Degrees of Smut, Immorality, and Romance – Part 1

The first batch of themed reviews are up, starting with the controversial film Karla, which follows Karla Homolka’s relationship with Paul Bernardo before, during, and after the abduction, rape, and killing of two Ontario teens. Pulled from the 2005 Montreal World Film Festival and ultimately given a short burp of exhibition on Canadian theatrical screens, the film was released on DVD in the U.S. by Monterey Video, and is available as an import, since no one wants to touch the film with a ten-foot pole in Canada.

Is it outright exploitation, sleaze, or an earnest attempt to capture the essence of serial killers with a small production budget? Our review is from a Toronto perspective, since those outside of Canada are probably unfamiliar with the media frenzy that surrounded the court trials, and the nation-wide information ban that restricted specific details from being reported by the media.

Vintage smut made for and produced by the Playboy Channel has been popping up on DVD courtesy of Private Screening, and we’ve taken a peek at Tiffany Bolling’s Love Scenes (aka Ecstasy). There’s actually a story in this watchable eroto-drama, which has small roles for Britt Ekland, Julie Newmar, and Daniel Pilon, and was directed by Bud Spencer (creator of the X-rated musical version of Alice in Wonderland).

The merry world of Walerian Borowczyk is further revealed in Immoral Women / Les Héroïnes du mal (1979), now available uncut in a lovely transfer from Severin – another indie label that’s been putting out a steady stream of vintage erotica and sexploitation. Starring Marina Pierro, Gaelle Legrand, and Pascale Christophe, it’s another revisitation to the anthology format, though no one expected a white bunny named Pinky would play a pivotal role in the film’s middle drama of a fuzzy-haired youth who goes bonkers after a seemingly ordinary dinner.

In the past we’ve covered Borowczyk’s The Beast, Love Rites, and the brilliant Goto, Island of Love, and we’ll have some reviews of rarer titles currently unavailable in North America.

For more genteel shades of love there’s the Tyrone Power Classic Film Collection, which gathers some of the actor’s swashbuckler-styled films in a boxed set. We’ve reviewed two of three titles in the series that feature isolated music tracks of Alfred Newman’s bouncy scores – Prince of Foxes (1949) and the ridiculous Son of Fury (1942). Reviews of the other films in the box – Blood and Sand (1941), The Captain from Castile (1947), and The Black Rose (1950) - will pop up over the next week.

There’ll also be a related column this week at Music from the Movies, which will check out the wackload of DVDs from Fox featuring isolated music tracks – a feature virtually all of the other studio labels have dumped. (For a tally of what’s appeared over the years on DVD and laserdisc, check out our Isolated Score List.)

And uploaded last week in the music DVD dept. is the 2-part series Musica Cubana, from MVD Visual. Riding on the popularity of Wim Wenders' Oscar-nominated 1999 documentary, The Buena Vista Social Club, Wenders executive produced the Sons of Cuba tour, which had the late octogenarian Pio Leiva headlining a new batch of Cuban male (and uncredited female) musicians. You can read more about these videos in our reviews of the live Tokyo and Amsterdam concerts, and we’ll have some very cool jazz DVDs from the label soon, featuring some slightly vintage jazz performances.

Coming next: some amazing & gripping documentaries, soundtrack reviews, and an expanded interview with a top collector of Godzilla and Japanese monster soundtracks.


- MRH


Technorati Tags: DVD Reviews