You can say what you want, but I'm a huge fan of the colour-saturated excess that is '70s trash; all soft-core pastels and preposterous storylines wrapped in a cocoon of bad makeup the films range from "Emmanuelle" to "The Cheerleaders". Straddling the fine line between AA-rated film and the X-rated such as "Deep Throat" the films are more a curiosity than pure titilation nowadays. Our easy and constant access to internet porn has done for the sexploitation flick. Nonetheless, they hold a distinct charm and an otherworldliness, a feeling of viewing a lost artform of some kind. Too bad they are so badly frowned upon aesthetically.
But! Nouveaux Pictures and Cine-Excess (helmed by The University of Brunel's Arts Cult Film Archive) have teamed up to make films of this ilk available to us, the jaded film-going public (and other cult films, such as the Roger Corman collection). The first release is this film, "Viva", which appropriately is a modern-day homage to the Sexploitation flick (a smart move as an introduction). LA artiste Anna Biller both stars and directs this film, which tells the story of Barbi, the bored archetypal suburban housewife who with her husband becomes involved with their swinging neighbours, Sheila and Mark for a little "letting off steam", so to speak. Soon both couples break up; and Sheila and Barbi (who renames herself as Viva) enter the sleazy world of the Sex Underground (oo-er) of drug-fueled orgies and the like. All totally of it's (re-imagined) own time of course, and somehow seemingly more endearing than the cyber anything-goes of today.
So, FINALLY a label that promises to deliver trash unto us with alacrity; and a rather good film to kickstart it all off. Nothing too special naturally, but it's all colour-saturated sweetness and light. Recommended.
