Love Scenes was part of a small wave of feature-length films produced for the Playboy Channel between 1983-1987, but unlike other entries (including Radley Metzger's The Princess and the Call Girl) the fledgling cable TV station actually produced this film, which was also released as Ecstasy – the name that actually appears in the main title sequence, but doesn't really reflect the film's storyline of an established actress (exploitation actress Tiffany Bolling) who set aside her conservative nature and agrees to appear in her husband's erotically charged film.
Love Scenes actually has some name actors – Britt Ekland appears as a lesbian stills photographer who gives Bolling a sense of self-confidence and pride in her own beauty; Julie Newmar portrays a former actress-turned-screenwriter who watches her script veer towards a completely radical direction; and veteran character actor Jack Carter is the stereotypical cigar-chomping, money-hungry producer – but most were past their peak years in feature films, and this production is just another TV movie spiced with frank nudity and provocative sexual situations. (Some of the scenes are hazy and vaselined around the edges, but there's genuine moments of pickles and beavers.)
The production values are marginally above-average; dated styles notwithstanding, the décor and costumes are clean and well-photographed, although the cinematography is largely restricted to gauzy images and occasional lighting blunders that has actors walking close to a key light and being harshly illuminated (as in a poolside scene, near the end).
The film's worst aspect is Tony Scotti's awful score that repeats the same melodic phrase over and over and over again on pseudo-sultry sax, backed by Goblinesque keyboards. Granted the whole production was aimed at the Playboy audience, but Scotti's theme is tracked over virtually every scene and sexual nuance, and it's an amateurish score that undermines Bolling's earnest efforts to transcend a wan character.
Bolling is effective in moments of introspection, but in playing a woman who finds her personal life taking on aspects of the film script – including a dalliance with her leading man – her limitations as a thespian are glaring, and intense emotional outbursts are often accompanied by weird hand flailing and whiny dialogue delivery.
The nudity is competently shot, and Bud Spencer's last directorial credit is surprisingly well edited, including an excellent continuity cut between Bolling's hesitance and subsequent whoopee session with co-star Daniel Pilon. Spencer also lets the sex scenes play out, so fans of gauzy erotica should be pleased with long shots of Bolling in R-rated activities.
The transfer from Private Screening is decent, given the original film was never meant for anything more than a cable TV airing and home video rentals, but it's a shame the label didn't bother with any bio material or some background on the film. It's a minor entry in TV erotica, but certainly the cast makes the film more unusual than its cousins.
Bud Spencer's prior sparse directorial efforts include the dopey The Beach Girls (1982), and the X-rated musical version of Alice in Wonderland (1976), starring Kristine DeBell.
Tiffany Bolling's prior credits include the Duo-Vision thriller Wicked, Wicked (1973), The Candy Snatchers (1973), The Centerfold Girls (1974), the cult-classic Kingdom of the Spiders (1977), Open House (1987), and Visions (1996).
This title is also part of a wave of TV erotica co-produced by veteran crapmeister Harry Alan Towers, which includes Black Venus (1983), Love Scenes (1984), Frank and I (1984), and Christina y la reconversión sexual / Christina (1984).
© 2007 Mark R. Hasan
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