It's January 1940 Paris. Elena Martin (Audie England) is an American writer of erotica. Her acquaintances get her involved with nude modeling, voyeurism and sexual adventures.

It's one of director Zalman King's 90s erotic adventures. It's ridiculous over-wrought cheese. Audie England has an amazing look but not much acting range. She's not really required to have range to be naked. This is softcore porn with a pretentious artistic bend. This is inspired by Anaïs Nin's work during that time. It's not compelling as a biopic. It's not interesting as a fictional romance. It's lacking in historical drama. All of it is just covering its naughty bits with a veneer of respectability.

This was the first time that I have seen Audie England, not being a fan of Red Shoe Diaries. I believe it is also the first Zalman King directed film I have seen.

I was just mesmerized by England. She had a look that made me immediately search for more of her work, and I will be watching Free Enterprise and Miami Hustle very soon to see her again. She is an incredible beauty and this film is worth the time just to see her.

It's not worth much more that that. I've seen the brilliant Henry and June, and it did the bohemian lifestyle in Paris in the 30s and 40s much better. This film was loosely based on Anaïs Nin's work also.

Looking forward to seeing her in a better film.

Anais Nin's infamous book is brought to the screen by King, the man who put the "soft" in soft-porn. It is full of attractive actors and beautiful cinematography, much like a shampoo commercial. The leads (England and Mandylor) try hard to convey the smoldering lust that lies behind their supposedly passionate but rather vacuous stares but then they open their mouths and utter either sweet nothings or something unbelievably pretentious and it just ruins everything. There is a fair amount of nudity and simulated sex (although the NC-17 rating is puzzling) but the frenetic editing destroys the mood just as things start to get interesting. Read the book instead.