Possible spoilers. Recently I read an article about Hedy Lamarr, not specifically about her acting career but about her side job as an inventor (member of the National Inventor Hall of Fame) who, along with composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied Forces against Hitler’s Germany.
Early in her film career, the Austrian beauty wasn’t getting much traction until she signed up for this film from Czechoslovakia under the guidance of director Gustav Machaty. Essentially it tells the story of Eva Herman (19 year old Lamarr then known as Hedy Kiesler) who marries an older man, Emile (46-year old Zvonimir Rogoz). The movie opens appropriately with Emile clumsily and humorously carrying his young bride across the threshold of their new home. Eva appears anxious to consummate the marriage but Emile goes about his business of organizing items in his home office.
As time goes on, Eva becomes more and more frustrated with her husband. She cozies up to him, makes all the right moves, but he seems intent on having her just as a companion. Red flags there wouldn’t you think. In what is reported to be the first film featuring a female orgasm (self-induced), it is pretty lame by today’s standards but still unmistakable and leads to the most controversial section of the movie.
Eva has divorced Emile and has moved back in with her father (Leopold Kramer) who has an opulent rural estate. Feeling frisky one morning, Eva decides to take a horseback ride down to a small lake, the local swimming hole. There she parks the horse takes off her clothes, putting them on the horse and hits the water…with the camera rolling. While she frolics in the lake, the horse, hearing the romantic calls of another horse, decides to find a new girlfriend.
This is just one of many scenes Machaty utilizes to show the affection between 2 people or animals which dangles the missing component of poor Eva’s life. When Eva comes out of the lake in all her glory, she freaks out when she finds her horse gone. The horse ends up at a nearby worksite, where a crew is laying railroad tracks. The engineer on site is Adam, a handsome bloke played by 29-year old Aribert Mog. He corrals the steed and heads back toward the lake where he discovers Eva cowering behind the brush. He returns her clothes and they eventually strike up a relationship.
When Eva returns home she discovers Emile had dropped by. With encouragement from dear old dad, Emile wants to rekindle the relationship, one that never kindled in the first place. Eva bluntly tells him to take a hike which he does, forlorn and depressed. Emile’s road out of the country is blocked by the aforementioned construction, but Adam conveniently ushers him through the mess with a promise that Emile will take him into town. Of course Adam doesn’t know of Emile’s previous relationship with Eva.
Emile seems destructive, hurtling down the narrow road in his MG roadster. I kept wondering why their flapping hats don’t fly off. They must have been glued down. Adam has planned a romantic dinner at the local inn with Eva, the same one where Emile is staying. Eventually putting 2 and 2 together, Emile can’t go on and pulls the trigger…of a pistol to his head. When the lovers go up to the room to see what’s what, Eva seizes up trying not to let on that she was once married to the dead man. In what is a surprising ending, Eva leaves Adam behind but in the film’s final scene is finally smiling and holding a baby in her arms.
The film does have some unique elements to it besides the nudity. Machaty uses some elements first utilized by Alfred Hitchcock in his early films. Using shadows and interesting lighting the film often has a soft shooting perspective. For example in one scene the sunlight comes in through a crack in the shutters, perfectly hitting the eyes of Eva in a horizontal fashion. Other scenes are shot with the camera shooting up from the floor. Of course like the dating horses, the birds and the bees and other structured scenes go on too long. One can forgive those featuring Lamarr (a surname give to her by Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM). Her face is mesmerizing. The film has very little dialog and when it occurs it had been dubbed in German by other actors. English subtitles in the version I watched on Amazon Prime. The film was banned by many countries including Germany and the United States, finally arriving here in 1936 in an edited version. Lamarr went on to have a successful career well into the late ‘50’s but perhaps should be better known as a force to win WW II for the Allies.
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Ecstasy [VHS]
Hedy Lamarr
(Actor),
Aribert Mog
(Actor),
Gustav Machatý
(Director)
&
0
more Rated: Format: VHS Tape
NR
IMDb6.6/10.0
$12.99$12.99
| Additional VHS Tape options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
|
VHS Tape
June 29, 2004 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $18.80 | — |
|
VHS Tape
November 29, 1990 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $28.45 | — |
Enhance your purchase
| Format | Black & White, NTSC |
| Contributor | Hedy Lamarr, Comedian Harmonists, Jan Sviták, Antonín Kubový, Karel Macha-Kuca, Jirina Steimarová, Bedrich Vrbský, Ladislav Bohác, Leopold Kramer, Emil Jerman, Gustav Machatý, Jirina Stepnicková, Pierre Nay, Aribert Mog, André Nox, Zvonimir Rogoz, Eduard Slégl See more |
| Language | French, German |
Editorial Reviews
An adult, erotic, romantic film of a young woman who has an affair upon discovering that her husband is impotent.
Product details
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Language : French, German
- Package Dimensions : 7.32 x 4.19 x 1.12 inches; 6.13 Ounces
- Director : Gustav Machatý
- Release date : September 19, 1997
- Date First Available : September 29, 2006
- Actors : Hedy Lamarr, Aribert Mog, Zvonimir Rogoz, Leopold Kramer, Emil Jerman
- Studio : Madacy Records
- ASIN : 6303935184
- Customer Reviews:
Customer reviews
4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
151 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 6, 2020
14 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 12, 2017
By now, you are probably aware of why this was such an important film, (and no, I don't mean the lake scene.) So, I'll save time here and just review the product at hand.
As another reviewer has pointed out, this is indeed a DVR. There is no disc menu. No special features. And no restoration has gone into the release of this product. The film quality has quite a bit of noise to it. The sound quality is passable, without any major flaws.
Secondly, and very important to note, THERE ARE NO SUBTITLES DESPITE WHAT THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION SUGGESTS. Subtitles were included in a previous release, which is now out of print and sells for $50 or more. From what I understand, there is not much difference in film quality between the two releases. So, you will have to decide if the subtitles are worth the extra $40 - $50.
The nice thing is, this is mostly a silent film. There is very little dialogue, so it's very easy to follow along, and understand what's going on, even without being able to understand the language being spoken.
I truly hope that one day, a company like Kino Lorber, Criterion, or Cohen Media get their hands on the rights to this film, and give it the proper restoration it deserves.
As another reviewer has pointed out, this is indeed a DVR. There is no disc menu. No special features. And no restoration has gone into the release of this product. The film quality has quite a bit of noise to it. The sound quality is passable, without any major flaws.
Secondly, and very important to note, THERE ARE NO SUBTITLES DESPITE WHAT THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION SUGGESTS. Subtitles were included in a previous release, which is now out of print and sells for $50 or more. From what I understand, there is not much difference in film quality between the two releases. So, you will have to decide if the subtitles are worth the extra $40 - $50.
The nice thing is, this is mostly a silent film. There is very little dialogue, so it's very easy to follow along, and understand what's going on, even without being able to understand the language being spoken.
I truly hope that one day, a company like Kino Lorber, Criterion, or Cohen Media get their hands on the rights to this film, and give it the proper restoration it deserves.
62 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 20, 2018
I had just watched a PBS biography on Hedy Lamarr and decided to watch Ectasy. It just happened to be available on Amazon. Expecting to see an exercize in ancient porno, I found that it was a more sincere exploration into the dichotomy between sexuality and society. This duality exists today.
But in reference to the Hedy Lamarr biography, she took a lot of repercussions in her carreer due to this exploration of the question of erotic pleasure and social restraint. That is what the film was addressing.
Hedy went on to be a great star and an iconic beauty of her time, but never was able to transcend the fact that she had portrayed on screen sexual gratification.
It just happens to be a fact that she was a woman of great intelligence and talent. You can't be a sex symbol and a credible human being at the same time.
Too bad.
But in reference to the Hedy Lamarr biography, she took a lot of repercussions in her carreer due to this exploration of the question of erotic pleasure and social restraint. That is what the film was addressing.
Hedy went on to be a great star and an iconic beauty of her time, but never was able to transcend the fact that she had portrayed on screen sexual gratification.
It just happens to be a fact that she was a woman of great intelligence and talent. You can't be a sex symbol and a credible human being at the same time.
Too bad.
17 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 26, 2019
In case you are looking for the digitally remastered version that just won an award in Italy and was done by a Czech company, this is not that version. That being said, the quality isnt that bad considerig there were no first gen copies left after Hedy's husband bought them all and destroyed them. I don't know what the one star raters were viewing but this does have English subtitles and the nude scene was not edited out. This version is in German though I dont see what difference it makes because there is so little dialogue it is like watching a silient movie and the acting and diecting were so good that you can follow almost all of it without language aids.
8 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 30, 2006
I purchased this flick because it has a notorious reputation, and my reaction was, "Yeah, Right. How wild could a 1932 movie be?" Admittedly, Heddy Lamarr is shown swimming and running through a forest in the nude, and there is a love scene where she reportedly has the first orgasm ever filmed, but these scenes really contribute to a sense of naturalness to the film that I didn't find nasty or lewd....just artful. The use of visual symbols throughout the film is rich, clever,and quite accessable to a modern mind, unlike other films approaching it's time. I'm not a great scholar of films from the 30's, but I was reminded of clips I had seen of Leni Riefenstal's film, "Olympia." There is little dialog, which is in German, although the film is subtitled, but that really removes what would otherwise distract one from enjoying the visual wealth of this film. The soundtrack is well in synchronized with the film in both timing and mood. Altogether and interesting addition to any collection.
26 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries
anton
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant film. So unconventional
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 18, 2018
Brilliant film. So unconventional!!! Loved it. Note that this print may not be the first original one, but a revised one. Nonetheless fantastic
jeff A
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 24, 2019
Ok.Good service from the seller
Ex R.A.F .S.N.C.O. Jim K.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very poor quality presentation
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 17, 2018
Subtitle unreadable due to being below format
raymondmyatt
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ecstacy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 29, 2017
Yes very good film
One person found this helpful
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A. Hamilton
3.0 out of 5 stars
Just so cheesy.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 18, 2018
Cheesy.
