A strange and often disconnected puzzle of a film.
"Some Call it Loving" is hard to describe but I'll try. It's a bit like an art film (such as something by Bergman or Fellini) combined with a porno film with little porn...along with an LSD trip. The results are bizarre, unique and incredibly confusing. What does all this mean?!
The film begins with Robert (Zalman King...a Marjoe Gortner lookalike) seeing a strange carnival attraction. It seems that a pretty young woman has been sleeping for 8 years and audience members can pay to come up and kiss her...and try to awaken her. Soon you realize that the man who 'owns her' is more than willing to allow guys to pay to do far more...and he expects that is what Robert wants when he comes to see her later. However, he's obsessed with her in a strange, non-sexual way and he buys the girl from him! Soon, after bringing her home, she awakens and he is smitten by her and vice-versa...though for a lot of the film their relationship is non-sexual. Instead, Robert walks around almost as if in a catatonic state himself...watching all sorts of weirdos. Two weirdos are his 'girlfriends' though they are clearly lesbians and kinky ones at that. Another is his junkie friend (overplayed badly by Richard Pryor). None of these people or vignettes make ANY sense and after a while you start to realize that everything and the disconnectedness of it all is highly reminiscent of a dream- -as if it's not the girl who is asleep but the audience...or at least they are watching someone's dream. Surreal beyond belief and late in the film there are finally some nude scenes (but they are amazingly non- sexy). The entire concoction is nonsensical and bizarre...so much so that it has 'cult film' written all over it but it's also not something the average viewer would care about in the least. Additionally, its bizarro religious symbolism is bound to offend many, many viewers.
My advice is that if you want to watch porn, find a better and sexier film. If you want an art film, try "The Seventh Seal" or "8 1/2" as they are much more clever and artsy. Or, if you want a film that utterly confuses you, by all means try "Some Call it Loving"...but I wasn't a fan by the time the film ended.
The film begins with Robert (Zalman King...a Marjoe Gortner lookalike) seeing a strange carnival attraction. It seems that a pretty young woman has been sleeping for 8 years and audience members can pay to come up and kiss her...and try to awaken her. Soon you realize that the man who 'owns her' is more than willing to allow guys to pay to do far more...and he expects that is what Robert wants when he comes to see her later. However, he's obsessed with her in a strange, non-sexual way and he buys the girl from him! Soon, after bringing her home, she awakens and he is smitten by her and vice-versa...though for a lot of the film their relationship is non-sexual. Instead, Robert walks around almost as if in a catatonic state himself...watching all sorts of weirdos. Two weirdos are his 'girlfriends' though they are clearly lesbians and kinky ones at that. Another is his junkie friend (overplayed badly by Richard Pryor). None of these people or vignettes make ANY sense and after a while you start to realize that everything and the disconnectedness of it all is highly reminiscent of a dream- -as if it's not the girl who is asleep but the audience...or at least they are watching someone's dream. Surreal beyond belief and late in the film there are finally some nude scenes (but they are amazingly non- sexy). The entire concoction is nonsensical and bizarre...so much so that it has 'cult film' written all over it but it's also not something the average viewer would care about in the least. Additionally, its bizarro religious symbolism is bound to offend many, many viewers.
My advice is that if you want to watch porn, find a better and sexier film. If you want an art film, try "The Seventh Seal" or "8 1/2" as they are much more clever and artsy. Or, if you want a film that utterly confuses you, by all means try "Some Call it Loving"...but I wasn't a fan by the time the film ended.
- planktonrules
- Mar 16, 2016