L'insatiable Madame Kirsch

Part of a compendium of short stories, this shows that Ken can produce totally uninspired fare to order. Those who rate the earlier masterpieces such as "The Devils" or "Women in Love" will be very disappointed with this pointless offering about a sadly sex-starved male and a woman using a breast pump. Pointless, tasteless and very silly with an extraordinarily camp performance from Hetty Baines who did much better than this in the 'Bax' film.

You should ask yourself why anyone would eat vegetables in such a lascivious and messy way. Beats me, anyway! For a good shortie see "Aria" where Ken actually uses his talent!

It would be difficult to fully extol the virtues of this film without revealing the ending, so, suffice it to say, this is a film that adheres to the De Mille formula of encouraging the viewer to revel in a sensual voyeuristic feast, safe in the knowledge that a moralising finale will negate the prurient plot.

To put the film in context, it was conceived as one of a series of short films on the trendy subject of 'eroticism' by different directors. Russell though, as ever, cleverly subverts the whole premise, by titillating throughout, but always leading us to the very moral (but funny) outcome. It's Ken, and his religious/hedonistic split as usual, but to get the full impact you must watch until the very end. The moral ... that sexuality in the end can never be truly separated from its function ... babies! The genius is not so much in the direction this time, but in the IDEA and the telling of it. As the plot thickens, the viewer's own voyeurism is teased out slowly until the hilarious mirror is unveiled and the realities of adulthood snap back with the Hitchcockian twist. You'll need a sense of humour for this, but the effort to stick with it is well worth it.