Nightdreams

Released in 1981, this surreal nightmare was the first and best adult film I ever saw! Ominously creepy, it mixes eroticism with fantasy. Not happy, playful fantasy but disturbed other-worldly phantasmagoria! Dorothy LeMay turns in a fair performance as a mental patient that experiences wild encounters that may be real or may be imagined. Strange themes dominate each scene, from an Uncle Ben box come to life, to an orgy in a middle eastern opium den and all the way to a trip to heaven and hell. My favorite is the girl-girl campfire scene. Danielle turns in one hell of a performance (I believe this was her debut) while a mysterious version of Ring Of Fire plays (Wall Of Voodoo). The director, Rinse Dream (Stephan Sayadian) went on to find fame with Cafe Flesh but this earlier effort is just as imaginative and twice as erotic. Contrary to a previous review, this is hardcore. His only non-porn work, Dr. Caligari, is also excellent but avoid the shot-on video Nightdreams 2 and Nightdreams 3 as well as Party Doll A Go-Go 1 & 2 and Untamed Cowgirls 1 & 2.

The best part of this movie was the campfire scene and the use of Wall of Voodoo's cover of Johnny Cash's "Ring of fire". And possibly the clown scene was one of the more twisted things I had ever seen at that time in my life(that was until I saw midget porn)

This is one surreal and beautiful looking and well made porno-flick, that is being quite an interesting and fun watch.

There once was a small, short-lived, wave of porn movies that were made with some more class and ideas behind them, as if it was being a movie within a different and more serious genre. This resulted in some great porn classics, that are still being regarded this present day as some of the best within its genre.

What makes this movie such a great one within its genre is mostly due to the way it looks. It's a real surreal movie that focuses on the erotic dreams of a young woman. Dreams, so that means that not everything really ever makes sense and they are some quite odd, surreal moments in the movie, which are really unforgettable. It also really makes this one original and unique watch, which is also part of the reason why the movie is so fun to watch.

It's also a really well shot movie, with some nice camera-work and professional looking set, costumes and such. It all got directed by a person who didn't had any experience as a director within the porn-circuit and this movie is actually being the only one within the adult genre that he directed. Perhaps this is why this movie is so different from just any other genre attempt and why the movie really is like a breath of fresh air.

A classic within its genre.

8/10

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Was I disappointed when I rented this! The movie seems to be edited by someone taking a scene and cutting ribbons of a few frames each and then pasting them back together to make a "psychedelic looking soft core flick". What I was expecting was the usual artsy stuff that I like from Sayadian (I just LOOOVE "Dr. Caligari") but with some hardcore action. What I got was a flick that just got on my nerves despite the great soundtrack. Where is Sayadian now, anyway?

Some porn from around the late seventies is worth it. "Deep Throat" had at least put money into the system and there were serious expectations that after the sensation wore down, we'd have explicit sex in "ordinary" film as we do in literature and, well, life. My own belief is that the pushback from religious zealots forced sex in films into its own compartment. The result is that harmful stereotypes have been reinforced and we are all worse off.

Anyway, there are a few films that you might find interesting from this suspended era. This isn't quite one. For a film to be a film in my book, it has to have some long form coherence, what folks usually call a story. But it is more than that; its a context, a way to situate the coupling in the world. Porn today is characterized by simple episodes. Context only matters so far as it supports the stereotype being exploited. So for instance if we are supposed to know the guy is a poolcleaner dude, or the woman a schoolgirl, we'll get enough to define that. But only that.

This film is something in between. The "story" has two whitecoated doctors behind a glass wall observing a woman having some sort of erotic hallucinations. The substance of the movie is these episodes of course. All are some sort of ravishing of our subject. The sex is conventional by today's standards but the situations are decidedly not in some cases. There are devils, cowgirls, odd demons, and (get this) Arabs.

The idea is to exploit all sorts of fringe fantasies. Its all pretty hohum, mostly because the cinematic power of what this could be is unexploited. And the actress is a dolt.

But there's one sequence that really is quite spectacular.

Its a well-groomed black man. Not a rough muscular buck, someone that looks like a young rail porter. He is inside a Cream of Wheat box and has sex with our fantasizer while a jazz saxophone player dances around the pair.

Oh, and he's a piece of toast. Its pretty striking both in its cleverness and the completely unique spin on the racial stereotype of the black man, and the implied buckwheat, and cream jokes. Ah, those days, where sex, role and race could be played with in this way.

I think this is not much viewed today. It was never good art nor is it "good" porn by today's standards. But see it for that one scene.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.