Saturday, May 9, 2009

Behind the Green Door (1972)


Behind the Green Door (1972)

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068260/

Directors: Artie Mitchell & Jim Mitchell

Review: 1972 was, of course, the year that porno briefly became "chic", entirely due to a triumvirate of films that have lost little of their iconic stature three and a half decades further down the line. Queens hairdresser turned quim artist Gerard Damiano unleashed the double whammy of DEEP THROAT and DEVIL IN MISS JONES while the ultimately tragic Mitchell Brothers pooled their considerable talents and resources for the very different BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR. Different in its approach to erotica, making a serious bid for highbrow respectability rather than just content to stimulate its audience's groin area, it was clearly intended to appeal to women as well as men. As a result, the female contingent of its viewer-ship during its initial theatrical run at the brothers' fabled O'Farrell cinema was rumored as being uncharacteristically high. Though exact numbers are nigh impossible to come by, it has also been documented elsewhere that an inordinate amount of female buyers procured the cassette when it was launched on its particularly profitable video career. Supporting the distinction between "rape fantasy" (fuelled by bodice-ripping romance novels) and the disturbing reality, GREEN DOOR details the feature-length subjugation of one woman – fair-haired all American girl Gloria Saunders, portrayed by former Ivory Snow model Marilyn Chambers in her indelible adult baptism by fire – abducted and taken to an underground sex club where for one night she's told she will be publicly "loved like she has never been loved before" with freedom returned to her the next morning.

Story was taken from an anonymously penned pamphlet that has been passed around among soldiers ever since the Second World War, framed by the supposed eye witness account of two "Everyman" types, strapping young Barry (George S. MacDonald, the boyfriend from David Gerber's superlative SCHOOLGIRL) and elderly Dudley (character actor Yank Levine, who played Abraham in the Mitchells' ill-fated epic SODOM & GOMORRAH) to an inquisitive diner cook. Helpless to save the girl Barry had been flirting with mere moments before, they watch her being dragged (by Jim & Artie no less !) into a car and speeding off. As coincidence would have it, she turns out to be the main attraction at the mysterious Green Door Club both men frequent later that night. Making their bid for real world respectability, the Mitchells enlisted a pair of minor celebrities for brief appearances at this stage. Former pro football player for the Oakland Raiders Ben Davidson plays the bouncer and Angela Castle a/k/a "Toad Attell", who was a regular on Sid Caesar's family-oriented YOUR SHOW OF SHOWS, performs her patented mime routine which stands as one of few elements that really date this film. Though she's an unwilling participant at first, Gloria gradually grows to enjoy the erotic experiences afforded by her captors, a rapt audience progressively partaking which shifts the film's focus from stage to auditorium. In a key element to women's enjoyment of the premise, Gloria is immediately soothed by a sympathetic, tellingly mature matron (with the hint of a British accent, supplied by Linda Grant who thereby has the most extensive dialog scene in the movie) who assures that no harm will come to her and that she should just open herself up – okay, you can stop sniggering ! – to the physical pleasures that await her. Ravishment by half a dozen women in stylized nun garb, beautifully shot at strangely skewed angles by regular Mitchell DoP Jon Fontana (who worked on AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A FLEA and their rarely revived CB MAMAS), leads to Gloria's response to the call of nature in the shape of the industry's original black stallion Johnny Keyes in an all time classic encounter. No longer on the receiving end, our silent heroine reciprocates in the legendary trapeze number with Mick Jones (another man of color, also in Ann Perry's COUNT THE WAYS and Gary Graver's V – THE HOT ONE) and an early appearance by Tyler Reynolds, culminating in the extended solarized spurting that now unfortunately seems mostly like the brothers showing off their technical prowess as it tends to stop the film dead for a ten minute stretch. The highly ritualized theatrical "performance" contrasts effectively with the spontaneous action bursting out among the rapt audience, including an imposing obese lady whose presence has engendered reviewer references to Fellini, along with a recent French critic likening the film to the works of Godard and Ozu in light of the brothers' documented film school training. Great, so at least I don't have to venture down a path that can logically only lead to ridicule ! More than just a hardcore history relic, GREEN DOOR actually holds up well for most part, save for its few dated aforementioned stylistic touches. By restricting their central heroine to complete silence throughout, the Mitchells adopted the "blank screen" approach onto which each viewer can project his or more specifically her private fantasies. There had been cute girls in porn prior to 1972, like Tina Russell for instance, but Chambers was without doubt the first truly beautiful woman to enter the industry, her until then minor real world recognizability facilitating audience identification. It may also be an important factor, as critic Danny Peary points out, that the sexual feats she performs are relatively modest in comparison to those achieved by Linda Lovelace and Georgina Spelvin around the same time and therefore quite attainable for the average Jill Public. Further proof that the genre was still in its infancy and feeling its way is the haunting and utterly non-porno type music composed by Daniel Le Blanc which perfectly accompanies this timeless and still tantalizing classic.



Torrent:
http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/3708238/Classic_XXX_-__072_-_Behind_the_green_Door.3708238.TPB.torrent

ANITA [Christina Lindberg]


ANITA [Christina Lindberg]


IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069718/

Director: Torgny Wickman

Review: Anita is a girl of only 16 years, and while she has developed early physically, to a mature woman, she is psychologically completly ruthless. Her relationship the her parents and her friends is very poor and she is regarded with contempt by the people around her, even by the men who so ruthlessly use her. During her troubles she meets Erik, a young psychology student. Gently and carefully he begins to dispell her psychological blocks. In the course of this treatment she reveals to him some of the shocking espisodes of her previous experience and how an inner compulsion forces her into humiliating debauchery in dangerous environments. Erik believes he has the solution to Anita's problems: to let her move into an artist's communal experiment, of which he is already a member. The common interest of this collective is largely the performing of classical music. Anita's prosence in the collective, however, is regarded by some of the other girls as highly provocative. Anita's nymhomania is her means of protest against her parents, school, society and her own enviroment (her whole life situation). Erik holds a scientific theory that Anita will be free of her sexual fixation if she were once able to experience a true orgasm. He therefore tries to get her to see clearly, and with some insight, the breadth of her psychological situation. Against the background of the intensive battle that Anita carries om with the self-destructive drives within her, grows the depth of feeling that bind her and Erik together. She is no longer simply a "case" for him. Anita discovers that Erik is the one man whom she both wants to, and can, remain together with.



Torrent:
http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/3903385/Anita.1973.DVDRip.XviD-FiCO.3903385.TPB.torrent

A Chinese Torture Chamber Story 1995


A Chinese Torture Chamber Story 1995


IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113757/

Director: Bosco Lam



Review: saw this singular film double-billed with The Naked Killer (one of my all time favorite movies). Chinese Torture Chamber is weird through and through. It takes place sometime ago in China's glorious past, when the courts utilized Spanish Inquisition-like techniques to get the truth out of defendants. The opening scenes are a fairly graphic, though oddly funny, demonstration of ghastly tortures. Then, we are taken to the estate of a rich prince, married to an insatiable princess. He tries to please her by employing exotic "marital aids", but to no avail. She seeks fulfillment through another man. Sexually curious housemaids secretly watch their trysts through holes in the rice paper walls.
One is caught, and becomes the subject of the wrathful princess' ire.
Throughout the rest of the movie, as told in flashbacks, this poor maid
must prove her innocence of murder (by exploding penis!). The court systematically tortures her and the prince (a suspected accomplice) first by spanking, then through more excruciatingly depicted techniques.
What's odd about all these precedings is that they are simultaneously horrifying, erotic and funny. Kind of like the Japanese film Tokyo Decadence. Oh yes, there is one sequence that totally blew my mind: The prince spies two heroes flying through the trees, fighting each other kung fu-style, ripping each others' clothes off (ends up being a man and a woman), and then f***ing while still mid-air! Only Hong Kong could come up with a "porno/horror/fantasy/comedy".

Torrent:
http://www.mininova.org/get/192359

Gunda Hindi Desi Bollywood Cult Classic

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497915/



Director: Kanti Shah

Review: Gunda is a 1998 movie directed by the Kanti Shah, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Mukesh Rishi and Shakti Kapoor. It was produced by Anil Shah, written by Bashir Babbar, and the musical score was provided by Anand Raj Anand. Since its release, it has attained a cult follwing among pan-indian audience.

IMDB User Rating : 8.4
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497915/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunda_(film)

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who have seen �Gunda�. And those who shall see it.
This film is not about Lord Mithun himself. This is the saga of all the divine characters with their divine introductions and dialogs, with Lambu Atta topping the list. The brute intensity of every single soliloquy from Lambu Atta and the regiment leaves you stunned with tears in your eyes and your guts aching. This is not just a movie; Its a celebration of emotions, love, family ties, clichés, political satires and the biggest of all - objectivity of death and forced fornication.
Its still debated whether this movie was meant to be this funny or its just a co-incidence. I don't know what did the actors have in their mind when they were delivering their lines. They must be suppressing their laughter so hard that it reflects on a subconscious level. A very serious warning though; don't watch for more than 20 minutes at a stretch. You might even die of over-dose.
Undoubtedly, its the most crafted movie of all times. Kanti Shah and Mithun Da have outdone themselves once more. Enjoy!!

Torrent:
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4484708/Gunda_Hindi_Desi_Bollywood_Cult_Classic_x264_320x240