David Hamilton Movies

A woman who has learned a few things about taking care of herself runs the risk of having her tricks found out in this comedy-drama. Stella (Seema Biswas) works as a domestic in New Delhi and has used her fluency in English and skills as a cook to wrangle a job as housekeeper for Canada's ambassador to India. While she's well liked by her employers, they don't know that she's been submitting padded expense reports for years and pocketing the difference; she also regularly raids the cupboards to sell quality foods at a discount to others. However, Stella's schemes may be a thing of the past with the arrival of new ambassador Maya (Lisa Ray). Maya's husband Michael (Don McKellar) stays home to look after their young daughter, and cooks as a hobby; he's fond of Indian food, and insists that Stella give him lessons in preparing the local cuisine. With the man of the house a frequent presence in the kitchen, Stella finds scamming her employers is not nearly so easy, especially since she and Michael get along so well. Matters become all the more complicated when Maya and Michael hire a nanny, Tannu (Shriya Saran), who is an especially devout Hindu girl. Cooking With Stella was the first fiction feature from director Dilip Mehta. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In yet another, conventional softcore sex film, three women are stranded on a resort-like island when they lose their boat in a storm. Each finds an appropriate male for sexual encounters, but one has her heart set on a millionaire -- a married man, in fact. She waits until the millionaire's wife leaves for an extended period of time, and then when the news comes through that the wife has died in a plane crash, the nubile young woman consoles the bereaved widower all night in his bedroom, and then goes bouncing off to join her friends in the morning, end of film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Photographer-turned-director David Hamilton's favorite subjects-incest and voyeurism-are again given a workout in Cousins in Love. The largely female cast (many of whom seem a bit underage) enter into the soft-core goings on with enthusiasm. Hamilton's artistic utilization of shadows and gauzy focus help to take the viewer's mind off the utter lack of plot. Actually, there was a story to follow; after all, Pascal Laine adapted the screenplay from his own novel. Cousins in Love is satisfactory for its target audience, though, to paraphrase Variety, it's not likely to bring in new business. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bilitis (Patti D'Arbanville) is a boarding-school teenager on the verge of full erotic awakening, but during the summer she spends with a married couple in the 1930s the nearest she comes to exploring her sexuality is to be caught up in a sort of wave of sensuality. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Marred by controversy at the time of its release, this horror fantasy from Italy's legendary horror director Mario Bava centers on the twisted desires of a nobleman's son (Christopher Lee). Lee is ostracized by his father for his dalliances with a servant girl (who later commits suicide), but is allowed to return to the fold by his brother, whose lovely wife (Dahlia Lavi) immediately becomes the object of Lee's mad lust. Lee is later found murdered, along with several other victims from the surrounding village, leading superstitious locals to believe that Lee's evil spirit has returned to destroy them; the twist ending reveals the real evil at work. The kinky, sadomasochistic relationship between Lee and Lavi raised more than a few censors' eyebrows, leading to some harsh cuts. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi