Petra Morzé in “Antares” [2004 Austria]

Posted on April 1, 2011 by TR

Götz Spielmann wrote and directed “Antares” in 2004, and while it has received notoriety in some circles, it has been universally applauded as a fine piece of cinema. The film is a result of profound insight into human behaviour coupled with brilliant storytelling and execution. Spielmann uses the mundane cityscape of a Viennese apartment block, picks three couples residing in it, and engages them masterfully as part of his narrative in this gem of a film.

First we are shown Eva’s story – she’s a nurse, mother, and housewife, who has a totally guiltless affair with a travelling businessman following an earlier one-night stand. Then we follow supermarket assistant Sonja, possessive of her lover, and who feels the need to lie in order to keep him, even if she may have a reason to feel suspicious due to his occasional rendezvous with Nicole, a married woman going through separation. These characters – they all have their flaws and some of them do despicable things, but Spielmann bestows great sympathy towards them and tells their story from their perspective. There are no larger than life characters here – they’re ordinary people behaving how ordinary people do, given the circumstances. Yet the film as a whole is extremely absorbing, endearing, and entertaining. Highly Recommended Viewing..!
Amazon.de DVD Link

 

Nudity Compilation 1:
Made of two scenes. Eva accompanies the visiting Tomasz – someone she had a one-night stand with in the past, to his hotel room. The sex they engage in is almost mechanical – they get down to business without any niceties or sweet nothings – as if it was just a biological necessity. Eva is played quite naturally and convincingly by Petra Morzé. The second scene is of young Sonja desperately trying to get pregnant with her boyfriend – she had already lied to him that she was one, and needs to start showing some signs. Her boyfriend’s enthusiasm about becoming a father only ends up making her even more anxious about the baby-thing. Sonja is played by Susanne Wuest.

Petra Morzé and Susanne Wuest in Antares

Petra Morzé in an explicit sex scene, and nudity from Susanne Wuest in “Antares”.


 

Nudity Compilation 2:
These episodes happen in succession. Eva excuses herself from her husband citing night shift duties to spend more time with Tomasz. They experiment and play out their fantasies without inhibition. While Tomasz becomes a voyeur, Eva brings out her latent exhibitionist earning into the open. What’s so refreshing in these scenes is not so much their shenanigans, but how each of them have become open minded and ‘accept’ the other without passing any judgement – which would not be the case in many formal relationships. Their encounters are organic and and almost natural.

Petra Morzé in Antares

Petra Morzé’s character releases her exhibitionist tendencies in this compilation from “Antares”.

 

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Bárbara Goenaga in “Agnosia” [2010 Spain]

Posted on March 31, 2011 by TR

Eugenio Mira’s sumptuous melodramatic thriller-romance “Agnosia” is one of the most visually stunning films I’ve seen this year.

Set in turn-of-twentieth century Barcelona, the story revolves around Joana, the daughter of an industrialist, with an unusual handicap that makes it difficult for her to distinguish shapes and sounds (Agnosia). Woven into the story is industrial espionage, and the lengths to which criminals go to exploit Joana’s illness for extracting her father’s secret formula. They kidnap her without her even noticing it, and force a recently dismissed male servant of Joana’s household, Vicent, to take the place of Joana’s fiancé Carles.

The screenplay is excellent, as is the direction. Not to mention the awesome cinematography and art direction – it was like watching a Visconti film. And all the actors give a sterling performance, in particular the beautiful Bárbara Goenaga who plays Joana. I wouldn’t be surprised if it collects a few awards along the way. The DVD can grace anyone’s library. Needless to say, Highly Recommended Viewing..!

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Elizabeth Cervantes in “Oscura Seducción” [2011 Mexico]

Posted on March 30, 2011 by TR

Walter Doehner’s 2011 drama, “Oscura Seducción” [Eng. Title: Dark Seduction] is about a woman embarking on a passionate fling with her much younger colleague, only to find she’s received much more than she bargained for. The film as a whole is just about average, let down by poor screenplay and performances from some of the main characters. But there are also some creditworthy aspects within the film, like the editing, cinematography and lighting. Doehner is generally a good director, and this isn’t a bad film either, but it is not up to the standard of his earlier film “La Habitación Azul”.

Storyline:
Laura is a cosmetic surgeon in whose successful practice young Gustavo had recently joined as an attendant. He wins her sympathy when he tells her about his need for this job to fund his medical studies. But Gustavo clearly wants more than that, and works on seducing his boss, and also succeeds rather easily – helped by the fact that Laura is single and sometimes lonely. He finds an excuse to move into her home, and promptly tries to take over her life. Laura gets fed up and asks him to leave. But she will realise that he’s not one who’s going to accept rejection that easily.

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Monique van de Ven in “Turks Fruit” [1973 Netherlands]

Posted on March 26, 2011 by TR

Paul Verhoeven’s 1973 wild romance “Turks Fruit” [Eng. Title: Turkish Delight] is considered by many in his country as the best Dutch film ever. And since I’m not Dutch, who am I to argue. I do however agree that it is a beautiful film, full of energy and vigour, and surprisingly, filled with tenderness. Surprising because the protagonist is an impetuous young sculptor who’s initially portrayed as someone reckless and insincere. But as the film unfolds his past, we empathise and perhaps even excuse his excesses.

The film is a semi-autobiographical account of a sculptor-writer, upon whose novel by the same name this film is based. It tells the story of a passionate sculptor, Eric, his past life, and his present. The film is actually quite moving towards the end, but irreverent, sexy and funny all the way through. It is very well directed, shot, and edited, and the performances by all the main actors are top-notch The film was also nominated for an Oscar under Best Foreign Language Film category, and could have won if not for François Truffaut’s “La Nuit Américaine”.

The Nudity: Monique van de Ven and Rutger Haur
As for the nude scenes in the film, they are considered among the all-time classics. Monique van de Ven, who plays Eric’s wife Olga, is a sight to behold – films like these just don’t get made nowadays. I’ve cut these scenes from an excellent quality DVD, and believe these may probably be among the best samples you can find today. If you do like these scenes, you’ll definitely enjoy the full film, and should be well worth your investment. Needless to say, Highly Recommended Viewing..!

Monique van de Ven and Rutger Haur nude in Turks Fruit

Monique van de Ven and Rutger Haur pull out all the stops in this nude-fest of a film, “Turks Fruit” aka “Turkish Delight”.

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Monica Bellucci in “Combien tu m’aimes?” [2005 France, Italy]

Posted on March 25, 2011 by TR

Bertrand Blier is one of those directors you’d either love or simply hate. He is an often misunderstood satirist who let’s a theme run its course, often to the most brutally honest conclusion, in the process throwing sentiment and wishful thinking out of the window.

M. Blier raises some interesting questions in his 2005 comedy drama, “Combien tu m’aimes?” [Eng. Title: How Much do you Love Me?] – what would you do if you won the lottery, can love be purchased, can a prostitute ever cease to be one, can an ordinary person dream beyond his means. His answers to all these questions are there in the film, if you care to see.

This film could have also made a rather good play because the screenplay and situations have a distinctly theatrical feel about it, and the characters are more or less caricatures of themselves. You have the dreary clerk, who propositions a prostitute to live with him – he intends to use the winnings from a lottery for this purpose, the prostitute who likes the idea of change but finds domestic bliss too humdrum, you have her pimp and husband who’s caught between his innate obnoxious nature and feelings of love for her, and you have the clerk’s friend – a doctor who pretends to live with a woman who had died years ago. All these characters play out their roles the way M. Blier sees it. And he shows the middle-finger to those who expect a ‘conventional’ ending. Even some Bertrand Blier fans hate this film, but they forget, this is the way he had always made his films.

There are only a few brief nude scenes in the film, but it is more than made up by the magnetic presence of one Monica Bellucci, who plays the Italian prostitute Daniela, whom bank clerk François hires as a live-in ‘wife’ for 100,000 Euro a month. Sig.ra Bellucci was already forty when she made this film, but gives womenkind a masterclass in the art of seduction and sensuality, using not much more than her eyes and body. If nothing else, the film is worth a sleepless night at least for those God-given curves. I’ve therefore included some non-nude but nevertheless sensual and funny scenes that I believe to be the ‘visual’ highlights of the film, cut straight from my DVD.


Compilation 1: a combination of several scenes:

  1. Daniela takes pity on François’ low esteem and rewards him by being a loving wife.
  2. Daniela and François having sex in the car.
  3. An exhibitionist Daniela gives the poor old doctor heart failure when he’s summoned to examine her nausea – she even throws up in the scene. But, is it just me who thinks even that is somewhat sexy? (I probably need to go and see somebody!)
  4. Mourning over, Daniela asks François to come with her to southern Italy.
Monica Bellucci nude in Combien tu m'aimes

Monica Bellucci at her seductive best in Bertrand Blier’s “Combien tu m’aimes?”


Compilation 2 – made from several scenes:

  1. This is a funny scene – an annoyed neighbour, distracted by Daniela’s loud moans, knocks on their door and asks Daniela not to pretend for the sake of it – she then goes to show them how a real orgasm would actually sound like! The neighbour is played by the sexy and funny Farida Rahouadj.
  2. Daniela is brought back home by Charly, her husband-pimp, after threatening poor old François over the consequences. But she’s by now grown fond of François’ gentle touch and doesn’t quite like Charly’s anymore. When questioned, she tells him that despite knowing who she was, François gave her back her modesty, to which Charly says he too could give her back her modesty. He summons his bodyguards in, and asks them to touch her all they want. Gérard Depardieu plays Charly, and this is probably the weakest character I’ve seen him play –  he was probably returning Blier a favour.
  3. When Charly allows Daniela to return back to François, she finds him busy shagging his next door neighbour. When she knocks on their door for an explanation, he excuses himself by saying he can’t possibly leave her half way, and they ask for a few more minutes to finish the job!
  4. François lets Daniela know that he hadn’t won the lottery after all, and it was just an excuse to get her to live with him. A furious Daniela also appears to be in love, and for a change, he takes her like a man. What’s interesting is Blier shows Daniela crying with ecstasy while making love. Hmmm…!
Monica Bellucci and Farida Rahouadj nude in Combien tu m'aimes

Both Monica Bellucci and Farida Rahouadj vie for our attention in Bertrand Blier’s “Combien tu m’aimes?”.

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Posted in Bertrand Blier, France, Monica Bellucci | Tagged , , | 2 Comments