IN-PERSON TRIBUTE: BRIGITTE LAHAIE | Offscreen

Brigitte Lahaie is a living legend. She is not just an icon of the golden age of X-rated French cinema, but also the queen of Cinéma Bis, a French term for Eurocult thrillers, horror, comedies and other exploitation films on the margins of the mainstream.
 
When hardcore pornography was legalised in France in the mid-1970s, a handful of counterculture filmmakers saw it as an opportunity to rebel against bourgeois morality. Lahaie, then in her early twenties, embraced this new wave of liberalisation as a way of giving free expression to her uninhibited sensuality in explicit but classy fare such as Je suis à prendre, as well as saucy softcore fare like Touchez pas au zizi.
 
It was through this subculture that Lahaie met fantastique auteur Jean Rollin and went on to star in several of his extraordinary dreamlike syntheses of eroticism and horror, including La nuit des traquées and Fascination, which gave us one of the most indelible images in Eurocult history: Lahaie, dressed in a black cloak, wielding a scythe as she advances on her prey!
 
Although by 1980 she had stopped performing in hardcore, Lahaie continued to thrill audiences with her charismatic presence. She also expanded her range, playing a tough female cop, a French Resistance double-agent and, in Jess Franco's Faceless, a wicked nurse, while also appearing in small roles in films starring Yves Montand, Alain Delon and Uma Thurman.
 
In 1987, Lahaie published a best-selling autobiography, Moi, la scandaleuse,, which earned her a spot on the prestigious literary TV talk show Apostrophes, hosted by Bernard Pivot. Since 2001, she has presented a popular radio programme, first on RMC and then on Radio Sud, dispensing sound advice on listeners' sexual problems. To this day, she remains a sought-after author and media personality. She can still sometimes be seen in outstanding dramatic performances such as in Calvaire, by Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz, and, more recently, in Olympe de G.'s Une dernière fois, in which she reminisces about her life.
 
Offscreen is proud to welcome Lahaie as our Guest of Honour. She will introduce a selection of her films at Cinema Nova and Palace, and sign copies of her books after the screening of Faceless at Palace on Saturday 11 March.
more infopresale link

TOUCHEZ PAS AU ZIZI

9 March 2023 - 21h30 | Cinema Nova

Achille, housesitting for an actor friend, posts small ads in sex magazines in which he poses as "Zizi". Things get complicated when a luscious Danish tourist (Lahaie) turns up on his doorstep, expecting to meet the absent actor. Breezy softcore farce, with Lahaie fabulous as ever in denim hotpants and a purple sling swimsuit.
more infopresale link

FASCINATION

10 March 2023 - 21h30 | Cinema Nova

A fugitive thief hides out at a château, only to find himself at the mercy of a cult of blood-drinking bisexual women in this free adaptation of a story by Symbolist poet Jean Lorrain. It's a fever dream of floaty chiffon, misty visuals and - in one of horror's most iconic images - Lahaie in a cloak, wielding a scythe!

This film will be introduced by Brigitte Lahaie.
more infopresale link

JE SUIS À PRENDRE

10 March 2023 - 23h30 | Cinema Nova

Hélène (Lahaie) is a young bride whose new husband abandons her in his country mansion while he buggers off to a brothel for a champagne orgy. Plied with aphrodisiac-spiked milk, she seeks explicit sexual solace with the pert maid, the hunky stablehand and the elderly butler in this beautifully filmed hardcore romp.

This film will be introduced by Brigitte Lahaie.
more infopresale link

FACELESS

11 March 2023 - 21h30 | Cinema Palace

Never a dull moment in this delirious horror-thriller as wicked nurse Lahaie helps a plastic surgeon slice the faces off kidnapped women in an attempt to restore his scarred sister's beauty. An all-star cult cast also includes Helmut Berger, Caroline Munro and (phoning his scenes in from New York) Telly Savalas.

in the presence of Brigitte Lahaie - signature session (books & DVDs on sale) after the screening!
more infopresale link

LA NUIT DES TRAQUÉES

12 March 2023 - 21h30 | Cinema Nova

Lahaie plays a fugitive from a sinister clinic in this erotic neo-noir filmed amid the concrete and glass of Paris's La Défense, but she can't remember why she was being kept there. The sad, shocking truth involves a government cover-up, and an ambience closer to early Cronenberg than to Rollin's usual misty châteaux.