Customer Reviews

Laura

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This movie is about a sculptor who loves "making" statues and paintings of young nudes. He becomes obsessed with the daughter (Laura) of a friend, whom he knew a long time ago. He manages to get her mother to take pictures of her for him to use in making a sculpture of her body. Laura develops a crush on him (as did her mother) and after he is blinded, offers to help him finish the statue that he started by posing for him herself. He's able to finish the clay sculpture by using his hands to feel along her body. They both get caught up in the moment and she becomes a women.

Those who argue about the plot or dialogue have missed the point of a David Hamilton movie. They simply don't get it. At any rate, there are a few story plots intertwined in this movie if you can pick them out.

And as for adolescent beauty, it is evident to all who have a discerning eye. The preteens and teens in this movie are among the prettiest (face and body) ever to be in a David Hamilton movie (or his books). This movie caused a lot of controversy when it was first released. Dawn Dunlpa (Laura) went on to appear in other movies such as "Forbidden World" where once again her body (total nudity) is on display for all to see.

This movie contains a lot of preteen nudity (front and rear) of girls in the shower and you do get to see quite a bit of a young and beautiful Dawn Dunlap (full nudity).

As with all gatekeeper reviews, which are concerned only with adult themes, nudity and violence - this movie contains preteen nudity and sexual situations. If you're a David Hamilton or Dawn Dunlap fan, this movie is a must. If you do not appreciate preteen nudity or are unable to view it as artistic, then do not buy this movie.

When one hears the name David Hamilton, the thoughts that come to mind include nudity in youthful figures and an ability to skillfully portray what othewise might be deemed as porn in the true artistic light. The sculptor loves 'making' young nudes. He sees a lovely angel. Next, he finds the angel is daughter of a former lover. Adams acts like she is there again for him. It is only Laura. Fearing the inevitable, she shows the sculptor nude photos of Laura. He becomes obsessed with presenting Laura in the most beautiful piece since the David. Then he loses sight. Laura has developed a crush. Seeing the finished part of the sculpture, she rejoices in its/her beauty while wanting to see it finished and also enjoy his love. There are young girls
frolicing in the nude in the shower and park. Nudity fits in
naturally. Hamilton interweaves a portrait with complex relationships skillfully and very touchingly. Laura is a lovely young lady. Go beyond the playful nudity and into her persona. The sculptor's soul can be felt. So can Adams and Laura. With upmost taste & talent, Hamilton presents the gratification of budding womanhood & fulfillment of an artist's dream.

I must see this again. Classic cinematic treatment of mother-
daughter competition done as gracefully as a Nureyev skip.

At the time I write this review there are three 5 star "Wow, great art!" reviews and a couple of 1 star reviews that didn't think it was very good. I find myself somewhere in the middle at about 2 1/2 stars.
I remember seeing that David Hamilton favored soft focus photography, this one is almost foggy at times and the color seems muted, washed out. I don't know about the VHS version but my DVD was evidently copied from a film that was just about worn out, terribly scratchy at times, a few flaws all the way through. The camera/sound work seems like something done with a cheap camcorder, very amateurish- sometimes too far from the subject, muffled sound (or too loud), poor musical accompaniment, choppy editing. I could trim this movie by several minutes and hurt nothing.
The plotline seems fairly consistent but not especially "arty", most of the real nudity comes early on in the film with the girl's dance class group shower after that you see the artist's nude sculptures a bit more than the real thing. Don't buy it if you've just got to have something erotic, the most erotic scenes occur when some of the girls dry each other off in the showers (very mild) or someone runs their hands over the sculptures. The closest thing to a sex scene is when Laura visits the sculptor, now blind, to let him touch her body as a guide to finishing his depiction of her (I took that scene to be a daydream of hers).
I don't know how I'd change this film but I don't see much art to it beyond the natural beauty of a few nude teen girls. Laura is a bad buy for art, even worse for erotic film fans.

The movie itself is a good one and I already own a tape. To appreciate the photographer's work, a tape is certainly not sufficient. Therefore I bought a DVD. Unfortunately, the DVD is worse than the tape. Very disappointing! If you cannot get the right visual quality, what is the point to produce a DVD or buy it for Hamilton's work?

Laura, a film by David Hamilton, is, basically, an excuse for the photographer to put his controversial yet beautiful photographs into a moving picture of design. The story, involving a young woman named Laura and a tormented artist who, it turns out, has lost his heart for his work, is rather dull and lacluster. The screenplay pushes hard to find heart in it's delivery, yet doesn't quite reach the plateau it reaches for. I could see this movie reaching a heart tugging emotional gallantry if done in a different way, yet I don't quite think that David Hamilton was extremely concerned with such a deep impact. As mentioned before, this movie is basically a showcase of Hamilton's ability to portray young women in a natural state of nudity, of capturing the untainted and raw beauty of the youthful woman figure. He does this, not in spades (the movie is not saturated with nude women, sorry fellows)but very rarely, which is a dissapointment. Hamilton's photographic eye is evident in a few scenes, such as a shower scene in the beginning featuring some lovely young women. The effect of his aesthetic posing is a moving photograph, living art. It was just a shame that more images such as these didn't live through the rest of the film.
As far as eroticism is concerned, there is one in particular that stands out alone. One where the artist is turning the young Laura into a woman, so to speak, and the camera crops in on her faces emotional reply.
Do I recommend this movie? Not exactly. The young Dawn Dunlap, playing Laura, is indeed quite beautiful, and you see her body in it's entirety. And those of you looking for a plethora of nude underaged women will not find solice within this film, but a dissapointment. The only scene with such is in the beginning, and not long at all. I recommend renting it first, if that is at all possible.

"Laura" has a decent story that could have been developed but wasn't; the over use of soft focus distracted from the story there was. The DVD is of moderate VHS quality video; I don't know if this is poor quality transfer or poor photography but is also bad enough to be distracting. It was like the old days of a drive in movie and the first movie was good enough that you wish it had been dark enough to have seen it; when you finish watching this movie you feel like you should have seen something good but didn't.

After spending some time considering all of the reviews for this film, pro and con, I decided to take a chance and purchase the dvd ($24.95/US). I viewed this film with an eye towards the following:

The Dialogue: I agree that the English Dialogue wasn't the best. But, it served it's purpose. May I suggest listening to the French Dialogue? I didn't bother to see if English sub-titles were even available on the disc (I believe they were NOT available).

The Main Characters:

Laura and Laura's mom. An interesting duo to say the least. In the end, mom was very understanding. She tried to shield Laura, but that wasn't going to work. When one is driven by desire, almost nothing on earth will stop them from seeing their desires through to the end. If that sounds cryptic, I apologize. But, you should see the film for yourself and decide. Maybe, you too, will be able to relate.

**Special Note: Laura's ballet teacher was one sharp cookie...Nothing escaped her!

Paul. He was one of those men whose passion was in his work. Though he could be diverted temporarily. His work was his life - his life was his work - and nothing, not Laura, not her mother, was going to change that. Did he love them both? Yes. Did they both love him? Yes. But, he moved on - and they both moved on. That's life.

Cinematography:

Admittedly, shooting in pastels (blurring the lens) gave the appearance of everything 'shimmering' or 'glowing' as far as the subjects of the film were concerned, and made everything look 'softer', more 'delicate', as if we were peering around a curtain. For me, it wasn't a distraction - though some might think it so.

Nudity:

Was the nudity gratuitous? My view - no. She was at that age, folks, where those young eyes are opening and starting to notice - everything. Secondly, Paul was an artist, a sculptor of the human form - it just goes with the territory. So, the nudity was not gross or pornographic or overly done.

Opinion:

This film wasn't perfect by any stretch, but, if you were ever a teenager, and felt 'those feelings' (love, desire, hurt, pain, jealousy), you can relate to this film, even if there was NO Dialogue. Go beyond what you see on the screen. Watch and decide for yourself! Maybe, just maybe, you be able to relate also!

I rate this film: 4 Stars!

A smattering of nudity here and there does not rescue the viewer from abject tedium. Some people seem to think that any film with very little dialog and a dreamy look is "artistic" and therefore has value. Never mind that the leads cannot act and the plot is as thin as the gauze that must have been placed over the lens. The director is best known as a still photographer; little wonder that the images on the screen might as well be still photography for all the content they have. I am 100 percent regretful I wasted my money on this turkey.

I loved this movie it is about a sixteen girl that falls in love for a man older then her and there is a bit of nudity in it in case you do not like that stuff.

A great film!! Full of Art and pretty young women! Acting was excellent (especially considering the subject matter and nude scenes for all the lovely actors)I have never seen a production from David Hamilton before and I hope his other films are as tastefully done. My only complaint is that the entire film was very poorly lit making it hard to see many of the scenes. Some of the film was intentionally shot in this manner and I understand. However, it was just not as bright and colorful as one would hope for. For that reason I should give it 4 stars. But, films of this nature are so very hard to find and David hamilton is just brilliant with his characters, plot and beautiful young women. I just can't resist to give it all 5 stars. I'd love to see more films like this one.