Bolero

Plot synopsis:
Set in the 1920s, Ayre "Mac" MacGillvary (Bo Derek) is a virginal 23-year-old young American who graduates from an exclusive British college. An orphan heiress to a vast fortune, Ayre is determined to find the right man for her first sexual encounter wherever he might be in the world. Rich enough not to venture forth alone, she brings along her best friend Catalina (Ana Obregon) and the family chauffeur Cotton (George Kennedy).
Ayre first travels to Morocco where she meets an ideal lover, an Arab sheik (Greg Benson) who offers to deflower her. He takes her away in his private airplane to an oasis in the desert, but during foreplay while rubbing her nude body with honey, he falls asleep almost immediately. Giving up on the sheik, Ayre goes on to Spain, where she meets the toreador Angel (Andrea Occhipinti), and sets out to seduce him. Into this group comes Paloma, (Olivia d'Abo), a 14-year-old local Gypsy girl whom Ayre and Catalina take under their wing. A minor subplot involves Catalina meeting and pursing Ayre's lawyer, Robert Stewart, a kilt-wearing Scotsman who Catalina chooses to deflower her.
After several days of courtship and flirting, Angel makes love to Ayre one morning and he manages to stay awake. Unfortunately, after she has succeeded in her quest to lose her virginity, Angel is gored while bullfighting the next day.
The injury leaves Angel unable to perform in the bedroom, and so Ayre makes it her mission in life to see to his recovery. Along the way, she takes up bullfighting herself as a way of getting her despondent lover motivated to stop moping. During this, the Arab sheik flies to Spain to abduct Ayre, but she manages to convince him that she has already lost her virginity and he lets her go.
Eventually, Ayre is successful in aiding Angel to full recovery which leads to a climatic lovemaking session between them. The film ends with Ayre and Angel getting married at a local church.

Tags: pornographic, cult

Review:
One thing to remember about "Bolero" is that the reason lots of people went to see it on its initial release was that the MPAA wanted to rate it "X".
As a result, there was a lot of fanfare around the release of "Bolero."  A whole lot of people (okay, let's be completely honest--"a whole lot of men") flocked to the theaters because of this controversy, figuring, "Hey, if the MPAA wanted it to be 'X,' it must be pretty steamy stuff.
So here's our golden opportunity to see what those darn censors tried to protect us from."Having worked in a theater that exhibited "Bolero" on its first run in 1984, I can attest to the fact that, during most showings, at least a third of the audience walked out before the half-way mark.
(The scene is actually much funnier in context (unintentionally funny, that is), but I don't want to spoil the movie's only entertaining moment.)Well, the MPAA was right - it should have been rated X.
The camera even resorts to objectification a few times, showing people only from the neck to the hips--reducing people to body parts because the filmmakers want you to focus only on the sex and to forget about the characters and the plot, which is a basic staple of most mainstream pornography."Bolero" seemed to want to be a fable with the moral, "Sex with someone you love is infinitely better than casual sex."  However, it tried to deliver this moral through soft-core porn that is mostly centered around casual sex, which strikes me as a conflict of interests."Bolero" wants to be pornography, but it also wants to be a morality play.
"Deep Throat" and "The Opening of Misty Beethoven" had better plots, better scripts and better acting, and, to all appearances, their creators communicated their intentions more successfully.Like Tanya Roberts' "Sheena," if "Bolero" had been a little worse than it is, it could have become a camp classic.
If you're looking for a well-scripted plot,believable characters, firm direction and seamless editing then Bolero is a strange film to see.
The lighting and camera work shows off Ms Derek's shape to best advantage although the end fantasy scene is spoilt by flashes of light.I've given a rating of 3 for Bolero simply because The Body lifts it above 1.
If you want to see Bo derek's body, watch this or Tarzan the Ape Man.
That WAS the most entertaining parts of this film.I did sit through almost to the end the movie with my friends (which made the entire experience worth while) and we decided to go to the box-office to get our money back.Too late.
Bolero is so bad that it easily ranks as one of the worst movies ever made.
I really don't think you will like this unless you are a fan of Bo Derek, or someone else in the movie.
I mean, other than the fact that Bo Derek is a total airhead that can't even act, and ain't very pretty either, the plot is so weak!I mean, she is supposed to play a 18 year old I guess, but she looks about 30!
If watching flaky Bo Derek in a bad soft-core porno is your thing, then hey, go for it!But this is just my opinion!
Nothing I have seen in 30+ years of movie going compares with "Bolero." Basically, John Derek put his wife into an adolescent, pornographic fantasy and not coincidentally ruined her career in the process.
I saw this movie because I figured, hey, Bo Derek running around nude for 90 minutes or so...
Even if the plot sucked, still, Bo Derek nude.I was wrong.The problem is that the movie is so bad that you can't even lust after her.
Who would have ever thought that Derek's version of Tarzan could ever look like a classic in comparison to any other film?.
Ladies, the first person you DON'T want directing your movies is your husband; they're too biased.Just Ask Cleo Moore about Hugo Haas sometime."Bolero" is NOT the kind of movie you watch for plot, character development and cohesion.
What can I say; I'm a sucker for a belly dancer when they look like her.Everything else is strictly amateur hour as far as acting, photography, production goes.One star (yes, for the belly-dancing thing).
Surely if you watch a movie produced by Golan and Globus (and Bo Derek!), directed and photographed by John Derek and starring Bo Derek, you know what to expect.
Bo Derek's acting isn't anywhere near as bad as some people here would have us believe -- certainly way better than that of Ana Obregon and Greg Bensen.
Let's face it, though: John Derek didn't cast his wife in this movie for her acting ability, or for her resemblance to a teenage virgin -- neither Mrs Derek nor Ms Obregon were even remotely believable in that respect, but that is irrelevant.Bo Derek succeeded admirably in doing what was required of her in "Bolero" -- providing us with something good to look at.
Even without all of the great humour (some of which may have been, as some critics suggest, unintentional), the beautiful scenes of Mrs Derek are enough to merit at least 5 stars out of ten.What makes it worth all 10 stars, for me, is not Bo Derek, lovely as she may be, but the wonderful Olivia d'Abo. Her portrayal of the young Spanish gypsy, Paloma, is incredibly funny, intriguing and gorgeous at the same time.
Why on Earth John Derek wanted his wife writhing around naked in this movie is beyond me.
That's the only conceivable reason for watching this movie, to see the lovely Bo Derek naked.
The plot is obviously missing but i can understand the movie making some money simply of the sex scenes.
As American film's girl of the moment in the late 1970s and early 80s, Derek won adoration from millions of men, but also was the target of jokes about cute blonds who can't act.
Movie companies were ready to profit from her looks but in no hurry to suggest drama classes, so things were headed for eventual disaster.'Bolero' was Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus's attempt to cash in on the Bo Derek legend, a film written and directed by John Derek with Bo serving as producer.
You'd think any guy making a film for his wife would be kind enough to write a storyline.Bo plays Ayre McGillvary, a virginal (!) heiress who graduates from her elite ladies' school in 1920s Britain; whether she is graduating from high school or college, it is never made clear.
She drags her best friend Catalina (Ana Obregón) and chauffeur Cotton (George Kennedy) to Morocco, hooks up with an enrobed young man who turns out to be an Oxford student, and watches him fall asleep on the verge of making love.The trio truck to Spain and Ayre meets a bullfighter, Angel (Andrea Occhipinti); they share a love of wine and horses.
The supporting roles are equally as bad; George Kennedy won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1967 ('Cool Hand Luke') and it looks as if he's just trying to stay in the movie business.Probably the biggest FAQ about this film is why John Derek put his wife in so many erotic situations with two other men.
The Dereks' nadir is this gloriously misconceived, stultifyingly boring (and meaninglessly-titled) erotic adventure  a multiple Razzie award winner and justly considered one of the worst films of all time!
Bo's naivete in sexual matters at least demonstrates a consistency within her husband's work as a director: in all three films I've watched by him (and featuring her)  the others being FANTASIES (1981; see above) and TARZAN, THE APE MAN (1981)  she's supposedly a virgin!
Bo's a spoilt rich girl (her first impulse after graduating is to strip naked on the university campus!) who wants to give herself to a man in a big way  infatuated with Rudolph Valentino, she travels to the desert in search of a sheik; when this doesn't work (under the influence of opium, he goes to sleep on her!), she sets her sights on toreador Andrea Occhipinti.
Accompanying her in her sexual odyssey is beefy chauffeur George Kennedy (who looks properly embarrassed throughout) and her best friend, Ana Obregon  the latter yearns for a similar whirlwind romance but keeps any serious attachment at baythat is, until Derek's kilt-wearing solicitor comes into her life!
Eventually, Occhipinti is gored in the arena  and Bo determines to render him back his manhood, first by practicing bullfighting herself(?!) and then through more obvious means (leading to a stylized finale at the accomplishment of the miracle).The sex scenes are fairly explicit  including one in which the sheik licks a mixture of milk and honey off of Derek's throbbing bare chest!; even so, the most unintentionally comical bits involve the characters' predilection for showing their approval of something by giving it the thumbs up and, especially, Obregon stumbling in one scene  an accident the director perhaps thought of leaving in for the sake of spontaneitywhich, therefore, likens him not merely to Ed Wood (see my comments on FANTASIES) but Jess Franco as well!.
We'll leave aside the kiddie porn moment of 14-year-old Olivia D'Abo in multiple nude scenes.With a different lead, with a director less hellbent on making his wife A!
To begin with it should be said that this movie is not THAT bad, it has qualities; personally I think peoples need to watch it in order to make themselves an idea...
Maybe in the 80s in a time where pornography was uncommon this picture and the basic story behind it would have been considered hard but today we see beautiful bodies and eroticism everywhere on TV in prime-time, this movie had no chances of surviving the years...
In my opinion the problem is not actress Bo Derek but the little flaws present here and there; at the end there's so many that it makes the movies hard to follow and we tend to not take it seriously...
Overall it look like a film made by an amateur; the heart is there but it really lack professionalism everywhere except the acting by Bo Derek....
The justification for making this movie, I'm convinced, was John Derek's need to show off just how hot the woman he came home to was, while cashing in on her international fame.
One of many movies written and directed by John Derek where he just used his young (30 years his junior) wife, Bo Derek, as eye candy.
This is what the feature wants to be, but however its becomes a laughably nonsensical romance story of sexual awakening that simply likes to focus on Derek's naïve character (in more than one way) in her quest to lose her virginity by travelling around the world in the 1920s.
One good thing came out of watching Bolero...this really stupid joke:"What's the difference between Bo Derek and a snail?""Nothing, except a snail goes crunch when you step on it."What can I say, my brain was jello at the time..
Another 10 for Bo. Bo does another excellent job with Bolero.This movie is sexually charged and keeps a good pace.The spoofs on losings one's virginity are great as is the the last seen of "extasy".Bo pulls this one off with her usual comedic charm.Funny when she needs to be and sexy the whole way through.George Kennedy keeps the comedic level at a 10 playing Bo's chauffeur and confidant.Watching Bo go from school to loosing her virginity in this delightful romantic comedy was wonderful.Bo again shows the world why she's the perfect 10.Both the acting and locations in this film are superb.If you want to see another Bo 10 get Bolero..
"Bolero" and other Bo Derek movies exist for one reason: to see her naked body.In the 1930s and '40s, you watched movies to see Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, etc.
The plots were pointless, silly, escapism.In the 1980s, we had Bo Derek in a movie for one basic purpose: to see how soon, how much, and how often she would expose her body.
The acting was terrible, the script was even worse, the purported hot sex scenes were pretty mild and, basically, Derek can't act!
The only reason no one would actually go this far is because of Derek and her beautiful, often naked body.
The one thing this film has going for it is that a couple of the sex scenes are highly erotic.
Circa 1920s, A recent beautiful-mega rich school graduate, Lida "Mac" MacGillivery (Derek) and her irritating BFF Catalina (Ana Obregón) spontaneously decide to travel overseas to lose their virginities, Mac has her standards and wants it to be perfect and we follow their pathetic story of love, sex, friendship and frustration.
Throughout this movie, viewers are treated to her getting nude every 15 minutes (flawless body) and getting screwed a by her Spanish man Angel (Andrea Occhipinti), we also get to watch Lida ride horses (once nude) and participate in bullfighting.
The locations are impressive, the score fits, and the sex scenes are weird but erotic at the same time.Bo Derek has a love for animals, particularly horses, and purposely incorporated them into this film, her love for the creatures really show throughout which I appreciated.Now I'm looking for Ghosts Can't Do It, apparently an even worse film, last night went through the old video tapes at my local video store to no avail..
You certainly get entertained.I think the issue of rating prior to its release was the main factor for all these reviews as majority of the audiences saw this film with predetermined expectations.
The plot of this movie mainly centres around Bo Derek trying to lose her virginity, first in Morocco and then Spain where she pursues a matador who has an affinity for 14 year old gypsies.
"Bolero" is one that is so romantic, you and your spouse (or partner) will deeply fall in love with this movie (as well as each other).
John Derek directs his beautiful wife Bo. Bo Derek and her friend, 'Catalina' (Ana Obregon) have just graduated and now they want to lose their virginity - preferably to a sheik - but they'll settle for a bullfighter and a Scotsman, respectively.The two pretty girls go to Spain to satisfy their goal accompanied by Bo's chauffeur 'Cotton' (George Kennedy).
Bo tries to corral her bullfighter (Andrea Occhipinti) while fending off a jealous woman and a wild bull as Catalina is romanced by her handsome Scotsman (Ian Cochrane).Bo produced this passionately sexy film and her husband John Derek's direction is erotically beautiful..
And, for people wanting a real film with a real plot, it's a disaster as well since it is dumb and vacuous.Mrs. Derek's character is an idiot.
I loved how the film screamed "hackneyed mess" when she arrives and you hear "As Time Goes By" (the theme from "Casablanca")--it made me laugh.When her romantic tryst with a sheik turns out to be a complete bust (with her virginity still intact), she heads to Spain to find a willing piece of beefcake.
And, of course, while he's been told he'll never be able to have sex again, by the very end of the film the magical power of Mrs. Derek is able to somehow restore his manhood--though, in the interim there were a few silly surprises (such as the return of the impotent sheik and the hot but unintentionally funny final nude scene).So what is to like about the film?
While Mrs. John Derek's acting ability when it comes to sex scenes is admirable, her ability to convincingly recite her lines is pathetic and totally unbelievable.
Having his gorgeous wife star in this and several other sex films (like "Tarzan the Ape man") just seems disturbing--hence my referring to her as "Mrs. Derek".
Of course the controversy over the explicit sex scenes and the movie being released with an unofficial X rating, attracted a somewhat inappropriate audience.
The story plays like a trashy erotic romance novel, and some people love this kind of fantasy.
Unfortunately those people, who might have enjoyed the film, would not have been caught dead going to see a "dirty movie", which was how Bolero was advertised.
Being reminded of "Casablanca" while watching a film like "Bolero" is truly hilarious.
One of the dullest things I have ever seen - it has haunted me for years.The story such as it is, has Bo looking for sexual ecstasy with she insists is spelled with an X - at the end of movie as she and the Bolero of the title are making whoopie - the room begins to fill up with steam - and then they are making love on a cloud, where behind them is (I am not making this up) a neon sign spelling out the word ecstasy flashing on and off.
You might like this movie if you are a fan of Bo Derek and if you put your brain to sleep with alcohol or something.It has no plot to speak of and Bo scarcely loses any opportunity to show off her beautiful body.
Frankly, that is the only thing worth watching in this movie(although the love-making scene was a bit too long and boring).
It's the story of two young women searching for the perfect man to give their virginity to which means there is a lot of full on nudity and sex.
Nudity and soft-core porn can be a bit of a trial when it comes to a movie like 'Bolero'.
One watches a movie like this for the same reason they saw 'Showgirls'.
Even Bo Peepers have trouble slogging through this vapid monstrosity in which Bo Derek takes off her clothes and wanders through one lame sex scene after another but the scenes that come in between are like watching grass grow.Bo plays Lida a woman discovering her sexual awakening.