Chantal tells the story of the most naive girl in the world, and
how Hollywood eats her alive. She arrives with nothing more than $200 and the
certainty that she will be a famous actress. She is rudely awakened when her
first choice of hotels wants $1,000 per night. As the story progresses, she is
exploited by a sleazy Paramount gate guard, a group of predatory lesbians, a
fleabag hotel manager, and finally, a hooker. In one notable scene, she is
pissed on, then crawls out to an alley where she tries to eat moldy bread from
a garbage can.
Chantal is a remake of another film called Chantal, a B&W film directed by
Nick Phillips in the late 60s, when the storyline was already a cliché. The
most interesting thing about the project, however, is not this over-the-top plot or Misty Mundae's
equally over-the-top performance, but the drama behind the scenes. Misty found
that the film hit too close to home. The story made her realize that she was
nothing more than a softcore
porn actress, whereupon she had a nervous breakdown and quit softcore forever. She is now
trying to find work as a legitimate actress, using the name Erin Brown because
Seduction Cinema owns the rights to Misty Mundae.
The movie itself it is of dubious entertainment value for general
audiences, or even for softcore devotees. This is true fo several reasons:
first, it is a highly exaggerated reality; second, it is entirely unpleasant;
third, it was shot on 16 mm, and just doesn't look that great.
The DVD package, however, is quite comprehensive. Seduction Cinema gave Misty/Erin a nice send-off with a DVD set that
includes commentaries, a "making of" short, and various extras. The
second disc includes a completely remastered full-length version of the
original 1969 Chantal, with its own commentary track by grindhouse legend Nick
Phillips (real name Nick Millard). These features make the DVD set of interest
to die-hard "Erin Brown" fans.
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
