Domino

The title kind of says it all. I have no idea what this movie is supposed to be about in any way, shape, or form. It's deliberately stylized and makes little to no sense. However, it does have Brigitte Nielsen at her most striking prime, taking her clothes off a lot for little or no reason. The woman has serious charisma and her acting inexperience is not a problem here because the movie doesn't make sense anyway! The European version is much better with far more nudity that's cut out of the American release. If you like how Ms. Nielsen looks it's worth watching. Just put music on or something so you aren't tempted to actually pay attention to what's going on in the movie.

Matt

This movie is rather dear to me mostly because of its atmosphere, I love how much of it is somewhat solitary nighttime at a fairly slow pace that isn't fashionable these days. The jazz music also adds to the mood, as well as her apartment which has that feeling of being part museum, part department store display (I mean that as a compliment). It's a plus that Ms. Nielsen did this while carrying a more matronly figure that did a nice job of smoothing out her curves, which I find infinitely more attractive than a slim figure with conspicuously fake bazongas. The style is fairly polarizing, some might think it too "arty" or even "pretentious", but to me almost every scene is beautiful, and you see a lot of sexuality from a woman's point of view. It gets overdone in places but overall I find it very enjoyable. It leaves a lot to the imagination plot-wise, in a way that few movies do. It's dream-like.

Unfortunately all I have is a US copy of the release on VHS - the DVD I have is the Italian release, which has fairly poor dubbing that kind of loses the mood (although it does contain a lot of extra footage). I wish this would get released on DVD!

Okay, let's set the record straight: this film was made in the mid 80's when Music videos were still rare and female film directors were even rarer. After the original Director had to drop out, Ivanna Massetti was given the picture. She was a well-respected commercial director in France and this film was her directorial debut. Using the techniques learned from esoteric commercials and music videos she gambled and lost in attempting to tell the story of "DominoÓ visually without much connective narrative. It simply didn't work. But attempting to tell a story without dialogue is still something Directors attempt today, twenty years later, and still fail. The storyline was acutally of a woman named DOMINO, a successful but jaded video director, who having lost the ability to love searches first through her friends and then Paris-by-night trying to find something, anything to teach her to love again.

As regards this being "soft porn" at no time did Ms. Massetti intend or attempt to make this a "soft porn" film. Remember this was Europe where showing nudity doesn't mean it's "porn". And especially not back in the 80's. As regards Ms. Nielson; it's true she doesn't appear very attractive in this film. Which really hurt the film as you need to believe how beautiful this Domino woman is. Her appearance was due to being over weight from a pregnancy. A pregnancy that she lost during the shooting of the film. The film was shut down for two weeks while she recouped.

First time Director, attempts to break the laws of narrative storytelling, a miscarriage during the film shoot and a very nasty and very public divorce from Slyvestor Stalone... Is any of this an excuse why the film isn't that good? Maybe not... To the hard hearted of you out there.

I worked at a theater that showed this film back in 1989. At the beginning of the day, the film was in a 400 seating capacity theater. By the end of the day, it was moved to a 100 seater. One customer came out of the theater and I asked him how he liked the film. He said, "A sad excuse for a porno movie." Of course, it sparked my curiosity and went to see it 2 days later (The film stayed at our theater for only 2 weeks). To this day, I cannot figure out what the film was about! The acting was INCREDIBLY BAD!!! I came out of the theater more confused than when I went in. A total waste of time and not even worth watching if someone gave you a free copy of the video.

This is not so much a review as it is a warning: when you see the video cover for this film, you may think "Brigitte Nielsen + Domino + black leather = dominatrix". Well, forget it. Despite a few soft-core scenes, "Domino" basically wants to be an "art" film, and it is - a plot less, pretentious, pseudo-philosophical one at that. Nielsen has a nice body, but some unflattering close-ups of her face reveal signs of early aging. She does have one steamy scene, about 70 minutes into the film, where she pleasures herself on her bed. Watching that scene (and fast-forwarding through the rest of the movie) is the only pleasure YOU can get out of this cinematic nightmare. 0.5 out of 4 stars.