PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Erotic Tales (1996)

Erotic Tales (1996)

If you create a user account, you can add your own review of this DVD

Released 4-May-2010

Cover Art

This review is sponsored by
BUY IT

Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Drama None
Rating Rated R
Year Of Production 1996
Running Time 410:00
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Bob Rafelson
Ken Russell
Susan Seidelman
Nicholas Roeg & various others
Studio
Distributor

Madman Entertainment
Starring Hetty Baynes
Jonathan Brett
Bob Rafelson
Ken Russell
Sharon Angela
Richard Barboza
Hetty Baynes
Charles Gerbel
Arliss Howard
Ruth Maleczech
Case Amaray-Transparent-Dual
RPI $29.95 Music Various


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Unknown English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio ?
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     Chances are if you live in Australia and have snuck a peak at SBS late on a Friday night, you'll have seen at least some of this anthology of short films. Erotic Tales is a collection of short films by world renowned or emerging indie directors - each with an erotic theme. From what I can ascertain there are about 33 short films which make up this anthology in total - 15 have been compiled for this DVD presentation. Each film runs for approximately 25 minutes.

    The project was conceived by German producer Regina Ziegler in the early 1990s. Each director had total artistic freedom to create a film that explored the central theme. Naturally with such a diverse gathering of filmmakers, the results vary from the interesting to the ridiculous.

    Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so too is erotica. There is little doubt; many people will judge some of these films as decisively un-erotic. Whatever your interpretation, most (but not all) of these short films are an enjoyable and entertaining anthology from a varied assembly of filmmakers.

    A brief overview of each short film follows. The films are listed in order of appearance on the DVDs and include relevant information together with a spoiler free synopsis.

    The Dutch Master (USA - 1994) Directed by Susan Seidelman

    Starring, Mira Sorvino, Aida Tuturro, Sharon Angela and Rick Pasqualone.

    Teresa is dental assistant who works across the street from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. One day she decides to visit the museum during her lunch break and becomes infatuated with the classic 1658 Dutch painting, Woman Drinking with Soldiers by Pieter de Hooch. In particular, she is mesmerised by one of the soldiers immortalised in the art work. Her fiancé and friends soon become neglected, as Teresa spends every spare moment sitting by the painting. One day the masterpiece stirs to life and Teresa is summoned to enter the world of a Dutch master.

    Wet (USA - 1995) Directed by Bob Rafelson

    Starring Arliss Howard, Cynda Williams, Kathleen Wilhoite and John Toles-Bey.

    It's the end of another quiet day at a bath and spa store. The staff has not had a decent sale for a couple of weeks. As the last of his staff leave for the night, the manager waits for a customer to come out from the toilet. A voluptuous woman soon emerges and begins inspecting an expensive spa. The manager's anxiousness to lock up and leave soon weakens when he realises he might be onto a big sale. The woman has one condition though - she wants to get in and try the spa there and now.

    Vroom Vroom Vroom (USA - 1995) Directed by Melvin Van Peebles .

    Starring Richard Barboza, Dewar Zazee, Laura Lane and Kim Smith.

    Young Leroy is intellectually and socially awkward. He is deliberately left out of everything by his so called friends. One day, Leroy saves an old woman from being hit by a truck. She tells him that she has strange powers and will grant him two wishes. Naturally, a young single man would wish for a motorbike and a woman. He just never thought they would be combined in the one package.

    The Cloud Room (India - 1994) Directed by Mani Kaul

    Starring Anu Arya Aggarwal and Murad Ali.

    Seemingly for reasons of chastity, a wicked King has locked away his Princess daughter inside the palace. A talking parrot tells erotic stories to the Princess before flying away to find her a handsome liberator.

    The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch (UK - 1993) Directed by Ken Russell

    Starring Hetty Baynes and Simon Shepherd.

    To gain inspiration for his new novel, a writer spends time in solitude at an English coastal resort. He becomes infatuated with a woman in her 30's who is also alone at the resort. It becomes apparent to him that this woman might be playing up to his attention by eating suggestively and teasing him. He finds the courage to go to her room, but before he can knock on the door he hears the buzzing sound of a sex toy. Further intrigued and aroused, he follows her around the resort. But every time she disappears behind a closed door he hears the vibrating sound - she must be insatiable.

    Touch Me (Australia - 1993) Directed by Paul Cox

    Starring Gosia Dobrowolska, Claudia Karvan, Chris Haywood, Barry Otto and David Field.

    Sarah is an art instructor who is very much in tune with her sexuality. Apart from her physical relationships, Sarah is also having a "spiritual" relationship - via fax - with one of her students. Christine is a young model who poses for Sarah's classes. She is having relationship problems with her boyfriend and seems generally unfulfilled in life. Sarah and Christine escape for a quiet weekend in the country - the perfect place for relaxation and re-assessment.

    Sweeties (Italy - 1995) Directed by Cinzia Th. Torini

    Starring Stefania Sandrelli and Roberto Citran.

    Anna is an attractive woman, possibly in her 30's. She has a weakness for eating sweets and is desperate to find a way to spark her husband's libido. When traditional methods fail, she goes for the sorcery of love potions. But fate seems to be working against her until she is given some magic sweets. These are guaranteed to transform her into a raving beauty, making her irresistible to her husband. But as everyone knows, there is a down side to eating too many sweets.

    Hotel Paradise (UK - 1996) Directed by Nicholas Roeg

    Starring Theresa Russell and Vincent d' Onofrio

    A woman wearing nothing but a wedding veil wakes in a bizarre looking hotel room. She has no recollection of the night before, but soon discovers she is also handcuffed to the bed head. The woman gets the fright of her life when she realises that a naked male stranger is fast asleep beside her. It then suddenly dawns on her that she is getting married in a few hours and the man beside her is definitely not her fiancé.

    Devilish Education (Poland - 1995) Directed by Janusz Majewski

    Starring Renata Dancewicz, Marek Kondrat and Anna Dymna

    In the Polish countryside a pretty young milkmaid wakes to begin the drudgery of a new day. As the day warms up, she decides to strip off and go for a dip in a pond. However, she can feel the watching eyes of someone lurking in the tall grass. Later, a mysterious man draped in black emerges and shows her many sketches and paintings her has done of her naked body. The milkmaid immediately falls for his charms and a secret affair begins. The maid's mother soon becomes suspicious of her recent activities and is determined to put an end to it.

    Sambolico (Finland/Brazil - 1996) Directed by Mika Kaurismäki

    Starring Kari Väänänen,  Andrea Bloom and Antonio Calloni

    A famous conductor from Finland is on a concert tour of Brazil. While leaving his hotel for the beach, he assists an attractive woman in the elevator who is crying. Later on the beach he notices the same woman emerging from the water wearing a tiny red bikini. He again makes contact with the woman, who is a nightclub dancer. Their friendship soon catches the attention of her thuggish pimps. Under a threat of violence, the conductor is told to disappear.

    Elephants Never Forget (Germany - 1996) Directed by Detlev Buck

    Starring Peter Luppa and Natalia Worner

    The Frankello Circus moves slowly along a country road. A woman speeds past in her car and suddenly crashes into tree. When the circus' dwarf elephant trainer rescues the woman from the burning car, he is immediately taken by her beauty. The woman turns out to be a wealthy countess, who lives in a stately mansion. Her husband is a blatant womaniser, with a serious interest in his wife's buxom nurse. When the dwarf arrives to visit the countess, she grants him a single wish for saving her life.

    The Waiting Room (The Netherlands - 1996) Directed by Jos Stelling

    Starring Bianca Koedam and Eugene Bervoets 

    At a busy train station, a woman is trying to get a cup of coffee from a vending machine. But first, she needs to find change of a ten dollar note. Meanwhile in a large seated waiting area, people sit and wait for their train. A smart looking business man makes advancing eye contact with virtually every woman who enters the area. These advances are ignored by all, until a stunning woman with model looks descends the stairs. Could he be so lucky?

    Georgian Grapes (Georgia - 1999) Directed by Georgi Shengelaia

    Starring Ia Parulava, Zara Papuashvili and Celina Wieczorek

    In the Georgian countryside, a mechanics garage is brought to life when a beautiful actress arrives with her broken down car. After clearing everyone outside, the owner of the garage begins the task of repairing her car - that is until his wife hears the news. Seeing all the commotion, she storms in, confronting him with the news that she is finally leaving him. While walking down a dusty country road, the actress stops to give the wife a lift. As the ice melts between them, the actress conceives a plan of revenge for her.

    Dream a Little Dream of Me (Greece - 1999) Directed by Antonis Kokkinos

    Starring Lazaros Andreou and Vivi Koka

    A man is haunted by dreams of a beautiful blonde haired woman. His night dreams and even his day dreams are filled with visions of this woman. His growing obsession leads to problems in his private and professional life. When the man starts talking in his sleep, his fiancé suspects that he might be having an affair.

    Can I Be Your Bratwurst, Please? (Germany - 1999) Directed by Rosa von Praunheim

    Starring Jeff Stryker and Luzy Kryn.

    A man checks into a cheap Hollywood motel run by a bizarre German family. With Christmas fast approaching, the Germans are keen to sort out the menu for their food feast. Little does the man realise, he is to be their special guest - but not in the traditional sense.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

     The short films in this edition of Erotic Tales are presented in various aspect ratios. The discs are 16x9 enhanced.

     Naturally with the various different stocks used in these short films, the image quality does vary across the collection, but generally all come up pretty good. Blacks were clean and shadow detail was good throughout. There were no problem issues with colour. They also varied from the vibrant to the deliberately soft and muted.

     Film-to-video artefacts were minor and infrequent. They consisted of the occasional instance of telecine wobble or brief aliasing - certainly nothing of significance. Film artefacts were also negligible.

     English subtitles are only available on the foreign language films. These titles are easily legible in bright yellow and are burned into the print.

     Both discs are DVD 9, dual layer discs. I couldn't detect the layer change on the first disc. The layer change on the second disc occurs during Elephants Never Forget at 21:25.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     There is only one audio track available on these DVD's - English/Polish/Greek/Russian Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s), which is surround encoded.

     Dialogue quality was good across the entire collection. There were many lapses in audio sync. However, these instances were related to poor ADR and not to the transfer. Nearly every episode has an instance of this, but the worst and most obvious example occurs in Vroom, Vroom, Vroom.

     Original music scores are provided by different composers across the anthology.

     Surround presence was generally good throughout the collection, with a nice degree of ambient sound and music through the rear channels. The subwoofer usage varied, but it was quite active on occasions.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

    

Menu

    The main menu is static and features a sample of music from one of the short films.

    There are no extras on this edition of Erotic Tales.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    I couldn't find any reference to a Region 1 edition of Erotic Tales. There is however a collection of Region 2 editions which have been released in separate volumes - each volume contains 3 short films. At the time of writing this review there are at least seven volumes available. The first five volumes contain the same films as contained in this local Madman two-disc edition.

Summary

     With a few exceptions, most of these short films are at least entertaining - just don't expect any masterpieces. As to each film's significance as an erotic tale, I'll leave that for individual assessment. This two-disc edition of Erotic Tales contains 15 short films from the wider collection. Maybe a second edition is in the pipeline if this set is successful.

     The video and audio transfers are quite good.

     There are no extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Steve Crawford (Tip toe through my bio)
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Review Equipment
DVDPanasonic DMP-BD35 Blu Ray Player, using HDMI output
DisplayHitachi 106cm Plasma Display 42PD5000MA (1024x1024). Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080i.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with THX Optimizer.
AmplificationPanasonic SA-HE70 80W Dolby Digital and DTS
SpeakersFronts: Jensen SPX7 Rears: Jensen SPX4 Centre: Jensen SPX13 Subwoofer: Jensen SPX17

Other Reviews NONE