Truly an awful movie in every sense of the word. The story had no meaning beyond some high school type vapid comments. And the best one word description would be pretentious. In fact they even quoted Hamlet's Polonius but, in the incorrect context. But I can forgive all of that. I have a fondness for weird, experimental films. But, the one thing I can't forgive is boredom. The characters move at the speed of a glacier. They walk to one room then back for no reason. "Just get bloody on with it" I hollered at the screen. Boring boring boring. And don't figure you can throw in one line from my beloved Hamlet and figure that makes you 'artistic'!Skip this slow placed clunker and go watch eraserhead .

Much maligned in the US, "Some Call It Loving"is a film that's not going to be for everyone...or suite everyone's tastes. But that doesn't mean it should be ignored, because at its core lies a well- made, deliberately told film about loneliness, love and dark desire.As with most of director James B. Harris's films, the pic is centered around a disillusioned loner who wants to change the status quo. In this case, a jazz musician who wants more from his relationships than the kinky game play that has become the norm in his mansion. Although our "hero" is surrounded by comely women who want to throw themselves at him, he wants more. He wants love. Companionship. He think he's found it in a mysterious girl who he has awakened from a long sleep, but the girl may be more of a puzzle than he can handle.This is a film more about style than story. And on that level, it succeeds well, with gorgeous cinematography and a haunting theme melody by the director's brother Bob Harris. Overall, it's great that this lost little film has finally been given a significant release after spending 40 years in obscurity. For cinema lovers, it's worth checking out. For those who already admire in its renegade spirit and minimalist approach, enjoy the new release by Etiquette Pictures. It's everything we could have hoped for. Maybe one day Hollywood will wake up, and realize what a wonderful director James B. Harris is. We can only hope.

The cinema is such a magnificent art that it enables artists to minutely examine the darkest crevices in the human psyche. Here we have one of the strangest examples of this possibility. Zalman King makes a superb central character of Robert Troy who brings a 'sleeping beauty' from a fairground to his West Coast mansion. It emerges that she has been artificially kept asleep - drugged by her fairground owner. The mansion to which she is brought is a cavernous affair populated simply by two women, whose relationship with Troy is never fully articulated. There are clear suggestions of necrophilia here as Troy's obsession with the sleeping girl become more explicit, but the film doesn't pursue these lines, leaving the audience to make connections and draw its own suspect conclusions. One of the most disturbing aspects of the film is in the scene in which Jennifer relates to Troy how she had experienced being asleep and just remembering how the men in the fairground kissed her... and more. However, she had only the alternative of oblivion to compare these half-perceived experiences with so regarded them as precious, but Harris doesn't moralise.Although the British video that I watched (I had seen the film in the cinema before) promotes the fact that Richard Pryor is in the cast, he is, in fact, the weakest part of the film - playing a drug/booze-crazed friend of Troy. Carol White also has a strange part as the possibly Lesbian dominatrix, who regularly dresses as a nun in the weird role-playing games that pass for life in the mansion. Visually the film concentrates on darkness with many strange chiaroscuro effects in the mansion lit by dim chandeliers and candles. When Jennifer (Sleeping Beauty) and Troy take a trip, it is mainly shot at night in anonymous, faceless locations. It seems to me that one of the few real clues to the heart of the film is in the choice of Nat King Cole's 'The Very Thought of You' as the key musical motif. This points, it seems to me, to the notion of the film being a reflection of the way that love enters and distorts the mind of the lover. Finally, in this extraordinary film - made by one of Kubrick's closest associates of the time - we see mystery in almost every aspect. Where, if at all, does the flashback with which the film opens end, for example? There are relatively few movies that make you think that there is a whole new area of human existence, but this is one of them. It may be tacky and lacking in 'taste and decency' on occasion, but this is cinema of the fine line between decadence and depravity - it isn't 'nice', but it's, to use another Nat King Cole title, unforgettable.

You would end up with "Some Call It Loving" One of the most truly unique films that you will find - if you can. Features a rare performance by Richard Pryor and Tisa Farrow - Starring Zalman King. Actor of "Blue Sunshine" and other B- movie horror films of the 70's like "Galaxy of Terror" - Later to bring us such hits as "9 1/2 Weeks" and the "Red Shoe Diaries". Zalman portrays and eccentric jazz musician who one day happens upon a carnival sideshow. Lured in by a carny barker he witnesses a human exhibition. A sleepy beauty - A real life girl who apparently due to a rare medical condition maintains a constant state of sleep. The wealthy musician so taken by the girl, he decides to buy her off the carny. It turns out that this is NOT the only girl in his human collection. Back at the mansion are two more unique women.Many films have delt with the Sideshow and Carny theme but few are able to capture the real seedy and underlying themes of Freakshows as well as this film does in the first 5 mins. . Logan Ramsey (walking tall) plays the sideshow owner - giving one of the most convincing performances of a true seedy carny. Add to this a pair of lesbians - a Blonde Bombshell Fetish Cheerleader - Richard Pryor as a strung out Jazz Drummer - Plus - some nunexploitation - Add a pinch of Saxaphone driven Jazz and you got yourself a film from 1973 unlike any other - If this film came out now it would take Sundance by storm. Simply put the film deals with the idea of creating the perfect woman or chasing after the idea of the perfect woman. One uncorrupted from the realities of the world. An eerie twisted Twilight Zone feel - It's interesting to see how Zalman went from this to 9 1/2 weeks. Which also deals with obtaining human passion.