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The
1980s... I remember them well. Private Screening
Collection, a DVD label specializing in erotic/sexploitation
films of the "Skinemax" Golden Age,
put it quite nicely in a blurb on their website:
"There once was a simpler time. A time when
acts of congress between a man and woman were
emblazoned on pure celluloid, not cheap video.
A time of more skin, less silicone — a place where
a young lady's forbidden assets were God-given
rather than man-made. Where a young man could
earn his Master's degree in Immortality simply
by watching cable TV on a late Friday night."
Back
in the day, there was no Internet. (Can you imagine...?)
During most of the '80s the majority of people
didn't own a VCR. The drive-in and grindhouse
were dead or fast disappearing. Cable TV was relatively
new in many parts of America.
HBO and (especially) Cinemax struck gold with
their Friday late night broadcasts of skin flicks,
filling a void during the transition to the technology
we commonly enjoy today. Even if you didn't have
a VCR (many of the Mom and Pop video stores in
small towns wouldn't rent sex films anyway), you
could still get a regular dose of nudie cuties
as long as you had premium cable channels. Private
Screening is now bringing some of the most popular
T&A
titles from this era to DVD, starting off with
the direct-to-video, shot-in-Europe Black
Venus (1983) and Lady
Libertine (1984). Both of these films were
written and produced by Harry Alan Towers, the
British impresario behind the Fu Manchu flicks
of the '60s.
For
awhile there Black
Venus
was in semi-regular rotation on Cinemax. I now
recall seeing it at least three or four times,
typically at two in the morning while half-wasted
and flopped on the couch. I'd completely forgotten
about it in the 20 years since, although while
watching the DVD my memory was nudged to recollection
by the plot involving the statue and the almost
nonstop parade of foxy female flesh.
A former Miss Bahamas, Josephine
Jacqueline Jones stars as the titular heroine,
an immigrant from Martinique newly arrived in
Paris during the 1850s.
Venus quickly discovers that the easiest way to
provide for herself is as a courtesan to wealthy,
decadent sophistos. The possibility of a different
life presents itself when she and a handsome young
artist named Armand (José Antonio Ceinos) meet
and fall madly in love. Armand becomes obsessed
with sculpting a life-size statue of her; she
comes to live with him at his studio apartment
while he works feverishly on his masterpiece.
Their happiness proves fleeting, however, as Armand
turns out to be a brutish, possessive lout — when
in his cups, which is often, he treats Venus like
dirt. (Dumbass!) She has no choice but
to leave him; otherwise he's liable to kill her,
himself or the both of them during one of his
drunken rages. Upon ditching Armand a modeling
job at an upscale dress shop brings Venus to the
attention of Marie (Karin Schubert), a wealthy
lady who hires her as a "companion".
(The German-born Schubert would turn to hardcore
porn two years later, at the ripe age of 41!)
Venus finds the gifts and attention lavished on
her a fair trade for sharing Marie's bed, but
her benefactor's asshole husband returns from
abroad and immediately humiliates and degrades
the Caribbean beauty, with Marie's apparent blessing.
Venus flees the mansion never to return, hooking
up with a naive young country girl named Louise
(18-year old French actress Florence Guérin) whom
she takes under a protective wing. The pair become
fast friends and lesbian lovers, together finding
employment at a high class bordello. Meanwhile,
Armand — sick and destitute — is forced to sell
his beloved statue to a wealthy patron to pay
the rent and buy food. When the statue's new owner
also 'purchases' Venus and Louise so that they
may accompany him during a stay at his seaside
villa in Spain, Armand follows with jealous rage
in his heart. If he can't have Venus, no one will...
Lady
Libertine,
AKA Frank And I, is also set in
the 1800s. It concerns Charles
(Christopher
Pearson), a British
gentleman of means who, out riding one day, comes
across a homeless teenage boy wandering along
the road. An orphan, young "Frank" has
been thrown out of school and has nowhere to go.
Charles takes him in, resolved to bring the poor
lad up as his ward and provide him with an education.
When he catches Frank peeking at his collection
of Victorian erotica, Charles decides that the
boy needs a good whipping —
and while caning his bare buttocks discovers that
Frank is, in fact, a girl! (Her real name is Frances.)
They keep this secret between them, even
from the servants, once Charles pops her tender
young cherry and they become lovers. The waif's
innocence and fresh-faced beauty leads Charles
to fall in love, and he contemplates ending his
long-standing relationship with a 'kept' woman
he maintains in London (played by the ravishing
Sophie Favier). Then he learns that Francis has
a dark secret in her past, one which explains
why she took to the road disguised as a boy. That
secret leads to the door of a high-priced cathouse
frequented by diplomats and other members of the
upper crust...
Production values
are quite good in both Black
Venus and Lady
Libertine, especially since they involve
a lot of period costumes and sets. They are neither
imaginatively nor badly directed. The major eye
candy on display —
Jones and Guérin in Venus,
Stephanie Inch (as Frances) and Favier
in Lady —
is unquestionably hubba-hubba hot. (Particularly
the very sexy Guérin,
who's reminiscent of a young Jane Seymour only
a bit plumper... like I like 'em. Inch may have
the face of a 12-year old but also the body of
a nubile coed.) Unfortunately a 'Masterpiece
Theatre Goes Softcore' attitude prevails,
which means that there's probably too much damn
talking, ballroom dancing and simulated sex for
the average Internet smut-saturated twentysomething
horndog to sit through. (Being an old geezer,
I didn't even have a fast-forward button, much
less TiVo or DVR, when getting my first youthful
jollies with softcore cable porn... Had to remain
just sober enough to stay awake through all the
dull parts.) You can dress sexploitation up in
a winged collar and a bustle but, once the clothes
come off, you've still got a skin flick. Why put
on airs? This
is especially true of Black
Venus, which purloins oft-used (to the
point of cliché) pieces of classical music
for its entire score. At any moment I expected
some old guy in a tweed jacket, smoking a pipe,
to step into the scene, look into the camera and
say, "Yes, you too can fornicate to the
beautiful melodies of the world's great masters,
immortalized in this new CD collection..."
These
flicks were originally aimed at couples rather
than the all-male raincoat brigade, but I suspect
the filmmakers hedged their bets with Venus
given its memorable scenes of lipstick lesbianism.
It
also wastes no time getting to the nude scenes.
(Less than three minutes in.)
Lady Libertine
contains considerably less sex and nudity than
Black Venus, although
it adds an element of kink with the (initially)
androgynous nature of its heroine and the bare-ass
spanking that's a recurring theme. The
problem with Lady
is not just the interminable narration of the
snobby Charles (whom we could give a shit about),
but by the ridiculous conceit that anyone
could believe for a second that the shapely young
"Frank" was actually male ... even with
the silly Dutch Boy wig. And, oh yeah... Sophie
Favier doesn't get naked enough. (After becoming
a well-known TV personality in France, she later
sued — unsuccessfully — to prevent the movie's
video release.)
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The
first titles released on the Private Screening
label, both Black Venus
and Lady Libertine
are presented 1.33 fullframe, which, since they
were originally made for cable/home video, would
appear to be the correct aspect ratio. Venus
is in the best condition of the two, apparently
taken from a pristine source; Lady
exhibits a bit of damage here and there but it's
quite minor. Both discs display vivid colors and
sharp detail (within the parameters of the soft-focus
cinematography, that is), as well as a sheen of
light grain that's never too distracting. Clear,
distortion-free mono audio tracks compliment the
features.
Neither
of these DVDs comes with any extras. Still, they're
decent enough presentations for anyone wanting
to experience the glory days of Skinemax erotica...
provided you don't mind the cost. At 27 bucks
a pop (at Amazon, at any rate) I feel these
barebones discs are way too pricey —
thus my DVD rating of "3".
10/15/06
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