They try to paint themselves as the most sophisticated of sophisticates, but the fact of the matter is that, cinematically, the French secretly love nothing more than a heaping helping of piping-hot American popular cinema. Just look at Jerry Lewis. They love him over there. And you know what else they love? Showgirls, although I’m sure they would tell you their appreciation is, how you say, ironique.
Yes, although Showgirls has been experiencing a redemptive arc of sorts here in the U.S. as critics and movie lovers alike have realized that hey, maybe this joke actually is kind of funny, only the French have bothered to do a 4K restoration of Paul Verhoeven’s tribute to the silicone-and-polyester monument to humanity’s hubris that is the Las Vegas strip. Maybe it’s because they’re not so uptight about nudity over there, or maybe when your life is all fine wine and Monet watercolors excessive lipliner and rhinestone cowboy hats are intriguing and exotic.
Either way, that restoration will be released on Blu-ray in France in September, along with a theatrical re-release on September 14. There’s no U.S. release for the restoration scheduled at the moment, so you better start eating dog food so you can save up for a plane ticket. You can watch the NSFW trailer for the re-release, which actually looks beautiful in a spectacularly tacky sort of way, below.