This was the twilight of the "Golden Age" of erotic art-house cinema. Just a few years before, films like Emmanuelle (1974) and The Story of O (1975) had legitimized softcore. By 1984, the genre was fragmenting. On one side, you had mainstream erotic thrillers ( Body Double ); on the other, hardcore was going mainstream. Du Sel sur la Peau sits in the uncomfortable middle. It is too explicit for regular television (at the time), yet too "artsy" for adult video stores.
Hervé becomes obsessed. He offers her money, gifts, and a way out. She refuses. Their relationship becomes a psychological chess match. He tries to buy her; she mocks his wealth. He offers emotional intimacy; she offers only physical pleasure. The film culminates in a series of raw, explicit scenes that blur the line between passion and violation. The salt, symbolically, represents both healing (cleansing wounds) and pain (rubbing into lesions). du sel sur la peau -1984- ok.ru
Il y a dans ces grains une géographie intime — des frontières invisibles entre ce qui a été dit et ce qui reste à dire. Le sel pique, rappelle. Il éveille des bruits anciens : la mer qui revient, le rire d'un ami, la cadence régulière d'un ventilateur en été. Les cicatrices, petites ou grandes, prennent un relief nouveau quand la lumière les frôle; le sel les peint, fragile argenture sur un visage fatigué. This was the twilight of the "Golden Age"