Love (Rhoades)

Front Row at the Movies

“Love” Is 3D Art-House Porno

Reviewed by Shirrel Rhoades

I still have a copy of the old Terry Southern satire, a book titled “Blue Movie.” In it, a director decides to make a big-budget Hollywood movie that features real sex.

Not a bad strategy, if you want to get attention as a cutting-edge filmmaker.

Argentine director Gaspar Noé takes a page from Southern, for his new movie -- titled “Love” -- graphically shows his stars having sex.

Sure, there have been hints of this in other movies. Donald Sutherland got pretty intimate with Julie Christie in Nicholas Roeg’s “Don’t Look Now.” And didn’t Shia LaBeouf do the dirty deed in Lars von Tier’s “Nymphomaniac”? Sure looked like it.

Well, there’s no question about Karl Glusman, Aomi Muyock, and Klara Kristin giving their all in Noé’s fourth film, the story of an American film student in Paris who discovers the meaning of the French phrase, ménage à trois.

You can certainly count on Murphy (Glusman) and his girlfriend Electra (Muyock) for some hot-pillow action. Then they invite their cute neighbor (Klara Kristin) into their bed. Little do they know how the dynamics of their relationship will change as the trio fornicates in ever-shifting ways.

Jumping back and forth in time, the nub of the storyline is that unstable Electra goes missing while Murphy is living with his new partner. Electra’s mother is worried because the girl’s known to be sometimes suicidal. This news sends Murphy into a fit of depression, shared with us in a mopey voice-over.

“Love” is making its lascivious appearance this week at the Tropic Cinema.

Cinematographer Benoît Debie deserves credit for the hazy eroticism of the explicit sex scenes. From bed to bed, partner to partner, and pretzel-like combinations, his steady camera does more to advance the storyline than do the actors.

Gaspar Noé found his leading man through a friend; the two girls he reportedly picked up in a bar. Guess they wanted to be movie stars.

However, the biggest star in the film is Glusman’s larger-than-life member -- or so it looks up there on the silver screen. Filmed in 3D, this apendage offers a standout performance.

“This film is literally a 90-minute porno hiding behind a 2-hour art film,” grumbled one straight-laced moviegoer.

Yes, but Terry Southern would have approved.
srhoades@aol.com