Bookmark scoopy.net or the members page, not here

Monday's Sir Realist Once again, The Realist has been watching those art movies so we don't have to. Truthfully, I like Peter Greenaway's movies. They are totally non-commercial, elitist, have no appeal to a mass market, and are obscure and eccentric. So what? They are also innovative and uniformly excellent. Movies have been around for about a century, and there isn't much around that isn't just a rehash of something already done. Peter Greenaway, on the other hand, is a complete original. After having viewed so many movies in my life, I really appreciate one that breaks the barriers of conventional thinking. These caps are Vivian Wu from "The Pillow Book", a movie about a woman whose erotic stimulation, and whose eventual literary genius, comes from creating rich calligraphy on skin. There is more to it than that. There is revenge and perversity aplenty, and a powerful and personal aesthetic. Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". You can't see her face clearly, but the frame does feature a shot up into some of her more intimate areas. It also features Obi-Wan Kenobi's light saber. (Ewan McGregor) Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". Vivian Wu, "The Pillow Book". There must be a naked body on screen during about half of this movie. Unfortunately for us, it's usually a guy. BD If you think The Realist is kinda highbrow, you may want to skip this, because BD makes the rest of the page look as trashy as a pair of Old Navy Drawstring Pants hanging on the clothesline in a trailer park. Last time he brought us nekkid ladies in Tannhauser, and this week it's the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg doing Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. As for Prokoviev, I had trouble following "Peter and The Wolf", and I never made it to St Petersburg because I could never figure how to get across that bridge from Tampa. the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg doing Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg doing Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg doing Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg doing Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg doing Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg doing Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. You have to see this one. My kind of opera, complete with beaver shots. Snappy Pappy Dropping the level of culture down to our normal level, it's Snappy Pappy's turn. He's another one of the weekend feature players on our page, and he features bims aplenty. Here's Dona Spangler in "Compromising Situations" Stacy Foreman in "Compromising Situations". more of Stacy Foreman in "Compromising Situations". Margo Tucker in "Compromising Situations". Cheryl Rixon in "Used Cars" (which is actually a pretty funny movie). some unnamed extras in "Used Cars" . Sky Solari in "Compromising Situations". more of Sky Solari in "Compromising Situations". Lori Jo Hendrix in "Prison Heat". AP Our man in Cologne was under the weather last week, but he made up for it with about a trillion or so files this week. Here we go with the first dozen or so. More tomorrow. The first six are Jaime Pressly in "Poison Ivy: New Seduction" Jaime Pressly in "Poison Ivy: New Seduction" . Jaime Pressly in "Poison Ivy: New Seduction" . Jaime Pressly in "Poison Ivy: New Seduction" . Jaime Pressly in "Poison Ivy: New Seduction" . Jaime Pressly in "Poison Ivy: New Seduction". She sure has some nice buns. Sandrine Holt in "Rapa Nui". Sandrine Holt in "Rapa Nui". . Sandrine Holt in "Rapa Nui". . Sandrine Holt in "Rapa Nui". . Shiva Cosma Hagen in "The Angel of Death" . The Industry Insider Haven't heard from this guy in a while, and always enjoy the stuff he shoots. He has photographed many of the women on these pages. You've probably seen his work, although you don't realize it because he photographs, for example, some of the video box covers for those tapes you rent from Blockbuster, and other material for other media. Anuway, the most interesting stuff he sends in comes from outtakes and setup shots from his shoots, or photos from his parties. Here's Erica Gavin goofing at one of his parties. She is best known as "Vixen" in Russ Meyer's "Vixen". (She was only 19 when she made that film) Erica Gavin. Master Bagger Nice stuff, seldom seen. Kelly McGillis in "Grand Isle" Kelly McGillis in "Grand Isle". I thought the balance in Bagger's layout of the pictures to be especially good. Kelly McGillis in "Grand Isle". Sunday At the movies with Johnny Web (and others) Mr. Web capped Thandie Newton in "Beloved". This is the scene where she "disappears" from the porch. The pregnant stomach must be prosthetic. The rest appears to be Ms. Newton. Beloved is a good movie which was doomed from the start. Doomed to critical failure because the primary audience (people who loved the book) was destined to be disappointed by any movie which couldn't capture the mystic-poetic tone of the book, and the mass audience is just going to find this movie overlong, complicated, and arty. The same dichotomy doomed the box office from the start. After all, the potential target audience (fans of the brilliant book) is a small one. Personally, I liked the movie a lot. My only complaint was that in bringing the character of Beloved into corporeal reality, they spoiled the mystery. In the book, she was seen through the eyes of others- was she real, was she supernatural, was she an imposter, was she merely a symbolic device used by the author, was she just an imaginary creation of Sethe's guilt? The book invited you to participate in thinking about this. The movie just held her up and said "here she is". Worse, the director and actress conspired to create the character as kind of a female Jerry Lewis without the humor, all silly voices and uncontrolled limbs. I hated that artistic choice, frankly. But forget about the interpretation of the book. If you view the movie as a separate entity, it isn't bad. Good atmosphere, excellent imagery, good acting (say what you will about Oprah, but if she had committed to an acting career instead of - well, instead of whatever the hell she is now - she cudda been a contender), good interweaving of time periods, remembrances, reality .... It's basically a decent film about how extraordinarily stressful circumstances cause good people to lose their moral compasses. The period of slavery and the Civil War did a lot of that for America, and this film attempts a catharsis. It wasn't the book, but I liked it. Thandie Newton in "Beloved", more of the same scene. As for the book ... if you haven't read it, it is just flat-out dead solid perfect. A great work of literature about an important topic, and one of the fiction masterpieces of the 20th century. A serious book, not an easy read, and filled with symbolism and magical overtones, but I wish I could write something one third as good as this. Thandie Newton in "Beloved". Rear view as Oprah leads her out to the porch. Thandie Newton in "Beloved". The scene where she shows Danny Glover her "inside place". Certified fully 100% Oprah-free. In a strange way, "The Outlaw Josie Wales" takes up the same themes as "Beloved". Josie is a simple Missouri farmer whose home is looted and his family slaughtered by marauding Kansas "redlegs". He ends up joining a Confederate renegade unit which was pretty much built on the same tenuous moral ground as the redlegs themselves. When the Civil war was over ... well, the fat lady still hadn't sung. The hatred was still there, the country was filled with displaced slaves trying to find a new existence, and carpetbaggers trying to scam everyone. The Federal Government, which had tried to obtain the moral high ground in the Civil War by pontificating about the human rights of the slaves, turned around and started taking a lot of those same rights away from the indigenous native tribes. It was an ugly time which made people do ugly things. So the farmer Josie Wales, who didn't even know how to shoot a gun, became the ruthless slayer of hundreds and a hunted man. Clint Eastwood directed this movie, and he did a great job. He was still under the spell of Sergio Leone a bit, so there are a few too many squinty-eyed close ups for my taste, but this is a great epic Western. The photography is outstanding, the minor characters are great (especially Chief Dan George as an old Indian with a sharp wit), the history and period reproductions are accurate, the music is from that era, and Eastwood is excellent at telling an economical straightforward narrative yarn. I don't know if it is the best Western ever, but it's probably my favorite. There's only one bad thing about it, and here she is. Sondra Locke. Sondra Locke, "The Outlaw Josie Wales". Eastwood had a lot of years there when he was the king-hell bullgoose studmuffin of American films. He also has a good reputation as a thoughtful man of integrity, and a great guy to have a beer with. You think he could have parlayed all that into something better than a relationship with this reputedly ill-tempered, average-looking woman. Sondra Locke, "The Outlaw Josie Wales". And it's bad enough he slept with her, but did he also have to keep hiring her? Talk about an almost non-existent nipple-peek. If you look long enough and hard enough, you might just catch the very top of Annabella Sciorra's aureola in "Internal Affairs". By the way, if Richard Gere is such a big star, why is it that very movie he makes sucks canal water? "Pretty Woman" wasn't bad, but that was 10 years ago. I think he's OK, but in the past decade, his only decent flick was Primal Fear. This guy has been in more bad flicks than Peter Cushing. Cynthia Rothrock in "Portrait in Red" (no nudity, but close). This is the movie written and directed by Gib T. Oidi (Big Idiot spelled backwards). Possibly he didn't sign his real name for fear he could be prosecuted for unnatural acts against humanity by the Nuremberg courts. These were taken from a QuickTime movie made by Aussie. Catherine Bell in "Hotline, the Brunch Club". I know your question. "Why no face and naughty bits in the same frame". Sorry, I don't know the answer. Catherine Bell in "Hotline, the Brunch Club" also from Aussie: Raelee Hill in "Hotel de Love". She's an Ozzie TV actress, and this is her only feature listed in IMDb. I don't know her, but she is one serious major-league babe and a half. "Hi, mom, I just got my first movie role. I'm going to be in Hotel de Love. No, it's not that kind of movie. No, mom, don't rent out my room. Mom? Mom?" At the movies with RDO RDO is one of the most prolific and proficient producers of material on the internet, and always a star of our Sunday edition. If you are a fan of the small-breasted look, Jane Birkin is one of your goddesses, and here she is in "French Intrigue" Jane Birkin in "French Intrigue" Jane Birkin in "French Intrigue" Jane Birkin in "French Intrigue" Jane Birkin in "French Intrigue". RDO wanted me to tell you that if you collect his stuff and have old RDO pictures of Birkin in this movie, please apply a nuclear weapon to the old ones and replace them with these new ones Here's the sexy Monica Belucci in "Dracula", the first of five new DVD caps from that flick Sadie Frost in "Dracula" Michaela Bercu in "Dracula" Winona Ryder in "Dracula" Florina Kendrick in "Dracula" At the movies with PAL Here's another one of the regular Sunday features, vidcaps from PAL. He's always on the lookout to find new material, or to upgrade some of the more familiar stuff. I'll bet not many of you have seen this movie. Sheri Stowe in "The Gold Coast". You probably expect this movie to be awful. It's a made-for-cable flick starring David Caruso, and it's already in the $2.99 sale bin at Best Buy. Well guess what? It's a pretty darned good movie. It's a good little mystery with fewer cliches than most theater releases of this genre. Caruso is a likeable, well-meaning but not-quite-competent angel to a mafia widow trying to escape the clutches of the baddies. The performances are capable, the sets have a sumptuous look, the head psycho-baddie is both scary and funny. The dialogue has a touch of poetry, and the story is by Elmore Leonard. And, unlike most of these things, the ending fooled me! That alone makes it worth the rental. Funny thing though, they never should have shot Caruso running. He's a macho guy in his bearing and voice, but he runs very strangely, slowly, with his thighs frozen together and his hips swaying from side to side. Kind of destroys the illusion. Helen Hunt in "The Waterdance". Quite a good, sensitive movie, and Helen Hunt naked in her prime. She was well on her way to movie stardom many years ago before her sitcom sidetrack. You may have seen this capped before, but the quality of these is excellent! Lynda Gold in "Caged Heat" Laura Antonelli, one of PAL's favorite actresses, in "L'Innocente" Variety material One of our regulars sent me these with this comment. "This is Cassie Nova. the hype with the pics said that she is the sexiest Turk in the world. Maybe so. She's the only Turk I've ever seen naked" Cassie Nova. I'm no expert on Turkish, but her name doesn't really seem to conjure up those images of the minarets of Istanbul or the sun glistening on the Bosporus. These last three are soft-core porn shots, so I guess she's a tenuous celebrity at best. Cassie Nova. She often screws up at work, but for some reason the honchos at the company always blame it on the boss o' Nova. Cassie Nova. When she and her sister, Debossa, were young, Cassie was always pulling those childish pranks, but her parents always blamed it on Debossa Nova. OK, I've run out of dumb Bossa Nova jokes. Now it's time for some crappy Lambada jokes. Just kidding. This is a very strange picture of Liz Hurley from a Brit tabloid, and she seems to have misplaced her knickers. from "Daysleeper", a helluva find. An amazingly tasteless picture of Eva Herzigova also from Daysleeper, a nipple-slip from skater Sylwia Nowak from Bandit, Jacqueline Pearce's nude scene in "White Mischief". According to the Bandit, she is most famous as Serverlan in the BBC Sci-fi series Blakes 7. Great find from Zardoz. Hannah Schygulla in a Fassbinder movie, "Love is Colder than Death". Personally, my vote goes to Death, unless the love involves Madonna. Saturday Internet Controversy These pictures are supposed to be Linda Rafar of Elite and Edry of KRU, Malaysia's most popular group. These pics are currently THE talk of Southeast Asia. First, go here to Fake Detective's site for a complete description of the controversy, and his analysis of whether the pictures are genuine. Linda Rafar and Edry. The rest of these are the actual pictures. By the way, the general consensus in the newsgroups from the technical guys is that the pictures are real. Linda Rafar and Edry Linda Rafar Linda Rafar and Edry Linda Rafar and Edry Linda Rafar and Edry Linda Rafar and Edry. These last five simply show the head of "Linda" and the love-straw of Edry, if you catch my drift. Linda Rafar and Edry Linda Rafar and Edry Linda Rafar and Edry Linda Rafar and Edry From Flurk First up today, going all the way back to 1974's "Emmanuelle", here is Christine Boisson. Once again, here is Aimee, Heather Graham's little sister, from the movie "Perdita Durango". An excellent collage of Natasha Gregson Wagner in "Modern Vampires". From "Short Cuts", here is Julianne Moore's famous "no pants" scene. Another better look at the movie "Perdita Durango". This time, here is Rosie Perez. One more from "Short Cuts"...great 'caps of Madeleine Stowe. Hold on to your mouse gang...here is a shocker for all of our Euro Scoopy fans...not so much the actress, but the fact that I actually recognize this one! In fact, I even saw the movie! In French! Here is Elsa Zylberstein from the movie "Farinelli: il castrato" A special request for an old roommate of mine....here is Jennifer Connelly from "Mulholland Falls". From Piolin Like I've said before, Piolin does awesome work, but I never know who the women are! Here is another very beautiful woman, Inma Del Moral. Unfortunately, no nudity. Inma Del Moral #2. Inma Del Moral #3. Fun House Variety From Oscar night...here is Halle Berry looking amazing with her cleavage. I was at the store yesterday and saw Rebecca Romijn on the cover of about 43 different magazines! Plus she was on Conan this week, and will be on "Just Shoot Me", next week! Could she get any more exposure? Why Yes! How about the Fun House! From Graphic Response, here is the best see-thru nipple image I've ever seen of the gorgeous supermodel! Ursula Andress has pretty much always been the sexiest of the Bond babes. But look out Ursula! Sophie Marceau and Denise Richards are in the next movie! Anyway...here are some topless vidcaps by Scanman from the movie "Spogliamoci così senza pudor". Ursula Andress from "Spogliamoci così senza pudor" by Scanman #2.