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Scores:
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 THE
HAIRDRESSER'S HUSBAND
France (1990)
Severin
Films
Not Rated |
Color |
82 Min. |
R1 - NTSC
DVD Released: April 28, 2009
.........
An
older man (Jean Rochefort) fulfills a childhood fantasy in marrying
a luscious hairdresser (Anna Galeina)... Writer/director
Patrice Leconte's tale of love and sexual obsession has all the
markings of a softcore sex extravaganza, but viewers looking for
sleaze are bound to be disappointed. The
Hairdresser's Husband is a sweet, genteel, delicately rendered
film, rife with the promise of sexual fulfillment, but it is anything
but a graphic flesh fest. Jean Rochefort (the star of Terry Gilliam's
ill-fated Don Quixote) gives a touching performance as the older
man living out his sexual/romantic fantasy life. Rochefort manages
to make the character believable and human throughout, resisting
the easy way out by turning him into a dirty old man caricature.
Beautiful Anna Galeina (Fade To Black)
is every bit his equal as the seductive younger woman, also steering
clear of cheap stereotype and rising to the challenge of realizing
a very complex character. It's difficult in watching the film
to figure out whether the entire thing is merely a fantasy on
Rochefort's part, and Leconte stages the action with an eye towards
making the viewer believe that it could actually be really happening.
The sexual encounters are gracefully handled, with very little
actual nudity on display, and the film is all the more effective
because of it. The pace is slow and measured, the cinematography
impossibly dreamy and the flashback structure actually adds to
the forward momentum. Thanks to the palpable chemistry between
its two admittedly oddly paired stars, The
Hairdresser's Husband is genuinely romantic without indulging
in maudlin sentimentality.
Severin's
release marks the film's debut on R1 DVD. The 2.35/16x9 transfer
is sharp and colorful. Print damage is limited to minor speckling
in a handful of shots. There are no compression defects or other
mastering flaws to report. The stereo French soundtrack is clean
and clear. Music and sound effects have plenty of presence, and
dialogue is never lost in the mix. Removable English subtitles
are provided, and they are also clear and easy to read. Extras
include a theatrical trailer and two in-depth featurette-length
interviews with Leconte and Galeina. Leconte speaks in French
English subtitles are again included
and
goes into great detail about his career in the cinema, while the
still-lovely Galeina speaks in fluent English about her involvement
in the film.
-
T. Howarth
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Film:
7 |
DVD: 8 |
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THE CHICK'S ABILITY
Brazil (1984)
Impulse
Pictures
Not Rated |
Color |
90 Min. |
R0 - NTSC
DVD Released: April 28, 2009
.........
Pure
telenovela soap opera hooey, only with lots and lots of
full-frontal nudity and steamy "NC-17" sex.
Petite Vanessa Alves is Cristina, a lovely young country lass
who is disowned by her father when she's caught shagging a local
boy and refuses to marry him. Penniless, she travels to the big
city where the only person she knows, her prostitute stepsister,
quickly tires of her problems and turns her out as well, even
though Cristina is now pregnant. By
chance Cristina finds a friend in streetwise transsexual hooker
"Lili Marlene" (Romeu de Freitas), who provides
shelter for the homeless girl. Unfortunately
her child is born with medical problems
problems that can only be cured by a very expensive operation.
Desperate
for cash, Cristina almost goes through with Wicked Stepsister's
plan to turn tricks but, disgusted by her first (elderly) john,
chickens out at the last moment.
With little hope of saving her newborn son, a
promise of salvation miraculously appears in the form of Marcos
(Andrι Loureiro), a well-to-do artist who sees in Cristina his
perfect erotic portrait model. She's introduced to him by his
girlfriend (Helena
Ramos),
the kind, MILFishly hot doctor treating the sick child. Marcos
is willing to pay extremely well for modeling sessions, enough
to cover the lifesaving surgery. As work begins on the painting,
Hot Doc jealously senses that Marcos could be falling in love
(definitely
in lust) with
his subject. Meanwhile, the stepsister's thuggish, violent pimp
starts hunting for Lili with a score to settle... These turgid
melodramatics are played very earnestly by the uninhibited cast,
who
women and men
are quite comfortable letting it all hang out. Their lengthy,
acrobatic sex scenes occasionally bump up against the line between
softcore and hardcore but never stray over. All of the (biological)
ladies spend a great deal of their screen time buck naked, which
I admittedly didn't have a problem with. If this film leaves one
with but a single impression of Brazil, it's that Brazilian gals
are deliciously lithe, sizzlingly supple and have the most wonderful
golden brown tans... preferably seen dripping with water or glazed
with a sheen of sweat.
With
this, its first volume in the Classic Latin Erotica Collection,
Impulse adds South American T&A to its fleshy roster of Scandinavian
(Maid in Sweden)
and German (Schoolgirl Report series)
fare. Given the film's origins and obscurity it comes off fairly
well via this DVD, presented fullframe (the original AR) and in
Portuguese with excellent, easy-to-read optional English subtitles.
It's grainy-looking and exhibits occasional print damage but is
eminently watchable.
The mono audio track has some minor issues as well; nothing too
distracting, however. Beyond
a single page of liner notes (briefly describing Brazil's pornochanchada
genre of erotic films), no extras are offered.
-
B. Lindsey
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Film:
4 |
DVD: 4 |
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COLD EYES OF FEAR Italy
- Spain (1971)
Redemption
Films
Not Rated |
Color |
91 Min. |
R0 - NTSC
DVD Released: April 28, 2009
.........
The
opening sequence of this thriller makes one believe that a 'psycho
sex killer stalks naked babes'-type giallo is in the offing, but
it's all a gag a nightclub performance being watched by two
of the main characters. Instead
we're treated to a suspense drama about a vengeance-obsessed criminal
(Frank Wolff) out to destroy the judge (Fernando Rey) who sent
him to prison for 15 years. Caught in the trap are the
judge's nephew (Gianno Garko) and a high-class prostitute (Giovanna
Ralli) he picks up in swingin' London. He
takes her to his uncle's mansion for a bit of fun (the judge is
still in the city, working late at the office), only to find the
butler dead and Wolff's punk henchman (Juliαn Mateos) waiting
in ambush... Cold Eyes of Fear
(shown on American TV as Desperate Moments)
is the most visually stylish film I've yet seen by Enzo G. Castellari,
the Italian director best known for his energetic spaghetti westerns
and action flicks. Too
bad it's also the dullest. He
gives it considerable flair (for just one example: a shot of Ralli
dialing a phone number is made from the 'inside' of the
telephone) and gets good performances from his actors, but it's
just not enough to lift the film out of its talky torpor. Bearing
responsibility for this failure lies squarely with the writers,
who don't provide us with any characters or plot elements to care
about. For a thriller, moments of tension and suspense are much
too few and far between. The
'home invasion' aspect of the story screams of exploitation/sleaze
potential that is never taken advantage of; violence is
limited to rough fistfights and the only nudity comes courtesy
of Karin Schubert (Black
Venus) as a stripper in the aforementioned nightclub act.
Partially lensed in London and offering a dissonantly jazzy Ennio
Morricone score (reminiscent of his work for 1970's Cat
o' Nine Tails), Cold Eyes would
seem to have a lot going for it on the surface... only to fall
disappointingly flat. With a thud.
A
nice-looking 1.85:1 transfer comes to naught, since it
isn't anamorphic in 2009 this is simply unacceptable. The mono
audio track (English dubbed) also disappoints; sound effects and
music are so loud they easily overwhelm the nearly omnipresent
hiss, crackles and pops, but dialog levels are weak and get lost
in the mix. (Having to constantly adjust the volume throughout
a film is not my idea of fun.)
The
only extras are an image gallery and a slate of trailers for other
Redemption titles.
-
B. Lindsey
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Film:
3 |
DVD: 3 |
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HERCULES
THE AVENGER Italy -
France (1965)
Retromedia
Not Rated |
Color |
85 Min. |
R0 - NTSC | 4-Disc set
DVD Released: March 31, 2009
.........
More
or less 'Reg Park's Greatest Herc Hits', since huge chunks of
this film are lifted lock, stock and barrel from Hercules
in the Haunted World and Hercules
and the Captive Women (both 1961). A wraparound story is concocted
about Hercules questing for his missing son Xanthus, who is imprisoned
in the supernatural domain of Gia the earth goddess.
Meanwhile,
Gia's evil son Antaeus himself
a demi-god, like Hercules impersonates
Herc and takes over the city-state of Syracuse with the help of
its ambitious queen. Ruling as a mad, barbarous tyrant, Antaeus
(Giovanni Cianfriglia) starts
exiling and slaughtering people at whim, generally soiling the
name of Hercules something fierce. Naturally Herc manages to rescue
Xanthus and punish Antaeus for his crimes, although Syracuse is
destroyed by volcanic eruption in the process... If you've already
seen Haunted World and/or Captive
Women then there's really no point in watching this
one. All
of Avenger's monster action
and special
effects scenes are borrowed from those films, only with
different dialog dubbed in. Its
main cheesy pleasure is Gianfriglia's Antaeus. A schoolyard
bully in a he-man's body, he's such a cruel, arrogant prick that
you keep watching for the moment when Herc finally kicks his ass.
He's
at least good for a few laughs, as when barking commands like,
"Drive them into the Valley of Agony and
block the way out!"
Retromedia's
Hercules Collection is a repackaging of nine previously-released
sword & sandal pics (flipper discs, now housed in space-saving
slimline cases), with the 4th disc containing three of the films.
Avenger is one of the titles presented
in its proper 2.35 AR and given an anamorphic transfer. (Half
of the movies are cropped fullscreen and beat all to hell.) It's
in fairly decent shape, albeit overly dark and grainy and marred
by occasional damage, but nothing too terribly distracting.
Likewise the mono audio
track, which is a trifle tinny but serviceable enough. All told,
the attractive packaging and cheap price of this collection
help offset the woeful condition of some of the titles in the
set.
NOTE: My DVD Rating of "5" applies to the entire collection.
-
B. Lindsey
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Film:
3 |
DVD: 5 |
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NEVER
SAY NEVER AGAIN U.K.
- U.S.A. - W. Germany (1983)
MGM/Fox
Home Entertainment
PG |
Color |
134 Min. |
R1 - NTSC
DVD Released: March 24, 2009
.........
It
seems impossible, but in at least one instance Sean Connery as
James Bond actually made Roger Moore look good. Coming just a
few months after the release of Octopussy,
this non-canonical 'rogue' 007 production brought Connery back
to the role some twelve years after Diamonds
Are Forever. He needn't have bothered. Since
it's a remake of 1965's Thunderball
the film ironically suffers from both a 'been there, done that'
tiredness and a lack of the familiar, beloved Bond staples, notably
the gun barrel opening and distinctive James Bond theme. Once
again the suave secret agent vies with ruthless SPECTRE operative
Largo (this time played by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer)
for possession of two stolen nuclear warheads. Some
of the major locations are the same
the English health clinic, the Bahamas
although there's far less underwater action than in the original.
NSNA tries a more humorous approach,
but the campy script by Lorenzo Semple Jr. (the '60s Batman
TV series, Flash
Gordon) usually misses the mark; you'll be groaning rather
than chuckling in most instances. Irvin Kershner's journeyman
direction
fails to add any zip to the proceedings, falling flat in the sparse,
perfunctory action scenes. Composer Michel Legrand contributes
a dreadful score (complete with excruciatingly awful theme song)
which definitely drags the film down a few notches. At least the
cast is enjoyable, especially Brandauer's quirky psycho-villain
and Barbara
Carrera (Lone Wolf McQuade) as his
glamorous and lethal henchwoman, Fatima Blush. Edward
Fox is a younger but even stuffier (and more exasperated) M; blaxploitation
vet Bernie Casey is a cool Felix Leiter and the great Max Von
Sydow an ideal Blofeld, but disappointingly they're given very
little to do. A 29-year old Kim Basinger is on hand for some nice
eye candy. And Connery, although up to the challenge and quite
fit for his age, is slathered with so much makeup and skin bronzer
that he looks like a wax mannequin of himself his Q Branch-issue
toupee definitely fails the field test.
(You really should have said "Never!" again,
Sir Sean.)
Previously released on DVD by Warner Home Video, the new MGM/Fox
disc is touted as a "collector's edition". Its anamorphic
2.35:1 transfer could perhaps be sharper looking but I suspect
the softness of some scenes is due to the way the film was originally
shot; this movie's just never going to look as good as the remastered
"Ultimate" DVDs of the official Bond series. The
5.1 audio track sounds great. Along with the theatrical
trailer and a photo gallery, three featurettes are on hand: The
Big Gamble (16:00), Sean is Back (8:00) and The
Girls of Never Say Never Again (10:00). In
tandem these do a decent job of providing the story behind the
film and its production, although Connery doesn't participate.
An audio commentary with director Kershner is rather boring and
prone to lengthy gaps despite the efforts of moderator Steven
Jay Rubin to keep things moving. (This title is also available
on Blu-ray disc.)
-
B. Lindsey
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Film:
4 |
DVD: 9 |
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