Monday, 2 June 2008
| 5:18 pm
| Videos
I’ve seen ever so many G-spot how-to videos, and this is the sexiest (and it’s just as informative as you’d like it to be). I’m a big fan of Tristan Taormino’s teaching style — straightforward, lucid, and fond of hands-on demonstrations. Combine her approach with a hot pornstar cast, including perennial favorites Penny Flame and Princess Donna, and it’s a highly erotic learning opportunity.
Like all the how-to videos in Tristan’s series, her Expert Guide to the G-spot begins with about twenty minutes of discussion in a workshop-style setting, with Tristan dropping knowledge on a group of ordinary people, mostly couples. There are big anatomical charts with everything neatly labeled, and Tristan runs down the history of the Graffenberg spot, acknowledges that it’s a strangely elusive erogenous zone for many people, and then gets down to the business of how to find it (and make the most of it). She brings in Princess Donna and Sarah Blake for a hands-on demonstration, with Sarah receiving Donna’s highly competent instruction while Tristan explains what they’re doing and runs them through assorted techniques for G-spot pleasuring. I love the occasional reaction shots of the audience in the workshop portion as Donna fingers Sarah — a little squirming on the couch, some sidelong glances at the other audience members — probably what I’d do if I was seated a few feet away from a couple of porn stars diligently rubbing one another!
Tristan also does some fingering demonstrations, using what I can only describe as a transparent artificial vagina, which looks more like some exotic sea creature than a sex toy. The advantage is, you can actually see what her fingers are doing on the inside, which is not possible with using actual human demonstrators (at least not until the Invisible Woman steps forward and offers her services as a sex educator). They go over G-spot stimulating toys, tips, tricks, and techniques . . .. and all that’s just in the first twenty minutes. Then the sex scenes begin! Penny Flame and Evan Stone have the hottest of the scenes, though all three are good, and you can watch them with Tristan’s voiceover commentary turned on or off (depending on whether you’re looking for teachable moments or wankable moments, I suppose). There are lots of informative bonus features, too. If you’ve ever gone in search of the G-spot and found yourself frustrated, check this out — Tristan does everything but draw you a map. Go forth, and be pleasured!
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Monday, 2 June 2008
| 5:18 pm
| Videos
It’s vintage boob time! Top Ten All Natural Busty Porn Stars of All Time cobbles together footage from old porn and cheesecake videos featuring the famously busty likes of Annie Sprinkle, Roberta Pedon, Christy Canyon, Danni Ashe, Lisa Deleuw, Sue Nero, Barbara Alton, Usche Digart, Devon Daniels, and Kelly Stewart. The production values are lousy — these are clearly transfers from VHS tapes, and not particularly good ones — and the scenes aren’t especially distinguished, though they do provide a welcome look at some superstars of yore (even if they aren’t consistently identified, and to my untrained eye I couldn’t always tell who was who). It’s a lot of fine old nostalgia-inducing eye candy.
It’s nice to see Annie Sprinkle, familiar to me mostly from her sex education work and live performances, in her fucking-on-film heyday (even if the box copy does call her “Annie Sprinkles”; ah, lazy-ass porn production values, I know you well). Annie was amazingly fetching, especially in a corset with those cascades of dark hair. Other highlights include Christy Canyon stripteasing to some horrible ’80s pop music with lyrics so generic I couldn’t even identify the song with diligent Googling — there were too many hits! Things get better when Christy is joined by Keli Stewart, both in lacy lingerie, though it’s not really a lesbian scene — they just prance around, fondle each other, shake their tits, rub their oiled-up boobs on each other, and do some fake tongue-kissing (in these days of readily available real lesbian porn, it looks kind of like a parody of itself). Definitely porn from a different era! There’s an unidentified lady in red who rubs a hard plastic vibrator on her breasts and strips to smooth jazz and her own breathless voiceover. There’s some actual sex eventually, with lots of cock-sucking and tit-fucking. There are big-breasted scantily-clad calisthenics, a grainy black and white shower scene (actually one of the hottest scenes here, poor film quality aside), and a lesbian scene with actual cunt-licking and 69 and slightly-less-fake- looking girl-on-girl kissing. The abundance of breast-emphasizing lingerie is nice, especially all the corsets, and if you’re a tit-lover, you’ll find plenty to love here.
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Tuesday, 27 May 2008
| 12:00 am
| Videos
Triple Ecstasy is another fine faux-indie feature from the folks at Vivid Alt. The cynic in me wants to resist the lure of a major company co-opting the style and sensibility of down-and-dirty independent porn . . . but, damn it, they keep making great movies! Sure, there’s some silly pretentious stuff here — words like “tattooed garbage” and “waste of life” flashing in scribble-scrawl across the screen, for instance — but the performers are gorgeous, the performances raw, and even the music is pretty good. The awesome starts early, with an opening scene pairing headliner (and director — she’s multi-talented!) Kimberly Kane and brunette cutie Pixie Pearl in a scantily-clad make-out session that leads to cuntlicking, strap-on riding, blindfolding, and all-around rough romping. Just when you think it can’t get any better, Kimberly sticks a vibrator in Pixie’s ass, and keeps fucking her. Tres haute.
Raunchy girl-next-door Charlotte Stokely (who is adorable, as always, in her striped athletic socks) fucks Mr. Marcus in front of a mirror. Another favorite scene has Princess Donna topping the tiny and helpless Lystra, slapping her with a big strapped-on cock, tying her up, and roughly defiling her on a bathroom floor. Kimberly comes back with redhead Audrey Hollander, and starts the fun by choking her with a double dildo, followed by rough anal intrusions, spanking, rimming, slapping, fucking — the sex seems almost on the brink of turning into a fight, and it’s a believable level of aggressive passion. They fuck so hard it made me tired to watch it. Then, as if they haven’t worn themselves out plenty alone, they’re joined by Otto Bauer and Alec Knight, and much messy cocksucking, anal, DP, and even airtight (with the help of a dildo) ensues. It’s a big nasty fuckfest of a film, no mistake. There’s a disc of bonus features, and a CD featuring music from the film, and the whole package is very attractive and well-made. Vivid Alt does it up right.
On a random closing note, am I the only one who thinks Kimberly Kane looks a lot like the hot blonde Cylon from the new version of Battlestar Galactica? I nominate her to star in the inevitable parody, Battlesperm Galacticock. It’s a film that practically writes itself!
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Thursday, 22 May 2008
| 12:00 am
| Videos
Yay, the Crash Pad! (Specifically The Crash Pad Series, Volume 2: Unlocked) I love the Crash Pad. Real lesbian fucking, directed by the inimitable (though many try to imitate her!) Shine Louise Houston, indie porn impresario extraordinaire. The premise is the same as always, with various people slipping into the eponymous apartment for guilt-free fucking — unaware they’re being filmed by the techno-voyeur next door, played by Shine. She’s armed with computer equipment and access to countless hidden cameras, recording all the sexual activity happening in the apartment . . . which she then edits, puts on DVD, and sells to the public. (We even see the box for the DVD she’s selling — it’s the box for the first volume of the Crash Pad series. Shine’s movies just gets more and more delightfully meta. I love stuff like that.) The bits of plot that occasionally surface are like scenes from an explicit soap opera, but they don’t overwhelm the action, and they do provide some context for what’s happening onscreen.
The opening three-way scene is quite hot, with Shawn giving her lover Jiz a “present” in the form of Micha, naked and ready for a three-way. There’s lots of spanking, slapping, strap-on pounding, and general merriment. The next scene has Dallas as a student who comes to the Crash Pad alone to study (to the chagrin of her friends), but the atmosphere of the place, and the memories it sparks, get the best of her, and soon she dons black latex gloves, lubes up, and starts giving herself a good time. (Amusingly, she’s shown holding a copy of Aqua Erotica, the waterproof porn anthology edited by Friend-of-Blowfish Mary Anne Mohanraj.) Naturally, a friend comes over to distract her . . . There are lots of great scenes, with dykes of all stripes having fun lively sex with mostly fantastic chemistry. There are loads of nice little details — I love the bit when the exiting femmes glare at the two entering butches, who smirk back. It was cool seeing alt-porn star Michelle Aston in the final scene, rollicking around the bed with Julie. If you like hot hipster chicks wearing strap-ons and fucking the living daylights out of one another, you can’t do better than the Crash Pad series.
Pre-release discount! We expect to ship Crash Pad Series, Volume 2: Unlocked about June 1st . . . but if you order it now, you get a nice big discount, as well as the warm glow of knowing that you will be one of the first in your town to experience this wonderful new movie from Shine Louise Houston.
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Even if you missed Part 1 of our interview with Maria Beatty, you may already know that Maria Beatty is one of the most innovative, artful directors of erotic film working today. With her new release Strap-On Motel, she paints a portrait of a sizzling encounter in a motel on the wrong side of the tracks. We chatted with Beatty recently about her new release.
TR: Did you work on other projects between the making of Skateboard Kink Freak and Sex Mannequin, and the making of Silken Sleeves and subsequently Strap-On Motel?
Maria Beatty Yes, I worked on my first feature film, “Boy in a Bathtub” . . . Paris, 1920. A courtesan falls madly in love for a cherubin young man, twenty years younger. She keeps him locked up inside her flat, satisfying her dark desires: he becomes her child, her double, her wife, and her sexual toy. Unfortunately this film hasn’t quite found it’s niche or audience but I’m convinced that with another feature film or two under my belt this film will be included and appreciated in my body of work.
TR: Strap-On Motel has a noirish feel, seeming to me to be very influenced by the detective genre, the road trip film genre, the “down-and-outer” genre. Were those conscious influences, and are there others I might have missed? How did you get the idea for Strap-On Motel?
MB: Yes, that’s absolutely right. And that was my intention when creating this film. I have a strong fetish for hotel rooms and fantasies of mysterious transient love affairs that take place in them. A dark romanticism that’s exciting and very erotic. I happened to be staying in a famous authentic deco hotel in downtown LA and this is where the idea came to me. The aura, spirits, and architecture in the hotel was completely noirish and it’s residents were full of the “down-and-outers” . . . This hotel where I was staying was screaming out for me to create an erotic noir clandestine love affair there, and five days later I did.
TR: In Strap-On Motel, you used a voiceover, illustrating a story that wraps around the sex. Was this a new direction or a new style for you?
MB: This is the first time I’ve used a voiceover for any of my erotic fetish/sm films. Normally I let the dialogue drive the story or music and sound design. I was trying to stay true to the film noir style and period so it was only natural to create and drive the story along with a voiceover seen through the one madly desiring and obsessed in the film. And when the voiceover is laid over the sex scenes it’s actually deconstructing the sex and adding a few dimensions rather than just a one-dimension sex scene.
TR: Did you enjoy working that way?
MB: It was stimulating to work with the extra layers of voiceover and creating and enhancing the story even further in post production, and to continue to explore more possibilities with voiceover and sex and the whole theme of road movies lesbian style.
TR: Do you think you’ll do it in subsequent projects?
MB: For sure. I adore the use of voiceovers when done well and to illustrate a storyline. I love the extra dimension it adds to the film and mystery as well. I’m currently in post production with my new film to be released in June 2008 “Post Apocalyptic Cowgirls,” and Lydia Lunch is in the works to do a more spoken word performance voiceover for this film.
TR: You’ve worked with Dylan before; how did you decide to cast her in Strap-On Motel?
MB: I cast Dylan Ryan and she agreed to star in both films Sex Mannequin and Strap-On Motel with her friend London months in advance. These two films were shot back-to-back in a two-day time period.
TR: Where was Strap-On Motel shot?
MB: Strap-On Motel was shot in a quintessential deco hotel in downtown LA. The insert materials were shot months after on the west coast and Paris, France.
TR: Was it shot over a number of sessions or just one period of work?
MB: The core of the film was shot in one day inside a room in the hotel and the insert materials of the neon signs and strip were shot on two separate days months after the interior shoot.
TR: When you are shooting hot lesbian sex as in Strap-On Motel, do you get right up there in the action to get the intimate shots showcased in the film?
MB: I prefer to shoot the extreme close-ups myself so I’m always much closer to the action and intimacy of the sex scenes than the second camera, which maintains a more static establishing shot. Personally, when I’m discreetly shooting the extreme close-ups it becomes clearer to me what is really working and what isn’t — what can be included to enhance the scene and if it’s working as it is. Also, it gives me a head start with the pre-editing process.
TR: Does the action of the performers, the sounds, smells, and physical proximity of them and their sex, affect you and change the way you interact with the creative process?
MB: The more intimate and sexually charged the performers become in the process the closer and more intimate the framing and lighting becomes. I become more focused on the beads of sweat, the twitch of the hand, the quivering lips, to emphasize all the nuances that pull the viewer closer into the intimacy of the lovemaking and ecstasy.
TR: Do you have a sense of who watches your films?
MB: I wish I could say that more women watch my films, but this is not the case. I’ve noticed an increase in the amount of women buying my works on DVD and VOD over the past couple of years, but this has been a slow process since women don’t invest as much in pornography as men do. My films have been showing more frequently in alternative film festivals which has enlightened other audiences to my works rather than via the straight porn/fetish/SM sex market.
TR: Do you get much feedback from your viewers and fans?
MB: I get enough feedback to keep my head out of the clouds but I try not to obsess and focus to much on comments and feedback and to focus on my universe, vision, ideas and desires and to keep the work flowing continuously.
TR: When I first visited Paris I was absolutely in awe of its grandeur, its beauty, its sensuality — not of the people, necessarily, but of the place itself. It’s one of the cities where I can feel the spirit of the place flowing around me as I walk the streets. Does living in Paris affect and inspire you on a daily basis?
MB: Here people are not so obsessed with money like in NY and the states and invest more time in art and culture. The culture and arts is really preserved here, and they really believe in that. So this motivates me to create more frequently and I have much more time to do so as well.
TR: Do you have any plans or hopes to make a quintessentially Parisian sex movie in the future?
MB: Not really, because I don’t feel there is really a quintessential Parisian sex scene happening here for some time now. I think that France is extremely patriarchal and that there is still a prudishness about sex. Eroticism is much more acceptable as an art form than sex here in France. I find it uninspiring to do a quintessentially Parisian sex film when sex is still not acceptable as an art form, and it’s a narrow-minded country when it comes to that.
TR: What are you working on now?
MB: I’m working on my second feature film — a lesbian fetish erotic gothic thriller which will be shot in Berlin, Germany this August, 2008. It’s due for release November 2008 and will hit the festival circuit soon after.
I’m also directing an erotic short film for French TV channel 2, “Belle de Nature,” a movie about eroticism, masochism, and nature. I am teaming up with John Zorn again, who will be doing the music for this film.
TR: What can we expect to see next from you?
MB: “Post Apocalyptic Cowgirls,” “Vampire Sisters,” and “Devirginization of Little Red Riding Hood” are some of the medium-length girl/girl SM porn films I’m releasing throughout 2008.
TR: We’ll look forward to those — thanks, Maria!
Thomas Roche is the Public Relations Manager at Kink.com, has written or edited ten books and blogs about cryptozoology, politics, sex and the Mafia at thomasroche.com.
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Saturday, 17 May 2008
| 12:00 pm
| Videos
Do you like looking at boobies? Then you’re in luck! Reel Classics is a nearly-three-hour extravaganza of vintage breasts, showcasing large and lovely mammaries from an earlier era. Understand, this isn’t a documentary about breast fixation throughout cinematic history. There is no voiceover, no historian of sexuality explaining the context or provenance of what we’re seeing on the screen, just scene after scene (after scene after scene after scene after scene . . .) of big bare breasts through the ages, in glorious grainy black and white. There’s an occasional bit of butt on display, too, but no sex — tellingly, this flick is rated R, so it’s not even remotely hardcore. It’s pure old-school cheesecake erotica, and it’s a breath of fresh air after the usual double-anal gonzo ganbang fetish fare I’m accustomed to reviewing.
There’s a charming innocence and naivete to the scenes, like the opener, with Linda West in a tiara and black gloves and a diamond necklace, shaking her ample assets around and posing in various positions. There are sequined pasties, naked ladies sitting on hay bales, gloriously gratuitous shower scenes, lots of garter belts, funny hairstyles, topless dancing, boobs resting on tables, bare-breasted ladies reading paperback novels, leopardskin blankets, and lots and lots of deep breaths. Everything but jumping on trampolines! I’m not sure of the date range presented here — there’s very little in the way of informational material — but I’m guessing a lot of it is from the ’50s and ’60s. It’s nice to see big natural breasts, and the actual curves of belly and ass that tend to go along with such, but this is a highly monomaniacal video. It is utterly and completely meant for tit men.
Granted, by watching this you’re ogling the breasts of women who are long dead (or at least very old), but here, they’re young and sexy forever in all their cinematic glory. You can enjoy the film as a historical curiosity or as a festival of titty-tastic goodness from a simpler era — either way, Big Top has done the world of smut a service by preserving these lovely fragments of a busty (but by no means dusty!) bygone times.
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Friday, 16 May 2008
| 12:00 pm
| Videos
I’ve had bad experiences with strap-on movies. I’ve seen a lot of them, and most of them, to varying degrees, pretty much suck — the tightness of the focus tends to make them a bit repetitive and unimaginative. I was not expecting much when I received a screener copy of some flick called Strap-on Motel, though in my defense, it was a rather unassuming burned DVD with the title written on in Sharpie (editor’s note: the final copy is professionally packaged, fear not). Based on the title alone, I expected something cheap and crude. Once I heard the smoky blues music, though, and saw the rain-drenched opening scene, and heard the thoughtful voice-over, and saw some familiar and respected indie porn names in the credits — London, Dylan Ryan, Michelle Aston — I began to apprehend that I was looking at something special.
It’s a small, quiet film, rather like a love poem, and it’s all about self-discovery, sexual discovery, and — lest I make it sound too high-minded — strap-on fucking. Irrepressible blonde London and boyish Dylan get together in a motel, kiss, and ride each other. There’s a sort of black-and-white fantasia scene, with both dressed in boy-drag, followed by cocksucking; there’s a scene with them both wearing sexy black gowns and high boots and kissing in an empty bathtub; there’s dildo-riding in a bathroom; boot-licking; a mouth harness; dripping candlewax; a Hitachi Magic Wand. All featuring these two people, all of it carefully considered, beautifully filmed, and artfully composed. A film like this depends entirely on the chemistry of the only two performers, and they work together quite comfortably and naturally.
It’s amazing how some colored filters, interesting camera angles, and soft, poetic voiceover (written and read by the sultry-voiced Ursula Del Aguila) can make what would be simple smut into something high-toned and elegant. Two women, a strap-on, a good soundtrack — what more does a film need? Nothing at all, not when it’s made with as much care and attention as this one was.
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Maria Beatty’s films The Black Glove and The Elegant Spanking are quintessential fine-art fetish erotica titles; they’re richly textured expressionist-noir masterpieces in which kink and esthetics tangle like snakes fucking.
In the more than ten years since those two classics, the Venezuela-born, New York-raised, currently Paris-dwelling filmmaker has continued to make audacious erotic films packed with sumptuously sensual visuals and scorching hot sex; I’ve already written quite rapturously about her superhot recent flicks Skateboard Kink Freak and Sex Mannequin, two of the best films of 2007. Skateboard Kink Freak and Sex Mannequin are brilliantly naturalistic art films with some of the most intense, explicit lesbian sex committed to film.
The Beatty film before that duo, Silken Sleeves, is an entirely different kind of sex-art film. It’s an extended scene between educator/Shibari expert/performer/globetrotting perv Midori and gorgeous bottom Mayan. A sexual-aesthetic art piece about the seasons passing, it’s both high-concept and immediately accessible to anyone who appreciates the aesthetics of fetish in erotica. Silken Sleeves features complex suspension bondage, the sensations of seasons passing and smokin’ hot SM all rendered with textures that evoke Beatty’s expressionist influences. If you’ve never seen one of Midori’s brilliant live performances, this is as close as it’s possible to get — it captures everything except the scent of the candles
I got a chance to ask Beatty a few questions about Silken Sleeves recently.
TR: How did you meet up with Midori and decide to make Silken Sleeves? Did the idea originate with Midori, with you, or in collaboration?
Maria Beatty: I met and did a photo shoot with Midori back in 1997. At the time we loosely talked about the possibility of collaborating on a fetish/SM film together, but for some reason or other it just didn’t materialize until 8 years later. I finally decided to dedicate a medium-length film to the art of bondage and approached Midori to star in it with Mayan as the submissive. I’m often inspired by nature and thought it was time for me to blend the two — nature and the art of bondage and an homage to the Four Seasons. From this point Midori and I further developed what kind of bondage and actions would take place within each Season.
TR: Where was Silken Sleeves shot?
MB: Silken Sleeves was shot in an artist’s studio in upstate New York. Initially we wanted to shoot outside in nature but due to scheduling problems we were locked into shooting in November when it was just too cold and damn to shoot these scenes outside. So, we created a very minimal set inspired by Kabuki theater.
TR: Silken Sleeves feels very much like it’s a single chain of events, happening all in a flow, rather than a more traditional film that’s cut together. Was it shot that way or is that an illusion of the editing process?
MB: Yes there is an even flow due to the seamless interaction and chemistry between Midori and Mayan. As soon as the action began, it just organically unraveled into a sensual play and delight and ended when Midori and Mayan decided to do so. It’s the first time I just let the action go for a long stretch of time. The editing had very little to do with the flow. It was definitely more about the flow of energy between Midori and Mayan that created this feel. There were brief pauses in between each of the four seasons, but each season flowed as one piece without interruption.
TR: In watching Silken Sleeves, I find that it feels to me like a departure for you, but I can’t really tell you why. Does it feel like a departure for you as well, or is it of a piece with all your earlier work?
MB: I’m curious what kind of departure and where to?
TR: It’s so different than Skateboard Kink Freak and Sex Mannequin, both of which are so fleshy and wet and spontaneous. All three films are unified by their intense use of light and texture, but Silken Sleeves is much more formalized.
MB: I prefer to experiment with various genres, moods and travel to all sorts of time periods so my work never gets stuck or stays in one look or style. I’m an aesthete which consistently shows in my works but with variations on a theme.
TR: Silken Sleeves features intricate suspension bondage and SM. It also has a very clear visual attention paid to textures, colors, artistic details. Was it challenging to balance these two demands when shooting?
MB: Not at all, but rather all of these elements worked together to create a complete style, mood and piece. Midori’s choice of kimonos, costume styling and bondage enhanced and further inspired the gels for lighting, additional props and post-production choices for color correction, additional texture and tones.
TR: Was it hard to get good shots when such intricate SM was being done?
MB: There was no cutting during the shooting process of each sequence, and the cameras remained as far away from the action as possible to give Midori and Mayan more intimacy. The cameras were as precise as possible without a second of footage to waste.
There were times when I would have loved a tighter shot or a pan or less movement, but I had to let go of this thought and to not compromise the intensity of the moment. The flow and buildup was more important than the shots for this piece.
TR: As I was saying about Silken Sleeves being a departure, it feels in many ways to me like it has a cold, stylized brand of eroticism compared to the very wet, hot, organic, spontaneous feeling of Skateboard Kink Freak and Sex Mannequin. Would you agree, or does it feel differently to you?
MB: Silken Sleeves has a more sophisticated cold, stylized look to it because of the attention given to the kimonos, costumes, props, color coordination, textures, hair and makeup, and accessories to complete the Japanese look to the film. It’s treated in a more precious way and as a theater piece/experience rather than the more spontaneous, grab what you can, au naturel look of Skateboard Kink Freak and Sex Mannequin.
A lot more time and preparation and attention to details was invested in Silken Sleeves, and the stylized look can come off to some as artificial and cold rather than primitive, impulsive, wild hot energy circulating in KF and SM. I believe I’m moving further away from the more over-stylized pieces in my SM/porn films. I’m working more with available existing elements and focusing more on the dynamic, the chemistry and the interaction between the women rather than obsessing on the aesthetic details surrounding them. To me, this is what I find most exciting and groundbreaking. Finding variations on a theme and twisting it even further.
Read part two here, and check out Maria Beatty’s films in Blowfish’s SM section.
Thomas Roche is the Public Relations Manager at Kink.com, has written or edited ten books and blogs about cryptozoology, politics, sex and the Mafia at thomasroche.com.
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