Passion in the Desert

In 1798, a young French army officer named Augustin Robert (Ben Daniels), who is stranded in the Sahara desert, seeks shelter in an ancient Egyptian ruin...which is also the home of a wild, female leopard. The man-eating feline spares the Frenchman, and the two develop a rare and dangerous friendship, which--whether from too much sun or a simple lack of human contact--rises to bizarrely erotic heights. (In one scene, Augustin lavishly licks the spotted fur of his companion, and dares to kiss her mouth.) When the leopard leaves Augustin to pursue a male cat, the officer becomes jealous (on her return, he asks: "Where have you been?") Based on the controversial novel by Honore de Balzac, this oddball entry offers a fresh twist on the man-meets-beast genre, though it ultimately fails as an...um...love story. Not a necessary purchase. (M. K. Lau)