Zazel

Zazel

Zazel - Blu-ray cover (2008)
features Sasha Vinni as the "Blue Siren" and Anna Romero as the "She-Devil".
Directed by Philip Mond
Produced by Marco
Starring Sasha Vinni
Anna Romero
Brooke Lane
Gina LaMarca
Lene Hefner
Nikie St. Giles
Helena
Antonio Valentino
Kevin James
Drew Reese
Devin Deray
Music by Dino and Earl Ninn
Cinematography Philip Mond
Edited by James Avalon
Production
company
Cal Vista Studios
Distributed by Metro Interactive, LLC
Release dates
 1996
Running time
 126 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $237,000

Zazel: The Scent of Love (also known as "Zazel: Philip Mond's Scent of Love"[1] and "ZTSOL"[2]) is a highly regarded award-winning American adult erotic film, photographed in October 1995 and released the following year. "Zazel" is described as a great angel, invoked in Solomonic magic, who is "effective in love conjurations".[3][4][5] The film was produced by Cal Vista Studios—reportedly made at a cost of $237,000—and was directed by Dutch erotic photographer and filmmaker Philip Mond, who also did the camera work and designed the costumes and special make-up. It was Mond's second adult erotic feature after Sex Off the Runway—and like his previous film, Zazel also featured a bevy of Penthouse Pets, including 1994 Pet of the Year, Sasha Vinni;[1] 1995 Pet of the Year, Gina LaMarca;[6] and 1999 Pet of the Year, Nikie St. Gilles.[7]

The film included visually elaborate set pieces; extravagant costuming, make-up and body painting; and expensive filming techniques, such as underwater photography, not normally seen in such erotic films.

Cast in order of appearance

Sasha Vinni - Zazel/Blue Siren/Tiger/Brunette Musketeer/Female Angel/Mermaid
Grace Harlow - Water Nymph
Lene Hefner - Tattooed Girl
Devin Deray - Tattoo Artist
Anna Romero - Redhead Musketeer/Body Double for Female Angel/She-Devil
Brooke Lane - Blonde Musketeer/Female Angel
Antonio Valentino - Winged Male Angel
Helena - Female Angel
Gina LaMarca - Seductress
Jon Severini - Man
Nikie St. Gilles - Blonde Beauty Mermaid
Kevin James - Gargoyle/Body Double for Winged Male Angel
Drew Reese - Demon Man

Plot

"Zazel" is the title character, a world-famous artist commissioned to create "the most arousing perfume ever". In the course of devising this scent, Zazel variously paints pictures, views photographs, and wanders among the flowers of her garden, each experience inspiring her to envision a powerful sexual fantasy. The film consists of nearly a dozen individually themed sequences which reference and recreate iconography drawn from mythology, religion, literature, film and even Jungian psychology. These include sirens, water nymphs, mermaids, flowers, the jungle, The Three Musketeers, classic old Hollywood movies, angels and demons, and the Jungian duality of male and female.

Each sequence features an imaginative and novel treatment of sexual activity based on these themes, as well as several visual/anatomical puns achieved through the strategic use of body paint, fetishistic costumes and accessories, and trompe l'oeil camera placement and editing trickery. It is notable that Sasha Vinni, who plays Zazel and also narrates the film, never has heterosexual intercourse in any of her scenes: she simply masturbates and engages in lesbian activities with the other female performers.

Zazel - DVD cover (1997)
features Gina LaMarca and Sasha Vinni.

"Blue Siren" sequence

In the opening sequence, Sasha Vinni emerges from a pond as the "Blue Siren", her nude body is painted bright blue and multiple arms appear and gesticulate behind her like the Avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. She then performs cunnilingus on the "Water Nymph" (Grace Harlow).

"Wild Orchid" sequence

Sasha Vinni as Zazel sits at her desk and airbrushes an image of a flower. A visual pun is created as the petals start to move and contract and reveal themselves as artfully painted labial folds.

"Bird of Paradise" sequence

Sasha Vinni appears as an assistant to a male lover/tattoo artist played by Devin Deray. Sasha Vinni shaves Lene Hefner's crotch with a spa razor, rinses it with an urn full of water. The tattoo artist then designs a colorful flower pattern on Hefner's vulva. The trio then engage in sex.

"Jungle" sequence

In the "Jungle" sequence, Sasha Vinni's nude body is artfully painted with tiger stripes as she writhes and crawls through tropical vegetation.

The scene ends with a close-up shot of a woman (whose face is never seen) with a tiger's face painted on her buttocks. The woman rides a man's penis, creating the illusion that the tiger's face is "fellating" him.

"Precious Flower" sequence

This sequence is yet another variation on the flower motif as Sasha Vinni is shown penetrating herself with flower-shaped objects and masturbating.

"Three Musketeers" sequence

In the "Three Musketeers" sequence, Sasha Vinni, Brooke Lane and Anna Romero appear in 17th-century-style period costume based on the characters of the Dumas novel. They strip, kiss, perform cunnilingus on one another, and masturbate by penetrating themselves with rubber dildoes which they have outfitted on the back of their riding boots like spurs.

"Angels" sequence

The "Angels" sequence is filmed in bright, diffuse light and features three women (Sasha Vinni, Brooke Lane and Helena) as "Female Angels", each with elaborately knotted hair and coated in pale, peach-colored body paint. These three female angels perform various sexual acts with a similarly painted man outfitted with giant angel's wings (Antonio Valentino)—the "Winged Male Angel". (Anna Romero and Kevin James served as body doubles.)

"Old Black-and-White Movie" sequence

The black-and-white sequence is the only one to feature no lesbian sex at all, and it is also the only part of the film in which Sasha Vinni does not appear. It begins with Gina LaMarca as "the Seductress", wearing ornate white pasties over her breasts with a matching white crotch guard (see DVD cover above), gyrating on a bed.

The fetish accessories are soon removed and she and her male partner (Jon Severini) engage in various sexual activities. Cross-cutting from the man's final ejaculation on her belly, they are also seen performing a tumbling dive into a swimming pool while holding hands and then resurfacing to embrace and cuddle in the water.

"Mysterious Union" sequence

Sasha Vinni performs a sensuous erotic dance with one half of her face and body painted and dressed as a woman in a skirt, and the other half made up as a mustachioed man wearing a suit. Vinni takes turns showing her "female" and then "male" side to the camera while the other half remains hidden in shadow and out of view. The sequence concludes with an outlandish-looking woman—shaven-headed except for a teased-up lemon blonde mohawk (which might be a wig) and with spangled clothespins fastened to her nipples—who is seen to be fellating an ornate glass perfume bottle.

"Water Odyssey" sequence

In the penultimate sequence in the film, Sasha Vinni and Nikie St. Gilles appear as mermaids outfitted with tail fins. They dispense with the mermaid accessories and engage in lesbian activities. As in the "Blue Siren" sequence, some of the cunnilingus activity is filmed underwater.

"Diablo d'Inferno" sequence

The "Diablo d'Inferno" sequence features Anna Romero as a "She-Devil" in a fetishistic red latex devil's costume—outfitted with red latex horns, red latex ballet boots, open-bottomed red latex hot pants, and a long red latex forked devil's tail protruding from a red flared dildo attachment that is embedded in her rectum. (Although Sasha Vinni appears in this costume on the U. S. DVD cover (see image above), only Anna Romero wears it in the film.) During this sequence the lower portion of the screen is filled with digitally superimposed flames for atmospheric effect.

The She-Devil sneaks up behind Zazel, who is sitting at a table airbrushing a design of the She-Devil and her costume, and "decapitates" the artist with a scythe. The She-Devil crawls around Zazel's freshly "severed" head, now placed upon the table. The She-Devil thrusts her vulva into Zazel's face.

The scene continues with the She-Devil (now without the tail-dildo) having sex with a "Gargoyle" (Kevin James) and a "Demon Man" (Drew Reese), which ends with a vaginal/anal double penetration.

2008 DVD and Blu-ray re-release

In 2008, Cal Vista re-released Zazel on DVD in a re-mastered high-definition widescreen two-disc edition; a Blu-ray edition followed soon after. The bonus features included a deleted scene as well as a preview of Zazel 2.

Awards

See also

The following listing includes directors known for similar adult erotic films:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Staff (21 December 2014). "IAFD - Zazel (1997)". Internet Adult Film Database. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  2. ↑ Moore, Jeremy (2014). "ZTSOL means 'Zazel The Scent Of Love'". AllAcronyms.com. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  3. ↑ Staff (2014). "Zazel: Definition from Religion & Spirituality Dictionaries & Glossaries - a great angel, particularly effective in love conjurations". Babylon Dictionary. Retrieved 29 December 2014.
  4. ↑ Staff (2014). "Zazel: Origin & Meaning (Latin) - angel summoned for love invocations". FamilyEducation.com. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  5. ↑ Staff (1998). "Zazel: Origin & Meaning - a Solomonic angel of love rituals". Hafapea.com. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Staff (2014). "Penthouse Magazine - Gina La Marca". Penthouse (magazine). Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Staff (2014). "Penthouse Magazine - Nikie St. Gilles". Penthouse (magazine). Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  8. ↑ AVN Staff (August 2001). "The 101 Greatest Adult Tapes Of All Time". AVN. Archived from the original on 4 October 2001. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  9. ↑ AVN Staff (January 1998). "The 1998 AVN Award Winners". AVN. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Staff (25 August 2007). "Hot d'Or 1998 Winners". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  11. ↑ AVN Staff (January 2009). "The 2009 AVN Award Winners". AVN. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2014.

External links

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