Domino

Through her appearance as RED SONJA and her short marriage to Sylvester STALLONE, the Danish actress Brigitte NIELSEN achieved a high level of fame in the 1980s. This even led to a singing duet with the Austrian singer FALCO (Rock Me AMADEUS) and some films in the Roman CINECITTA.

In this film by Ivana MASSETTI, NIELSEN plays a successful video director who has many affairs but is still looking for true love. One day it seems to work...

Soft eroticism for art house cinema! You can tell that director Massetti wants to tell the story artistically through the eyes of a woman. That's why the pictures are very nice, but don't advance the story in terms of content. Tomas ARANA, Kim Rossi STUART, Stephane FERRARA, David WARBECK and Cyrus ELIAS are trying to get Brigitte NIELSEN's attention, which has probably long since faded from the audience's attention...

Brigitte Nielsen seems to be day-dreaming throughout the whole film, now and then the film is rated 18+, and also she is playing with herself, it is a poor story and this film will not add any importance in the world of (maybe) cult.

Okay, let's set the record straight: this film was made in the mid 80's when Music videos were still rare and female film directors were even rarer. After the original Director had to drop out, Ivanna Massetti was given the picture. She was a well-respected commercial director in France and this film was her directorial debut. Using the techniques learned from esoteric commercials and music videos she gambled and lost in attempting to tell the story of "DominoÓ visually without much connective narrative. It simply didn't work. But attempting to tell a story without dialogue is still something Directors attempt today, twenty years later, and still fail. The storyline was acutally of a woman named DOMINO, a successful but jaded video director, who having lost the ability to love searches first through her friends and then Paris-by-night trying to find something, anything to teach her to love again.

As regards this being "soft porn" at no time did Ms. Massetti intend or attempt to make this a "soft porn" film. Remember this was Europe where showing nudity doesn't mean it's "porn". And especially not back in the 80's. As regards Ms. Nielson; it's true she doesn't appear very attractive in this film. Which really hurt the film as you need to believe how beautiful this Domino woman is. Her appearance was due to being over weight from a pregnancy. A pregnancy that she lost during the shooting of the film. The film was shut down for two weeks while she recouped.

First time Director, attempts to break the laws of narrative storytelling, a miscarriage during the film shoot and a very nasty and very public divorce from Slyvestor Stalone... Is any of this an excuse why the film isn't that good? Maybe not... To the hard hearted of you out there.

All of the other reviews posted here notwithstanding, I found this movie to be uniquely charming.

This is soft-core erotica from a woman's viewpoint, with a lens on the feminine mystique. Guys, if you (like me) have ever gotten all worked up with that "get laid or bust" feeling; found someone to get your rocks off with; but then felt like "Is that all there is?" … this film is about what was missing sexually. It depicts arousal as much more than an eager boner. Time slows down. A river of warm, liquid feelings is flowing by. It looks like an art deco moon; it sounds like Billie Holliday's slow, unhurried voice, womanly and girlish at the same time; and it feels like a woman's hot, naked body writhing in a stretchy white lace body stocking. This is not a 30-second ad for Pepsi or Viagra; this is the journey of a warm-blooded soul experiencing urban life.

Yes, the plot may seem disjointed and meandering, like the way we dream.

One of the intriguing images in the movie is a jet-black male mannequin, in a fedora or a white bow tie, which Domino adopts as a partner. It makes me wonder: Is this what women really want in a man: someone who will just be there when they come home, waiting for them, ready to listen, with no drama or needs of their own and nowhere to go?

There's no hurry here — Wait until you get bored with the whiz-bang titty-poppers (which I also love dearly), and then give yourself an evening with this film. Watch it with your partner if you have one; compare impressions; and don't have anything planned after that.

This movie is rather dear to me mostly because of its atmosphere, I love how much of it is somewhat solitary nighttime at a fairly slow pace that isn't fashionable these days. The jazz music also adds to the mood, as well as her apartment which has that feeling of being part museum, part department store display (I mean that as a compliment). It's a plus that Ms. Nielsen did this while carrying a more matronly figure that did a nice job of smoothing out her curves, which I find infinitely more attractive than a slim figure with conspicuously fake bazongas. The style is fairly polarizing, some might think it too "arty" or even "pretentious", but to me almost every scene is beautiful, and you see a lot of sexuality from a woman's point of view. It gets overdone in places but overall I find it very enjoyable. It leaves a lot to the imagination plot-wise, in a way that few movies do. It's dream-like.

Unfortunately all I have is a US copy of the release on VHS - the DVD I have is the Italian release, which has fairly poor dubbing that kind of loses the mood (although it does contain a lot of extra footage). I wish this would get released on DVD!