Diva Futura

This is the kind of film for which the epithet 'interesting,' one I otherwise overuse, is made.

Purportedly written and directed by La Cicciolina – and given the amateurishness of the latter in particular, with a severe overuse of zooms in and out, I see no reason to doubt this – its title refers to the porn company founded by Cicciolina and others in the mid 80s, whose manifesto is here presented as pro-sex, pro-environment, anti-aids (though it would be hard to be pro-aids, even if some French post-structualist philosophers no doubt managed it), anti-war and generally right-on.

Cicciolina herself does not appear, except as a poster on the wall of the Diva Futura offices, though given the presence of Moana Pozzi, her younger sister 'Baby' Pozzi, New Ramba (whose top half resembles a female Rambo even if below the waist she is bare in a make love not war way, confirmed by her subsequent interventions) and other Italian porn icons of the period, the significance of this this questionable, in an absence = presence way, fuck you Derrida, way.

The (anti-)narratives take the form of a) various routines by the Pozzis and company, which are noteworthy for being something of throwback to such 70s softcore films as Emanuelle's Porno Nights in their avoidance of hardcore, and b) the conflict between the women of Diva Futura and assorted representatives of patriarchal authority, again notable for being resolved in a distinctly softcore way.

As far a I could work out – here hampered by being able to understand the visuals, less so the Italian dialogue – the overall result is something akin to these Bruno Mattei and Joe D'amato Black Emanuelle mondo-esque entries, but more politicised, as foregrounded by a use a condom / don't get aids routine whose pro-sex message was hard to reconcile with official Catholic abstinence if not-heterosexual / non contraceptive use.

The sexual limits of the piece were also, also however, clear, in terms of no actual lesbianism - i.e. not for the delectation of the heterosexual male viewer - or gay activity.

Radley Metger / Henry Paris still has the edge...