Venus in Furs

A surreal dish of dream-like S&M kinky fantasy, of special interest to those fetishists who may appreciate bondage, milk baths, spankings or foot worship. It's a very bizarre web of delights centering around a humble shoe salesman who tends to obsess on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book "Venus in Furs," often tuning out the real world and disappearing off into his own. He suddenly becomes involved with a strange woman who leads him to a very real getaway for like-minded perverts, where everyone lets anything and everything all hang out.

It's likely that late independent filmmaker Joe Marzano indulged his own personal erotic desires through his work here, and the results are actually quite mesmerizing at times in an Avant Garde kind of way, making appropriate use of stock music.

Loosely based on the novel (actually the only thing the same is the words spoken at the beginning) this short film is boring, poorly acted, and, given the possibilities of the source material, resolutely unsexy.

Black and white and with minimal dialogue, there are a couple of scenes which work - the shoe shop, the eponymous lady in fur wraps, the orgy sequence - but they are unbalanced by the voyeuristic bathing sequence where a large breasted and large bottomed blonde is soaped by a dominatrix with a beehive, and interminable shots of the hero of the film wandering aimlessly about a large house where titillating scenes are presented which really go nowhere.

I couldn't really find any merit in this. As exploitation it is too dull, the one hour feels like ten, and the dreamlike atmosphere just doesn't work.

As if the original story is not strange enough, here we have it told, in part realistically, with a grown man hit in the face with a ping pong bat and part as some fetishist, surrealist exercise with shades of Andy Warhol.

As if the director has not given himself enough problems he then compounds the situation with an appalling sense of pace.

It is a shame because this passionate piece has marvellous images, dreamlike episodes, some sexiness and then, regrettably long stretches when one's eyes begin to glaze over.

Certainly bizarre and worth a view but, well you have been warned!

Mini-Skirt Love (1967)

*** (out of 4)

15-year-old Billy witnesses his mother kill his dad so when she's sent off to an insane asylum Billy's aunt comes to take care of him. Not only does she cook and clean she also teaches Billy how to have sex. This is one screwy little film that even lets Billy and his aunt have a threesome with an Avon lady. The film is so outrageous that you'll get plenty of laughs but the biggest laugh comes from the fifteen year old boy being played by a guy who looks older than the father.

Cool It Baby (1965)

** (out of 4)

Somewhat entertaining sexploitation film about a couple who drug girls into making adult films and then blackmail them into joining their sexual club. For a sexploitation flick the movie is pretty tame, which is somewhat strange. The story isn't too bad and there are some pretty girls but not much else. The site of the courtroom used in the film will get a few laughs.

Venus in Furs (1967)

** (out of 4)

A somewhat interesting take on the novel is more a S&M show than anything else. The director does a very good job creating a dreamlike quality to the film but things get pretty boring pretty fast. A nice score and some fine cinematography help as well.

Mini-Skirt Love (1967)

*** (out of 4)

15-year-old Billy witnesses his mother kill his dad so when she's sent off to an insane asylum Billy's aunt comes to take care of him. Not only does she cook and clean she also teaches Billy how to have sex. This is one screwy little film that even lets Billy and his aunt have a threesome with an Avon lady. The film is so outrageous that you'll get plenty of laughs but the biggest laugh comes from the fifteen year old boy being played by a guy who looks older than the father.

Cool It Baby (1965)

** (out of 4)

Somewhat entertaining sexploitation film about a couple who drug girls into making adult films and then blackmail them into joining their sexual club. For a sexploitation flick the movie is pretty tame, which is somewhat strange. The story isn't too bad and there are some pretty girls but not much else. The site of the courtroom used in the film will get a few laughs.