Candida Royalle's Three Daughters
Jan 09 '03
The Bottom Line An example of a "soft" and "romantic" adult film. The sexuality, and attitude, are respectful, but is still tedious as a "film".
A few weeks ago, you’ve more than likely read my review of the XXX film Appassionata, and probably thought to yourself how crazy this man was for actually trying to write a serious essay about something that is virtually impossible to look out without either smirking or recoiling in horror. Well, I can do one better than that, because now for your amusement is yet another review... of a XXX film.
This is a movie I wanted to see, and to talk about, because it is one of Candida Royalle’s productions, through her Femme Productions company. I had already seen One Size Fits All, her latest feature, so I decided to pick up Three Daughters, one of her oldest (from 1986, which surprised me). Femme Productions began when Royalle, a former adult star, wanted to create adult movies that would be couples-friendly. Back in the mid-80’s, such a concept of porn that was friendly to couples, and to women, would have been unheard of, although now, such a phrase is tossed about frequently.
The story is about the sexual experiences of members of a family, and no, it’s not nearly as twisted as it sounds. The household includes the two parents, and their three daughters. The oldest, Michelle, is about to get married, the middle daughter, Jennifer, is a budding composer, and the youngest, Heather, is about to go to college. Since this is an adult movie, the storylines involving all of these people are sexual in nature. The composer has a fling with her piano tutor, as we see right at the start of the film, when they make love on the rug in the living room. The youngest daughter stumbles on to this scene, and watches them. Being sexually inexperienced and curious, she takes this all in, and later on that evening, she explores her own body and her physical reactions.
Michelle is conflicted because she recently received a job in London, and doesn’t want to leave her job, even for marriage. But, luckily, after the two lovebirds have a spirited romp on her bed, he says that he’d do anything for her, even move to London with her.
Michelle’s fiancé has a friend, who joins them in a family dinner. The hope is that Jennifer will actually take a shine to this man (only Heather knows anything about her and the tutor), but doesn’t work. However, Heather soon makes eyes on the friend, and he becomes interested. The two have a courtship, which, naturally, leads to a love scene at the end of the film.
The parents manage to get in a little action, too, as they come to the realization that after this weekend, they will have the house all to themselves. They begin to enjoy their own love scene as well (The woman comments that it would be nice to be able to make some noise again.).
One thing I respected about this adult film is how good-natured it tried to be. While the sex scenes are real, and we see enough evidence to prove it, the camera does not show too much. There isn’t even any needless close-ups of genitals, except when absolutely needed, and there isn’t a single ejaculation shot. Royalle prefers to show the full bodies in action, or the close-ups of the faces of the people involved. As well, the key to this movie is romance. A couple of the men in this piece actually give their loved ones flowers. There’s an impending marriage, of course, and Heather’s relationship with the friend of Michelle’s beau is quite innocent, until they make love of course.
Personally, I enjoyed the lesbian scene with Heather and her college friend. It was incredibly sensual, but not over the top. I also was fairly amused by the scene between the mother and father, since it’s probably not every day that you hear “I love you” and other affectionate words during explicit sex. As well, the scene in which Michelle and her beau have sex is followed by the discussion about the marriage. All of these scenes try to create a sense of affection and warmth, instead of sleaze.
However, this is all offset by the fact that these people have little skill outside of the sex scenes. After about fifteen minutes, the story loses a lot of steam. The characters look like normal people, and are not strange, eccentric, weird.... or very interesting. They are all rather bland. I suppose this is because Royalle wanted this video to show us normal everyday people having sex, but the result makes the video look more like an instructional tape (which may be how some viewers will use it), then a real film.
The production values are pretty ridiculous. The movie is basically one of those amateur productions shot on VHS or Betamax that you might see on one of those obscure CBC programs airing Canadian short films or at some local arts presentation, only that this presentation is essentially amateur night at the brothel. Well, actually that metaphor is totally inaccurate, but you get my drift. The acting is about as good as you’d expect in a porn movie -- most of the actors sound like people picked off the street, who try to act, but who absolutely cannot. Of course, most of these performers can “act” during the sex scenes, which means that there are a few noteworthy moments. But only a few.
The funniest thing about this movie is that, with the exception of Heather, who actually does look like a young woman, everybody else looks as if they are the same age. Talk about a suspension of disbelief. It’s pretty bad when the other two daughters look older than the father, and look as old as their mother. This is even more glaring than some Hollywood examples, the best being in The Manchurian Candidate, in which Lawrence Harvey was only two years younger than Angela Lansbury, who played his mother. Now, come to think of it, I think I can even top that... I swear that Cary Grant was older than the actress playing his mother in North by Northwest, but don’t quote me on that.
As you can sense from this review, I’m not the best person to be reviewing a porn flick. Go on the internet and you’ll find all sorts of reviews about porn films, usually critiquing certain aspects of the sexual activities, right down to how “effective” the male actor’s climax was. It’s even funnier when these reviewers try to rank a video as an actual movie. It’s like they’ve never seen a movie in their lives. Do they really think it’s that good? Then again, most porn watchers probably haven’t found themselves watching many other movies, unless they hope to see nudity.
The very few porn films I’ve seen do have some sensual moments. This movie has many admirable moments. But other than that, porn is probably the most tedious, most formulaic, and the most unprofessional genre I’ve ever seen. Three Daughters was about 100 minutes, but I couldn’t wait for it to end. That is what happens with an industry so trapped with its own success. Porn is popular because people want to see real sex. They don’t give a damn about good production values, or a good story. There are clearly adult directors, writers, and stars, who do have the inclination to produce movies that are better than mere porn loops, yet, can only go so far, because the industry is so used to the formulaic approach.
I, personally, have learned my lesson, and will stick to the REAL movies for a while, and leave the raunchy stuff to those fictional stories of mine that I know a number of my faithful readers enjoy so much........!!!
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DavidMac
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Member: David Macdonald
Location: Prince Edward Island
Reviews written: 612
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About Me:
Alice, a story in nine parts, posted on Sept 24, 2008 - http://www.epinions.com/content_5241348228
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