Tropic of Cancer

"Yes, he knows how to build a fire, but I know how to inflame a c--t."  A product of loosening sexual mores during the late 1960s and early 1970s, Tropic of Cancer is based on Henry Miller's controversial, highly-praised classic novel that was originally published in the 1930s.  This adaptation moves the story's setting to the 1960s, but the concept remains the same: an American writer living in France looks for work and finds sexual encounters with a variety of women.  In spite of the quantity of sex to be had in both film and book, neither is pornographic.  The film, however, while engrossing, fails to be anything more than mildly entertaining.  The acting is emotionless, the film's structure is very loose and (at the beginning) difficult to follow, and the voice overs tend to be rather annoying and poorly done.  This is by no means a bad film, but it fails to live up to later films such as Last Tango in Paris, and is simply an exercise in futility.
Released in late February of 1970, this film became the very first to use the c-word (beating The Boys in the Band by nearly a month, Quiet Days in Clichy by several, and Carnal Knowledge by a year).

Rating: 2/4