Erotic Confessions

Ava Fabian isn't a big favorite of mine, but I have to admit that someone who opens all her letters with a letter opener; as akin to tearing the envelope open, must have some class.

Fabian's role here is to play Jacqueline Stone, who's only use here is to be in several stages of undress, opening letters with her opener, and reading the stories of men and women who've had great sexual encounters. You'll see it all: voyeurism, posing for artists, people learning to strip for their mates, fantasies, etc.

A cast of softcore and hardcore favorites come together for this. Of course, plenty of skin and sex is there. While some stories are better than others, they all seem to be done in a tedious, unexciting manner. This is much better for couples; it's not a guys T.V. show. I can't comment on the acting because I usually see it dubbed into French, but the talent is attractive. Since it's mid-90's, this was the prime era of the softcore era, so all your favorites will look good. But this is primarily for couples, so remember that when you screen this one.

This review is for the UK DVD release of Volume 1 which is issued on three DVDs. Each disc contains four features. Disc 1 contains The Painting, The Business Trip, Midnight Showing and Private Dance. Disc 2 contains A Fashion Affair, Lady Luck, A Model Affair and Virtual Vixen. Disc 3 has Through an Open Window, Coming Clean, Watching Vanessa and The Partners.

Each feature starts with Jaqueline Stone (Ava Fabian) in a state of undress opening and then reading a letter detailing the exploits to come. These exploits invariably consist of lots of undressing and, more often than not, lots of unconvincing simulated sex. There are attempts at some sort of plot but they all lead to the inevitable conclusion of great sex. The usual combinations are given an airing - boy/girl, girl/girl and boy/girl/girl.

It is quite obvious that the sex and nudity have priority while the acting takes a rather distant back seat. With each episode running for only 25 minutes there really isn't much time to develop characters or personalities. The two worst aspects though are the camera direction and the music. When the sex action starts the camera takes on a life of its own, zooming here, panning there, swooping everywhere, and the music is just plain annoying.

It is difficult to work up any great enthusiasm for this series. The episodes have much of a sameness about them despite the plots and the number of cast involved. The studio and distributors also seem to lack any enthusiasm because no more volumes have so far been released in the UK - 3 stars.

This show is enthralled with sex. I guess the title spoke for itself. In Sex and the City, I thought it was just like this - no. That show is actually a good adult situation comedy. Some episodes have little mention of sex. And this was totally ruined by the mentality of the production crew. SEX is all they want.

Each episode Ava Fabian rips open a letter and so begins an erotic tale lasting about 20 minutes and featuring (on average) a few shots of breast and bum from females and males too. It's very soft core and very soft focus with lots of long shots and almost blurry scenes. Grand music accompanies the action and the stories (though a little tedious) can be amusing and even clever at times. Ava does a grand job of 'presenting' the whole concept and is suitably sexy as our guide to the wacky world of sexual foolery that we - perhaps - should be grateful we are missing. Not bad as these things go and better than Red Shoe Diaries with which it is in some ways very similar.

As one of the reviews mentioned, the '90s was the peak era for softcore - these days before the terrible implants, the bizarre attempts at "comedy" that suggest they think viewers are idiots, the lack of genuine heat in sex scenes (scenes that often involve interchangeable rutting with one or two awkward poses and canned rutting) and the hardcore porn actors filling roles that used to go to actors that had never been seen in the genre before and were more of a surprise to you (and felt more "real"), it's just not worth watching most of the time.

Erotic Confessions, especially the first few seasons, had genuine sexuality and steam. I remember an episode early on with an Asian- American woman whose boyfriend didn't care about whether she enjoyed sex as long as he got off, and she went to the gym. Amidst some gauzy fantasies (like the whole gym [4-5 people] having an orgy), she met a sweet, Kennedy-looking type of guy. She accidentally walked in on him in the steam room. She - and we - saw him full frontal naked. I'd rarely seen anything like that on these types of softcore shows, which were often loath to show a man below the waist, and if you were lucky, had a few glimpses of his backside from another room. She was embarrassed, he told her it was fine, and then this led to the usual sex scene...one which felt a lot more normal, and as a result genuinely erotic. There were lots of moments like this early on - a maid brought in to clean a kitchen having sex with a frustrated husband, a woman seeing a man pleasure himself (we weren't shown this - even they couldn't go that far) over a phone sex line and joining him, couples being turned on after a strip poker game, on and on. They showcased the genuine embarrassment, giddiness, cringeiness, and joy of sex. People were able to laugh and actually have fun. People actually felt like people, rather than cardboard cutouts.

I wish the show were more readily available today. Then again, considering the crap on now, no wonder it's not.