Garden of Beauty

guillaume apollinaire is probably the greatest of the surrealists and wrote france's most popular modern love poem.

when he wasn't being a heavy intellectual and pillar of the french academy he was writing some of the best pornography since the seventeenth century.

the original novel on which this film is based is packed with totally promiscuous sex, but differs from other 'erotic' novels by having characters with real lives, real ideas, real histories and real feelings about each other.

in fact the novel is real pornography, in a way that most pornography isn't. think real ale and real ice-cream to get the idea.

the film-maker has just dumped the novel to film (its not a work of great technical beauty) so you get lots of pretty girls (and guys, which is a nice change)romping around starkers looking like they're enjoying it most of the time, but quite capable of having a bad time also (again, as i said, this is real pornography).

if you're part of the mucky mac brigade you'll probably miss the point of this film (though you'll still find plenty to enjoy in it). if you're from the moral majority, it's not for you.

if on the other hand you've ever wondered why most pornography just isn't erotic (wooden characters, no plot and silicone, that's why) this film might nudge you towards realising what blue movies ought to be like.

the one thing that makes me sad whenever i watch this movie is that i've never seen another one like it (except maybe fotografando patrizia).

anybody reading this a film-maker?