Penned by Dan Greenburg, Private Lessons details the plight of a rich, fifteen-year-old boy (Eric Brown) whose French maid (Sylvia Kristel of the Emmanuelle series) is hired to teach him the finer points of l'amour. A contrived subplot involving a blackmail scheme complicates matters but really only serves as padding between the erotic scenes. In the end, the boy ends up wiser for the wear in more ways than one as he learns all the sordid details. Typical of many early '80s adolescent-oriented T & A films, this entry includes plenty of leering nudity and debauchery, although it seems comparatively tame compared with many others. Surprisingly, Private Lessons was a box-office hit at the time of its release; presumably, many film-goers had seen Kristel in her role as Emmanuelle, although they would have been disappointed to learn a body-double stood in during her love scenes in this case. A similarly-themed film, My Tutor, was released soon after. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi
Probably everyone who rents this saw it when they were young (I was 8) and wants to travel back to when sex was new. For the most part it's everything that was bad about 80's teen sex comedies: horrible script, loose plot, slapstick, wooden acting-- but I was pleasantly surprised at the tender treatment of the boy's sexual awakening. There's a lot of focus on the little details--the curve of a breast, the song that was playing--that stick in your mind and that you remember your whole life. Sylvia Kristel is of course beautiful and a decent actor.
*******FYI, this is an edited version. Thank you again, Blockbuster, for doing your best to eliminated sex and nudity from the cinema. Murder, gore and violence are so much more conducive of family values than the uncovered human body. I guess we should just be thankful they stock it. The holes in their 100,000-title inventory are shocking.*********
For most guys out there that saw this movie first-run (or in my case, squinting at a partially-scrambled "skinimax") in the early 80's, it was fantasy and a coming of age experience. It has a weak plot, doesn't convey a message nor bears any resemblance to real life. Still, it was fantasy pure and simple and watching it again brings back memories of a time that will never come again.
This movie has probably the worst DVD commentary I've ever heard with the commentators seemingly more interested in talking about politics than the movie itself.