found in other films that depict the dangers of addiction, notably something like Requiem For a Dream. Clichy does have a "trippy" sort of vibe in several places, but the film's primary objective is to simply showcase lives that are built around the need for constant sex, and that sex is depicted in some of the most raw scenes ever captured on film. Ultimately, the film's message may be that money may buy sex, but it doesn't buy happiness in the long term. The lead characters are never satisfied once their clothes are on and are forced to live in the real world, whether that satisfaction would come from a full stomach or a well-rounded soul. If anything, Clichy can be seen as an admonishment of what it depicts; the only question is whether or not it goes too far in making that point, if indeed that is the point to begin with.