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The Loss of Sexual Innocence

The Loss of Sexual Innocence

List Price: $27.95
Your Price: $25.16
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Retro juvenilia groping for profundity
Review: This badly acted botch of a film plays like a parody of pretentious 1970s arthouse movies which were, in turn, tired tributes to pretentious French movies from the 1960s. Lots of apparently disconnected scenes, scrambled in time, evolving at a glacial pace towards a pseudo-profound conclusion. Finally, and thankfully, the various strands are gathered together to make a few trite and adolescent points. Dreadful stuff. When I was 15 years old (in the 1970s) I would have regarded this movie with awe. Now, I simply wonder why a fine director would make such a silly and self-indulgent film so far into his career. Mr Figgis, please return to making movies for adults. Viewers, don't waste your time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: incredible film
Review: this film does an excellent job of knocking all of our societal perceptions of sex flat on the ground. Looking for semi-porn? Better look elsewhere... this film will make you THINK! What a concept!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Thought-provoking
Review: This film manages to tackle a heavy subject without being a "bummer."

Sex and death seem inextricably linked in this always-fascinating, beautifully shot film that was definitely made for a bigger screen. Better to not give away too much more plot; it's more of a poem than a script. It should be great for people who like to ponder and discuss the movies they see.

Miscellaneous tidbits: Julian Sands is perfect in the male lead. Some of the Biblical references would be of interest to scholars of religion.

Not your usual popcorn-and-first-date kind of fare, unless your date is someone who won't be threatened by your intellectual prowess.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: WARNING: this film will not hold your hand.
Review: This is a beautifully produced film presented in a nonlinear narrative about the innocence and experience of a man (Nic) as he grows-up.

To give a little bit of structure to the confusion expressed in some of the other reviews...

Nic is the little blond haired boy in the beginning, Nic is at the funeral of his girlfriends father, Flashback: Nic is (almost) caught with his girlfriend by her father, Nic is the fat boy looking at the photos of dead bodies, Nic is the fat boy being taunted and beaten in the gym, Nic is the man going to the cottage with his wife, and Nic is the man in the desert shooting video...

I recommend the video to the experienced art cinema patron. I did not give the film five stars because it was not overwhelmingly inspiring... it lingers with you.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: This is one of the greatest films of all time. The most awed I have ever been in the movie theater was during this film. It's not for the average movie goer who wants to be merely entertained. It's a cutting edge film that tells stories through scenes without real dialogue(somewhat reminiscent to Pink Floyd The Wall) It's the best cinematagraphy I have ever seen but it's not a film that just tries to show off avante garde style. There is also meaning within the visuals and the combination of the music and images is just stunning. Why is Loss of Sexual Innnocence a masterpiece? Here are 3 reasons:1) It's stylistically original 2) The cinematography is breathtaking3) It's highly thought provoking

This film has the best of both worlds in the criteria of greatness which is style and content.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fascinating, poignant artistry
Review: This is one of those movies that seems like a rental when you see it advertised on the big screen, and you become a little sad that you didn't see it there when you get home and enjoy it in the privacy of your own home. THE LOSS OF SEXUAL INNOCENCE is profoundly effective through its ability to not tell the story of an emotion or emotions, but (through non-linear structure, visual narrative and improvisation over meaning-laden dialogue, and provocative retelling of religious myth as a thread of symbolism) to actually put emotion on film. You see and feel jealousy, guilt, shame, passion, epiphany, rage, desire, despair, total confusion, and every other emotion that makes up the experience of the loss of sexual innocence. There are scenes that seem not to work as well as others. Yet even in saying that, the impulse is to critique them in the context of the linear films we are used to seeing out of Hollywood, when that isn't the kind of film the director actually made. Fans of MAGNOLIA, I think, as well as the films of Bertolucci, will like this film a lot; anyone else who is in the mood for something different should definitely follow their instincts when they go "Hmmm..." after reading the title.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Comparisons to Bergman? I think not...
Review: This is quite possibly the most insufferably self-absorbed and pretentious film it has ever been my misfortune of sitting through, and the one time in my life that I didn't complain when the people in front of me started talking. Loudly. Pretty to look at, but utterly vacuous, This film is the sort that give 'art films' a bad name, the sort of things you see parodied on sketch comedy shows. It's visually impressive, but then so are most perfume commercials, and this has about as much depth as a perfume commercial. Playing like an overly (to put it mildly) ambitious installment of Red Shoe Diaries, The Loss of Sexual Innocence is actually painful to behold. Its woefully misguided premise that sexuality is the be all, end all of who we are is laughable and vaguely offensive. The performances are hollow and superficial. The pseudo-Camus ending is terrible, and the fact that the film's longest stretch of dialogue comes when the over priviliged characters begin to talk, directly to the camera, about the plight of the third world was enough to make me want to demand repayment of the money I didn't spend on this mess. And I won't even get into the Adam and Eve sequences. I actually was looking forward to this after seeing the trailer and reading an article about it, but now I'll be happy if I just never see it again.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Don't Blink...
Review: this movie was definitely a mind-engager. It isn't the sort of film you can chat through, or you might not understand it at all. When I purchased this DVD, I expected something entirely different...This film has sort of a lost, lonely feel to it. The scenarios are loosely jointed and have little to do with each other, but the characters' emotions are poignant and realistic. The "stories" within the movie just kind of fall together; there isn't a climax of any sort. It was interesting, though-worth checking out just for the experience.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Do not waste your time with this movie
Review: While the DVD was technically well done; transfer was good, sound was good. The content was without merit. It seemes to strive for a Short Stories feel but it fell far short. I for one, do not need to see a bunch of "walk-in" scenes. They have no real dramatic effect.

Do not waste your time or your money on this dog.

D not waste your money on this dog.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: paradise lost
Review: You've got to admire ambition. The Loss of Sexual Innocence is a meditative, impressionistic, mostly dialogue-less, deeply beautiful and aggressively non-linear exploration of various forms of innocence lost--or shattered. The chopped-up plot structure at first is confusing, but as the threads start to come together the parrallels drawn and metaphors presented are provocative. A film that makes its audience really think ought to be appreciated in our age of brainless blockbusters. Though it is best to keep in mind that there is no solid main point, no overall meaning you're meant to find in the film. In the end it is more like a piece of music than a story: weaving themes in and out, leaving the audience to form their own opinions and interpretations. While it doesn't succeed with flying colors, it is certainly worthwhile and interesting, and stunningly gorgeous to boot.


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