Thursday

Feast of Love

(2007)

I've already covered this, but the DVD was worth a little extra time because it includes a full screen version on the flip side, and it's one of those "full camera frame" transfers, so it includes some additional nudity. There is a long look at Radha Mitchell's butt in a sex scene, and then there is a little bit of butt from Stana Katic, who played Selma Blair's lesbian lover and showed nothing in the theatrical release.

Film clips:

Here is the new nudity:

Stana Katic (with Selma Blair)

Radha Mitchell

 

 

And here are some new looks at the familiar sights:

Radha Mitchell

Alexa Davalos

 

 

 

  • * Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe).

  • * White asterisk: expanded format.

  • * Blue asterisk: not mine.

  • No asterisk: it probably sucks.

OTHER CRAP:

Catch the deluxe version of Other Crap in real time, with all the bells and whistles, here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

La Grande Bouffe

(1973)

our men, a judge, a master chief, a TV personality, and an airplane pilot, decide to hole up for the weekend in a Paris estate belonging to one of them, and eat themselves to death. It becomes obvious to them after the first night that they will need a little female companionship, so they import a few whores. When some school kids ask to see a famous tree on the grounds, they also meet their teacher (Andrea Ferreol), and invite her to dinner. She accepts, and ends up staying for the duration. The prostitutes eat themselves sick, get bored, and leave. Andrea ends up sleeping in a big bed with all of the men, and ultimately decides to take care of all of them until they accomplish their goal or give up. The men all drop, one after another, after noisy and messy intestinal problems. The airplane pilot is the randiest of the bunch, and the first to go. (He freezes to death in the front seat of a Bugatti in a snow storm.)

La Grande Bouffe is probably the most famous film directed by the arty, eccentric Marco Ferreri, having earned that distinction with the controversy it generated at Cannes, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize, and was nominated for a Golden Palm. Critics were sharply divided on the film's merits. Those who find it disgusting and without merit have ample reason for that view. The story is, quite honestly, rather gross, and the script gives none of the men any motivation to commit suicide, so it seems incongruous and incredible that 4 successful people -- all friends -- should decide to eat themselves to death together.

On the other hand, those who praise the film have justification as well.  One theory is that this film symbolizes the demise of one type of French masculine figure, and that the film is highly irreverent and disrespectful of French society and institutions.

The literary allusions are obscure and seem to be lost in the translation. Perhaps they make it an intelligent film for those who speak French, but my take was somewhat different. It is definitely bathroom humor, but with an all-star cast, including Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Ugo Tognazzi. Several points make the film worthy, in my opinion. The acting is flawless, the set is intricate and the images will be with me for a long time. The best element is Andrea, a fascinating character who made the film for me. She has appetites, both sexual and gastronomic, that far surpass any of the men, but is not self-destructive. She is the only one of the bunch that is giving by nature. The hookers and the men are all self-serving. Maybe the message is that you have to give great pleasure to experience great pleasure.

La Grande Bouffe DVD aka Blow-Out Widescreen (1973)

It is now available from RLDVDs.com on a Widescreen all region PAL. It is in the original French, with optional English subtitles, and includes a 45 minute short subject in English about the director. Previous versions were 4/3 ratio, and are now out of print and expensive when you can find them.

Nudity

Andrea Ferreol shows everything, as does Solange Blondeau as one of the hookers. Monique Chaumette, as another hooker, shows breasts, wearing only a G-string.  The older collages are includes to demonstrate the improved quality of the new source material from rldvds.com.

Andrea Ferreol

 

Older collages


 

Solange Bluteau

 

older collages


 

Monique Chaumette

 

Older collages

 


 

Florence Georgetti (older collages only)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Splatter Beach

(2007)

From the really bad movie realm we have a new one called Splatter Beach. Trust me it is not so bad, that it's good, It's just Bad ! Bad ! Bad ! So bad that Misty Mundae is in it using the name Erin Brown and she keeps her clothes on. Guess they didn't pay her enough.

Erika Smith does show us her boobs before she gets killed off early in the movie. A shame. More nudity from her would have helped. Caps and a clip.

 

 

More tits from Leslie Culton in the shower. Caps and a clip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes and collages

"Friends"

Aisha Tyler

Episode 223

Episode 224

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My next group comes from a disk called Rachel's Angels, which was said to be written and directed by Rachel Elizabeth. Written? Really? No one says a mofoing word. Bunch of gals, most of them silicone sisters, get rid of their clothes and wriggle around a whole lot. So WTF did she write? Words of encouragement? The address of the plastic surgeon who did her boob job? A post-it note on the fridge they all used during the taping? I am confused.

So why did I bother with this thing? It has a mess of Hefmates. Got Audra Lynn and Divini Rae and Ava Fabian...all of whom have done a film or two...and Heather Carolin. And then there is Sheila Levell and Jamie Hammer, who've also did some acting of a sort.  Elizabeth Kelly and Rachel Elizabeth fill out the list of strippers and wigglers. Audra was impressive, Divini was divine and the underused Heather was yummy. The others I could have taken or left. Rachel had a couple of explicit gynocam views. Everyone else was restrained in that department.

Ava Fabian's appearance was unwise. She must have been 45 when this thing was filmed. Once upon a time, 20 years ago, she was a spectacular beauty and there are times in this disk you can still see the wonders of her face. And she has kept in great shape. But, boys, she is old by anyone's definition and the skin and the bod just aren't what they used to be. I kept thinking of Chris Rock's comment about Janet Jackson's Super Bowl malfunction - a 20-yr-old tittie? That's everybody's tittie. A 40yr-old tittie? That's just your man's tittie. Ava should keep hers under wraps except for her man.

This is the fourth Peach DVD I have capped and maybe it's time to draw some general conclusions. From the perspective of someone who goes through a disk frame by frame I can see three things go into making a first-rate DVD - 1) Lots of great looking gals; 2) Competent filmmaking skills. You know, lighting and framing and all that sorta stuff you learn in a film course at your local junior college; 3) DVD rendering that compresses the whole thing so that motion chatter and all that sorta mess is missing. In that context, Peach gets the first part dead right and the last two dead wrong. In disk after disk and scene after scene, the lighting sucks and the cinematographic skills are nonexistent. Must of us did a better job filming Christmas morning. And then all of us who try it do a way better job making DVDs than these bozos. They screw up so often and results in such an egregious result that you gotta figure the people at Peach just don't give a flying fuck. Don't care about the product, don't care about the audience.

Too bad. Because their disks could be contenders. Instead, they are just bums. Face it, Charlie, they're just bums.

 

Today's featured performer: Elizabeth Kelly


Film clips


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ever-dour Isabelle Huppert in Passion
Grace Jones in Gordon's War
Maria-Carla Boscono
Raquel Zimmerman
A film clip of Marla Sokoloff and Monika Schnarre in Love on the Side. (Sample right)
A film clip of Margaret Scarborough and Layla Razzari from Wrestlemaniac

A film clip of Kelly Carlson and Anna Lynne McCord in this week's Nip/Tuck. There's no nudity, but it's pretty hot stuff.

Several film clips of Valentina Vargas in Street of No Return

Here are more of the scandal pictures from the Hong Kong superstars. The ones of Cecilia are high quality, the ones of Gillian ... not so much.

Gillian Chung

 

Cecilia Cheung