User reviews

This is a coming-of-age film, beautiful and deeply moving, about a young boy discovering love and sexuality. Pascal Sellier plays the young boy Julien, and Mimsy Farmer plays Héléna, his love interest, a sweet and kind-hearted prostitute.

But the question is, can their growing love withstand the obstacles of her madam, her clients, and his parents? There are also complications from his school friends, especially his envious best friend Capo. This film is rare, so if romance is your thing, do whatever you can to find it and view it.

It also has the beautiful young Eva Ionesco playing a small part as Martine, a neighbor who is also his former platonic girlfriend.

We located this film on NTSC VHS in French Canada....it is quite controversial because of Eva Ionesco and is very hard to find these days....Mimsy Farmer as a 25 year old prostitute......Pascal Sellier has his first romantic experiences and is teased by his friends... .....At 25, Helena (Mimsy Farmer) is "middle-aged" for a prostitute. When young Julien's callow friends try to pick her up (not knowing that she is a prostitute), she allows Julien (Pascal Sellier) to win her favors......Occasional nudity and sexual situations..........Eva Ionesco has a classic appearance ......the version we have is 1 Hour and 35 Minutes long and is in French with no English subtitles.

Most "coming of age" movies feel like they were written by middle aged men, far removed from their own "coming of Age" days... But this movie is different, in that it truly plays out like the wild fantasies of an actual 15 year old boy... and that makes "Pocket Lover" one of the absolute best movies of the genre.. Julian's vivid descriptions of his hooker dream girl's apartment is something out of an early James Bond film: at the push of a button, golden trays of lobster and grapes and chocolate cake are rolled into the deliriously decorated bedroom, by always invisible adults.. Mimsy Farmer is impossibly sexy in that pin up girl style, and she finds the scrawny, bespeckled 15 year old boy irresistibly sexy.. She even owns a giant dog that knows how to operate the computerized control center that sends in the food and makes the round bed rotate.. If THAT isn't the fantasy of a 15 year old boy I don't know what is... This film is close to being a "lost title..." Released only in limited numbers on VHS/PAL video format, the subject matter and underage nudity... and it's general presentation of adult/child sexual relationships as normal, acceptable and "cute" makes it unreleasable today in this Age of "Pedo Paranoia.." . With the possible exception of boutique labels like Vinegar Syndrome or Arrow, I doubt any mainstream label would touch this one.. unfortunate as it is a very enjoyable, special kind of movie... On a side note, "Pocket Lover" features a cameo appearance by the infamous child actress Eva Ionesco, a young girl made famous by her eccentric mother, photographer Irina Ionesco, who created coffee table photo books featuring her daughter in highly charged sexually graphic photos.. Eva also starred in the German/Swiss film "Maladolescenza" which is so sexually graphic that it is illegal to own or distribute in most countries..the doll-like Ionesco was 11 years old at the time.. She doesn't appear in any graphic scenes in this one, but her appearance in yet another banned film is very telling of the kinds of "artists" that her mother "loaned" her daughter out to... I recommend "Pocket Lover" to fans of erotica and coming of age films... You will have a hard time finding a copy, but it is worth the effort...