User Reviews

Shot in 1979 but not released until 1983, this was directed by Gérard Kikoïne but had Radley Metzger as an advisor. It was filmed at the same time as Metzger's 1979 movie The Tale of Tiffany Lust, which also had French actresses Dominique Saint Claire and Morgane in the cast and uses cinematographer Gérard Loubeau.

Adrianne (Dominique Saint Claire) finds herself working as a non-performer in adult movies and somehow gets a ticket to New York. There she meets a gambler who introduces her to sexual freedom, as if she were Emanuele, but not Black Emanuelle. Of course, with those risks comes danger, as always lurks in these golden age movies which were less about the act and more of the reasons before.

Vanessa Del Rio is in this as a therapist and Désirée Cousteau as Cassandra, an erotic spirit who guides our heroine through her adventures, which at the end take her back home to a committed relationship, which is an odd close for a Radley Metzger movie, but who am I to judge?

Gérard Kikoïne also made Dragonard and Master of Dragonard Hill for Cannon, as well as Edge of Sanity and Buried Alive, the 1990 one with Donald Pleasence, John Carradine, Robert Vaughn and Ginger Lynn.

Radley Metzger's Audubon Films is credited with releasing the now-forgotten APHRODESIA"S DIARY, a pretty good example of the porno chic "couples films" being cranked out in the early '80s. It benefits from being shot on film, just as video was taking over, but weak scripting and other deficiencies are present.

Filmmaker Gerard Kikoine swung both ways: he capably juggled both soft-core and hardcore assignments in his career and occasionally hit the bullseye: THE TALE OF TIFFANY LUST, with the same leading lady, lovely French star Dominique St. Claire. Unfortunately St. Claire gives a blank performance as heroine recounting her past romantic encounters in a needlessly dull series of vignettes set in both Manhattan and France.

She's a country girl Adrianne, first seen in flashback on the farm, headed for Paris as her boyfriend Alain also leaves to start a career away from the sticks. In Paris an old guy Andre recruits her to work on a porn film for $500 but oddly enough she is the script girl rather than performer, and he pays her off with a 1-way plane ticket to NYC.

In the Big Apple she's befriended by Kevin James (popular porn star, not the current TV/movie comedian), beating him at 3-card Monty on the street. He takes her under his wing and instantly pimps out the unbelievably naive lass, to "be a fund-raiser" for his new business from investors, beginning with a typical sleaze-ball portrayed by Ron Jeremy. In cahoots with friend Susie (Lisa Cintrice), Kevin soon leaves her high and dry, taking off with all the money she's earned going down on folks including the trendy couple Joanna Storm (looking fine) and Alan Adrian.

Strictly as filler (fictitious screenwriter "Finley Walker" clearly fell down on the job), Adrianne gets a job as assistant to psychotherapist Vanessa Del Rio, who recounts (narrative structure becoming needlessly complicated) a recurring dream of her former patient Alice (another French import from TIFFANY LUST, Morgane) involving lesbian dream girl Desiree Cousteau, leading to a sex scene with George Payne.

Without any transition other than the ongoing heroine's voice-over narration, she's suddenly returned to Paris working as a waitress (?!). An insert of the country farm is thrown in for no reason, and picture wraps up with old b.f. Alain reappearing at her lavish Paris apartment as her husband ("children" are even mentioned in passing) for a movie-ending hump.

So much porn devolves into what's known in the trade as "loop carriers", the most flimsy of transitions used to string together sex scenes into a sort-of feature film or video, and this unfortunately has been one of them. There's a gimmick of Dominique staring at black & white still enlargements of the film's cast as she recalls her encounters, plus a loudly ticking alarm clock that is a really cornball device adding nothing to the film. One gimmick that is fairly obvious is revealed at the end when hubby Alain (Daniel Clair) kids Dominique about her successful career writing sensuous stories, making it clear by implication that what we've watched is likely just an imaginary story of Adrianne, one of her fictional characters, but who by the magic of cinema is personified on-screen by her creator.

U.S. cast speaks English while Dominique is dubbed in merely okay, no impact fashion. I've seen her emote in other films, notably the bestiality epic THE PERVERSE WORLD OF BEATRICE, but she's a great (pretty) stone face here. Clearly, the film had the makings of a quality porn tale as well as promoting American-Gallic relations, but some thought needed to be applied to the storytelling.