thedoctoroctopus

The first time I heard about The Lover I was in high school and it was one of those films that a few classmates of mine would always bring up as the "dirtiest" movie they had ever seen. When I caught the unrated version of the film when it premiered back on Cinemax in 1993. I had no idea what I was in store for. I had already seen films that intensely explored sexual relationships in graphic detail, but most relegated the central issue, sex, to the background. They were more concerned with showing the emotional consequences of unrestrained passion, and not showing the obsession as it's played out in the bedroom. What makes The Lover so unique is that it's a movie which is not afraid to show us exactly what its lovers do when they're together. It shows us in explicit detail, repeatedly. The movie has incredible acting, direction, production design, which I will get to in a second. But the main reason to see this film is Jane March. Throughout this movie Jane is showing us her beautiful figure and openly sharing with us her sexual uninhibitedness. Her scenes with Tony absolutely melt the screen with eroticism. She was 17 years old during film, and you can see that her tremendous teenager body was still in course of formation. Jane is almost constantly naked throughout the middle of this film, and see her young body from practically every angle there is. We get great looks at her body during sex, when she's being washed, when she's walking around, and even when she's just lying there. But even when she is not seen disrobing, March is unbelievably sexy. The scene in which she puts her lips on the window of a man who is visiting her at school are some of the most erotically charged scenes in cinema history.

The story focuses on "the young girl", whose life is already a tragedy at only the age of 15. Her family was once wealthy and respected, but they lost it all. They find themselves living in French occupied Vietnam. There is no love loss between the young girl and her mother--a truly cold woman with no sense of right or wrong. One of her brothers is addicted to drugs, and treats her with nothing but contempt. Her only shining light of hope is her younger brother. The lover is himself a tragic figure. Educated in France, he despises much of traditional Chinese culture, and is desperate to leave tradition behind and marry for love. He is severely depressed, and becomes infatuated by the sight of a young European girl he spots on a ferry. He decides right then to pursue the young girl as a way to escape his increasingly sad state of mind. After accepting a ride in his car, the two find themselves tightly holding hands. After dropping her off at the boarding school she attends, he becomes obsessed with seeing her again. The two eventually make an arrangement to meet in his bachelor pad, which according to Chinese tradition, is a "practice area" for marriage. The very intense relationship progresses as each plays with each other's bodies, lives and feelings. He says that he is in a prearranged marriage and cannot marry her, but he seems totally taken with her. She says that sex is totally fine with her, but could she be denying that it is love that she feels? With both families aware and opposed to their meeting, the young girl and the lover continue on exploring each other. It is only at the end that the true feelings are revealed.

What director Annaud does brilliantly is to portray the lovers' yearning without giving voice to it overtly. He depicts it through a series of disavowals, through the wounds they inflict on each other, and allows the viewer to fill in that which cannot be uttered. Annaud spent over a year in Vietnam scouting for the most beautiful locations and remain of French colonial empire. The music is rich, the costumes are beautiful, and photography captures the sultry atmosphere of Indochina. The director took a long time finding a young actress who could easily pass for a girl in her mid teens. He finally the incredibly youthful looking Jane March. Although she plays a 15 year old here, the makeup and lighting make her appear even younger.

No review of The Lover is complete without mentioning its pervasive sexuality. There is a bit of a controversy over the possibility of Jane March losing her virginity during her scenes with Tony Leung. There seems to be so much speculation - and different accounts, so its hard to know the truth I guess. You'll notice her facial expressions in the "deflowering" scene seem to be authentic, as they show her grimacing one second and smiling the next. Did they have actual sex? Opinions vary. I believe they did, and the actors just lied about it after wards. Take the third love scene as an example. The fact that Leung and March scoot across the floor like that while in the throes of passion makes it seem very likely that they were actually having sex. The fourth love scene, which has March sitting on top of Leung clearly shows a penetration shot. One cannot fake that.

In the end, The Lover is a compelling story of how people fulfill the need for emotional survival. It is a testament to how blind we are to our own deficiencies. The ending is one of the most haunting scenes in film history. It's impossible not to feel for the young girl as she thinks about what her relationship with her lover could have been. Check this one out.

This combination black comedy/sexploitation/thriller from director Roger Vadim is undoubtedly the most provocative American movie to come out of the 70's. It starts off with Ponce, our male protagonist, watching as girls pass by. We are given a shot that clues us into the tone of the entire film. Vadim films two teenage girls walking from behind and then brazenly zooms in on their behinds. I was a bit shocked to see Vadim open his movie with such a blatant butt shot. That was until I recalled that this same director opened up his 1956 film, And God Created Woman, with a closeup shot of Brigitte Bardot's bare behind. It's undeniably sexy, but some will see it as sexualizing children as these two girls in their mini-skirts look awfully young. But I credit the director for nailing what it feels be like to be a male high school student surrounded by beautiful female peers through the use of brilliant POV.

We then shift to an outside shot of a high school. We're given a few scenes of the students going about their daily activities. All the female students are impossibly beautiful here, dressed in mini-skirts, high heels, and low cut shirts. We are then introduced to Tiger, played by Rock Hudson, in one of his most offbeat roles. He plays a coach/counselor at a Southern Californian High School. Even though he is a married man, he has no qualms having sex with various female students. Meanwhile, a killer is leaving corpses of female students along various parts of the school. An investigation begins and Tiger is the prime suspect. In the meantime, one of his students, Ponce is having a tough time finding a girlfriend. Tiger is willing to give the young man some help. He enlists the help of Miss Smith, played by Angie Dickinson, to help Ponce along, and we are talking about a VERY adult education.

Pretty Maids was a mega flop on first release, and it permanently damaged Vadim's career. But today it has the earmarks of a classic, mostly due to three brilliant performances. First off, Rock Hudson in perhaps his last great picture. Just like he was in every other picture before Pretty Maids, he's the man girls want and the man boys want to be, but here it's darker and more cynical version of himself than he ever let people see on the screen. John David Carson is fascinating as Ponce. He goes from awkward school boy to confident man in a series of believable, sequences. It's a difficult role to play, but he makes it look easy. Angie Dickinson has never been better. Angie is sexy throughout the movie playing a naive young teacher, seemingly unaware of how sexy she is.

The premise of this Pretty Maids is "free love" for all, which includes teachers having sex with their students! It's shocking to look back and see how strange America was during this time of "free love," as the concept of this movie would be completely taboo now. American is far more puritanical today, especially when it comes to the issue of teens and sex. I think the reason it still hasn't found a home on DVD is because the film takes a libertine view of adolescent sexuality, far more than any other American film has. America has a hard time with this and this film could turn a lot more heads now than perhaps it did in the more permissive 70's. The basic plot premise is shocking, but what REALLY grabs your attention are the literally hundreds of leering shots of female butts, breasts, crotches, legs, or a combo of the 4, all belonging to the various female high school appearing in this film. Just about every female actress playing the part of a student is sexualized in this movie. Outside of a Tinto Brass movie, I can't recall any other film that lovingly showcased the female posterior by filming it in closeup again and again. As outrageous as the numerous shots of rear ends are, they can't hold a candle to all the up skirt peeks director Vadim shows us. We are given scene after scene of girls in impossibly sort mini-skirts bending over, crossing their legs, standing on elevated surfaces, or just walking up the steps. Vadim finds it mandatory to show us a flash of their panties every time. Pretty Maids must have set some sort of record for pantie shots than any movie in history. Did girls in the early 70's really dress like THIS? I can't help but wonder where were there parents during the making of the film? As a man who would like to have a child someday, and hopefully a little girl, it's odd seeing Vadim's camera practically rams itself up the mini-skirt of a young girl going through puberty. If you're a father of a teenage girl and you're reading this review, you might feel guilty for enjoying the content of this movie. But you really shouldn't be. However, I can't emphasize this enough: The girls who appear in this film are NOT the type portrayed in movies that deal with H.S. You know, 20 something actresses cast as H.S. students. The actresses playing the young girls in this movie are actually that, young girls. Some will find the nonstop leering shots of girls who appear to be in the 15-19 age range to cross the line of good taste. I found them VERY necessary considering they were meant to show how Ponce (not to mention director Vadim) views high school aged girls.

I suppose a film that deals this frankly with adolescent sexuality this could be made today, but only as an unreleased independent film, ala Ken Park. In the 70s, however, this script was able to attract a whole plethora of respected actors and actresses. You'll ask yourself the whole time how a movie like this could be made in the first place! See it now.

Released to video in 1990, Luther The Geek is an ultra stylish and fairly offbeat horror film with a Euro style feeling that deserves to be more well known. Why is it that such a chilling and effective horror from the early 90's is so obscure when so many other, less memorable fright flicks from this era are constant fixtures on cable and in rental stores? It really makes no sense at all. Sure, people have seen this film over the years, albeit only a small amount, yet I can't ever recall seeing this film aired on cable in the 17 years following its 1990 release. Many times, these sort of films gather a following, but only a few people have seen them. Also, many times these films are quite overrated, and once more people discover them, they discover that they weren't worth all the fuss. However, this couldn't be further from the case here with Luther the Geek. With its stylish cinematography, imaginative script, classic nude scenes, above average acting, tight direction, eerie atmosphere, and vibrant score, Luther is anything but cookie cutter. It's a shame I can't say that about most of the horror films released in the early 90's. The film opens up in Illinois 1938. A young Luther is wandering around in a carnival when he soon sees a sight that will change his life forever. He comes across a man, a geek, who is locked in a cage like a wild animal. A rowdy group of men begin to taunt the geek, hoping to see some action. As the men grow more abusive, Luther is shoved from behind. H is mouth in injured. The geek proceeds to bite into the neck of a chicken. He drops the chicken inside his cage and moves as close to the group of men as he can get. As he does this, he vomits blood from his mouth to the shock of the crowd. Luther suddenly realizes that his two front teeth have become dislodged from his mouth. He proceeds to make a very strange facial expression, similar to the one that the geek had on his face moments earlier. Luther goes to the cage, places his hand on the corpse of the bloody chicken, and proceeds to taste it. Present day, Luther is a convicted murderer at a parole board hearing is scheduled, one that sets him free. After causing a commotion at a grocery store, he mortally wounds a poor woman. Luther hasn't been out of prison even a single day and he already has killed an innocent lady!! Luther ducks into the back of an automobile parked outside the supermarket. A woman, in her early forties, proceeds to load her bags of groceries inside the trunk of the same car. Upon reaching home, she hears a noise outside. The woman can only watch on in horror as Luther makes his way towards her. She manages to scream before being knocked out by Luther. When she wakes up, she is terrified to learn that she is laying face down on a bed, tied to it. Each arm and leg is bound to the bed tightly with fabric. To make matters worse, he daughter has returned from school with her boyfriend. Not only is the woman in grave danger, but two others face potential death. The pacing here is perfect. We are not even 15 minutes into the movie and we already have so more many memorable scenes. What will happen next? Will the three of them be killed? The next 70 minutes of this movie are among the most tension filled scenes ever captured in a horror film. Edward Terry is unbelievably good as Luther, a totally ruthless killer with a childlike fascination with death. Although Edward remains silent for a majority of the film, he is quite effective and more than a bit scary. His facial expressions and body movements fit the film perfectly. He prows around with a certain presence that is quite unsettling. Luther is the epitome of madness and Edward portrays him as if he was put on earth to do the work of the devil. Supporting cast all turn in fine performances. The film is noteworthy for the debut of drop dead gorgeous Stacy Haiduk. It's so sad her film appearances are so few. Stacy fabulous body is hard to forget once you see it displayed in this film. As soon as she arrives in the house, she strips down to her underwear and the camera lovingly lingers close up on all of her best parts. In the following scene, Stacy's body is fully displayed as she and Thomas Mills soap up in a shower. In the DVD version of this film, there are additional shots of this classic scene. You see multiple takes of the same scene, including shots of Thomas rubbing soap on every conceivable part of her well muscled body. Carl Albright, the director does a commendable job. The wonderful rural location work to the films advantage. Albright seems assured behind the camera, creating tension and atmosphere, yet keeps the action moving along at a brisk pace. Does this film have problems? Sure. First, Luther watches the geek when he was a kid, but that scene took place in the 30's, so he would be 60 in 1990! When Stacy's character returns home, she doesn't think it's odd that the window in the door to the house is smashed in. She chalks it up to her mom forgetting her keys! Also, no parole board would release a man as criminally insane as Luther, as he is not fit for civilized society. Those flaws aside, you'll regret not seeking out this film if you ever find it available. I look for Luther the Geek to become more popular in the years to come, as time passes more viewers will find and appreciate it.s