Search - Bilitis on DVD

Too bad picture quality!

Satu Razzi | North | 10/21/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I bought Bilitis on DVD from Amazon to get better picture quality than the very old VHS copy I have. But I got very disappointed. The DVD's picture quality is no better at all! The DVD is obviously just copied it from a VHS, despite this DVD seems to be the "official" one.
The picture quality is the worst of any in my DVD collection. Low resolution. Low contrast. Low color saturation. Jerky picture. You can even see some horizontal stripes typical only for faulty, old videotapes! A shame the studio released this DVD without bothering to scan the original 35 mm.
The movie itself is what you can expect from David Hamilton, who is no "real" film director, but a photographer. Or he pretends to be. I don't think he has ever been even close to take one single clear focused picture during his entire life. But he is even worse as a director. His films have dull dialogue (dubbed), untalented acting, boring and completely uninteresting story lines, silly characters, and so on.
The only honest reason to look at Hamilton's books and films is that he somehow knows how to get pretty young girls appear nude in front of the camera. A pity the picture quality is so dull then.
I give this DVD two stars because of a rare, one minute scene with a couple of skinny-dipping girls. And a third one, divided between some OK music themes and a few more nude shoots (including a softy, lesbian "sex scene" between the main character and a woman.) Story, acting, picture quality and "extras" (hardly anything more than scene selections and own music score) get zero combined."

Good film with one glaring fault

cdg_orders | 03/06/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Bilitis is a coming of age film about an innocent girl staying with Melissa (a family friend) and her husband. She learned some painful lessons about love during her stay, such as witnessing the husband forcing himself on his wife every night, his infidelity, and Bilitis's own contentious romance with a local boy named Lucas. She decided to help Melissa by finding her a lover. However, Melissa and Lucas became romantic, and Bilitis returns to boarding school heartbroken but wiser in love.Overall, the story and cinematography are good, and the actors (especially Patti D'Arbanville) are talented and attractive. However, I couldn't overcome the fact that Ms. D'Arbanville looked much older than her classmates. In fact, she was 26 years old at the time. This shatters the illusion of a teenager finding her first romance. Casting adults as teens is common, and if you can see past the 10 year spread between actor and character, this film deserves four stars. Additional note: most of the actresses appeared nude in the film, including several teens. Some coming of age films of merit starring actual teens are Hamilton's other films "Laura" and "Tender Cousins", as well as "Beau Pere", "Pretty Baby", "Little Lips", and "36 Fillette"."

Nothing is perfect...(Dubbed english, no subtitles)

Jose L. Herrera | Mexico City | 10/20/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I waited for a long time the DVD version of this visual masterpiece (I have already the VHS tape). Promising a digitally remastered version with enhanced audio (Stereo 2.0), New Star Video offers not only the movie but also you can choose (from the main menu) a still gallery with the Hamilton's beautiful pictures (taken from the film) or just the music (to listen your favorite song of the movie). I gave it four stars because the DVD includes only the dubbed english version, without offering the original french audio or subtitles. Also, the remasterization didn't improve the quality of the images as I expected, but the audio sounds fine."

Bilitis - VHS Version

cdg_orders | USA | 08/06/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

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This story is based upon Pierre Louys' turn-of-the-century novel, deals with a young schoolgirl's awakening to love. It takes place during her summer vacation at the home of a family friend, Melissa. The young girl, Bilitis, is shocked when she witnesses her friend and her husband making love, however Melissa encourages Bilitis to discover the aspect of love by seeing a young photographer, Lucas. When Lucas tries to make love to Bilitis, she rebuffs him and runs to Melissa, who in comforting Bilitis finds herself responding to her kisses and embraces. Melissa tells Bilitis there must be nothing more between them.

Bilitis discovers Melissa's husband is with another woman, so she decides to find another man for Melissa. She returns with Nikias, a rich young man who has loved too many too well, and both Melissa and he know they cannot have an affair. In the end Melissa and Lucas becomes lovers and Bilitis returns to her school realizing she is not yet ready for adulthood.

The quality of the VHS movie, while watchable, is not very good. However, the sound quality is even worse. There is a lot of high frequency hiss that should have been filtered out in production.

There is adult nudity, plenty of earl teen nudity (front/rear), adult themes and sexual situations (between Melissa and Bilitis). This is one of David Hamilton's better productions, on par with Laura and certainly better than Tender Cousins.

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