Loves of Laure, The (L'Amour de Laure) Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  11/9/2000

Running Time: 81 min.

Production Date: 1996

Director: Christophe Clark

Producer: Marc Dorcel (I know that I normally don't mention producers, but Marc Dorcel is the leader in Euro porn from what I understand, so it seems worth noting.)

Cast: Laure Sainclair, Anita Blond, Erika Bella, Vivienne, Regina, Illana Moore, Dina Pearl, Donisz, Kristina Swarcz, Jean- Yves Le Castel, Andy Youngman, Zsolt Walton, and Ferenc

Extras: Photo Gallery and bios of Laure, Anita, and Vivienne. 'The Loves of Laure' also has the original French language track along with dubbing in English, Spanish, German, and Italian and Portuguese, Danish, and Swedish subtitles.

Audio Quality: The French (original language) track is very clear and synchs very well with the video. Since I don't speak French this wasn't too important to me, but it does show attention to technical details. The English track is also very clear and synchs okay with the video during the sex scenes.

Video Quality: Excellent! Everything is very clear.

Music: Slightly techno, but it works well in the movie. It's still pretty normal porno music, but it's a little different than normal.

Initial Expectations: Due to Principal Skinner's reviews of Laure Sainclair's other films, I expected an excellent movie. I just wasn't sure if it would be to my liking or not.

Initial Reaction: I've got to get more of Laure's stuff!

Review: 'The Loves of Laure' was my first experience with European porn and although I expected 'The Loves of Laure', to be very good, I didn't really know what to expect. The only thing I can admit to really expecting was women who hadn't completely figured out the concept of shaving yet. Despite this concern, Principle Skinner's reviews gave me some interest in European porn. After watching this, I'm paying a LOT more attention to Skinner's reviews (not that I didn't before).

For those of you who have spent too much time watching Vivid's releases where the cover doesn't have anything to do with the movie or spent a lot of time on the short bus, 'The Loves of Laure' revolves around Laure Sainclair. Laure appears to be Europe's version of Jenna Jameson, but without the enhancements. Sadly, I can't give you the names of the guys in the scenes, as they're all new to me and there isn't anything on the DVD where I can find out who they are.

'The Loves of Laure' takes place in Budapest and begins with Laure walking out of a building with fog rolling around her and doing a short strip tease. It's a very sexual opening and sets the mood for the film right away. When the movie itself begins, Laure is sitting outside a window and whispering to a sleeping couple (Vivienne and a guy) inside. She tells them to wake up and make love, which thankfully they do. It would really make a lousy porno if they'd play Scrabble instead. Even Strip Scrabble wouldn't cut it. Thankfully, the scene doesn't make you wish they'd have taken this option. As the couple make love, Laure sits outside and touches herself.

The next day, Laure enters an office building looking for 'Dr. Love'. Luckily, she runs into a guy who's very willing to help her out in the stairwell. This was a really good public sex scene. It captured a lot of the risk, as both Laure and the guy kept the scene moving with minimal foreplay and both watching for others. The guy is even so much of a gentleman that he offers her a tissue after they finish.

Since Laure seems to just move around Budapest without any rhyme or reason, we are told that Laure has the ability to move through both time and space. This saves us the time of seeing her walk places and the filmmakers from developing much more of a plot. Laure also has the ability to guess the intimate secrets of those around her. Shortly after we learn this, Laure meets Anita Blond. They get along well from the start, and Laure tells her that she knows that Anita's boyfriend is cheating on her with his secretary. Unlike all the wives out there who encourage their husbands to have anal sex with their secretary, Anita isn't too happy about this and looks for revenge.

Anita and Laure finally find a suitable spot inside a stairwell. This was one of my favorite scenes in the movie. The camera work is excellent! This scene has some of the best use of shadows that I've ever seen. It really builds the sexual heat. Many camera shots in this scene are from a distance such as the next landing. The rail for the stair obscures some of the action, but also raises the heat of the scene. The combination of shadow and longer distance camera shots gives this scene an excellent voyeuristic feel that I'm not sure if I've ever seen done as well.

Next, we learn that Laure can also turn invisible. She turns invisible and teleports in to watch a couple 'celebrating' in the apartment below them. She never joins in, but simply watches. She also comes and goes a little and moves around some, but not much. The invisible Laure adds a little to the voyeuristic feel, but the camera work doesn't give the voyeuristic feel as well as the previous scene.

We return to the plot a little bit as Anita plans some revenge on her husband. She dresses really sexy in the bathroom and comes out trying to get her husband to have sex, but he tries to get out of it. Apparently, Anita thinks the best revenge would be for Laure to join her and her husband in bed. I'm not exactly sure how this is considered revenge, but it works for me! It wasn't sure, but maybe later she cooked him a nice dinner and forced him to watch hockey on TV while giving him a massage that only stops for her to bring him beer and peanuts. Laure finally beams out as Anita takes a cum shot fully on the mouth. What passed for almost being a plot pretty much ends here.

Anita's revenge doesn't seem to be enough for Laure. Something's missing for her, besides a plot and so she decides that she should get a job. She picks up a paper and finds an ad for a job. She calls the boss and then visits him in his dreams to apply. Laure appears very efficient at her job also. Before trying out for the job, she makes the boss watch her by herself so she can leave without wasting his time. If she's trying out to be a presidential intern, it appears that she's more than qualified.

After her audition, Laure takes a break to watch the couple across the street, and then takes to the street herself to find out what it's like to be a hooker. Her first customer, surprisingly, is Anita's hubby. Good friend Laure is, she agrees to go out to the woods to bang him on the front of his car so they won't disturb things in town. She even beams in to his apartment later when hubby has invited a friend of his. Not being the greedy type, Laure brings a couple friends along and they finish things off with a nice little orgy.

After the orgy, Laure moves on to the next town, as her job here is done. I almost thought that this was plot entering in again, but it seemed more like an afterthought to the plot. As rough as I was on the plot in 'The Loves of Laure', I have to admit that when watching it, and even thinking about it a little the next day, I didn't really notice the lack of or disappearance of the plot. The sex is hot enough and the movie moves along fast enough that I didn't really care and can't hold it against 'The Loves of Laure' that much.

Of course there are a few differences between 'The Loves of Laure' and American porn. The most noticeable difference I saw was that there isn't always a visible cum shot. There were at least two scenes that had an implied cum shot. When there is a cum shot, however, the entire focus is on the shot, much like American porn. The other noticeable difference was more subtle and may not be true for all European porn. A lot of the sex scenes focused on outdoor sex or public sex. This was something that I noticed after watching the movie and to me, showed how sex can be much more open in Europe than America. Finally, almost all of the girls were natural, or should I say unenhanced. I thought that this also showed more of a feeling of being at ease with sex. It shows that to be sexy you don't have to enhance certain parts of your body. Instead sexy can come from much deeper inside and could involve anybody you might meet on the street.

When it comes to foreign movies, I admit that I'm somewhat of a naturalist. I'd much rather read subtitles and hear the original language so that the audio and video synch rather than having the audio dubbed and not synch with the video. Of course, there's always exceptions, such as Godzilla movies and the like. I didn't have that option with 'The Loves of Laure' as English is only offered as dubbed rather than a subtitle option. Luckily, I think sex is one of those universal languages. If you doubt this, I suggest you find somebody who speaks a different language than you and either grope them, stick your tongue down their throat, or show them what you've got. You'll immediately know if they understand what you want or not, and no, I'm not going to send you bail money, so choose wisely. Anyway, being somewhat of a naturalist, I often switched between the original French track and the English dubbed track during the sex scenes. I would have kept it on the English track, but it didn't always synch with the video. This bothered me a little, as I never thought it was that difficult to understand moaning no matter what language people were moaning in. The main difference between the English track and the French track was that the English track needed lines to be added. The moaning apparently isn't enough for people who speak English. We also need to hear yeses, yeahs, and oh yeahs. Other than that, the dubbing seemed very good. There is a lot of narration but little dialogue in the movie, so the dubbing doesn't interfere with the movie that much.

For a Wicked release, I felt the extras were lacking. The language support on the DVD is great. With the languages supported in either dubbing or subtitles, most people in the western world should be able to understand the movie. The photo gallery was also very good. I didn't make an exact count, but I think there were over twenty-five different stills from the movie. My main complaint is the biography section. Out of the entire cast, the bios only covered three people. As a newcomer to European porn, I had no clue who anybody in the movie was, with the exception of Laure, Anita, and Vivienne, who were in the bios. I wouldn't necessarily want an entire bio for everybody in the cast, but it would have been nice to have something where all the cast members were listed with a photo.

Raincoat Factor: medium high

Overall: If you're at all interested in European porn, pick this up! The story is okay and what little plot there is disappears halfway through the movie. The sex is good enough that I didn't really notice the disappearance of the plot until a few days later thinking about it for this review. The audio and video are also great. I would have liked some more extras, but don't let that stop you from picking this up.

Themes: straight, lesbian, group, masturbation, anal, DP, toe-ing, foot job, rimming