Customer Reviews

Red Shoe Diaries - The Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an X-files fan, I have listened to and read a number of articles where David Duchovny referred to the Red Shoe Diaries, so I thought I would check it out. When I read information on the tape I thought it was just another sex-oriented storyless movie. Finally, I decided, on the strength of those references to give it a shot.

I don't regret it. There is sex no-doubt and pretty artfully done, but that's not really what the movie is all about.

The only thing I didn't like was the character Alex's breathy phlegmatic voice. However, given the movie, it may have been done delibrerately.

The movie starts out surprisingly enough with the funeral of the central character Alex. Jake (David Duchovny's character) is obviously the significant other. The reactions of some of the family and friends are odd. Friends are supportive, but the one family member the mother, is obviously accusational.

After her funeral, while gathering Alex's clothing and shoes from where they lived, Jake stumbles on some diaries written by Alex. Here he reads not only of her admiration and love for himself but of another man in her life. A shock you can well imagine. A surprise as well when you have read of the satisfaction she has with her life and with Jake.

As he reads on, she describes the situation of her meeting the "other man; Tom". Girls lets face it, he is an eyeful.

This is a psychological movie in the sense that you have to understand and you will as you watch the movie, that Alex is a woman that is always being controlled by other people. Based on comments by Alex, she often lets people take control. When Jake meets her mother after their engagement, it is easy to see where this all began. Her descriptions of her youth only reinforce it further.

Too often when relationships are forged, so are the roles, and the person in control, remains the one in control. Alex in her relationship with Jake was unable to change the balance of power. It was no doubt Jake was in control, though hardly overbearing and from what I saw, also adoring and gentle. With the new situation with Tom, she hoped to have a situation she could control. She wanted to call the shots.

This did not work out the way she hoped it would. Alex realized in the situation with Tom, that is was not him, that was the problem, but her when the balance of power began to shift. The ending was inevitable and the only time she could exercise control and not lose it.

Jake after finding these diaries and reading them seeks out Tom, to understand why. Through a travesty of a basketball challenge and interruption of well meaning friends a one-on-one match becomes a one sided conversation where Jake tears at Tom's philosophies in life, seeing him as only a philandering ladies man. If not for the "cheerleaders", he may have gotten different answers. Needless to say, Jake wants to know what Alex saw in Tom. He also trivializes Tom's interest in Alex.

Tom is unaware that Jake was Alex's fiance. Tom is also unaware that Alex is dead. This scene and the later scene where Jake tells Tom of the death of Alex, while presenting him with the red shoes Alex bought from him, is a well done example of the possessiveness and grief of men. You wonder if Jake is more upset by Alex's death or that Tom owned a part of her that Jake could not have. Similarily it seems Tom reacts.

I found the movie had an interesting insight into why people do what they do. The character's of both Jake and Tom, never get the point. Especially when it is apparent Jake continues to seek answers, even after being given them in Alex's diary. I also see how things can go horribly wrong. Before you look outside, you must look inside. Easy to say, not so easy to do.

Given the nature of the other follow ons to this movie (they seem pure erotica) I may not see them, but I'm sure glad I saw this one. Please note I saw the rated R version. I'm not a prude but like to have a story in a movie that I'm going to dedicate 2 hours to.

A young woman(Bridget Bako) is torn between her fiancee, played by a pre-X Files Duchovny, and a shoe salesman she is having an affair with, played by gorgeous Billy Wirth...not that Duchovny isn't bad himself! She can't decide between the 2 men...so she committs suicide! After her death, Duchovny finds her diary, along with a pair of sexy red shoes she purchased from Wirth, and tries to put the pieces together. This is bascially the jist of the film. It is shown in flashbacks as Duchovny sorts painfully through her belongings. He reads her diary hoping it will provide some insight as to why she took her life. What he learns about the woman he loves is devastating! I have watched this film many times. I enjoy it very much. I like director Zalman King's films. (Another good one is Two Moon Junction) I think he is able to make sensual films from a womans point of view, which is why they come across as erotic, not smutty. The only thing I don't like is, the version originally aired on Showtime and the rental version have different endings. I prefer the cable version. You end up liking Wirth much better. I don't know why King found it necessary to have 2 endings, the difference drastically alters the tone of the film. If possible, try and get your hands on the cable version first. You can purchase both versions, so know which is which. I must admit that I don't care for the Showtime series, Red Shoe Diaries, for which this movie was the pilot. Bridget Bako is absolutely lovely in the scene were she manically dances about her apartment. She reminds me of a young Jane Fonda. Billy Wirth's smouldering character posesses the uncanny ability to guess his customers shoe sizes the moment they walk into the store. But his character is not as shallow as he appears. Wirth is SO incredible in this film! Then again, let's face it, most woman would be content to watch Wirth read the phone book aloud! This was the first time I ever saw Duchovny, and I immediatly liked him. He has a nice screen presence. He is subtly sexy. I am glad I got to know him in this film before I became familiar with the stone-faced Muldar on X-Files. He CAN do more than play the straight man. I really can't say too much more about Red Shoe Diaries without giving up too much of the story. All I can say is, if I had the dilemma of choosing between Wirth and Duchovny, I certainly wouldn't kill myself! I'd be on the phone boasting to all my girlfriends!

Over a year ago, I came across a pre-owned VHS copy of the "Red Shoe Diaries" pilot. I knew Duchovny starred in it, being a big X-Files fan and having caught an installment or two on Showtime in which he only began and ended it. I cannot tell you how glad I am that I bought that video.

The pilot film blows away every other installment I have seen, because it provides a bittersweet backstory for the whole series. Duchovny plays Jake, a handsome and successful architect living and working in L.A. He is deeply in love with his live-in girlfriend, who later becomes his fiancee'. Her name is Alex, (played by an actress named Brigitte Bako), and she is an interior designer. Jake and Alex seem to be the perfect couple with the perfect life and love.... but looks can be decieving. This is evidenced by the fact that the film opens with Alex's funeral, and Jake's inconsoleable grief.

Upon returning home and starting to pack up Alex's belongings, the mourning Jake finds two key things: Alex's secret diary, and a pair of red high-heeled Kenneth Cole shoes. As he begins to read her diary, sudden loss is cruelly compounded by the crushing discovery of betrayal and infidelity. It seems Jake was so blinded by love and pre-occupied with work that he failed to see just what a dysfunctional tragedy waiting to happen his Alex really was.... a fact which began to reveal itself first with his discovery of her lifeless body, and continuing as he got caught up in the diary's chronicle of Alex's secret other life and paramour.

This other man was Tom (played by the scrumptious Billy Wirth, easily as hot as DD), who worked both as a construction worker and a shoe salesman. It is through him that Alex acquires the red shoes. They have a hot, steamy affair, but the problem is that once Alex accepts Jake's proposal, she finds herself unable to end it. Needing a sense of control she's never felt in her life drove her to the affair... now she has lost all control, which leads her to the rash and foolish solution of suicide.

Grief-stricken and stunned, Jake becomes obssessed with confronting the other man, which he does in the climax of the film. In the end, it solves nothing for him, and thus begins his quest to heal his broken heart through the secret stories of other women, which he procures through an ongoning ad in the newspaper. He hopes to gain insight into Alex's actions through other women's experiences. To our knowledge, his quest for inner peace through literary voyeurism goes on.

This film was stylish, sensual, and heartbreaking. Say what you like about Duchovny's acting ability, he at least has a knack for angsty roles. His turn as Jake was a precursor to the angsty hero Fox Mulder in "The X-Files". The musical soundtrack is also quite good, I own it, as well. Even if you aren't a big fan of the whole RSD series (as I am not), this pilot film is worth watching.

This is a gorgeous, delicious, sensuous and hypnotic movie which could have been a play but the dialogue is pretty sparse and the visualization is too yummy and glorious to be anything but what it is: a movie by Zalman King which became the pilot for the "Red Shoe Diaries" serial on Showtime, the cable network.

The only woman who made me want to be other than myself (I want to come back to life as Brigette Bako), Bako is too beautiful to describe into words: she looks neither black nor white but some kind of a mixture of the two races; she is not a woman and not a child, but gives off mixed qualities depending on which scene; and she is such that she looks to be an alien--skinny but somehow full, not so beautiful conventionally but really glorious looking (and sounding) and enormously effective as the phlegmatic yet haunted Alex who is loved by a powerful and dynamic Jake (a pre-"X-files" David Duchovney) her finance with whom she lives in a converted warehouse in downtown LA.

Jake is a successful architect and Alex marvels at his drive and ambition. She herself feels a bit like a fish out of water, not quite comfortable or sure of herself, and NOT quite so dedicated or passionate about her work as an interior designer. She is searching for some meaning in her life. Her life with Jake was probably a reaction to her strained relationship with her overbearing mother. She is caught between two strong characters: her mother and her future husband.

Then one day per chance, she meets Tom (Billy Wirth, probably the most beautiful man ever captured on screen), a shoe sales man cum construction worker. The chemistry between them is SO hot (their first scene together is when he recommends and puts on her feet, a pair of very red high heels) that they end up jumping into bed before even knowing each other's names. When she tries to leave Tom, she can't.

Now, torn between two men who want her, what can she do??

Watch this movie...it is so amazing, so sumptuous, so profound and very well made. The movie is about control, about love, possession, passion, classism and yes, about GREAT SEX and what can happen if you get it outside of your primary relationship.

This movie is the true meaning of the old famous hit song, "When a man loves a woman" This is a true love story. David Duchovny was a man who was in love with Brigitte Bako who played his girlfriend. His loving proposal to her for marriage, caused her to search her true feelings for him. She became involved with a blue collard worker, with a bad boy image; played by: Billy Wirth. The soft erotic sex scenes between Brigitte Bako and Billy Wirth, speaks for its self. She was torn between the bad boy who stimulated her sexually, and emotionally, and the white collard highly successful boyfriend. Her confusion became so overwhelming for her, that the bad boy who sold her the red pumps was her obsession; she wrote in her diary. David Duchovny responded to her writings, and acted out his frustrations when he decided to pay the bad boy a visit; challenging him to a basketball game. This gave David the chance to confront Billy face to face, and angrily express to Billy the girl's horrific tragedy. A touching story, I recommend it.

Excellent storyline. Confused, poetic, emotional young woman Alex (Bridgette Bako) seems to have it all: perfect boyfriend (David Duchovny), beautiful loft in LA, successful career as a designer. The only thing she lacks in her life is control -- and something or someone to ease her impulsive desire to lose herself in sexual bliss without losing her mind and her life permanently.

A classic line is when Alex, the main character, is with her secret lover (not her boyfriend), and he tells her to give him oral pleasure -- and she in turn commands him and says: "F--- you! Rip my panties off!" What's so beautiful about this line is that you really capture the sense of her being who she wants to be, not conforming to a mold, giving all of herself and desires to her lover (a total stranger) yet trying to maintain being nameless and owning the "control" she desperately tries to have over this stranger and her life.

This drama is a must for women who need! to come to terms with their own inner longing for control and inner peace, without turning that desire into a destructive force that could topple their whole world before they know what's hit them. END

Bottom Line: Buy It

I have to say, Zalman King does some pretty excellent work bringing heat to the screen with his movies and tv programs.

This movie, was turned into a the TV series, 'The Red Shoe Diaries' that originally aired on Showtime in the 1990's. If you've ever seen that series, this movie lays down the groundwork of the character in the series played by David Duchovny. If you haven't seen the series, it centers around his character who receives all the erotic letters (which are turned into visual mini stories) from women after placing an ad in the classifieds attempting to understand why his fiance ended her life.

The movie centers on the relationship of David's character with his fiance, and while they have an active sex life, her character wonders if there's something missing from her 'perfect life'. Which sends on her path of searching of something she can't exactly put her finger...and into the arms of Billy Wirth's character (who btw is intensely hot in this film) and into his bed.

But she struggles between the perfectness of her life with David's character, and the craving intensity she feels with Billy's character... ultimately sending her on a emotional spiral downward..where she ends her own life.

Then David's character sets out trying to discover what happened, when he finds her journal, and vows to find out who this other man is. With a climactic scene where they both meet and confront each other.

While there is no perfect ending in this movie, it does contain some fantastic sex scenes, and some intensely passionate characters filled with emotional baggage. Very visually interesting as well.

If you're new to Zalman King's work, and you enjoy this movie, you might check out his other works (Red Shoe Diaries the series, Lake Consequence).

When this movie came out on cable ten years ago, I taped it and watched it several times. There is a haunting quality about it, the kind often found only in foreign films. I won't go into details about the plot-- other reviews have already done so. I'll just say that, for ten years, I had remembered it fondly (I eventually misplaced the tape), until I ordered a copy of it on DVD. It's always a curious thing to see a movie after a decade has passed.

..And although times have changed and so have I, I still love it.

Duchovny is great in this Red Shoe debut movie. If you ever caught one the series on Showtime, but often wondered how did Red Shoe Dairies ever start, this explains it all. It keeps one guessing throughout the emotional rollercoaster of love. Too bad David didn't make more of these types of films. He is much better as one of the stars (such as in this title) rather than just the narrator, as the series goes. It's nice to see him sensually interactive on film, pure enjoyment, especially if you're one of his fans.

This movie is on my list of "chick" movies or those movies that would appeal to our female need for sexiness, erotic content, and, sometimes, a competent storyline. Other movies on my list would be "Two Moon Junction", "Against All Odds" and "Thief of Hearts". I don't know why David Duchovny seems to shy away from mentioning his participation in this movie and the Showtime cable series that came after. He was so palpably sexy in this movie, and in the "Jake's Story" episode of "Red Shoes" the series. Billy Wirth is also mighty fine to look at as well. How can a girl choose between these two fine specimens? Sigh...