Don't Change Hands

There’s a scene in Boogie Nights where Burt Reynolds’ character, porn director an auteur Jack Horner, explains his dream for making a truly magical smut film. One where audiences will be turned on and then stay because they’re so invested in the story. Paul Vecchiali’s Don’t Change Hands comes close to that dream. The film is, at once, a classic noir gumshoe tale, an over-the-top violent giallo, a vibrant musical and a medium-core porno. The best I can describe Vecchiali’s Don’t Change Hands is imagine if Suspiria and Cabaret had a baby, and when that baby grew up, it didn’t know whether or not it wanted to be a subversive neo noir or a smut film, so it decided to be both. That’s Don’t Change Hands in a nutshell.

The story details private investigator Melinda (Myriam Mézières, a sort of gender-flipped Humphrey Bogart) being hired by a prominent politician to track down a blackmailer who’s sent her a pornographic film starring her son. The blackmailer has agreed to meet the politician at a seedy club and Melinda is sent in her stead. Quickly, only minutes into the film, things go wrong right away and bodies begin piling up. And the twists and turns don’t let up until the film ends.

At once, I admire Don’t Change Hands for never compromising its vision. It wants to be a lot of things, so it is all of those things. It has a lot to say, so it says everything it wants to. On the other hand, I don’t think it’s necessarily successful at being everything it wants to be, and it stumbles with ineloquence at saying much of what it wants to say.

My main problem with Don’t Change Hands is that it wants to merge classical pornographic storytelling with more sophisticated adult (as in grown up, mature) filmmaking narratives. The idea is to have a film that stands as a big, proud middle finger to filmmaking traditions, that has its cake and eats it, too. A sexy, thrilling movie with graphic violence and even more graphic sex.

In theory, this sounds like a solid plan. In actual execution, it’s a fairly incomprehensible story punctuated with a series of sex scenes that alternate between soft and hard-core. The story goes off the rails early on and never rights itself. It only pauses occasionally for an extended bout of nudity with some scenes featuring simulated sex, and others with unsimulated sex. But during many of these scenes—whether it’s to progress the story, or just to titillate the audience—I often found myself wondering, “What is happening? And why?” I feel like I lost the plot and never caught up. During many of the story’s various twists and turns I just sort of shrugged and sighed, then resigned myself to the fact that I was just going along for the ride.

I’d say Don’t Change Hands is about half successful. During the non-pornographic segments, the set design, production values, etc. are all excellent. This movie is professional-looking through and through. The cinematography is sharp. The colors are all part of an elaborate palate that suits the film’s specific look and feel. The aesthetic is very intentional and well realized. Surprisingly, the acting and the dialogue are very sharp, too. Vecchiali shows real talent behind the camera and getting naturalistic performances from his cast.

I recommend the film, overall, as a relic to a very specific era that tried to bridge the gap between smut and so-called respectable art. Films like I Am Curious (Yellow) and Deep Throat tried the same thing to more success, but Don’t Change Hands feels a bit more cinematically similar to films like the Black Emanuelle movies that shoehorned in some nasty exploitation thrills for maximum audience provocation.

But is it “good”? Words like “good” and “bad” have no meaning when it comes to analyzing a film like Don’t Change Hands. It’s less interested in checking off a list of elements that meet a standardized definition of quality than it is at spurring conversation and debate. In that regard Don’t Change Hands is successful and it’s everything is ever wanted to be. That’s all that matters.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Don’t Change Hands arrives on Blu-ray from Severin in a single region-free disc housed in a standard case with a slipcover. The case and the slipcover both feature different artwork from Matt Needle.

Don’t Change Hands looks incredible. Let’s get that out of the way. This transfer was created from a 2K scan from its original camera negative. I’ve seen lots of movies that boast that same brag, and it will yield mixed results based on the actual negative itself. If the movie had shoddy camerawork with a lousy focus, your end result is going to still have all those things. Cinematographer Georges Strouvé creates a dreamy look for the film with lots of muted, dark neutrals to suits it noirish story, but then pops with vibrancy when primary colors are on full display.

The visual presentation is pristine. I saw no real technical issues to speak of, with the exception of a few shots with noisy shadows on the edge of the frame, but those shots were infrequent enough for me to take specific notice of them. Dark segments are free of color banding. And the entire feature is showered in a fine layer of film grain.

There is only one audio option, which is going to be French mono in DTS-HD MA. It’s not the most remarkable sound mix I’ve ever heard, but it doesn’t need to be. Dialogue is always clear and favored while Roland Vincent’s score gets to shine without ever being overpowering. Sound effects are few and far between, with the only real occasional effect being a gunshot, which packs a punch without being too loud. There wasn’t much bass that I could detect, so your subwoofer won’t see much action from LFEs. All in all, though, the audio mix is really well layered. It’s a good, strong, workmanlike mix that gets the job done, and gets it done well, without too many superfluous bells and whistles.

For fans of Paul Vecchiali, I imagine they’re going to be pleased with the supplements that Severin’s Blu-ray has to offer. There are plenty of retrospective features from filmmakers and artists who detail the filmmaker’s history and oeuvre as a whole, contextualizing the importance of their output throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s as a response to the French New Wave.

• Le Cinéphile (HD 18:33) – An appreciation by KNIFE + HEART director Yann Gonzalez
• Elsewhere Man (HD 27:42) – Author Matthieu Orléan on the life and impact of Paul Vecchiali
• Noir D'Amour (HD 24:00) – Screenwriter Noël Simsolo on Don’t Change Hands
• A Remedy For Chaos (HD 18:45) – A Conversation with actress Myriam Mézières
• The Prodigal Son (HD 11:31) – A Conversation with actor Jean-Christophe Bouvet
• Re-Release Trailer By Nathan Boone (HD 1:30) 

God bless labels like Severin for their dedication and work in restoring films off the beaten path. Don’t Change Hands was, I don’t think, a completely successful film, but as a Blu-ray release, it serves as mini film school introduction into a whole cadre of artists I was unfamiliar with. Poring over the special features, I feel like it’s deepened my understanding (as shallow as that understanding may still be) of a very specific era. The audio and visual presentation, from a brand-new restoration, is stunning in its results. This was clearly a labor of love, and this release comes Recommended.