Art Lover (1999)
Vivid Interactive
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Interestingly, "Art Lover" is not your typical Vivid fare and is somehow more content oriented than many of their other releases – content oriented in Vivid terms that is. The film is a hardcore adult movie with petite Kobe Tai in the lead and it still has its fair share of explicit close-up hardcore action. It takes in considerably less room and time than in many other releases. There is a real exposition of about 10 minutes in the film that sets up the drama in the story. I know, all this sounds very weird when talking about a Vivid movie, but it’s true. Kobe, an aspiring artist has problems with her partner who is a completely whacked-out artist himself. Too sooth her soul she talks to a statue on the roof of her house a lot and eventually makes up with her lover somehow. In the meanwhile she’s having an affair with her girlfriend, while her girlfriend has an affair with Kobe’s lover. She catches them in flagranti and seeks the helping shoulder of the statue once again who miraculously turns into a human being, eager to share his carnal pleasures with the turned on Kobe.

"Art Lover" does not contain the constant, senselessly strung-up copulation scenes but instead focuses on the few ones that are in the film. These are beautifully photographed and especially the one when the two girls make out is very artsy in its look and feel. You can tell that someone tried to break with some standard clichés when shooting the film and the result is quite successful. Despite the rather low production value of the overall picture, the film creates a rather enclosed, intimate atmosphere and pictures that at times truly resemble glamour shots. The video transfer of the disc is average and a but on the soft side. It’s not spectacular but also not really bad. The audio transfer is quite good compared to some of Vivid’s other releases.

The biggest problem of "Art Lover" comes from its shift in focus actually. The story is poorly researched and the dialogue lines are oozing pretension of arts knowledge. There is no foundation and no real knowledge there at all and the characters serve lines that were made up of buzzwords. Kobe Tai might be a talented adult star but she is not a very talented actress, and neither are her costars. The lines are delivered in a way that is drier than the Nevada desert and the credibility of the scenes is plain out of sight. If it weren’t for the nice photography and the stylish presentation of the sexual content, I wouldn’t give the film much thought. Wrapped up altogether the way it is however, it works quite well and creates a stimulating mix of art, erotic and imagery.

"Art Lover" contains the same plethora of material that can be found on all other Vivid releases. Vivid is shuffling certain materials around, creating a slightly different mix on almost all of their releases while the formula and presentation itself remains the same overall. Trailers to other releases from Vivid, teasers for the hottest Vivid girls and bucketloads of steamy hot outtakes from other films can be found all over the two sides of this disc. In total the disc contains 4 hours of adult material for your viewing pleasure.

I was pleasantly surprised by "Art Lover", expecting an off-the-mill adult film with nothing else but explicit sexual content. It is a film that takes its time to set the mood, almost like the foreplay, and then pays off with some great scenes. If you’re into the wham-bam school of adult films, this film is not for you. If you want to see something a little more exquisite and tastefully done, I can recommend "Art Lover" without deliberation.