Annie Belle Movies
- 1986
Set in the 16th century, this bawdy comedy is erotic without pornographic detail as two women and one man enjoy a wild and lusty relationship. Angela (Laura Antonelli) is widowed and one day, as she gazes out her window, she is stirred by the sight of a dashing blond foreigner (Jason Connery, son of Sean). She eventually sends her ladies' maid to speak to him as a go-between, while the ladies' maid of the married woman next door is on the same errand. It seems the foreigner is more interested in Angela's neighbor but has no compunction about making love to both women. The dashing young man is soon literally dashing from one woman to the next in a mixed-up confusion, not wanting to give himself away as romancing two women instead of one. Meanwhile, the ladies' maids (and others) enter into the act, while the married woman's husband is due home at any time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laura Antonelli, Monica Guerritore, (more)
- 1985
As softcore films go, this offering by Joe D'Amato manages to give even less motivation to its characters, less substance to the plot, and less direction to the actors than the normal one-dimensional, plotless wonders with sex as a focal point. The story starts with a fascist bringing home Zelba (Laura Gemser), an Abyssinian slave, from his tour of duty in Africa. After he tires of Zelba, she is handed over to his wife (Lilli Carati) which causes a rift between the wife and her lesbian lover. The scorned lover is raped one day, and in a rage she plots her revenge by setting fire to Zelba and burning her to death. For some reason, she had no visible grudge against her rapist. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laura Gemser, Al Cliver, (more)
- 1982
Supposedly an adaptation of Emile Zola's novel, this movie is set in Paris in the 1880s. Remade three times after the original 1926 version, this is the story of a prostitute who takes Parisian society by storm. This is a classic tale of the rise and fall of one striving to climb the social ladder. Rife with heartbreak and desperation, the characters are somewhat stiff and even her fall from grace fails to involve the viewer. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Katya Berger, Jean-Pierre Aumont, (more)
- 1982
- R
This talky French costume drama chronicles the adventures of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as they attempt to flee Paris during the 1791 revolution. While en route to Varennes, the couple encounter and have philosophical debates with a number of fascinating historical figures including Thomas Paine and Restif de la Bretonne. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Barrault, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
Aristide Massaccesi directed this gory sequel to Antropophagous under the pseudonym Peter Newton, although he is best known as Joe D'Amato. The plot is styled more after Halloween II than the original, however, as the mutant cannibal (Luigi Montefiore) murders people in a hospital while being pursued by Edmund Purdom (Pieces). Female lead Katya Berger does her best to look menaced, but despite a great deal of gratuitous bloodshed, the film raises few goosebumps. Co-stars Laura Gemser and Annie Belle appeared together in several sex films, notably Velluto Nero and Massaccesi's L'Alcova. EDDE Video tried to pass this and several other unrelated European horror films off as sequels to Zombie in a mid-'90s reissue series. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- 1980
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Filmed in 1979 but not released in Italy until 1984, this softcore story involves two New York street thugs, Alex (David Hess) and Ricky (John Morghen), who crash an upscale dinner party in a New Jersey mansion, only to have the tables turned on them. A part of the clash between the classes involves domination and submission sex games that reveal the party-goers to be much worse than the two toughs who sought to have some fun at their expense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Hess, Annie Belle, (more)
- 1978
- R
In this family drama, the trouble begins when a young girl must adjust to life with her mother and her new step-sisters. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1977
A comeback film of sorts for director Marco Vicario, Mogliamante stars Laura Antonelli as the wife of political activist Marcello Mastrioanni. When her husband has to go into hiding from the authorities, Laura consoles herself by going through his private papers. Curiously, discovering the length and breadth of Mastrioanni's activities-including his extramarital affairs--sparks a sexual reawakening in his wife. More curious is the personality change undergone by Laura: formerly meek and subservient, she literally "becomes" her firebrand husband in his absence. As for Mastrioanni, once his role in life has been usurped, he is reduced to little more than a sidelines observer. This diverting domestic drama was also issued under the titles Wifemistress and Lover, Wife. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laura Antonelli, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
- 1977
- R
Laura Gemser essays the title role in Emmanuelle in Egypt. The plot is virtually indistinguishable from the storylines of the previous Emmanuelle features. Escaping an oppressive sexual partner, Emmanuelle heads to the desert wastes, enjoying a variety of erotic experiences with persons of both genders. As before, the photography is the film's principle asset. The soft-core Emmanuelle in Egypt was followed by Emmanuelle in Bangkok, where it was business as usual. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1976
Italian filmmaker Massimo Dallamano, who reached cult status with the intriguing 1971 thriller Cosa Avete Fatto a Solange?, directed this routine softcore exploitation film starring Annie Belle (Velluto Nero) as an impotent businessman's mistress. She travels to Hong Kong with him, but is left up a creek without a paddle when he is financially ruined. Ciro Ippolito co-stars in the British-Italian co-production from sleaze impresario Harry Alan Towers with Pier Luigi Conti (aka "Al Cliver"), Ines Pellegrini, and former Western star Rik Battaglia. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Annie Belle, Charles Fawcett, (more)
- 1975
- R
This Italian-French co-production is not technically an "Emmanuelle" film, even though it stars that series' inspiration, Emmanuelle Arsan, and was based on one of her stories. Instead, this soft-core jungle adventure focuses on Laure (Annie Belle from La Casa Sperduta nel Parco), a priest's daughter who joins Orso Maria Guerrini's expedition to the Philippines to study the Mara tribe's rebirth ritual. What she studies instead are the male and female anatomies of her cohorts, including anthropologist Arsan and filmmaker Pier Luigi Conti, appearing under his usual pseudonym, Al Cliver. Cinematographer Roberto d'Ettore Piazzoli had worked with director Ovidio G. Assonitis the year before on the Exorcist rip-off Behind the Door, starring Piazzoli's wife Juliet Mills, . ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Annie Belle, Emmanuelle Arsan, (more)
A man discovers that his dreams have become reality, only to learn that they have a deadly undercurrent, in this horror story for adults. Pierre (Jean-Lou Philippe) is haunted by a persistent dream in which he spends the night with a beautiful women in a white gown who lives in an ancient mansion, though she invariably awakes with no memory of him. Pierre is convinced that his dream has some basis in his past, but his mother scoffs at the notion. One day, Pierre sees a photograph in a perfume advertisement that looks just like the mansion he's seen in his dreams, and he arranges to meet the woman who took the pictures at a movie theater. While he waits for her, he encounters the mysterious woman in white, and as he follows her, he discovers a strange coven of the living dead -- a band of beautiful women who need to drink human blood to survive. Lips of Blood was directed by the French master of erotic terror, Jean Rollin. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
