Lusting after a new direction?
by John D. MichaelisThe action of Erika Lust’s new movie, Cabaret Desire, is set in a Barcelona nightclub, ‘where people go after dark to hear erotic tales, dancers, musicians and poets create a sensual atmosphere’. Four separate ‘tales’ arise from the group of players and audience gathered, to whom we return at the end of each pornographic vignette. If you like tasteful soft-core (there is an explicit version, too) porn, then this is for you. The plot lines aren’t too challenging and there’s no shortage of attractive flesh. But that’s as far as it goes. It’s nine years since Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs, the film that provoked a debate as to whether mainstream had crossed the border into pornography’s territory and whether the unsimulated sex actually contributed any artistic value to the movie. There’s a slight worry that Erika Lust’s latest production may be having a bash at travelling the other way.
Cabaret Desire, written and directed by Erika Lust; runtime 56 minutes. Certificates 18 and R18
