Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Woodyanders Sweet and awkward sex-starved rich fifteen-year-old Phillip Fillmore (an engagingly gawky performance by Eric Brown) gets a crash course in love and sex from alluring French housekeeper Nicole Mallow (a perfectly cast Sylvia Kristel of "Emmanuelle" fame). Unbeknownst to Phillip, Nicole is being forced to seduce him by sleazy blackmailing chauffeur Lester Lewis (nicely played to the smarmy hilt by Howard Hesseman). While the central premise sounds distasteful, fortunately both director Alan Myerson and writer Dan Greenburg manage to make things breezy and silly enough to ensure that the story never becomes too raunchy or offensive. The overall good-natured tone along with the zippy pace and blithely lowbrow humor keep everything light and amusing throughout. Moreover, you just have to admire the giddy audacity of the filmmakers to treat statutory rape in such an amiably goofy and jocular manner; nowadays this basic male adolescent fantasy plot would be the subject of a totally serious Lifetime network made-for-TV feature. But back in the carefree early 80's people were more easygoing and hence this flick is a totally delightful tongue-in-cheek product of its time. Brown and Kristel make for appealing leads, with funny support from Patrick Piccininni as Phillip's fat horny best buddy Sherman and Ed Begley Jr. as Jack Travis, a tennis instructor who's persuaded by Phillip and Nicole to pose as a tough homicide detective. Supplying some nice eye candy are Pamela Jean Bryant as the fetching Joyce and Meridith Baer as uptight, but enticing teacher Miss Phipps. Of course, we also got a sizable smattering of yummy female nudity and some sizzling soft-core sex. Further galvanized by a first-rate rock soundtrack and given an attractive glossy look by cinematographer Jan de Bont, this baby hits the spot as a good deal of infectiously naughty fun.

Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) Ten years ago, there was "Summer of '42". "Private Lessons" is like sex education of the 20th Century. A young boy named Philip Fillmore(Eric Brown, before "Mama's Family") is curious about one thing: SEX! Every teenage boy is going to get curious about it. So during a graduation party, he and his buddy, Sherman(Patrick Piccininni) spy on a young woman undressing. Busted by their lovely teacher, Miss Phipps(Meredith Baer). Instead of punishing him, she gives him a chance to find out over the summer. So when he goes to his father's house, he meets a maid(Syliva Kristel) from Europe who gives him a lesson in sex he'll never forget. She lures him into her room, undresses right in front of him one article of clothing at a time. Some boys would scream and take off at this moment. Tells his buddy, doesn't buy it. It's true! Unbeknownst to him, that his father's chauffeur(Howard Hessman) is after his money. So he and Nicole Mallow(The seductive maid) feign a crime. She later wants out, and help Phillip instead. The summer adventure couldn't have been better for Phillip. The crime wasn't a big deal, the experience he had will last for a lifetime! Summer of '42 was very mild, Private Lessons was very provocative. Both are good! 5 stars!!

rosscinema Let's put political correctness aside and just look at this in terms of the numerous sex comedies that came out in the 1980's because I for one don't think this is any better or any worse than the others. Unless your some religious kook or an uptight female you can probably view a silly film such as this without getting all worked up about the content and I personally had a totally innocuous feeling towards this before and after watching it. Story is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico where a rich 15 year old boy named Phillip "Philly" Fillmore (Eric Brown) is naturally horny as hell and starts spying on the attractive maid that has just started working for his father.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Nicole Mallow (Sylvia Kristel) is friendly to Philly but things heat up when his father goes out of town on business and she starts to flirt with him to the point where she invites him into her bedroom to watch her undress. Philly is awkward and doesn't know how to react at first but soon he goes for it and has sex but than to his horror it seems that Nicole has died from a heart attack! With the help from the sleazy chauffeur Lester Lewis (Howard Hesseman) they seemingly have buried her body but a note from a blackmailer shows up and Philly must get $10,000 out of his father's safe. Philly is shocked when Nicole shows up and he learns that the whole thing was an extortion plan set up by Lester and that she only went along with it because she's an illegal alien and if she didn't do what she was told Lester would have called the immigration office. Together they try to get his father's money back before he returns home and they enlist the help from Jack (Ed Begley Jr.) who is a tennis instructor but pretends to be a cop to scare Lester.This little comedy was made for less than $3 million but it grossed over $50 million worldwide and made it one of the least likely films during that time to be so successful which prompts me to wonder why this was a hit and not any of the others in the genre. Director Alan Myerson can boast that he made a hit film but the truth is that he never really had a career in films although he did go on to be very successful in television. So...why did this become so successful? I have a thought that it just may be because of Kristel and before you decide that I'm crazy listen to my reasoning. Kristel was an international star because of her soft core films so that reason alone made many free thinking adults curious about viewing her in an American film that was getting a wide release. With that, the same adults would also be nostalgic about their own youth and the fantasy of being taught the ways of lovemaking by an attractive older woman which brings in the much younger audience members who are probably still very inexperienced and curious about the film. Anyway, that's my thought and if anyone has another reason I would love to hear it but back to the film itself it's apparent (and very sad) that a film like this could probably never get made again (except in Europe) because of the religious right and the other prudish freaks who just can't come to terms with the fact that a teenage boy getting laid will not do him any harm. In fact, it's a valuable service that ALL BOYS pray will happen to them! The film itself is clumsy and Kristel's body double is all too evident in certain scenes especially if you take careful note of the difference in their nipples. The story (although intriguing in it's basic form) is neither very funny or revealing so were left ogling the nude scenes that are really the norm for the genre.

jrs-8 Back in my days as an usher "Private Lessons" played at the 4-plex I was working. It was a sleeper hit selling out Friday and Saturday nights for several weeks. I never got around to seeing it but saw that it was on cable this last weekend, so I decided to give it a shot. What I witnessed for the next 90 minutes was one of the worst movies I have ever seen and one that made me terribly uncomfortable to watch.The basic story is a teenage boy lusts after his sexy maid (Sylvia Kristel). She, too, seems to feel an attraction towards the boy but for more sinister reasons. So we get scenes of the boy watching her undress and her inviting him in to watch. And it goes from there.Eric Brown, as the teenage boy, has to be one of the worst actors I have ever seen. His "scared" reactions to every time Sylvia takes off a piece of clothing or when she touches him are horrible. I didn't laugh a single time during this piece of junk.And let's not get started on the subplot of the maid and chauffeur planning to extort money from the kid. Let's just say it involves faking a death, burying a body.... I could go on and on but it gets more ridiculous.The sex scenes are the worst I have ever seen. Even though Eric Brown was older then he looked, the fact is he looks like a baby. It appears he has no idea how to kiss a woman (if THAT was acting then maybe I should re-think my criticisms of Brown) and it just came too close to bordering on child pornography to be erotic. I have never been so turned off by a sex scene even though Miss Kristel is quite beautiful with and without clothes.**SPOILER WARNING** I must make mention of the last scene. To me it's just plain sick but I can remember audiences cheering as the film freeze framed and dissolved into credits. Our hero returns to school and begins a flirtation with one of the female teachers. He asks her out for dinner and she gives him a look as if Tom Cruise has just asked her out. She nods affirmatively and he walks away, smiling at the camera in triumph. GIVE ME A BREAK! Yes I am sure teachers all over would just risk everything for a plain looking teenage kid.I will never understand the appeal this film had in 1982. Certainly it was more then the nudity because there were plenty of teen sex comedies with nudity that bombed at the box office. And to think that these same teenagers that cheered that movie 22 years ago are now working their way up corporate ladders and possibly helping to run this country. THAT is a scary thought.