Fulvue Drive-In.com
Current Reviews
In Stores Soon
 
In Stores Now
 
DVD Reviews, SACD Reviews Essays Interviews Contact Us Meet the Staff
An Explanation of Our Rating System Search  
Category:    Home > Reviews > Erotic > Drama > Art Of Love (aka Ars amandi/1983/Severin DVD)

Art Of Love (aka Ars amandi/1983/Severin DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C-     Film: C-

 

 

Walerian Borowczyk is a director of stylish erotic films from the 1970s which peaked with his unusual film The Beast (1975, reviewed elsewhere on this site; see link below) and was talked up as an important director who may have been “combining” art and erotica, but it was more hype than substance and he only gained a cult following.  Still, some people get a kick out of his work, but the work has not dated well, even relatively newer films like Art Of Love (aka Ars amandi/1983) now on DVD from Severin.

 

Considered the final film in his “Immoral Trilogy” after Immoral Women and The Beast, Art Of Love seems like an afterthought and as if he were trying to create a rebuttal against Caligula (also reviewed on this site) as failed film with his own answer to it.  No sex tyrant is here, but the look and the period are practically the same throughout (8 A.D. versus Guccione’s surreal, renamed time period) and like The Beast, bestiality is a theme, but it is here trying to be profound and abstract.  Too bad it does not work.

 

Many of the scenes are narrated by a teacher explaining “love” to his class while everything else but is going on, though this is not trying to be a comedy, is hard to take seriously.  The women are shot in diffusion, even to the point of wearing sheer materials often.  Yes, we got the point, which defines how over obvious this is.  Even in its 97 minutes, uncut version, the erotica is limited and can be unintentionally campy.  To some fans, that might be the point, but unless you like the director’s work, you will not be too impressed.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image is from a dated print with scattered instances of damage throughout.  It looks faded, so color only occasionally looks good, but the film needs more restoration.  Fleshtones are also foiled by this limit, along with more grain than should be present in a 1980s film.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is dubbed English and is still very weak, distorted and as constant background hiss, even if it is on a low level.  The combination looks more like an early 1970s print.  The only extra is the original foreign trailer.

 

For more on The Beast, try this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6670/La+B%C3%AAte+(La+Bete/The+Beast

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


Marketplace


 
 Copyright © MMIII through MMX fulvuedrive-in.com