Don’t Change Hands — Don’t Change Hands( Blu Ray)

Don’t Change Hands aka Change Pas De Main is an erotically charged thriller/ comedy from 1975 directed by Paul Vecchiali (Drugstore Romance, Once More and At The Top Of The Stairs). The film stars Myriam Mézières (The Diary of Lady M, Fleurs De Sang and A Flame in My Heart),  Francoise Giret (The Great Spy Chase, The Hunt and The Good Life), Hélène Surgère (Salo, Drugstore Romance and The Strangler), Howard Vernon (A Virgin Among the Living Dead, Erotic Rites of Frankenstein and She Killed in Ecstasy) and Michel Delahaye (Holy Motors, Le Frisson De Vampire and La Vampire Nue).

Don’t Change Hands is a fascinating mash-up of different genres, it’s an arthouse, noirish thriller with elements of comedy, musicals and hardcore pornography. A prominent politician named Françoise Bourgeois (Surgère) receives a videotape of a porno movie in the post starring her son in a very prominent role. In an attempt to find out exactly who is trying to blackmail her she hires a female detective, Melinda (Mézières) to track them down before the video goes public. Melinda immerses herself in the wild underground French sex scene in order to track down Françoise’s son, however the bodies start to pile up and it turns out that there’s a lot more going on than first thought.

This really is an oddball film. The plot is pretty wild, but then when you add in all the hardcore pornography, and the strange song and dance numbers that pop up from nowhere every now and again, you get a rather unique slice of French cinema. Production values seem pretty high and the actors do a pretty sterling job across the board, especially Mézières as the trench coat and fedora-wearing private investigator, who comes across as something of a female Philip Marlowe. The film itself is well-paced with an interesting, if somewhat convoluted plot, that keeps things moving along quite nicely, while it’s also worth noting that the hardcore scenes never seem to be out of place.

The version of the film on this new Blu-ray from Severin is scanned in 2k from the original camera negatives and looks really crisp, with nice natural colours and very little print damage. Certain scenes, mainly those depicting clips of the porno film starring the son of the politician feature a lot of grain and tape damage, however this is an intentional decision in order to show that these were roughly shot home movies.  The disc also comes loaded with some interesting bonus material, including Le Cinéphile by Yann Gonzalez, a featurette from author Matthieu Orléan on the impact of Vecchiali’s films, an interview with writer Noél Simsolo, and interviews with both Myriam Mézières and Jean-Christophe Bouvet.

Overall, this is a really good release for an underrated gem from an interesting and underappreciated maverick director. The film itself is a wild ride like no other, however, it remains a very interesting and enjoyable film. The sex is surprisingly graphic for a movie that isn’t billed as hardcore porn, however if you were to think of it as a porn, you would also be surprised by the quality of the movie’s other aspects.