The
old handle of “a young girl’s sexual awakening” is typically shorthand
code for softcore crap, but it holds factual and genuine in this
Australian import, widely regarded as the English language Emmanuelle, but in fact superior to that better known film.
Glory Annen (sorry, not Keri Russell) stars as Felicity Robinson, a
sheltered teen who surrenders her blossoming body to a world of bold
sexual adventure. It starts with some same-sex canoodling at an
all-girls Catholic boarding school in the countryside, and eventually
moves on to all sorts of exotic underground settings when Felicity goes
to Hong Kong. The odyssey includes hook-ups both scandalous and public
(a bus, movie theater, beach, etc.), and culminates in a love affair
with young Miles (John Michael Howson). It’s a legitimate journey, in
other words. Shocking, I know…
As directed by John Lamond — who also co-wrote the 1979 film with his wife — Felicity
idealizes sex, yes, but in an alluring and quite pretty way rather than
in crude or graphic fashion. The film’s nudity is copious, but the love
scenes don’t at all drag on. They’re all grounded in the story, the
galloping thrill of sexual discovery. The scenery, meanwhile, is
flat-out beautiful, with wide natural vistas of both day and nighttime,
country and city. Lamond goes the extra mile in both indulging a
location shoot with real extras of said areas, but also paying
attention to the other elements of filmmaking — artistic framing,
interesting shot selection and evocative music — that often get the
proverbial shaft in movies of this ilk. What holds this movie together,
though, is Annen, who gives a performance both fetching in the basest
sense but also psychologically rooted in the commingled implication of
shame and pleasure.
Distributor Severin’s sterling, colorfast, 1.85:1 widescreen DVD
presentation has very minimal grain, and includes both a Dolby digital
audio track and a feature-length audio chat with Lamond and Annen, who
jointly discuss in a very thoughtful and straightforward fashion their
collaboration on the film, and the state of erotic filmmaking today.
It’s also quite a shock and further delight to find out that Annen
isn’t even Australian (she was born in Ontario), and her accent in the
film is in fact another testament to her talent. For fans of classic
erotica, it indisputably doesn’t get much better than Felicity, a legitimate film that also happens to be sexy as hell. B (Movie) B- (Disc)