La nuit du sérail

I have to disagree with the former review. While it has been a long time since I have seen this particular movie. I can think of far worse ways to spend an hour and 45 minutes!

It is however, a movie that has a hard time fitting into a category. As an historical movie, it is highly fictionalized (although it is based on a real person who did in fact bring Christianity to the royal family of, I believe, Turkey.) It has too much gore to really be a romance.

As for the acting, I really liked F. Murray Abraham's performance. Amber O'Shea could be seen as rather Lackluster, but I generally prefer an understated performance. Ron Dortch, as Tulip, was really good.

One final word of warning. While I saw nothing in this movie that was not included to further the storyline, I did recommend this to a friend who was highly offended by the sexual nature of a few scenes. But hey, the movie was about a young European girl who finds herself married to a Turkish Aga, and conceives his heir. What can you expect!

It's 1784 France. Aimée Dubucq de Rivéry chafes under the strict nuns. She is too independent and her uncle sends her back to the nuns. Pirates capture her ship and she is kidnapped to Algiers ending up in the Ottoman Sultan's harem. She resists being renamed and the scheming by Sineperver (Maud Adams). Sultan Abdul Hamid (F. Murray Abraham) picks her and she refuses. When he offers to not sleep with her, she relents. She becomes his favorite and gives him another heir. Sineperver's son Mustafa is in line to be the next Sultan and she sends an assassin to kill Aimée's son. The Sultan gives her Mahmud to adopt. The Janissaries are restless for war against the Russians but they are outmatched without modern weapons.

This is a strange movie. It's half exploitative melodramatic romance. It's also a period piece historical drama. It's reminiscent of a pulpy romance novel. Surprisingly, this has a couple of interesting veteran actors. On the other hand, the lead is a young amateur although she's not the problem. Amber O'Shea definitely has model good looks. She has spunk and that is charismatic enough. The production is lower value but the locations are pretty good. This is cheese but I must admit that it's memorable cheese.

This has the scope of a miniature David Lean film. Tons of extras, big scenes, sets, a comfy mideast setting, and filmmaking resourcefulness to create a scope. F. Murray Abraham in the turban elevates the entire production. At least it's a film, you know, real sets, real people, this is a refreshing thing when CGI and digital has destroyed the soul of cinema. It's your responsibility to build your own canon and discover hidden treasures away from the CGI apocalypse we're imprisoned in. I love finding undiscovered films like this.

The acting is not so good. There is little action, but the it is a fantastic, yet true, story and Amber O'Shea is a knock out in this film. There is brief nudity. Amber's costumes reveal her chest in see through fabric and one of the slave girls is topless.

Story takes place at the end of the 19th century. A French girl is kidnapped and sold into slavery. There is lots of dressing and partial undressing of Amber and plenty of romance and love - Stockholm Syndrome style. It's one of those B movies that would probably be unimpressive if not for a couple of impressive elements that are perhaps only special to the viewer. Poor acting. Poor directing. Poor action. Not even any sex... Yet it is a touching little movie.

Fascinating story but except for F.Murray Abraham this movie had some of the worst acting I have ever seen. I have seen children in school plays put on more believable performances than Amber O'Shea and James Michael Gregary. With the lacking script and C movie performance (I thought at first it might be a porno film) it took me 3 days to watch. I was so intrigued with the story line I wanted to see the ending but again because of the scrip and acting I could only watch it in small doses. I'm hoping someone will take this wonderful tale and make a real "movie" about it. Probably watchable if you have allot of paperwork or crafts or something to take your mind off the performers and their flat delivery of poor lines.