In recent years, video "has revolutionized" the porn industry, allowing any schmoe with a cheap camcorder and extroverted "talent" to produce an adult "movie." Camcorders were prophesized to bring the technology of movie making to the masses. If this were true, Super-8 film, once affordable and even more user-friendly, would still be alive and well today. Consumer video is, for the most part, a wasted medium, especially when looking at pornographic videos.
Of course, I'm not talking about all of the videos made today. Some of them are still deeply rooted in the traditions of the past. A lot of them have bigger budgets and are shot on higher quality video formats (sometimes even returning to film!). I'm talking about the glut of videos to be found in the adult film room of your local video store.
These amateurs are still a long way from being auteurs. The makers of most commercial porn today suffer from the same maladies that could be easily remedied with a quick course on basic videography. I have attempted to contact several adult film companies in the hope that my rather reactionary view of adult films as films that could stand alone without the sex.
Could you imagine an R rated cut of any porn video made nowadays? It'd be five minutes of shot-reverse-shot conversations with muddy dialogue. There were no real epic porn films to my knowledge with plot twists and hundreds of troops charging each other on the battlefield scenes, most of the older 35mm adult movies were professionally made and usually quite humourous and fun to watch. But now, plot lines can be summed up in one sentence. Ever notice how many compilation films there are? Just scene after scene of one type of sexual act repeated time and again (example; the cum-shot videos).
And the sex! It lasts forever! And that's not a good thing when its all from two or three uninteresting camera angles with looped moans that don't match up to anyone on screen. There is no such thing as inter-cutting anymore. It used to be the standard device to inter-cut two sex scenes or a sex scene and action lending itself to the plot to heighten the climax of the scene. Editing used to be used effectively! But now the editing is all but gone.
I have noticed the technical ineptness to be at its height with so-called "fetish" videos, such as S&M themed movies. Since these videos go against publicly accepted norms, must they also go against all the "rules" of the cinema?
Star Maker Video's Show Them No Mercy is an S&M video that has its heart in the right place. The director knows what he wants to do but just doesn't know how to do it. It's the story of Sir Michael and Mistress Destiny who train a slave, Bunny, who has been unreasonable, for their friend Mistress Deanne while they also give a few pointers to their less-than-adequate slave Chastity.
The director insists on using a hand-held camera for no real apparent reason except perhaps to give it that non-professional, shaky, cruddy-looking feel. This might explain the incredibly bright incandescent lights that are strewn about on screen and causes the automatic iris to go nuts everytime there is a movement.
Like I said, the director is trying. There are several cutaways which are used well half of the time and then thrown in anywhere (especially for long stretches of uninteresting and muffled dialogue) and even repeated. Some of the cutaways break the 180 degree rule and make their random inclusion even more confusing.
I know these movies are made fast and cheap, but even so, a lot of things should have been re-shot, like every time an actor or actress looks into the camera. This might be breaking the fourth wall to some, but to me it's as damn annoying as the few asides in The Flintstones movie. I also know that actors and actresses are usually chosen because they'll take their clothes off in front of a camera and not because of their acting talents but you would think that any decent director could coax a better performance out of these people. I've gotten decent performances out of bored kids and collision shop guys. These porn "actors" act worse than the majority of musicians who try to make the jump to film!
An aside; the next time I hear someone talking or a telephone ringing off-screen, especially saying "ding dong" when there is supposed to be a doorbell ringing I'm going to bulk erase the tape. "Oops, sorry, it was that way when I rented it!" Both of these happen in Show Them No Mercy and often. In one instance it's even during a purely music-driven scene which should have been used to cover any sound recorded on the set by what sounds like an on-board microphone.
The director is attempting some interesting camera angles but is usually shooting something that has nothing to do with what is happening in the plot. While Mistress Deanne talks about her slave masturbating all the time (in her thick Brooklyn accent) to which Mistress Destiny replies "She's got her hands there now," Sir Michael is on screen, acting cool, instead of having a close-up of Bunny's hands on her crotch. It's the little things that really add up to be annoying.
From my understanding, S&M movies are restricted by some sort of law that no one who is tied up in a movie can have sex. But this throws Basic Instinct out the window. So why is it that these films tend to be one big "well, we've tied her up this way, untie her and tie her up that way." If this is so, I would think that the makers of modern S&M videos would be as sexy as they could through the use of symbolism and interesting cutting. With a little skill, the actual penetration wouldn't matter. It would be so implied that no one would realized that they're getting fooled into thinking they see something they're not.
What is better; the build-up or the pay-off? I think it's the build-up. Seduction is great! To me, the hottest scenes I've ever seen have not been actual fucking, but steamy interactions. Take the lousy movie Sliver, for example. This has one of the most memorable erotic scenes that I remember in recent years when Sharon Stone slips off her panties at the posh restaurant where she and slimy Billy Baldwin eat. I guess it's that whole argument of "Erotica" versus Pornography like reading a "Letters"-type magazine over a photo-oriented one.
Show Them No Mercy attempts to have a running dialogue between the dominant and slave which would probably be effective if it wasn't recorded so poorly. For less than a hundred dollars a pair of nice wireless microphones could have solved a lot of problems and added a stonger sense of erotica. Because, in regards to S&M, mental control through verbal abuse, et cetera is as integral as the physical control through bondage.
There are some things done that I've never seen before such as hanging up Bunny by her feet and placing clothes pins all over her genitalia but the scene is marred by an overzealously refocusing, shadowcasting camera man. Remember kids, don't try this at home: a misplaced clothespin can cause quite a lot of pinching pain. I don't think I really need to go into the pros and cons of S&M and bondage in this movie review but please realize that I am simply critiquing the style and technical prowess of an adult movie, not condoning the behavior that goes on during it.
Luckily, the scene of Sir Michael dominating Chastity is handled in the same low-key attitude of the rest of the film and does not come across as blatantly misogynistic. In fact, I was pretty happy when he gagged her mouth after her long annoying monologue in which she drops in and out of a dumb cockney accent (insert Kevin Costner reference here).
Clocking in at just about forty five minutes, the movie seems to be broken up into roughly ten minute segments. The first sets up the plot and has a lot a dialogue. Next comes the "torture" of Bunny which moves along pretty fast. Then the video slows down to a snail's pace with the scenes of the spanking of Chastity and then the light whipping of Bunny. I had to fast forward through these last two scenes but stopped when I found that I was only watching Show Them No Mercy part one and that it was a cliffhanger for STNM Pt. 2 in which there are some interesting looking scenes involving clothespins on Bunny's tongue and her being hung from an inverted pentagram.
After this brief preview came a whole series of previews for other Star Maker videos. This was the best part except for the cheesy posterization effects and cruddy character generator stuff. Some of the other titles were; Bound Biker Babes, Women in Command, Sexy Ties and Videotape, Secret Retreat, and TV Enema Spankings. One of the CG screens in the previews boasts that these videos are "Theatrical Presentations with Production Value!" Yeah, right. If you're a spanking enthusiast I think you might enjoy STNM for a little while unless you're looking for a well made movie.
For a catalogue of other Star Maker Videos, send $5, a SASE, and an age statement to P.O. Box 289-Canal St. Station, NY2 10013 or call 212/242-3613.