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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Luxe: Expensive Porn Makes Me Swoon
And yet, against all logic, I love porn that looks expensive.
Teaser 5 Sensual Stories by Erika Lust
Uploaded by lustfilms
Luxurious. Naked bodies swaddled in mink, warm mahogany-panelled, fireplace-lit dungeons that are a far cry from the cold and barren cement rooms that usually house BDSM porn, sparkling cinematography that rivals Amelie. It's not that the porn needs to be expensive- it might as well have been shot on a shoestring budget. But that look and feel- the hardcore scene so cinematically sensual that it could follow seamlessly after the nude sketch scene from Titanic. It's a combination of content and cinematography- when there's a certain type of timeless beauty, gorgeous settings, perfect lighting, lovely costumery (if any), tasteful music, and really, really high-quality cameras and equipment. I love and enjoy my handheld-camera, shot-in-a-hotel-room look porn, too- if the content makes up for it. But I still long for that luxurious, expensive feel in my porn.
Click below for the preview of
Petra Joy's "Female Fantasies"
It's interesting, too- it seems like the folks who express this sort of aesthetic often share my same sentiments- their porn is trying to reach people on another level- it's about artistry, sex positivity, women's empowerment. Folks like Erika Lust and Lust Films, Shine Louise Houston and Pink & White Productions (who, by the way, just got some new equipment and says she finally feels "like I've produced something beautiful." . . . though c'mon, Shine, your other films weren't gorgeous?), Petra Joy and Strawberry Seductress. Their porn is drastically different than other porn out there, and while a good deal of what I'm drawn to is the fabulous cinematographic quality, it's not just the HD crystal-clear picture. It's eroticism blended with true sensuality, captured by an artist; it's a visual feast for your eyes. And it looks fucking beautiful.
Click below to see the short erotic film "French
Maid" from Coco de Mer.
For far too long, photographers have been given free license to make stunning erotica (I'm sorry, I mean, studies of artistic nudes), but people have drawn the line at video- as if you can take a picture of a naked woman with either a kodak in your basement or with a 35 millimeter camera in your studio, but when it comes down to filming her get her freak on, all possibilities of making art go out the window, replaced by the need for a money shot.
It's about time that porn started to get back some of its glamour, without having to sacrifice it all to become cheesy "softcore" that most people mock for its so-called pretentiousness ("everyone knows its just whack-off material"). Instead of trying to draw the line between art and porn- how about combining the two for the most beautiful and inspiring possibilities?
I just adore watching the artsy, avant-garde, take-me-back-in-time, Hollywood glamour and elegance and sensuality that seem to come from commercials for ultra-hip and quite expensive brands . . . particularly when they toss in a homoerotic subtext and delicious gender-bending with it. Could you imagine if the following commercials kept on going, into the realm of porn- that boy in girl drag and girl in boy drag having a pervy tryst, the lesbians adding more scratches to that back, and the sailor "boi" playing gay men with her lover. Umm. I think I'll take some time to myself.
Paul Gaultier's Le Rendez-Vous
Campari Red's The Secret
So, honestly. I'm looking forward to more porn that looks like, well, a million bucks. Perhaps my standards are too high- particularly in a porn world that generally ignores the content I find sexy and even then, considers style secondary, if important at all. But I believe that there are gems hidden here and there- the kind of porn that lights my artistic inner romantic as well as my loins.
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