Nana
Nana
| 13 June 1983 (USA)
Nana Trailers

In Zola's Paris, an ingenue arrives at a tony bordello: she's Nana, guileless, but quickly learning to use her erotic innocence to get what she wants. She's an actress for a soft-core filmmaker and soon is the most popular courtesan in Paris, parlaying this into a house, bought for her by a wealthy banker. She tosses him and takes up with her neighbor, a count of impeccable rectitude, and with the count's impressionable son. The count is soon fetching sticks like a dog and mortgaging his lands to satisfy her whims.

Reviews
StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Madilyn Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.
Cody One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
ladybug2535 This is my first time watching a film like this and I'm not sure what I was expecting--both more and less? The film seemed to be at most a sexual farce done in as a series of pretty tame soft porn vignettes loosely held together by a rather clichéd plot line--the greedy Jezebel taking down every man who crosses her path. If this is some kind of take regarding female sexual power I definitely have mixed feelings about the way it is portrayed: On the one hand it plays every man as leering pervs only out for the own sexual satisfaction--yet helpless idiots in the face of her (apparently very young)faux innocence. In that regard they pretty much deserve what they get--but on the other hand she has no care for the consequences of her own greed or the men she uses (as they use her). It is hard to feel much of anything for any of the characters and that is likely the film's biggest failure.There is a strong undertone of pure hostility for both sexes in this film that is hard to miss and rather odd for a film outwardly celebrating sexual freedom. The strongest clue we get as to what is really going on is actually expressed by the main "wife" of the story when she disapprovingly says something along the line that our heroine is "one of those girls who actually enjoys...." you know. Apparently we are being lead to believe that every man falls at Nana's feet because they are totally sex-starved at home. So, ultimately everything that happens is the fault of wives who don't give their husbands what they need?As far as the film itself: I have to say that it can be very hard to judge anyone's acting when viewing a dubbed film; flat voice dubbing can bring down even an excellent character portrayal. As a result I can't fairly rate the acting; the music was very distracting-sometimes seeming to celebrate the unconscionable. I have no idea if that was original or not to the film, so again cannot fairly judge. Dubbed films rarely do justice to the original. I had a problem with the main actress's supposed sexual allure given I didn't feel she was that attractive--those eyebrows! But perhaps they chose that look in order to make her look younger and more innocent--which would fit with the entire theme. Certainly other reviewers disagree with my personal assessment--and in fact some of histories most notorious femme fatales (Cleopatra, Violet Wodehouse of painter Sargent fame, etc) weren't physically beautiful; there was apparently some other intangible allure. Beauty certainly is in the eye of the beholder! I had to laugh at some reviewers criticisms of the "au natural" look. I suspect at least SOME of those were "merkins", nothing natural about those at all--and at least unshaved 'pits were accurate for the time and place (and still are in some cultures!). As far as historical accuracy, France was notorious for it's sexual freedom even at that time and yes, primitive moving pictures did exist. Lots of full frontal female nudity; sorry ladies, no male genitalia-though we do see suggestive silhouettes and otherwise nicely masculine (unshaved) nude males. The sex isn't graphic, despite the nudity and is mostly done to draw in the audience as voyeur, in much the same way as the rest of the cast when they're around. The whole film is voyeuristic. As a story though, pretty tame. It would have helped a great deal if there had been at least ONE character we could have identified with and cared about.
Joseph P. Ulibas Nana (1982) was an "erotic" film that was loosely based upon the Emile Zola novel. I saw this film when I was in high school on pay cable during the late 80's. There was only a couple of scenes that made the movie enjoyable. The rest was pretty lame, tame and filler. I have to warn you that the movie is pretty "Euro" and some people will be turned off by the "realism" of the way women are shown in this movie. But if you love the "au natural" look, then you'll be in heaven.Today this film is pretty hard to find. I don't think that their was a strong demand for this film on video. But seriously, I wouldn't go out of my way searching for a copy.Okay, not thrilling. Just okay.
freeintexas903 Nana DVD "Rare" Young Katya Berger plays many Nude scenes in the unedited version,Rated R contains extensive nudity, Katya is a absolute beauty! Young Katya Berger bares a lot of skin in this costume drama about a young Parisian lady who finds work at a burlesque club and then takes advantage of the perverts who come there. The film takes place in the 1880's, one of the stars of the club has created movies, the movies created were not very exciting but nudity all the same and very tame for today's standards. Mandy Rice-Davies, who helped bring down the British Government years ago, appears in this film. Costume drama for completest or those who want to see a poor man's Brooke Shields/Eva Ionesco, anyway you put it Katya is a stunning beauty that could steal any older man's heart and that is exactly what she did in this movie, very seductive, sexy and gorgeous all in one bundle! A true must have and to own.Purview
BlackJack_B There was an interesting aspect of this film: Golan, Globus and Dan Wolman made two versions of this film. One was a PG version that they hoped to sell to T.V. and the R-Rated one that was filled with nudity. 18 year-old Katya Berger bares a lot of skin in this costume drama about a young Parisian lady who finds work at a burlesque club and then takes advantage of the perverts who come here. The film takes place in the 1880's yet one of the stars of the club has created movies. Not very exciting and very tame for today's standards. A turn-off in this film is the women who didn't shave under the arms. Ewww. Mandy Rice-Davies, who helped bring down the British Government years ago, appears in this film. Costume drama for completists or those who want to see a poor man's Brooke Shields.