Eva nera

Eva Nera (AKA Black Cobra) is my favorite entry in Joe D'Amato's infamous "Black Emanuelle" series. Also known as "Emanuelle Goes Japanese", this film features no characters named Emanuelle, and doesn't take place in (or in any way allude to) the country of Japan. Other than these minor details, Eva Nera exhibits every other trait of a Black Emanuelle movie, including of course Laura Gemser as the main character, and the ever-present douche-bag Gabriele Tinti lurking somewhere in the cast. And though this movie lacks some of the overt acts of depravity that other Emanuelle flicks are known for, it offers three times that in the form of a more subtle weirdness.

The movie begins with Eva's arrival in Hong Kong. Played by the beautifully boring Laura Gemser, Eva's character is essentially the same as Black Emanuelle: a frigid, vapid, nonchalantly nymphomaniacal bisexual nudist mannequin-like temptress. Unlike Emanuelle, who is a reporter, Eva is a snake dancer. Here we use the term "dancer" loosely to mean standing around naked and arrhythmically flailing your arms while holding a live snake.

As you would expect from Joe D'Amato, the story that follows is totally nondescript and irrational, and mostly serves as a vehicle for him to express his most banal ideas of what constitutes eroticism. The remarkable thing is that, unlike other of his creations, like say Emanuelle and The Last Cannibals, here D'Amato tries to exercise restraint, which results in a bizarre, watered-down version of the typical D'Amato fetishes. Included are the mandatory nudism, lesbianism, morbidness, and the gawking fascination with all things foreign and Exotic that characterizes D'Amato's work, minus the ultra-violent sadism that he's also famous for. Along the way, D'Amato's camera still manages to objectify and diminish every single living and non-living thing it gazes upon, whether it be the bland characters, the city of Hong Kong, those oh-so-dangerous snakes, or deeper aspects of human experience such as love and death.

None of this would stand out much were it not for two key elements that make Eva Nera exceptional: the haunting euro-soundtrack and the mind-blowingly strange performance by Jack Palance, whose character is so freakin' weird it defies description. Highly recommended.

As part of watching a handful of Laura Gemser movies, I happened to stumble upon the 1976 drama "Eva Nera" (aka "Black Cobra"), and I must admit that I was rather surprised to see that the movie had the likes of Jack Palance in a leading role. I never figured that he would be in a movie such as this.

But nonetheless, I opted to sit down and watch what writer and director Joe D'Amato had to offer with this 1976 movie. Sure, I had never heard about it, as the type of movie that this actually is just simply usually falls outside of my field of interest. But I do believe in watching a movie once and giving it a fair chance.

Writer and director Joe D'Amato didn't exactly deliver a movie that fell into my liking here with "Eva Nera". The narrative of the movie was just simply too bland and slow paced. Nothing of any interest or worth actually happened as the movie paced on in snail pace.

The acting performances in "Eva Nera" were as expected, though I must admit that I was surprised to see Jack Palance in a movie such as this. I will say, though, that he actually was nicely cast though, as his charisma and presence added something to the movie. And Laura Gemser is, well, she is Laura Gemser, let's not dance around the bush here - pardon the pun.

I am sure that there is an audience out there for a slow burn such as "Eva Nera", but I just didn't happen to be a part of that particular target audience. And as such, then "Eva Nera" wasn't a movie that entertained me.

My rating of the 1976 drama from writer and director Joe D'Amato lands on a three out of ten stars.

Quite simply a cinematic treasure that will never get the exposure it so richly deserves. Jack Palance gives quite simply his best ever performance by a country mile in the role of Judas. Palance breathes an awkward and devilishly creepy life into the snake obsessed sleaze Judas. His own fabulous performance crackles magically against Gabriele Tinti's Jules, his jealous and treacherous, even creepier, sociopathic brother.The film is intended as soft porn but works wonderfully as comedy, whenever I need a laugh this guarantee's it. It works woefully on just about any level. If you expect any kind of sexual excitement from Erotic Eva, look elsewhere. The superb score by Umiliani adds essential 70s style and character. The whole film centers around the brothers attempt to gain the affections of bisexual snake dancer Eva, played by the painfully skinny real life wife of Gabriele Tinti, Laura Gemser. The film is filled with magical dialogue, always involving Jack Palance. His spine twitchingly awkward seduction scenes with Gemser, and his subliminally hate filled smarm drenched chats with Jules are truly worthy of legendary status. Fast forward through the attempts at porn, except the scene with the prematurely ejaculating Japanese businessman. In short cheesier than a cheese puff factory, and as amusing and entertaining as cinema gets.

Black Cobra (1976)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Joe D'Amato directed film about a shy, lonely man (Jack Palance) living in Hong Kong where his only friends are his pet snakes. One night his brother takes him to a strip joint where he sees a beautiful woman (Laura Gemser) putting on a dance with a snake. He moves the woman in but soon someone starts killing off her lesbian friends. The killer doesn't know the woman is a Goddess to snakes. Like many other D'Amato/Gemser films, this one here basically leaves the plot behind in favor of the beautiful actress walking around in the nude and carrying out various lesbian scenes. Gemser is also fun to watch (when she's naked) but the story here is pretty dull and lifeless. Palance must have really been down on his luck at the time.

When Laura Gemser and Joe D'Amato team up to make a movie; you can bet that no matter what the movie is about or what character Gemser is playing that some of the alternate titles will include the word 'Emanuelle'. And this film is no exception, as it got branded with the unimaginative title 'Emmanuelle Goes Japanese'. Naturally, the film has nothing to do with Gemser's most famous character and thankfully the title Black Cobra Woman is generally the more accepted one - and the one that I saw the film under. From the plot description I was actually thinking that this film might be half decent...and it does at least get off to a decent start. The film focuses on Judas; a rich man who surrounds himself with exotic snakes but has little contact with people. One night, Judas goes with his brother to see an act at a nightclub that involves a beautiful woman dancing with a snake. Naturally, he is immediately taken in by this woman (she's played by Laura Gemser so this part of the film is quite realistic) and decides to take her back to his home...

Laura Gemser takes the lead role and spends most of the film either naked, getting it on with other women or both; which is all well and good, but anyone familiar with Gemser's filmography will have seen it all so many times before and it's particularly disappointing in this film as we actually have the basis for a decent plot here. One of the more bizarre casting decisions is represented by Jack Palance, who I guess was either not getting a lot of work around the time or just couldn't resist a starring role alongside the beautiful Laura Gemser. Naturally for a Joe D'Amato flick, it features plenty of sleaze and it's really all encompassing so there wouldn't really have been room to flesh out the story even if the director wanted to. The film does at least deliver on the title's implied promise of featuring snakes; and seeing Gemser dance with a big Cobra is worthwhile. A scene that sees a snake skinned alive and cooked was a bit needless, though. Overall, however, this film is not really worthwhile; it's better than some of the lesser Emanuelle flicks, but that's not really saying anything. I can't recommend tracking Black Cobra Woman down.