HARD

As far as comedies go, this French offering certainly scores top marks for it’s audacious and controversial topic. However, as far as depictions of the porn industry go (comedy or not), HARD turns rather limp.

The award-winning French comedy drama has already been out since 2008, but it’s only now that it’s available as a DVD box set via Arrow Films.
Natacha Lindiger excels as Sophie, an attractive but stuck-up and conservative middle-class housewife who finds herself widowed when her beloved husband kicks the bucket following a freak accident. To add insult to grief, her mother-in-law reveals to Sophie – on the day of the funeral no less – that the late Alexandre didn’t provide for the family with his alleged internet business, but with an online porn film empire called SophX! Worse still, Sophie’s mother-in-law furthermore reveals that not only does she function as an accountant for said firm, but that Alexandre left his porn emporium to Sophie, including massive debts!

That’s the premise of this comedy drama, and during six 30-min episodes we find out how an uptight Sophie is forced to take over the company, if only to provide for her two teenage kids. There are laughs and gags a-plenty when Sophie encounters the ‘stars’ of her late husband’s company, and Lindiger is simply fantastic in gliding between professional disgust, motherly concern, and sheer curiosity. Unfortunately, she’s about the only one who is given the chance to develop her character as the script progresses, most other characters (including porn stereotypes such as a transvestite, a dwarf, and desperate housewives) are given the shallow treatment. Grand exception is male porn star ‘Roy The Rod’ (Francois Vincentelli), with whom Sophie, reluctantly at first, strikes up a friendship that gradually leads to more.

At the end of Episode 6, we see a physically as well as psychologically transformed Sophie residing over SophX, complete with a new marketing strategy and the aim to produce ‘intelligent porn’ that women can relate to. While her attempts to achieve this provide further laughs, it’s also all too simplified… Sophie’s transformation appears too sudden, and one must ask how someone who all her life has had a rather strict and conservative upbringing can suddenly be the new boss of a porn empire, with business ideas of her own. Also, the depicted porn movie milieu comes across as too nice and too cosy – no drug users, damaged existences or HIV concerns here! It’s a comedy drama of course, but there’s hardly any drama to be found amongst the film sets and sheets, occasionally giving it a light-hearted ‘Confessions Of A Window Cleaner’ feel… French style.

No extra material is included, not even a free condom.