Bliss (1997) was the first effort from writer/director Lance Young, and it is a very good one, but probably not to everyone's taste. Sheryl Lee and Craig Sheffer are married, but he expresses some concern about her on the way to the wedding, as she is compulsive at times. Six months later, the two are in therapy, and we find that they both have "issues" in the way of their happiness, but they do love each other. Then comes the startling revelation, that she has been faking her orgasms. Not long after, Sheffer discovers that Lee is also seeing a sex therapist (Terence Stamp) who "operates on the edge of the law." His theory is that through sexual bliss, people can become cured.

At first, Sheffer is furious, but later listens to Stamp, and becomes his disciple, learning about self-acceptance, tartaric sex, and the nine levels of bliss. Then comes the final revelation, that Lee was sexually molested by her father, but all memory had been repressed. The film had lots of chances to go wrong, but didn't. It treats sexuality between adults on an honest and adult basis, and good writing and good acting kept it on course. Although Lee and Sheffer gave good performances, the film found its pace when Stamp was introduced.

Lee showed breasts in several sex scenes. IMDB readers have this at 5.5 of 10. Ebert was as impressed as I was, and awarded 3 1/2 stars. Critical reaction was 50% positive at Rotten Tomatoes. Apollo has it at 72%, with 77% from readers there. I am not convinced to run out and merge yoga and sex, but the concepts were interesting, and the story avoided all of the expected cliches, so was a fast watch for me. C+.

Movies, Theater, and TV:

Living in Oblivion is a comedy film about making a low-budget film. It's funny, and critics liked it, but commercial audiences were completely uninterested.

• Catherine Keener. (1, 2, 3) Keener has only shown flesh in two movies that I know of, both directed by DiCillo. (There's nothing really showing in Being Malkovich). This is her career-best nudity.

Bliss is basically a sensitive "how to make love to a woman" film, presented like a docudrama, very light on dramatic structure. It is sensitive and mature, although kind of whiffy in a New Age sense. It's also boring and fundamentally unstructured. Talk about gratuitous sex scenes. A sex therapist spends 80% of the film teaching sexual technique to a couple - then the script makes a complete turnaround, and we find out that her sexual dysfunction had nothing to do with his technique at all - she simply had repressed childhood memories that needed to surface. In other words, sexual techniques were irrelevant to the problem, and the first 80% of the film exists only to present sex scenes while we wait for the real movie to begin.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I like gratuitous sex scenes. My only complaint is that a film with gratuitous sex scenes should have sensationalistic, well-lit sex scenes, not those head and shoulders and top-of-breast shots in dark blue light.

• Sheryl Lee (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Updates:

• Updated volumes: Uschi Digard, Asia Argento, Victoria Silvstedt

• Please inform me if any encyclopedia volumes fail to connect, or any other such problems

Other crap

• what is the most romantic movie scene
• Roger Ebert talks about the commercials being shown in movie theaters
• 750 Australian women get naked to protest war
• Courtney Love strips for Prince Andrew
• a classic wicked weasel bikini

Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.

• The yellow asterisks indicate that I wrote the review, and am deluded into thinking it includes humor.
• If there is a white asterisk, it means that there isn't any significant humor, but I inexplicably determined there might be something else of interest.
• A blue asterisk indicates the review is written by Tuna (or Lawdog or Junior or C2000 or Realist or ICMS or Mick Locke, or somebody else besides me)
• If there is no asterisk, I wrote it, but am too ashamed to admit it.

I have attained Nirvana - or perhaps more accurately, I have found "Paradise". On DVD, that is. Sure, I know it isn't Citizen Kane, but really, who would you rather watch - Orson Welles moaning about Rosebud or Phoebe Cates at the absolute peak of her physical perfection romping about naked in the sand and surf?

I thought so. Here's the first installment.

Jr here, adding...a big WOW! These 'caps of Cates are a must see!

Here is the breakdown:

topless...Links 12,13,17,18,19 and 20
rear nudity...Links 14 and 16
topless and rear nudity...Links 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,23 and 44.
frontal nudity...Links 21 and 22
Under water nudity with all 3 B's...Links 24-34 and 38-42
Gorgeous up-close breast views...Links 35,36,37 and 45-47

• Phoebe Cates looking spectacular! (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)

• 1024x768 single frames of some of the best images of the batch. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

• Unknown topless Slave Girl (1, 2, 3)

Today we finish our long look at Kathy Williams and her whipping scene in "The Ramrodder" from 1969.

Kathy showed just about everything in this sexploitation western, the bush was not easy to find but if you look closely at the first 2 caps I think you see it.

This recent Something Weird DVD release was a joy for me to find and the did a good job on this classic movie from that era. They really knew how to do nudity in the good old days not like most modern day flicks that try to hide it in dark scenes. If you are a fan of this genre, you can not go wrong with this movie, lots of extras and a second feature too.

• Kathy Williams (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)

American soprano Laura Aikin is "Lulu" Alban Berg's opera presented in Zurich/Switzerland. See-thru breast and bum views on stage.