|
The
popular Australian parody of sex education films, and its sequel,
hit DVD...
Devised by
Australian producer Antony I. Ginnane as an attempt to penetrate
the international film market, Fantasm
takes its cue from Eurotrash sexploitation flicks that attempted
to pass themselves off as "educational" —
the German "Schoolgirl Report" series being an obvious example.
His master stroke was to go the U.S. and recruit some major
sex film stars (John Holmes, Rene Bond, etc.) to participate
in what would ultimately become a fairly "hard" softcore
porno romp.
Linked by droll
commentary by John Bluthal, playing a deranged Austrian sex
psychologist named Professor Jurgen Notafreud, the film presents
ten vignettes supposedly representing common fantasies among
females. These range from lesbian trysts and orgies to role
reversal, rape and incest. Yep, you read that right —
if the film has one thing going for it, it's at least not afraid
to be offensive in its subject matter. The material is handled
rather sweetly and innocently by director Richard Franklin (Psycho
II, Patrick), thus taking
the edge off of what could have become bad taste eroticism in
a couple of the vignettes. The episodes range from the tedious
to the enjoyable, and at least a couple manage to be legitimately
erotic (the "rape" scene gets a distinct boost from gorgeous
Rene Bond, while the lesbian scene will delight breast fetishists
due to the participation of Russ Meyer staple Uschi Digart),
but the end effect is little more than silly diversion.
Franklin gets
decent performances from his eclectic cast, with the hammy Bluthal
providing the most laughs with his theatrical accent, patently
phony mustache and clearly improvised rants. The hardcore performers
aren't taxed in terms of thesping, so the likes of Holmes, Bond
and Candy Samples aren't required to humiliate themselves too
much.
A massive commercial
hit, the film inevitably spawned a sequel. Director Franklin,
his heart barely in the first film and fearful that its success
would damage his hopes of a "normal" career (thus using a pseudonym),
steered clear of Fantasm Comes Again.
Producer Ginnane instead recruited a friend of Franklin's, Colin
Eggelston, to put the actors through the "motions".
Like so many
sequels, Fantasm Comes Again fails
because it lacks the freshness of the original. While hardly
innovative, the first film was nonetheless done with a certain
degree of crafty enthusiasm; the sequel, by contrast, feels
like more of the same, but not as good.
Once
again, the concept is of ten erotic vignettes (not limited to
"female fantasies" this time) linked together by narrator figures.
This time, in place of Bluthal's endearing psychologist, the
task falls to a retiring sex advice columnist (Clive Hearne)
and his attractive replacement (Angela Menzies-Willis). The
linking segment is nowhere near as amusing as Bluthal's scenes
in the original,thus getting things off to a rocky start. In
common with the first film, the erotic segments vary from the
good to the tedious. Highlights include another lesbian interlude
with Uschi Digart, a steamy threesome in an elevator and a pleasingly
sacrilegious confessional scene. The most surprising scene features
Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith (Lemora: A Child's
Tale Of The Supernatural) as the willing recipient of
yet another rape scene, this time in a drive-in — the scene
gets some added points for cleverly incorporating the rape scene
from the first film on the drive-in screen. Questions of "PC
morality" aside, the scene is again done in a way that avoids
being distasteful and clearly plays out in an over-the-top and
exaggerated manner.
Eggleston
doesn't handle the film quite as well as Franklin did the original,
but he nonetheless approaches the erotic vignettes with a tad
more gusto. With a better linking segment and a little trimming,
the film might have measured up better. Nonetheless, he does
a decent job with some of the actors — while others are so clearly
out of their depth delivering dialogue that no amount of coaching
could have helped. In addition to Digart, the sequel also brings
back the likes of Candy Samples, Serena and John Holmes — the
latter in a gratuitous cameo that doesn't allow him to show
off his legendary attribute.
High
concept? Not exactly. But these films are bound to entertain
fans of the softcore genre. At the very least they function,
in a small way, as a time capsule for an era when sex could
be discussed more openly and with less restrictions in the cinema.
|
Synapse's
SE releases of Fantasm and Fantasm
Comes Again were prepared with the assistance of Ginnane.
Both films are presented completely uncut (Ginnane emphasizes
that no hardcore footage was shot for the original, while
some hardcore shots prepared for the sequel were never integrated
into any prints) and are letterboxed at 1.66. Framing looks correct,
and both films have been enhanced for widescreen TVs. In terms
of print quality, they both look about the same — they offer solid
colors, minor print damage and sharp (though grainy) images. Both
films retain their original mono soundtracks; Fantasm
suffers from some background "popping", but both sound perfectly
acceptable.
Extras include commentary tracks by Ginnane for both films, the
original theatrical trailers, well-written liner notes by Chris
Poggiali and, for Fantasm, a revealing
documentary that deals with the films' productions, etc. Franklin,
who continues to distance himself from the original, is interviewed
in silhouette, while Ginnane enthusiastically holds forth about
both films. (Note: The DVD Rating of '8' applies to both discs.)
1/17/05 |
