Review by Wedgy

I found this movie fascinating. The physical and verbal interaction between a complex young woman writer and four hetero-, homo-, or bisexual men provides the framework of a hyperfiction about writing and publishing. Preoccupied with the erotic, the writers seem to be latter-day versions of Anais Nin or Henry Miller, and the movie takes us through black-and-white flashbacks into the woman's version of a fantasy "Paris" where she has a sadistic relationship with a man who is a wretchedly bad poet/pop-lyricist but an animalistic never-to-be surpassed lover. The acting in the "real" world of muted dusty color is superb; though the four principals engage in frank sexuality, this is by no means a dumb sexploitation movie. Sexual activity, whether enacted or spoken about, is a way of exploring characters of great complexity. This is intellectual erotica of the kind that rewards repeated viewing.