Man, this DVD has great packaging. I have never seen DVD packaging quite this impressive.
To explain, this is a three DVD set consisting of three standard Amaray-style cases in a cardboard slipcase. Not just any cardboard slipcase, but the most gorgeous cardboard slipcase you’ve ever seen. And it doesn’t just look good, it feels good. It has a tactile quality much like the slipcase on the original region 4 release of Fight Club: some kind of finish that is somehow at once smooth and excitingly rough. Whichever cardboard artisans perfected this type of cardboard ought to be commended.
Oh, and the content?
This movie, or mini-series, or whatever it is, is supposed to be one of those sexual awakening/experimentation opuses, told in six separate vignettes of about an hour each, but trust me when I tell you it’s nowhere near as fun as it sounds. It’s shot in ugly Digital Video made even worse by an interminable style obsessed with putting the camera in the worst possible spot in order to cover what I’ll charitably refer to as the action. To be fair, this visual style gets a little better in the later episodes, in spite of the fact that they’re all directed by the same person. I can see the exchange between the director and the cinematographer clearly: “We’ve got to give each chapter its own individual look, man…”
I guess this is one of those things purporting to approach eroticism from a female point of view, in opposition to the overwhelming presence of male-orientated pornography and general T&A in movies and television. This is all very well in theory, but the result in this case is no more insightful, or indeed interesting, than the average (very) soft porn flick. Which is not to say it doesn’t have a couple of pervy highlights in between its long, long sequences of young women walking dreamily around their apartments or staring pensively off into space.
But I’m probably boring you describing the content. Back to the packaging. Printed on the slipcase are silky images of naked female forms, against a ghostly dark brown background. On the individual DVD cases inside, we are treated to still more enticingly tasteful nudity, plus a pretty red/yellow/green colour scheme on each individual case. Again: great, great packaging.
Same Bed, Different Dreams is crashingly dull. Nevertheless, the DVD set will take pride of place on my shelf for many years to come.