Bliss - Im Augenblick der Lust

This movie is a difficult one to watch, but well worth it. The sex scenes have been handled with tact. This is an honest look at the marriage between a relatively stable man, and a definitely unbalanced woman. Though it's Terrence Stamp's performance that is the best, Sheffer and Lee give moving and audacious performances in this unique love story.

The music is amazing. It works so well in the film, and it hightens the mood of the movie very well.

Not everyone will like it. A film about adult sexuality, where sex isn't portrayed in a cartoonish "teenage" way, is a daring idea. But it works beautifully.

I ended up hiring this movie because it stars the very beautiful Sheryl Lee, but I liked it when it was over.

Everyone in this film gives a great performance, particularly Stamp and Lee. Sheffer is adequade and Spalding Gray is boring as he always is.

I found it hard to feel unmoved by the scene in which Maria (Lee) explains to her husband why she has problems. It is very sad that someone has to go through all that pain and suffering.

I see this film as more that "a quest for an orgasm", as my friend put it, but a well acted drama that is also very entertaining and somewhat educational.

As for the sex scenes, they are very well handled and they are not dirty. There isn't much nudity (the video cover is very misleading) and people in it talk more about sex than they do it.

Great film, it should be more well known and recognized. Everyone, tell your friends to watch Bliss. It makes you think about how your partner really feels in bed....

This is an odd little movie about a handsome yuppie couple, Maria and Joseph, who have serious emotional problems. She is frigid and possesses a "borderline" personality (whatever that is), he is obsessed with "curing" her - making her more to his liking. Naturally, therapy is called for. After some initial unproductive consultations with a marriage counsellor, a more unorthodox therapist is resorted to. This rather preposterous figure, Balthazar, (he is a violinist of concert standard and ace motor mechanic as well as therapist and lives in a grand booklined apartment), has sex with his female patients and generally carries on as if he were above the rest of humanity. In real life of course he would be quickly struck off, despite the lines of satisfied patients trooping out of his rooms. Initially antagonistic, Joseph becomes an acolyte, and eagerly soaks up the mish mash of yoga, breathing control, masturbation, mind games and crackerbarrel philosophy served up by the arrogant one. The couple make some progress (discovering bondage with Joseph as the slave helps) until a nasty secret from Maria's past comes out and, unable to deal with both it and her awakened husband, she asks him to leave. But all is not lost, time heals wounds and there is a reconciliation.

The problem with this movie is its inconsistency. It starts off as a comedy but veers mid way through into personal drama intercut with some fairly didactic lectures on sexual relations. There are some nice soft porny bits (in blue!) with the handsome couple that tend to detract from their severe psychological problems rather than illustrate them. The theme "screwing is as much a mind game as anything" does emerge reasonably clearly but it also helps, it seems, to be young, rich and gorgeous. The film apparently did not do well at the box office - a comedy or a porn film with a similar storyline would doubtless have done better. Believe me, it's not easy to deliver entertaining lectures.

I am also left wondering about Joseph's alleged "Pygmalion" complex - the desire to model the woman of his dreams out of Maria. He spends most of the movie on a quest for self-improvement, his attitude towards women in general improving considerably.

Terrence Stamp, British journeyman actor from way back, turns in an attractive performance as Dr Balthazar, "practising at the edge of the law," as another analyst puts it. All glistening eyes and shiny silver hair, he holds back just enough to allow a tiny bit of parody to emerge. Craig Sheffer as Joseph has porn star good looks (muscles, no body hair), a perpetually surprised expression, and a reasonable acting range. We see more of him than Maria, (Sheryl Lee, of "Twin Peaks" fame.) Maria spends a lot of time crying, which Sheryl seems to be good at.

Location filming was in Vancouver, which provided some pretty backdrops. The streetscape was far too clean and tidy to be any large city in the U.S. Canadians might be a buttoned down lot but at least they pick up their rubbish. The film is apparently a first effort from writer/director Lance Young, formerly a production executive. One could be cruel and say "stick with your day job" but it is not an uninteresting movie. There are solid acting, nice locations and a few interesting ideas. Yet the story itself is highly improbable, and the people involved too pretty and stupid to really engender much empathy in the viewer.

Movies made about problems in sex in marriage usually draws expressions of horror, or we don't want to know about it. Bliss explores one area, and there are many, of one cause and it is not uncommon, and a remedy other than traditional medicine to fix that problem.

Critics have called Bliss educational to laughable and even soft porn. Foxtel Australia (released on cable May 1999) say the truth lies in- between. Foxtel saw fit to censor several scenes of the cable version, which in my opinion completely destroyed the Director's main plot and visual effects to tell the real story of something quite different in the use of another therapy, Tantric therapy. I obtained my own uncensored copy so my comments are based on visual scenes and dialogue on the therapy used, very limited but the basics are there.

The film was dedicated to Pauline; Maria's characterisation could have been Pauline. There are many Pauline's in this world that have had help or still need it.

The dialogue exchanged between Joseph (Craig Sheffer) and Tanner (Casey Siemaszka) on the wedding day when Joseph said, Maria (Sheryl Lee)"she has some problems". She sleeps with a fly swatter [little bugger], cleans the house twice a day, locked bathroom door, suicidal, neurotic, compulsive. Oh! how I know about bathroom doors and neurosis.

Maria's nonchalance of her wedding day to her Mother is obvious when she shrugs her shoulders and regurgitates. This is when the plot starts to unfold Maria's mannerisms and idiosyncrasies (getting her Father to check if there is a snap undone), the nervousness and stomach upset.

Through the gateway from this borderline psychotic state (we learned this later on) that Maria has, sometimes ends in Depression, and Baltazar Vincenza (Terence Stamp) stops Maria going there with the use of the ancient art of Tantric lovemaking, so it seems. It didn't take much to work out that if Maria had more therapy from the staid and clinical Alfred (Spalding Gray) she may have ended up on the wrong side of that borderline.

There are some lighthearted scenes and dialogue because this movie, Bliss, is about real people, real problems and real things. The scene on the building site is especially real where Carlos and Nick advise that Baltazar Vincenzahas have 4-6 women on the hour and every hour per day and teases all of them. The uniniated into tantalic doctrine would find this perhaps laughable.

The scene in the hospital where Maria is pouring out the reasons she is there is a gem. This explanation of Marias' problems comes late into the film, but that's the way it seems the Director wanted it, and it captures my imagination to find the reasons later.

The on screen chemistry and interactions of Sheryl Lee as Maria, and Mark Scheffer as Joseph capture the moments magically.

The special artistry of capturing what matters by Australian Cinematographer Mike Malloy (A Clockwork Orange) is again done with due care and in good taste in some of the explicit scenes, where it is important to explain visually the method of this chosen therapy.

Terence Smart invigorates the movie as Baltazar Vincenza, confidently played with clear diction, precise timing (cup of tea) (like to dance) (I promise) reminiscent of the transvestite Bernadette in Priscilla Queen of the Desert, realising a different role once again.

Alfred, well played by Spalding Gray as the run of the mill, we will get it fixed by conventional therapy eventually. Until Joseph asks about Baltazar Vincenza, and then the sparks fly and the film enters a new panorama of drama, explanation and entry into a New World of therapy.

This movie has a tight script, well directed, excellent acting, and a very different way of surrounding the plot with something different to fix a common problem in marriage. It is a scene that few wish to be in, Vincenza (to Joseph), why do you put so much into it when you get so little back? Indeed, I know what he means.

Lance Young worked with production executives of Warner Bros. And Paramount and no doubt saw some fabricated screen plots, so he took to writing his own screenplay about real things and people. He no doubt found this hard and personal, but the end result in Bliss was worth the effort.

The film, in my opinion is educational to someone who knows the problems of Maria and the adoration a husband like Joseph places on his partner and marriage. The more it is viewed, the better and educational it gets, rather than having to read and view many volumes of text and videos on the subject of Tantric lovemaking, a subject that has it's poo-hoo critics.

I will be waiting eagerly for Lance Young's sequel to this excellent movie, if any.

If you tired of "hard-edged" action, booty call, and fake-it-till-you-make-it sex scenes, give yourself a real treat and see "Bliss." This is a movie that entertains and educates by taking on a subject about which most people are absolutely ignorant, i.e. real Eros. With a beautiful soundtrack, intelligent dialog and fine acting, "Bliss" challenges our notions of sexuality and requires audiences to think outside the box. Women will recognize this film as...ah, finally! A bonus - the information about Eros portrayed in the film is absolutely accurate. This film is fine entertainment and a crash course in what sex is really all about - getting more turned on and staying that way. This should be required viewing for adolescent male Americam film-makers of all ages.