Starring: Michael Hardwick, Marcus Giovanni, Big Bill Eld (aka Bill Young, aka Bill Eld), Kirk Luna

Support Cast: Bob Jones, Jack Deveau, Greta Garbo (nonsexual)

Adam & Yves from Hand in Hand films directed by Peter de Rome is a vintage gay porn classic movie that could only have been made in the Seventies. Inspired by the early years of gay liberation and the international film renaissance that began with Easy Rider and the French New Wave, Peter de Rome brings a gravity to the blue movie heretofore achieved by Fred Halsted with L.A. Plays Itself. No one certainly has been this ponderous since.

Like many of the Classic gay porn films Hand-in-Hand released, the sex is integrated into the story in such a way that the two are inseparable; the sex might even be secondary in this case, as de Rome is clearly using pornography as a means to a larger end.Last Tango In Parisfigures prominently in Adam & Yves, as reference, as homage, and even as blueprint; potential viewers should take this into account.

Simply put, pretension is ever-present in Adam & Yves. It is a difficult film, but that doesn't mean that it will not yield rich reward. The film opens with an aerial shot of the Arc de Triomphe as if to convincingly establish Paris as a character in this film.

Paris as character is confirmed when the next few minutes are taken up with shots of hairy French (anti) hero Yves, played by Marcus Giovanni, as he drives along the Champs-Elysses, passing any number of landmarks before he ends up (where else?) at an outdoor cafe with his pal Jacques. While chatting with Jacques, Yves cruises an American blonde, Michael Hardwick. Hardwick looks like a taller and blonder Michael J. Fox or maybe a rosy-cheeked William Katt with a more butch in him. Hardwick's character is Adam, though that name is never uttered by anyone in the film; this is a key plot point. As Adam and Yves develop a relationship, Yves refuses to give his name or learn Adam's. At one point, Yves even quotes from Queen Christinaas way to let Adam know that he's playing a game, a game of hearts, if you will, one that challenges an already complex relationship. After all, when Yves locks eyes with Adam he follows him to his place of residence and they silently fuck, half-clothed.

This first encounter is taken directly from Last Tango, right down to butter in the ass. When Adam finishes frying Yves' bacon he tries to ask for his name, but Yves refuses. They continue to see each other anyway, taking in all the cultural events of Paris and sharing anecdotes. Adam recounts, in poetic form, an adventure he had in New York with a neighbor, a bearded mechanic named Bud. They kiss, caress, and dry hump while Adam spouts his poetry in voiceover. It's all so precious and affected, but erotic nonetheless. He actually says things like "a day for a lay when the air smelled like a locker room..." and "I opened a gap in the flap/I found what I hoped; I groped." After this sexual excursion into Beat territory Adam and Yves have another heavy conversation, one in which Yves laments, in true French cinematic fashion, "there's nothing new in the world." Then the lovers who do not speak each other's names wax poetic about Jean Cocteau and visit Oscar Wilde's grave. Then they sneak into an old church said to have been built in the 11th century as a leper sanctuary. Through a keyhole in a door they spy Big Bill Eld masturbating. His scene is completely unrelated to anything obvious, though of course it is wonderful. After all, no one has ever had as fat a cock and as nice a bod as Big Bill!

Later, Adam and Yves make love in front of a fireplace. This scene is very, very passionate; their intimacy is beginning to show. The last sexual segment in the film is an orgy in the bathroom of (presumably) a black movie theater. After some naughty urinal cruising, some eight men end up entangled: fucking, sucking, and taking cum. This scene, like Bill Eld's, serves to expand the film's sexual activity beyond merely Adam and Yves. Regardless, it has got to be one of the best in terms of anonymous bathroom action, especially for those who like to watch black men get it on.

The final scenes concern the denouement of our part-time lovers and the film ends with Yves watching a female hooker service a businessman in a park. Something he remembers (and we hear in voiceover) ties the film together, however loosely, but to assert an interpretation might ruin a potential viewer's experience.

This vintage gay sex film features Great Garbo in a non sexual cameo, This was Garbo's very last film, in fact her first and very last gay porn film. Adam & Yves is its own alpha and omega, a true first and last for gay pornography.