Junior threw out his back yesterday, so I'm the host today. Big, big update. 144 pics, seven film clips.

The two latest and greatest web finds:

Carly Pope in a film called Various Positions. This 2002 film came out on DVD about a week ago in Canada. You can find it at amazon.ca and other sources. Here's a teaser:

The hot film clip for the day is The Constant Gardener, the new political thriller with an A-list cast, including Rachel Weisz, who flashes her breasts in this film clip. (Zipped .avi)

Today we take the Time Machine back to 1979 for a look at "The Sensuous Detective", this was a porn film starring Serena, who was well known back then in the porn industry. Back then they made porn films that actually had a little plot and Serena played a detective who  wound up as a "Babe in Bondage." Be warned a couple of these are a little graphic such as Serena tied up doing oral sex.

I apologize for the quality of these, but we had a computer crash yesterday and lost what we were working on, so I dug these up from a very worn VHS tape.  

Hello

Today is the day of the two Valeria's.

First there is Valeria Golino, best known in the States for her role in "Rain Man". As you can see in the Encyclopedia she has never been shy, but I didn't realize that she had allowed herself to be shot by the gyno-cam until I watched "The King's Whore" (1990). These clips and caps come from a Spanish region 2 DVD which is just under 90 minutes long. I believe there is also a region 1 DVD available, but that's just about it I think.

 The movie itself turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me. I had expected some boring 18th century costume drama with overlong dialogues. It was luckily nothing like that. While the direction is a bit static, there is a wide variety of different locations and the sometimes fierce dialogues between the two main characters and their states of mind managed to hold my interest during the entire film. Although the director lost control of the story-line a bit near the end, it doesn't really hurt his film, especially since both lead actors, Valeria Golino and Timothy Dalton, put in a strong performance and held everything together.  

This drama is set at the beginning of the 18th century at the royal court of Piedmont in Turin. Valeria Golino plays the role of the Countess of Verua. She and her husband, the Count, have something strange going for a couple of royals in those days: they married because they are deeply in love with each other. They end up at the royal court and as soon as the King (Timothy Dalton), who isn't used to no as an answer, sees the fresh countess, he wants her to himself. His yearning is such that it becomes an obsession to him.  Pressured and black-mailed by everyone at the court, including by her husband's family and the Queen herself, so the King would become better humoured again, the countess practically has no choice but to give in and become, as the title indicates, the King's whore. She certainly doesn't give away her charms for free and has a large influence on him. The King too is not the easiest of guys to deal with but is he really the brute we are lead to believe he is? And is the initially sweet and innocent countess only bedding him because she has no choice and for personal gain?  

The image quality of this Spanish full frame version DVD could have been sharper and the colours a bit crispier, but it is still acceptable.   All in all this film could have been better, but it's a nice and effective effort as it is that doesn't give you an urge to press the fast forward button. In my opinion this is a solid C. If you re-read Scoop's review in the Movie House you'll notice that we don't exactly share the same view on this one although I can agree with his conclusion. His review, however, refers to the 114 minute region 1 DVD. An additional 15 minutes would probably result in a too slow-paced flick.

Valeria Golino

Film clips (1, 2) (zipped .avis)

Since I mentioned a second Valeria in my introduction it is high time I started dealing with this one. When I saw the vidcaps from François Ozon's "5x2" of Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi on Saturday's Fun House I thought it might be interesting to send in clips.

Zipped .avis: (1, 2, 3)

Let me situate the scene a bit. Valeria and her ex-hubby have just come out of a notary's office where they cut the last bit of red tape that officializes their divorce. They head straight to a hotel for one last fuck for ol'times' sake. Ah those Frenchies...In case you're wondering if her ex is raping her in clip 3, no he isn't. Apparently Madam likes it that way. Am I glad they weren't my neighbors :-)

Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is the sister of top model Carla Bruni and hails from Turin, Italy, where coincidentally Valeria Golino, from Naples, played the King's whore. Tedeschi also won the best actress award for this effort at the Venice Film Festival in 2004.  

MOVIE REVIEWS:

Here are the latest movie reviews available at scoopy.com.

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