À l'aventure's beginning is pretty dreadful. We meet two female coworkers sitting in a park. One responsible one, the other out of it, who just stares in front of her and doesn't even look her friend in the eyes. The loony one, Sandrine, isn't satisfied in bed by her husband and admits to him that she cheats--by pleasuring herself! The shock! Eventually she quits her job and becomes more adventurous. She picks up a stranger in a café and sleeps with him. He's a psychologist. We get a couple more episodes of her in the park. An older guy sits next to her and starts pondering about life, about the stars, about astrophysics, about life. His thoughts at first are pretty ordinary but become deeper and more interesting in time.
The psychologist introduces Sandrine to a friend/patient who tells them that she likes being slapped on the butt by some guy. It's ecstatic for her. She invites them to a butt slapping session. The guy introduces them to another one his girl, Mina.
The girls who become interested in psychology because of a speech the psychologist gives on hysteria- where repressed psychological events manifest themselves physically, and now want to see the him perform hypnosis on them all. During the session all three girls become aroused and enjoy each other.
Later he does another session on Mina who sees a nun experiencing religious ecstasy and levitating. Now things become interesting...
À l'aventure is the first movie by Brisseau that has an interesting story. But he doesn't take advantage of it. It is still plagued by endless dialog, pointless scenes, behaviors that make no sense. The old guy turns out to have been a physics teacher who went to the East and ended up being a cab driver. He's more or less a guru figure to Sandrine even though he doesn't have anything conclusive to teach.
The issue/question of the female orgasm is something the French can't seem to get their minds around. Here too we are treated to conversations that belong in a movie about victorian times.
Carole Brana who plays Sandrine is just gorgeous in a regular sort of way, not some fake bombshell. The erotic scenes are few, short, and not as stunning as the ones in The Exterminating Angels. Unfortunate since sexual pleasure is at the center of this movie. But in turn, it gives you something to think about. The idea that the search for ultimate pleasure could be related to mysticism is provocative and intriguing. À l'aventure has a fascinating story to tell that deserved a fresher more daring approach than what Brisseau gives us here.
