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Sexual Healing Trilogy

Don t miss these three mesmerizing and psychotropic features by artist and filmmaker Eduardo Cemano, the man responsible for some of the most groundbreaking films of 1970s grindhouse cinema, now available for the first time on DVD. This three-film collection, the second in After Hours Cinema s Eudardo Cemano Grindhouse Director Series, includes Cemano s core trilogy of ultra-erotic, classics: The Healers (1972), Fongaluli (1972), and Madame Zenobia (1973), along with an array of exciting extras, including extensive director commentaries, interviews, liners notes and more. 

The Healers (1972)
The film begins with a teacher (Eduardo Cemano) talking about a sex therapy while demonstrating it with the help of a Skeleton, which is rather odd introduction, following this introduction the film as such begins. This is  about a clinic using a new technique to treat the illness of the patients, a technique called Orgasmic Free Flow which treated by the achieving of sexual orgasm. Although this may seem unoriginal and boring it isn"t the case at all. We"re entitled to a highly erotic film by the way it was filmed. Indeed just like in Joe Sarno"s Butterflies the actors played their scenes in an unstimulated way, but we don"t see the penetration as such or the cumshot (the focus being on the actors" facial reactions) which is much more arousing to look at. The film has a good dose of comedy and exellent acting performances (even more when we take into account the fact that the majority of the dialogue is improvised). The cast include Ultramax (her first film), Arlana Blue, Levi Richards, Susie Mann and Barbara Benner. It should be noted that a scene between the Doctor (Eberhard Ellis) and his nurse (Margo Sanger) is one of the most exciting I"ve ever seen without showing any of the usual porn cliches.


Fongaluli (1972)
A strange name for a film that is just as much. The film is about a professor (Eduardo Cemano) conducting research on an island in the Caribbean (the movie was shot on location which certainly gives more visual values) on the crossbreeding of various animal races. So far this film does not seem so weird, but wait a bit. Following a meeting with an Arab he puts his hand on a drug (fongaluli leaves, from which come the title) he will use them on his laboratory animals and this is where the weird begins as one animal responds to this drug and what reaction it is. This animal is actually a lobster who begins to speak and later escapes. Even better  the lobster takes the form of a woman (Persephone Black), unfortunately the effects did not last and the professor must travel to different islands to find others leaves of fongaluli if he wants to unite his destiny with the lobster. An adventure that will lead them to islands inhabited by giants, dinosaurs, incestuous and a weird witch. All this with a very unexpected end. Again this film is shot in a more erotic way and countains a lot of funny moments. The majority of the distribution is made up of unknown with the exception of Eduardo Cemano and Ultramax. It should be noted that many more famous actor (Jamie Gillis, Helen Madigan, Valerie Marron, Georgina Spelvin and Marc Stevens) make an appearance in two delirious drug trip scenes.


Madame Zenobia (1973)
I liked it less and despite the fact that this film seems the most popular of the Cemano"s movies. It seems to me that the history is less special this time and the sex isn"t shown as something fun. Yet the distribution is interesting with Tina Russell, Levi Richards, Jamie Gillis, Andrea True and Davey Jones among others. The film begins well with a very romantic scene between Tina Russell and Jamie Gillis, but the rest is messed with all the forced sex the Tina Russell"s character must undergo (I understand that this is part of her therapy, but this doesn"t work for me). Maybe the fact that I watched two movies completely different before played a role in my lack of appreciation.


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