Pulsion [Drive], from Ovidie and Lust Cinema

★★★★½

Time: 1:30, Director: Ovidie, Date: 2014

Screenshots: On our Tumblr

On the web: IMDB

Cast: Emy Russo, Angell Summers (27yo), Tiffany Doll (28yo), Liza Del Sierra (29yo), Julie Valmont, Carla Cat, Bruno SX (50yo), Christophe Bier, Phil Holliday (38yo), Pascal St James (51yo), Tony Carrera (35yo), and Titof (41yo)

Source: 1920×1080 MP4 downloaded from Lust Cinema

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Review

Eva Bouvier (Emy Russo) seems increasingly desperarte as she rides the train into work. Once off it, she runs to her office, dashes into the bathroom, and masturbates furiously. It's a need that overtakes her 10-20 times per day, and her therapist diagnoses her with Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder.

To try somehow to learn to manage her problem, she joins an "experimental" week-long therapy session for people with compulsive sexuality disorders. Five men and four other women join her, the therapist, and his assistant Olivia (Julie Valmont) at an old country house. Among the men is Chris (Titof), whose partner (Ovidie) has recently broken up with him. His problem is that he is unable to feel. Whether that is the cause of the breakup or the result of it is not so clear, but he and Eva will eventually share a journey of healing together.

In some ways, the plot here is reminiscent of that of The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee, but the overall feel of the movie is very different. The theme is the way in which sex, despite its potential to connect people, all too often isolates them, especially when there is too much focus on the purely physical pleasures of sex. Perhaps the most obvious victims of this inversion here are Laurence (Liza Del Sierra) and Laurent (Bruno SX), a married couple whose sex life has come between them: Laurent is unable to get off except by watching Laurence with other men, and she, though she has and perhaps still can enjoy that sort of thing, yearns to have satisfying sex with her husband. Eva's disorder too illustrates how the quest for physical pleasure can stand in the way of true connection. She may have 20 orgasms a day, but that does not constitute, for her, any kind of fulfillment. And poor Chris cannot feel at all. Only the connection he establishes with Eva will eventually allow him to do so.

It's a fascinating movie, and one we thoroughly enjoyed. We found it hard at times, though, to follow all the different threads. As we said, there are ten people present at the therapeutic retreat, and each of them has their own story—plus there is the odd story of the therapist himself (who turns out to be a cross-dresser). To be honest, it wasn't clear to us that all of these characters really contributed much to the narrative overall. Frank (Tony Carrera) is a source of some comic relief, for example, but not of much more.

As with all of Ovidie's movies we have seen, the sex is extremely well integrated into the narrative, and it is beautifully filmed. The context that is established for the various scenes adds a great deal to their eroticism, as well. The two scenes featuring Eva and Chris are wonderful, but maybe the best scene is the one in which Laurent is finally able to make love to Laurence. The sex is passionate, and the joy they both feel is palpable.

Overall, then, we thought this was a terrific movie. Not as good as Histoires de Sexe(s), but that is no criticism.

Pulsion won the 2015 Feminist Porn Award for Best Direction.

Scene 1: Angell Summers, Phil Holliday, and Tony Carrera (♀♂♂)

★★★★½

Time: 9:00

Cumshot: Face

Features: Anal

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Melanie (Angell Summers) is addicted to having sex in risky situations, so the first night at the retreat she decides to wake up Cedric (Phil Holliday), who is in love with his penis, and Frank (Tony Carrera), a fetishist, and drag them outside to have sex, trying to illuminate themselves with small flashlights.

The sex is generally quite playful, and the characters all seem to enjoy themselves a great deal. The anal sex and 'double facial' at the end makes complete sense in the context of the film. Those are exactly the kind of out-there things that Melaine would be into.

The camera work, as usual with Ovidie's movies, is interesting and well balanced.

Scene 2: Emy Russo and Titof (♀♂)

★★★★½

Time: 9:00

Features: Handjob

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Eva and Chris take their touch therapy to the next level.

This is soft, sensual, loving sex, and it is extremely hot. It's really a scene about her giving pleasure, rather than having to be cumming herself all the time, and thus allowing him to feel again. What we really get to see here is the genuine connection between them as a couple.

Scene 3: Tiffany Doll and Bruno SX (♀♂)

★★★★★

Time: 6:00

Female Orgasm: Yes, Cumshot: Internal

Features: Anal

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

The therapist has suggested that Laurence and Laurent have sex in front of a mirror, so he can see her and imagine another man is fucking her. So they try it, and it works.

This is a beautiful, and extremely sexy scene. When he realizes that the therapist's proposal has worked, they are both so incredibly happy that it almost brought us to tears. But they would have been very hot tears, because the sex that follows is just blazing—largely, indeed, because of its emotional power.

Scene 4: Emy Russo and Titof (♀♂)

★★★★½

Time: 7:00

Female Orgasm: Yes

Pleasure ♀, Passion ♀, Balance ♀

Late one night, Chris and Eva confess, more or less, that they have fallen for each other, and they make love on a couch.

It is not clear whether he cums with her or the sex continues beyond what we see—but that is very much not the point of this scene, just as her cumming was not the point of the previous scene with these two.

The sweat covering her back is really quite beautiful, and Ovidie does an amazing job of capturing it with her camera.