The Lovers’ Guide: The Essential Collection + The
Original Collection + Sexual
Positions (1991 – 2012/Truemind DVDs)/Yoga
Is: A Transformational Journey (2011/Magnolia DVD)
Picture: C+/C Sound: C+ Extras: C-/C+ Main Programs: B/C+
Now for
some titles in the self-help, special interest and personal improvement
categories…
Back in
1991, there was no Internet, sexuality had not become a crude media joke and society
was comparatively less violent. In that,
books have existed for a long time and especially since the 1960s about sex and
having it. Before XXX hardcore sex films
staring in the early 1970s, films about hygiene and health masqueraded as an
excuse to show naked bodies, clinical as they were. When home video arrived as the XXX films
moved to cheap analog tape, such book guides began tom find themselves acted
out.
In England where nudity and sex were more highly
censored than in the U.S.,
a series called The Lovers’ Guide
debuted and it was the first time you could get nudity in a mainstream video
product there. The programs were a big
success and continued to be produced for a while. Now, three sets of them, including two multi-
DVD sets in The Essential Collection
and The Original Collection plus the
single Sexual Positions has been
issued by Truemind. Amusing in some
ways, they are narrated and pretty thorough about their subject matter. Aimed at heterosexual audiences, they have
aged well and are decent in accomplishing what they set out to show and
explain.
Stil very
much for mature audiences, the sex and discussion thereof is very graphic if
matter-of-fact. Besides the
self-explanatory obviousness of some of this, each box set has five DVDs. The
Essential Collection includes Secrets
Of Sensational Sex, a repeat of the single DVD here & one geared
towards making women happy, while The
Original Collection has separate discs for making each gender happy and
both start with basics only to move onto what it sees as moiré advanced
sex. Extras appear on the single Sexual Positions with Interviews and
Extra Scenes, but that’s it. Still, this
is a landmark series of sorts and whichever titles you choose, you will not be
disappointed with the aforementioned in mind.
Sometimes
related to body and mind health as well, Yoga
Is: A Transformational Journey (2011) is our latest look at this form of
physical well-being and meditation. We
have covered the subject several times before (put Yoga in the search engine
and find out) but this is Suzanne Bryant directing and telling her own story of
how she started yoga just to try it and it landed up helping her out very
much. Then the autobiographic
documentary moves into the yoga subject more specifically and is often like any
other good title on the subject.
As
compared to the past entries, this is as good as any of them and if you are
interested in the subject, starting here is not a bad idea. However, like all previous entries, it is
only as good as your interest in it. If
you are not, you will become quickly bored, though she is well-spoken. Additional Interviews and trailers are the
only extras.
The 1.33
X 1 image on the Guide DVDs are not
bad for their age, though it is hard to tell if it is PAL tape or PAL copies of
16mm film or what, but it is not bad despite its age looks better on average
than the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Yoga which is shot on digital video of limited definition and is
softer than expected throughout. The
lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the Guide
DVDs are simple, but just fine, reminding one of similar titles from Playboy
Video back in the day, while the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Yoga is just spreading its native
stereo around and is really no sonically better.
- Nicholas Sheffo
