A Piece of Pleasure

This uncomfortably voyeuristic Claude Chabrol effort was released in France as Une Partie De Plaisir. The story, which is little more than an elongated anecdote, details the destruction of a marriage at the hands of a domineering husband. To fully appreciate the perversity of Chabrol's concept, it should be noted that the leading character, Paul Gegauff, is playing himself, and that Gegauff's ex-wife Danielle is costarred as his beleaguered partner. Even allowing for dramatic license, Gegauff comes off as a hateful brute; Curiously, he was murdered several years later by his second wife (Chabrol didn't get a chance to film that one). Interestingly, Chabrol had used the name Paul for many of the disruptive gadfly characters in his earlier films. Pleasure Party was also issued to some English-speaking markets as A Piece of Pleasure.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide