Luxus, Sex und Lotterleben

Pre-Voyager Robert Beltran and the the often-maligned Mary Woronov are the real stars of this show about the meaning of love and honor among those who know little of either.

While that sounds really dull and serious, keep in mind that this is one of the "sideways" comedies of Paul Bartel, the man who brought us "Eating Raoul," and starring the usual Bartel suspects.

The script is funny, all parts are fully fleshed, these are real people...not anyone I'd want to know personally, for the most part.

Scenes From A Class Struggle in Beverly Hills is probably the classiest film on Paul Bartel's resume, but don't let that deter you. The script is just as uproarious and irreverent as many of his other films, but it has a professional gloss that many of his other films don't have.

It stars Jaqueline Bisset as Clare, a washed up former sitcom star whose husband has just died from autoerotic strangulation, leaving her feeling like she needs to make a big change in her life. Everything boils over during a fateful weekend at her mansion where her friends and family expose their own failings, kinks, and desires.

With a colorful cast including Ed Begley, Jr, Wallace Shawn, Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Ray Sharkey, and Bartel himself, it's hard not to enjoy this film. Each character has their moment to shine and a few funny bits to land. If there's any flaw, it's that the film feels a little overlong in places.

This movie is outrageous, funny, ribald, sophisticated & hits the bullseye where 99 % of Hollywood movies don't even make the target. Paul Bartel should be recognized as one of the great directors of this or any era. He's the American Renoir & Bunuel _ combined!!! Glad I have the videodisc.

Often laugh out loud funny play on sex, family, and the classes in Beverly Hills milks more laughs out of the zip code than it's seen since the days of Granny and Jed Clampett. Plot centers on two chauffers who've bet on which one of them can bed his employer (both single or soon to be single ladies, quite sexy -- Bisset and Woronov) first. If Manuel wins, his friend will pay off his debt to a violent asian street gang -- if he loses, he must play bottom man to his friend!

Lots of raunchy dialogue, fairly sick physical humour, etc. But a lot of the comedy is just beneath the surface. Bartel is memorable as a very sensual oder member of the family who ends up taking his sexy, teenaged niece on a year long "missionary trip" to Africa.

Hilarious fun.

Cult figure Paul Bartel probably hoped for mainstream acceptance with this film, but it actually had the opposite effect; it practically stopped his movie-directing career in its tracks. And it's not hard to see why: the film lacks a dramatic center of gravity - it has nothing to compel you to keep watching apart from the familiar names in the cast. It's basically a bedroom farce that builds to some "outrageous" events which could hardly be considered shocking in 1989. It's not terrible - just terribly pointless. *1/2 out of 4.