Desperate Remedies

This film is brilliant! What do I love about it? Over-the-top melodrama (done well), a surreal mix of historial periods (and period dress/costume), great music, a sexy sexy hairy chest and a good twist in the plot at the end! I hope it comes to DVD soon.

Movie has migrane-inducingly bright colors, and outlandish costumes - such as a hoop-skirt with nothing under it.

Gay sensibility throughout, in this somewhat peculiar, Victorianish setting.

A chance to see this film again was not to be missed, and it lived up to my memories of it. It is entirely sudio bound on a set with endlessly flowing camera movements, intense and saturated colour, and for those who have seen them the film reminded of Josef Von Sternberg's masterpieces of the 1930's and of his eccentric and wonderful ' Saga of Anatahan ' made in the early 1950's. Watch it if you can find a copy and dismiss the plot, and just enjoy the delirious images. In 1993 I believe it had a certain cult following. It is full of erotic imagery, both Gay and Straight and the performances of Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Kevin Smith are superbly over the top and they succeed in turning what could have been trash into gold. Many will dislike its Camp atmosphere, and although Lesbianism triumphs at the end I longed for Kevin Smith to change his sexual colours as well. The music wins as well with Verdi's Overture to ' La Forza del Destino ' and a mad scene with a Strauss Waltz. It is a crazy film, and I have a fondness for it and my one resevation is that it did not go further into the delirium that only cinema can offer with a plot twist towards the end of an equally triumphant male homosexuality. An 8 with a 10 reluctantly held back.

This movie is intentionally campy and it does camp to perfection. Everything detail in this film is done so well it constantly impressed me with how creative and resourceful people can be on a limited budget. The film was chock full of amazingly creative sets, beautiful costumes and excellent actors. The directing is top notch as well. No detail is ignored by the director; down to the arching of a brow the twitching of a lip and a close-up of a furtive glance. There is even a hilarious scene of one of the main characters literally dragging herself through the mud that made everyone in the movie theater laugh uncontrollably. A great film.

This is a self-consciously quirky film which sets out to be visually arresting and vigorously melodramatic. In the process, it comes close to unintentional humor in its bombastic style, primary color sets and incongruous moments of semi-nudity. In the end, though, Desperate Remedies is a stunning and delightful film, almost entirely due to the convincing, sexy, utterly charming acting by the entire cast.