You might think it more than a touch narcissistic to write and direct a film chronicling your own sex life - especially when you consider this is to be the first part of a trilogy. But Flemish political anarchist Jan Bucquoy has no such foibles, and, consequently, there's a wonderful sense of abandon to this light, titillating comedy.
The opening line, "My mother had nice tits", sets the tone perfectly, and the film proceeds into a series of anecdotal episodes charting his sexual growth. The young Bucquoy is shown befriending a schoolgirl known as Dirty Knickers and finds his aunt hanging dead from the rafters revealing her underwear. His first real sexual experience is in a caravan watching Laurel And Hardy films with an older boy called Eddy. "It's no better with girls," he's assured. In his late teens he heads for Brussels intending to write a novel, but a series of liaisons, a broken marriage and two children bring him only a severe case of disillusionment.
The film has a voyeuristic fascination and a wry, angst-ridden script, but this is undermined by a lack of solid motivation. With a more sophisticated undertone this could have been a quirky, intelligent satire, instead it all seems a rather obvious, if saucily entertaining, titter-inducing sexual yarn. Ultimately, however, you just have to admire anyone with the balls to lay themselves quite so bare.