Zazel: The Scent of Love (1996)

Zazel: The Scent of Love (also known as "Zazel: Philip Mond's Scent of Love" and "ZTSOL") 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". 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; 1995 Pet of the Year, Gina LaMarca; and 1999 Pet of the Year, Nikie St. Gilles.

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.

Synopsis

"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.

Actors