"Revelations" is among the late Candida Royalle's most ambitious productions, conceived as a sci-fi broadside against increasing censorship attempts to limit personal artistic expression, well-directed with a novel combination of soft-core (lead roles) and hardcore (XXX scenes viewed on video by the heroine) elements.
Its Adam & Eve 2-DVD set reissue is that rare case of Bonus features that are actually worth watching. Not only does Candida provide a decade-after explication of her work, but the "Making of" half-hour documentary is actually interesting, rather than the typical posing for stills & cracking jokes on the set that constitute thousands of such fillers.
Her leads Amy Rapp and Colin Matthews are mainstream talent, performing with nudity but strictly soft-core. Rapp plays Ariel, trapped in a totalitarian state The New Order, with the American flag still flying but life reduced to mere drudgery in support of the watchful State. Her husband was dishonorably discharged from the military (reason we find out is his possession of risqué magazines) but he's obsessed with serving the State by fathering a kid to grow up and become a soldier.
Crucial to Royalle's script is the definition of sex as strictly for procreation, with a husband able to get an instant divorce if his wife doesn't conceive within a year of marriage, and then try over again with a new wife. This right-wing dystopia has everyone dressed in grey, and passion completely sapped out of daily existence.
Royalle reports that principal photography in 1991 cost $125,000, a tidy sum and the first time she had ever shot in 35mm. Two years later she did a re-shoot (on video this time), after deciding that the hardcore scenes originally shot were too kinky, as she wanted Ariel to watch sensual videos in the story that would open her up to the possibilities of human connection and fulfillment through sex. The 2nd disk in the package presents over half an hour of never-released-before footage from the scrapped scenes starring Rick Savage, busty blonde T.C., former porn star Chelsea Blake and young actor Joey D who later appeared in Candida's feature "The Gift". One of these deleted scenes was shot at the studio of famed New York artist Larry Rivers.
Content in the vein of Orwell's "1984" has a life of its own in "Revelations", thanks to the sensuality of the love scenes and the sparing inclusion of only moments of hardcore content, as opposed to the Adult industry's trend which now has made continuous half hour to hour- long XXX footage virtually standard procedure. The acting is fine and the mood carefully sustained by Floyd F. Fisher's original score. Ending is downbeat, sounding a call to arms for the apathetic public, no less relevant today whether it is Trump or perhaps more so when extreme right- winger Pence takes over after a likely and well-earned impeachment for The Donald.
Its Adam & Eve 2-DVD set reissue is that rare case of Bonus features that are actually worth watching. Not only does Candida provide a decade-after explication of her work, but the "Making of" half-hour documentary is actually interesting, rather than the typical posing for stills & cracking jokes on the set that constitute thousands of such fillers.
Her leads Amy Rapp and Colin Matthews are mainstream talent, performing with nudity but strictly soft-core. Rapp plays Ariel, trapped in a totalitarian state The New Order, with the American flag still flying but life reduced to mere drudgery in support of the watchful State. Her husband was dishonorably discharged from the military (reason we find out is his possession of risqué magazines) but he's obsessed with serving the State by fathering a kid to grow up and become a soldier.
Crucial to Royalle's script is the definition of sex as strictly for procreation, with a husband able to get an instant divorce if his wife doesn't conceive within a year of marriage, and then try over again with a new wife. This right-wing dystopia has everyone dressed in grey, and passion completely sapped out of daily existence.
Royalle reports that principal photography in 1991 cost $125,000, a tidy sum and the first time she had ever shot in 35mm. Two years later she did a re-shoot (on video this time), after deciding that the hardcore scenes originally shot were too kinky, as she wanted Ariel to watch sensual videos in the story that would open her up to the possibilities of human connection and fulfillment through sex. The 2nd disk in the package presents over half an hour of never-released-before footage from the scrapped scenes starring Rick Savage, busty blonde T.C., former porn star Chelsea Blake and young actor Joey D who later appeared in Candida's feature "The Gift". One of these deleted scenes was shot at the studio of famed New York artist Larry Rivers.
Content in the vein of Orwell's "1984" has a life of its own in "Revelations", thanks to the sensuality of the love scenes and the sparing inclusion of only moments of hardcore content, as opposed to the Adult industry's trend which now has made continuous half hour to hour- long XXX footage virtually standard procedure. The acting is fine and the mood carefully sustained by Floyd F. Fisher's original score. Ending is downbeat, sounding a call to arms for the apathetic public, no less relevant today whether it is Trump or perhaps more so when extreme right- winger Pence takes over after a likely and well-earned impeachment for The Donald.