Tag Archives: Jacky St. James

May 21, 2014 · 9:10 am

A Single Mirror: Torn, Part 2

by Rich Moreland, May 2014

Here is the second segment of my analysis of Torn, a romance from New Sensations. As with my first article on the film, it is my impression of the story without the use of dialogue.

Analyzing a film by silencing actors’ voices tests their ability to communicate the story through body language and facial expression. Of course, the director’s skill at setting up scenes and the shooters’ artistry in capturing effective cinematic angles are also paramount.

* * * * *

Back at the house, Drew succeeds in sexually arousing Christine. Though initially reluctant, she gives in quickly for a visually enjoyable performance.

In fact, the sex scene comes off as a little too passionate for a couple whose relationship is getting stale. Granted, Drew is trying to keep the flame alive and when the pop shot occurs, the performers are finishing the shoot on a bare mattress, a testament to their hard sex. But what about Christine? Is her enthusiasm for a good screwing equal to Drew’s?

Jacky St. James’ challenge is fitting an emotional film into an adult genre that expects typical porn sex. Because Torn is more art than porn, her task is magnified as this scene reveals. To her credit, she makes it work.

By the way, India Summer (Christine) is an adult film treasure. The dark-haired beauty possesses the classic female proportions so highly valued by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Her face is finely shaped with angular features that mark the human perfection sculptors and painters desired.

From the Hot tub to the Parking Lot

Mimi and Chad in the hot tub.

A young woman attracted to older man needs to talk, especially if she believes her future may be troubled. In a short hot tub scene, a pensive and unsure Mimi chats with a male friend (Chad Alva). There’s no sex between them, not yet.

Back at the office, Vicky unpacks a huge dildo. For Drew it explains much about the sexual scenario Christine so abhorred at the party. He gives her a sly and amusing “that’s more than I want to know” look.

Americans have always adored their cars and early in the last century vehicles became portable nests for young love. Where better to start secret dalliances than in a parking lot? Mimi shows Drew photos she has taken of him then suddenly kisses him. Cars whiz by on the expansive left side of the screen while Drew and Mimi are tucked away on the far right next to two parked cars.

Flashes of Drew and Mimi pop up on the screen and in one instance, there is sex in a car.

Suspicion

The camera moves into the dining room of Drew and Christine’s home. It’s darkly lit with strong indications of secrets and suspicions. On the table and the chandelier above it are several candles in metallic holders: different heights on the table, more uniform on the chandelier. The table represents years of marriage with its ups and downs; the chandelier is delicate, floating with the promise of new romance.

A pacing Drew is on his cell apparently to Mimi who is alternately shown talking on hers. In the meantime, Christine approaches from outside the dining room. The entire moment is reflected in a large mirror, a recurring image in this film, that is on the wall next to the table.

Reduced in stature, Christine is confined to the background. She turns away from Drew’s conversation unobserved, her reality now a mere reflection in his life.

Alone, she retreats to their bed. The pillows are pushed far apart to emphasize the growing divide between them. Eyes cast downward, Christine is a confusion of suspicion and resignation.

Disappointment

A series of images speed up the affair. Drew texting Mimi, Mimi in conversation with Chad, and Drew and Mimi talking in a restaurant amid ghost images of the city embedded in the storefront glass, another mirror-like reflection.

Trouble brews. Dressed and ready to go out, an unhappy Mimi is on her cell in the bathroom. The scene is shot from behind her, casting her image in the bathroom mirror. She turns, walks toward the camera and pulls back her hair. No reason to go out now, apparently.

With its hood raised, Christine’s broken down SUV sits on the side of the road. This moment speaks volumes about her marriage from her view, a once aroused clitoris disabled in a relationship mired in boredom. Drew pulls up in the darkness, his car pointing directly toward, but not touching, the raised hood.

Later in the rec room Drew is watching TV. A visibly concerned Christine comes in, cell phone in hand. They hold hands as if facing a worrisome situation.

The camera takes the viewer to Mimi, who is hanging her photos in a gallery setting; one is of Drew. He shows up with unpleasant news and she is immediately crushed. This is another disappointment, the tale of a younger woman in an affair with a married man.

The studio, Drew and Mimi face reality.

Turning away, Drew occupies the awkward moment by scanning her work hung around the gallery. She slides her hands down the wall beneath his picture. Their talk is heartfelt, she has some tears. They kiss. In the most expressive scene of the film, it’s time for a good-bye.

Revisiting the Retaining Wall

The story moves to a kitchen in which Chad is in conversation with Mimi. Their mutual status is probably “friends with benefits” because the third sex scene appears here and serves as a hopeful “feel good” rebound for Mimi. Incidentally, the viewer becomes so involved with Remy La Croix as Mimi we forget she is still a top porn star and can be as down and dirty as any girl in the business. Remy is so good in this scene, particularly with her oral skills and body positioning, it’s obvious why her name sells movies.

Setting up the scene just right while keeping everyone amused!

Eddie Powell hard at work keeping everyone amused with a shot he hopes doesn’t go to the dogs!

After the money shot, they lie side by side on the floor. Eddie Powell frequently uses close-ups to highlight the expressions of the performers. In this one, Mimi stares straight ahead, her mind is distant from the sex she just had.

In the meantime, Christine and Drew air out the affair in a retaining wall setting that mimics Drew’s first encounter with Mimi. Body language reveals that communication is dying with the relationship.

The characters’ backs are to the camera. Christine’s left hand reaches in Drew’s direction. He doesn’t respond. Later Drew puts his right arm around her with a tentative, comforting motion and rubs her back. Christine pulls away. The shot moves closer and she throws her legs over the wall, turning her body toward the camera.

The old adage in the business is “They don’t pay us to have sex, they pay to wait around.” Steven and India kill some time.

The confrontation continues later in the bedroom and the viewer wonders why they are still sleeping in the same bed.

Tension stays alive, this time in the rec room. They are arguing, debating, but when one talks, the other is not on the screen. Drew is annoyed; Christine is defiant. Like the long couch that divides them in the shot, their marriage has devolved into a massive chasm.

The scene shifts outdoors once more with Drew’s back to camera. As if conceding defeat, Christine comes over and puts her hand on his shoulder. His pained expression is laced with guilt. She almost cries, then nods slightly. It’s over.

Daisies

On a small table in her studio, Mimi is putting a vase of yellow and pink daisies, symbols of purity, innocence, love and loyalty. Drew appears. Bewildered by their conversation, she seems to say, “I’m working to get over this and now you show up.”

Mimi and Steven in the final sex scene having a little fun while setting up the shot.

A kiss begins the final sex scene, a very private expression that renews their relationship.

Even though this is a porn film, I was reluctant to invade this personal moment, feeling somewhat like an intruder once the sex began. For me, that illustrates the power of Torn’s imagery and the intimacy it portrays.

To put it another way, the kissing and eye contact, a tribute to the acting talent of both stars, creates a romantic experience so strong that it relegates the sex as secondary to the film’s emotional impact.

* * * * *

As the film says good-bye to Mimi and Drew, he still reads in bed, but she nestles next to him.

Oh yes, they share a single bathroom mirror.

Incidentally, why are there so many mirrors in this film? Is it because the story requires us to take a long look at ourselves to understand how time and relationships dictate our lives?

Are our emotions genuinely ours, or are they simulations of those around us? And, do they spark a longing to chase the adventurous: the desire for a sexual three-some, a friend with benefits, or a May-December romance?

May-December, a reflection of romantic dreams?

Or, to borrow a little from Shakespeare, are we merely a play within a play as seen through images in a mirror?

Perhaps. Take a look at Torn.

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Tagged as Eddie Powell, India Summer, Jacky St. James, New Sensations, Raylene, Remy Lacroix, Samantha Ryan, Steven St. Croix, Tom Byron, Torn

May 18, 2014 · 2:44 pm

Moving to a Younger Lover: Torn, Part 1

by Rich Moreland, May 2014

Torn is another dynamic New Sensations film from Jacky St. James and Eddie Powell. No review of mine could top the ones already published. For excellent assessments of the film, check Adult Video News’ review here and XBIZ’s assessment here.

With this article, I’m taking another avenue on this film. Rather than review the movie, I’m going to look at its imagery. In the silent film era, audio dialogue was non-existent, acting and the cinematographer’s craft drove the narrative. To move the story forward with words, filmmakers relied on the well placed title card to reveal snippets of the conversation between the characters.

My bet is that a St. James/Powell film can tell its story without dialogue because their artistry as a team is every bit as good as F.W. Murnau’s effort in the pre-sound fantasy, Nosferatu (1922), or William Wellman’s in the adventure classic, Wings (1927).

To test my idea, I decided on a two-pronged approach. First, I read the boxcover for a brief handle on the plot. Second, I did not view Torn from beginning to end. Instead, I studied the opening scenes in which the credits were superimposed on the screen then skipped to the final minutes of the film right before the last round of credits were run.

Would this sparse amount of information provide enough guidance so that the story would be meaningful if I sat through the entire film with the dialogue muted?

The answer is “yes,” because the directing, cinematography, and acting are that good.

(A disclaimer is due here. After the first silent run through, I watched the film again with the sound on so that I might fill in the names of characters and their relationships to each other. What is presented here is the story as I saw it without the dialogue, but with that information subsequently included. For the record, all photos are from Jacky St. James and are credited to Jeff Koga.)

Bedrooms: the Beginning and End

Beds reveal much about the story. In the beginning, the bed in which Christine (India Summer) and her husband Drew (Steven La Croix), occupy is immense, one of those extra wide varieties. The solid headboard is overly large, resembling a bridge between two faraway shores, or perhaps a dam or a wall that might be holding something back.

The crew setting up the opening shots with India and Steven settled in while Jacky (left) and Eddie (far right) get everything ready. Notice the headboard.

The room’s decor is subdued. As the shot is framed, the wall above the bed is blank and consumes an inordinate amount of space. The night stands are ebony (like the headboard) and the actors are dropped to the bottom third of the screen.

The feel is formal, distant, cold, and uninviting. There is brightness in windows on each side of the bed, but they are almost pushed out of the shot.

In the final scene, the camera is much closer to the bed. As in the beginning, the shot is taken from the footboard. Vastly different from the first scene, the bed is smaller, more intimate, and if the headboard is an open bridge (it consists of vertical metal strips, not solid wood), the shores are closer. No allusion to a dam, no way to hold anything back.

Smaller bed, snuggle and smile!

Color and warmth dominate the scene and the characters, Mimi (Remy La Croix) and Drew. Over the night stands on both sides of the bed are larger paintings of nature and fresh beginnings.

The opening scene imparts separation and divide, the final one intimacy and union. Knowing this, the story apparently revolves around Drew and how he moves from his wife to his much younger lover. Somewhere in this tale is a tearing away and a rebirth, at least that’s what is indicated so far.

The Afternoon Party

Drew’s life appears filled with drudgery. The snooze alarm is his morning friend and the drive to work is a bore. He has the look of “Is this all there is?” about his day-to-day existence.

Jacky sets up the party shots. India, Steven, Raylene, and Tom get their instructions while the crew hangs out.

An afternoon party hosted by Drew’s co-worker,Vicky (Raylene), and her husband, Roy, features an announcement of some sort. A somewhat disinterested Drew goes outside to smoke. (By the way, among the party goers is Jacky St. James a la Alfred Hitchcock, a cameo in her own film.)

Steven and Remy hang out at the wall before shooting the scene.

Remy flashes Steven before she becomes Mimi.

The home is in the hills and Drew sits on a retaining wall, a recurring image in the film. Mimi, the photographer at the party, joins him and they chat as if meeting for the first time. The scenery overwhelms the players and at this point in the narrative sends a distinct message. Nature is primal (remember the paintings in their bedroom referenced above), existing without assumptions and conclusions. Is this what Drew and Mimi will discover because they are not so much the focus of the scene as they are the recipients of its message?

Later in their bedroom, Christine tells Drew about something that is troubling her. It is related to the goings on at Vicky’s house.

A Bathroom Hideout

During the party, Christine is interrupted while she is in the bathroom. Desperate, she hides in the walk-in shower and peeks through the shower curtain. Roy, Vicky and a friend (Samantha Ryan) have three-way sex that features girl/girl oral, unusual for a Jacky St. James romance.

Waiting for the shoot to begin, Raylene, Tom Byron, and Samantha Ryan.

Waiting for the shoot to begin, Raylene, Tom, and Samantha fool around.

Apparently Vicky and Roy are swingers.

All the while, Christine is in the shower and her dilemma is told by the camera.

The angle is shot from above, an image akin to looking down an empty elevator shaft. Christine is trapped. Confined like the walls she has built around her marriage, Christine is devoid of the sexual passion right within her reach. At this moment, she gives the flimsy shower curtain an unassailable power over her. St. James’s message is clear: we only need rip away our self-imposed barriers and face what troubles us to free ourselves from its tyranny.

As the sex romps just beyond her, Christine sits on the shower floor, physically smaller, frustrated, and seemingly exhausted.

After the bathroom empties, Christine yanks back the curtain. Disgusted and upset, she washes her hands repeatedly and vigorously, much like the recurring imagery of tooth brushing that dominates bathroom scenes in the movie. What are the characters trying to cleanse in this tale of love’s failures and renewal?

The next day at the office, Drew talks with Vicky. Her surprise is followed by laughter, Vicky indicates Christine should have joined in. Drew gives her an “are you kidding me?” look.

A Living Room, then a Studio

A fireplace with large crucifix above the mantle dominates a room whose size stresses the divide between Drew and his wife. Christine is sitting in a loveseat under a huge mirror that reflects the crucifix on the opposite wall. Does the image comment on the sanctity of marriage and sexuality within it?

The crucifix sees all. Jacky directs Steven and India

Hiding a piece of red lingerie behind his back, Drew approaches Christine. Incidentally, he wears a shirt that is also red, the color of passion. She doesn’t like the gift; rejection covers his face. Later he surprises her amorously in the laundry room but she pushes him away. Unfortunately, nothing is going to reignite passion in this marriage.

Mimi, who happens to be Vicky’s niece, shows up at the office. Remembering Drew from the party, the twenty-something wants to photograph him and they go to her studio.

In the foreground of the scene, Mimi loads her camera and Drew sits in a director’s chair some distance away. Mimi’s image fills the entire screen and is totally shaded. As the scene continues, Mimi emerges from the shadows, moving closer to him. Two close-ups of his hands emphasize his wedding ring.

Getting into position for just the right angle. Mimi foreground, Drew in the distance.

The scene is playful and refreshing, smiles all around, the exact opposite of the deadness the viewer gets with Christine. But is Mimi about to dominate Drew’s emotions? Is she a harbinger of trouble to come?

Drew is about to make the move.

As he leaves, the middle-aged Drew drops all decorum and kisses Mimi. She is stunned, but not unpleasantly. She did, after all, set this up.

The affair begins. Drew faces a relationship where second chances are rarities, but will Mimi become the dreaded other woman, the mistress destined to be shunted aside when tensions arise?

* * * * *

One of the difficulties in eliminating dialogue is losing the nuances it adds to a film, a richness we appreciate more fully when sound is turned off and words are gone. But clearly the visual operates on its own, proving that filmmakers of the silent era handed down their skills to a modern generation with, of course, the complements of the title card.

The second part of Torn is coming shortly.

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Tagged as AVN, Eddie Powell, India Summer, Jacky St. James, New Sensations, Raylene, Remy Lacroix, Samantha Ryan, Steven St. Croix, Tom Byron, Torn, XBIZ

May 10, 2014 · 9:18 am

Gnawing at the Heart: The Temptation of Eve, Part Two

by Rich Moreland, May 2014

This is the second installment of New Sensations’ The Temptation of Eve, an adult film extraordinaire and multiple award winner at this year’s XBIZ Show. Oh yes, it was also AVN’s Best Romance at their Las Vegas extravaganza in January.

Remy Lacroix received Best Actress Award for AVN and XBIZ; Tommy Pistol landed XBIZ’s Best Supporting Actor. Not surprisingly, the film won XBIZ’s Best Sreenplay, the ultimate honor for a beautifully constructed and performed picture.

As I suggested in the first post, buy the DVD. You’ll need Eve in your library for repeated viewings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* * * * *

The interior of Brandon’s house reflects the reductionism Eve seeks to reorder and bury her past. The minimalist decor sports muted pastels and clean lines that are in direct contrast to the complications and conflicting emotions unfolding within the narrative.

Most descriptive are the black and white photos of nude and semi-nude women arranged in controlled lines throughout the house. The pictures reflect Eve’s longing for a sexual simplicity that confines her desires and rejects temptation, while illustrating Brandon’s line up of women he casually brushes aside once needs are serviced.

Is she one of them?

Brandon wants to corral Eve with images from the past. He keeps her dangling between yesterday and today with a questionable investment in tomorrow. There is no finality with her nude pictures; like the journal, they are kept out of sight but easily retrieved because she knows where to look.

In contrast, Eve has discovered a new start with Danny, the sweet guy she purports to love.

The couple plans to grow old together while Brandon captures Eve as forever young and desirable. The photos and the journals (there is a second one solely about her) are frozen moments, tangled webs whose individual elements swirl in the abstract painting by the front door and are twisted into the black metal frame that is across from it.

Minimalist is Brandon view of his world, sex without complications where every affair is a fleeting adventure. Eve’s oversimplification is to cope with her past in such a way to free her up to support a future of security.

For both, it is easy in thought, but difficult in reality.

More Flashbacks

Through Brandon’s intervention, Danny secures a job interview in Seattle. As Eve and Danny celebrate, Brandon offers flippant congratulations and sits at the kitchen table to write in his journal. The scene communicates a fluid situation. Over the table are three lights with red shades, one dominating the other two. Eve is the largest figure framed in the shot, the men smaller in stature. Is she gaining in this war with her temptations?

More flashbacks pop up, this time in the same kitchen. Eve is relaxing, naked on the counter. After a two year friendship, Eve and Brandon have just had sex for the first time.

Will our relationship last?
Photo by Jeff Koga

“Tell me it’s not going to fuck up our relationship,” she says. Doubt prevails through this carnival of free-flowing intimacy, but for now it’s all good. The two lights in the background are the same size, mates of each other.

Later when Danny is through packing and ready for some sleep. Brandon texts Eve. She goes downstairs to find him watching porn.

Exasperated, she says he is testing her patience.

“I’m testing your self-control.” His glibness bites at her. “Your resistance will break down.”

Pained, she casts her eyes downward, another flashback bubbles up from her unconscious mind. Yes, the sex screwed up their relationship.

Sex in Faded Color

Tormented by Brandon and memories that won’t sit still, Eve crawls into bed beside a sleeping Danny. The film’s second sex scene evolves out of Eve’s desperation to cling to something that offers protection against Brandon’s insensitivity. Nuzzling Danny, she awakens him and their lovemaking begins.

Getting it right with some guidance from the director.
Photo by Jeff Koga

The porn formula of oral and standard positions are highlighted and Remy Lacroix’s pert sexiness puts her stamp on this segment. There’s no hint of gonzo because the scene is more emotional than sexual. Raw physicality is not the message, how it is presented in mood and shadow is.

The music is an evocative cloud of doubt and foreboding that hangs over the lovers. The lighting is shaded, creating a scene that edges toward film noir, sex in faded color. Eddie Powell has created a cinematic masterpiece that communicates deep emotion so powerful the viewer forgets this is a porn film.

Considering the context of the lovers and how they are enmeshed in a conflict that could trample both of them, this just may be the most artistic sex scene ever filmed.

In the background are containers, boxes suspended between packed and unpacked (clothes hang on the sides). They are symbols of Eve’s presence in Brandon’s house, an unexpected transition in Eve’s life that now replaces the once irreplaceable—her love of Brandon. She’s been here before where she thought she would stay.

To highlight this message, Eddie Powell reveals only glimpses of penetration, simultaneously concealing and exploring Eve’s dilemma.

On the nightstand are three candles in different states of use, two having been burned, one hardly touched by flame. They offer different interpretations that are appropriate to the story.

The candles are on the right. Photo by Jeff Koga

The cast takes a break. The candles are on the right, the boxes are beneath the window.
Photo by Jeff Koga

The almost whole one is Danny, little affected by the past complications of Eve and Brandon, the others a deeply burned and a slightly singed. Which is Brandon and which is Eve?

Perhaps they also represent Eve’s vagina, used severely by Brandon, now delicately by Danny. Once the getaway is accomplished, it has a chance to begin anew, tested, but not overcome, by the past.

Or maybe the best preserved candle is the resolution to the temptation, perhaps it offers Brandon redemption.

Like the film’s closing moments, the objects in the bedroom explain a saga of love pained and redeemed in a sex scene graced with an emotionally surreal quality, a true anomaly in adult film.

Nothing More, Nothing Less

Alone in the house the following day, Eve decides on a bubble bath: soak troubles away, read the journal, and self-stimulate. In a wonderfully framed split screen shot of Brandon’s bedroom and the bathroom, pay close attention to the arrangement of pillows on his bed and then later the six candles grouped in threes by color behind the tub.

Preparing to shoot Brandon's entrance. Photo by Jeff Koga

Jacky and Eddie prepairing to shoot Brandon’s entrance.
Photo by Jeff Koga

Jacky St. James and Eddie Powell are preparing the viewer for a collision of emotions. Close-ups of Eve’s eyes and her licking her lips communicates everything. Is this journal about her?

When Brandon enters unannounced, whose privacy is being invaded explodes their conversation, offering Remy Lacroix her finest acting moment.

“People have fantasies, crazy intense out of control fantasies,” she says, rebutting Brandon accusations. “But that doesn’t ever mean they are ever going to get acted on.”

The ground under Eve is hardening, temptations are all around but she remains firm because separation, psychological and physical, is beginning to take hold.

“Fantasies aren’t reality,” she shouts, “They’re an escape, nothing more, nothing less!”

Eve defines the film in this forceful segment and her confrontation with Brandon is the contentious moment that turns the story in her favor.

Another quick flashback races across the screen, Brandon’s tongue works Eve into a joyous state.

“How many is that?” Brandon looks up at her.

“Too many to count,” a smiling Eve purrs, her eyes venturing down her body to find his.

The film’s reality is evident now, there will be no real time sex between Eve and Brandon. Early days with a hot lover remain a memory, recalled only in reverie.

Later Brandon plays his last card to move into real time. He brings Eve a bagel with her tea and asks her why she will not tell Danny of their affair. The solemnity of this moment is captured by the three candles on the nightstand; they now form a triangle.

Brandon says their first encounter years ago was more than just a weekend.

“For me, maybe,” Eve replies, but times have changed. “I’m not willing to jeopardize what I have now for what I wasn’t allowed to have before,” she adds.

“I’m sorry,” Brandon says, admitting things were too intense for him.

The truth is often painful.
Photo by Jeff Koga

He moves across the bed toward her, attempting to negotiate the emotional divide demarcated by a teacup. Danny suddenly arrives and calls Eve’s name, dropping the tension instantly and saving the misery of future entanglements.

A Trashy Taste of Gonzo

Jen (Bailey Blue), the girl who took Eve’s job, arrives with Brandon. The slutty blonde provides a trashy taste of gonzo that stands in contrast to the other sex scenes. Rough and raw in a hallway setting, the shoot is quick; no bed needed.

Bailey and Xander before they become Jen and Brandon Notice the metal artwork to the left. Photo by Jeff Koga

Bailey and Xander before they become Jen and Brandon. Notice the metal artwork in the background on the left.
Photo by Jeff Koga

Jen’s oral skills, spiced with doggie and cowgirl, drive the scene. Incidentally, casting Bailey is another Jacky St. James coup. She is the perfect Jen.

When the pop shot is deposited on Jen’s chest, a faraway look blankets a close-up of Brandon’s face. In using the office tramp, Brandon clarifies that he is incapable of dealing with Eve, but unwilling to accept that they exist only in the pages of his journal. Eve’s response is to put in her earbuds to stifle the noise of the sex, erasing Jen’s presence.

Brandon and Jen getting rough and raw.
Photo by Jacky St. James

For the record, there is no girl/girl sex in the film because it rarely fits a hetero romance unless a gay or bisexual element is attached to the story, or the characters explore personal fantasies. Such scenes in straight movies recall a porn formula evident decades ago, the obligatory and disconnected girl-on-girl sex thrown in to entertain a male audience, something Jacky St. James sees no purpose in resurrecting in this film.

Also, anal and facials are absent, though as professionals Bailey or Remy would gladly accommodate either. And if this were marketed as a gonzo flick, there would be a multiple penetration scene dropped in somewhere, probably a threesome with Eve, Danny, and Brandon.

Finally, a word about editing, Gabrielle Anex’s work is outstanding and particularly appreciated in the close-ups Eddie Powell shoots so beautifully.

No Key

Remy’s Lacroix’s second notable acting moment comes as the film heads for its conclusion. At long last, Brandon and Eve have it out. They were friends before they were lovers, she says, until “that weekend” after which he disappeared.

“You don’t value people.” Her voice is inflected with anger and frustration. “You just use them, they’re a means to an end.”

Eve has the proof. “It was a different girl on every single page of that journal . . . there’s no difference between me and them and whatever we had!”

Though Brandon’s expression spins a different take on her words, Eve has chosen to blur the lines between truth and deception and reality and fantasy. But, does anger encourage resolution because she is dead wrong as she will soon discover?

After Brandon says his goodbyes and leaves with his latest lover for an afternoon of fun, Eve checks the house for anything forgotten before she and Danny depart.

In fact, the rooms are filled with much to forget.

Wandering into Brandon’s bedroom, Eve finds his journal on the bed. It’s the final temptation and she weakens.

This journal is solely about her. On the wall is a powerful image that reams the truth out of Eve’s mind. One more black and white photo, it’s a partially dressed girl cowering and shielding her face with her arms.

A note addressed to Eve falls out of the diary and a final flashback occurs, the long awaited sex scene between Brandon and Eve, alive, as if in real time.

Passing the metal artwork, gnarly tales of pity sex, revenge sex, and lost opportunity, Eve closes the front doors of Brandon’s house behind her. She has no key, of course, and cannot lock up her past, or Brandon . . . because temptation and the inaccessible never stop gnawing at the heart.

* * * * *

Every superb film requires good acting. The cast going over the play before the sex arrives.
Photo by Jeff Koga

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Tagged as AVN, Bailey Blue, Eddie Powell, gonzo, Jacky St. James, New Sensations, Remy Lacroix, The Temptation of Eve, Tommy Pistol, Xander Corvus, XBIZ

May 7, 2014 · 4:10 pm

Containment: The Temptation of Eve, Part One

by Rich Moreland, May 2014

A professor during my graduate school years insisted that superior literature requires repeated readings. Testing his advice, I read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby five times and, indeed, my prof was correct. Each reread brought out another image, another symbol, another interpretation. By the fifth excursion into the book, I understood why some critics believe Gatsby to be the “Great American Novel.”

To evaluate a Jacky St. James’s film, multiple viewings are a minimal prerequisite. She and Eddie Powell integrate images, movement, dialogue, lighting and shading to authenticate their central message: adult film is art.

As a team they create an atmosphere in which the sex scenes compliment, but do not drive, the storyline, while remaining an irreplaceable part of it. Bear in mind, they minimalize gonzo porn’s hard, blasting sexual mechanics unless it fits a specific mood and message. Instead, Jacky and Eddie combine the raw desire and tender touches that embrace couples’ pleasure.

The Temptation of Eve exemplifies the cinematic grace of a St.James/Powell production. It is intriguing drama with quality acting.

One reviewer wrote, “Don’t rent this movie, buy it.” I could not agree more. In fact, I endorse a Jacky St. James collection as a necessity to any adult film library because its richness entertains long after the first viewing.

As another reviewer (Astroknight for Adultdvdtalk) said of Eve, “I’m not nearly a good enough writer or reviewer to really do it justice.” Well, perhaps I am, at least I’d like to give it a shot. So, here we go with the first part of a superb film.

* * * * *

“Temptation is a very powerful thing. It’s hard to fight off and even harder to walk away from.”

Brandon Parker’s words introduce an ancient dilemma Jacky St. James and Eddie Powell have transformed into a cinematic masterpiece, The Temptation of Eve. The viewer is treated to a plethora of images and motifs that offer a unique spin on an old story.

Though I rarely recommend doing this, fast forward to the final scene. It sets up the narrative, is invaluable in understanding the emotional dilemmas the film presents, and will enhance viewing pleasure.

Tangled and Twisted Metal

Containment themes within a minimalist vision is the complication of The Temptation of Eve. For the curious, minimalism is an artistic rebellion against abstractionism. Minimalists pare down visual components in a reductionism that cuts away the clutter to expose an idea. In other words, replace a jumble of colors with an ordered and defined space.

Accommodation and repression dominate the film; boxes and circles are ever present whether in photos on the walls, furniture, cartons for personal possessions, candles, pillows, or doorways. Eve (Remy Lacroix) must contain her temptations and free up her past to invest in the present, her boyfriend, Danny (Tommy Pistol). Her former lover, Brandon (Xander Corvus), must control his game playing and admit his suppressed feelings for Eve in a fight he is destined to lose, at least for now. And, Danny struggles to abandon all confinement to move forward and escape a potential emotional triangle this reviewer believes he senses.

It’s all there in the film’s ending scene, it’s final denouement and most dramatic statement.

By the way, the closing moments bring to mind a scene from The Submission of Emma Marx in which the kneeling Emma (Penny Pax) waits inside the front door of her master’s house to be called to her pleasure. Where Emma enters, Eve exits, but, unlike Emma, she leaves with feelings repressed and doubt hanging in the air.

There are three doors in the final shot. The double entrance doors are brightened by translucent light, an indication that Eve and Danny are working hard to make their relationship work in tough economic times. To the left is a closet door , symbolic of Brandon perhaps, who is being left behind, locked into his cramped and limited view of sexuality and affection.

Or, is the closet door Danny’s isolation? A possibility because of what he may suspect. A hint appears earlier when Danny asks Eve if Brandon brought girls over while he, Danny, was away in Seattle. She says no, but adds,

“He couldn’t find someone I hated enough to do this.”

Eve tells Tommy about being in the house. Photo by Jeff Koga

Tommy and Eve discuss their situation.
Photo by Jeff Koga

A curious answer to a seemingly innocent question. Danny never asks for a further explanation, but must perceive it’s time to move quickly.

To the left of the front door hangs an abstract painting that presents the story’s complexities: Brandon’s chaotic life, Eve’s once torrid relationship with him, her inability to resolve a past that haunts her, Danny’s frustrations, and the suggestion that there is indeed a love triangle at work.

To complete the exit scene is a large metallic grid of tangled and twisted lines geometrically arranged in squares, positioned to the right of the double doors. It screams for order while bound in chaos. It’s a movable piece, by the way, that appears early in the film.

What does it tell the viewer? Is it Brandon? Eve? Their relationship? Or, does it speak of Eve’s torturous desires to explore her past, her addiction to Brandon’s journal, or her uncertain vision of a future rooted in Seattle? Is she trying to establish order out of mixed up emotions ?

Line up your guesses and then watch the film to see where the pieces fall.

Jacky takes a moment with her stars, Remy and Xander.
Photo by Jeff Koga

The Journal

Danny and Eve have fallen on difficult times and are staying at Brandon’s house. Danny has lost his job as a graphic designer and Eve hers in journalism to a “blonde bimbo,” Jen (Bailey Blue). According to the rumor mill, Jen’s oral skills were nicely received at work and she became the new hire.

Danny wants to support his love but like the down-and-out men of the Great Depression, he is having no luck finding employment. The well-off Brandon, who apparently is an old friend of Danny’s, welcomes them, particularly since he has a past with Eve.

Though Eve is troubled by the arrangement, she cannot resist sneaking surreptitious peeks at Brandon’s journal. She caresses herself while reading the accounts Brandon keeps as literary notches buried within the pages. To distress matters further, Eve discovers very personal nude photos that Brandon has stashed in a drawer. Could Danny find these?

Jacky setting up the first flashback.
Photo by Jeff Koga

Eve is haunted by memories of sex with Brandon recorded in the journal. They appear as flashbacks in the film. In one he is binding her to his bed; in another she is uses a vibrator while lying naked by the pool. Brandon is swimming through the water (very Freudian) like he does his women.

Xander plays with the hoop. Photo by Jeff Koga

Xander plays with the hoop between takes.
Photo by Jeff Koga

Caught in a situation that is playing on her emotions, Eve can’t extract herself from a swirling eddy of desire and trouble. Her dilemma is surrealistically illustrated with a hula hoop. The lawn scene is shot from inside the hoop with the background in a tizzy as Eve turns mechanically in a dream-like sequence that explores her confinement. Interestingly, the hoop’s colors reflect the blues of Eve’s mug, symbolic of water and the delicate flowers painted on the ceramic.

The hoop suddenly drops to the ground and an immobile Eve stands exposed before Brandon, fragile and vulnerable. Can she escape a situation she clings to emotionally, one that produces masturbatory orgasms called up by the past?

Buddha and a MILF

Alone in the house, Eve gets the journal again and learns about the older woman.

A beautiful MILF and a classy woman
Photo by Jeff Koga

One of Brandon’s renters, Veronica (India Summer) offers sex in exchange for a break in her monthly payment. Though Brandon is unwilling to enter into an agreement she might use to turn their casual relationship into a more complicated one, Veronica is playing him. Cool, mature, in control, and suggestive of better ways to satisfy both of them, she isn’t going to extend anything beyond sex for rent. Veronica is as manipulative as Brandon.

Though their encounter is the usual stuff of oral, doggie, cowgirl, and mish, the scene is India Summer’s stage. She is elegant, graceful, and lovely in a way that endorses the MILF concept in porn. Her body is taut and ready for action. Best of all, India brings a bonus to the set, her dialogue delivery ranks with the best in the business. As an actress, she is supreme.

The scene emphasizes both bodies displayed equally through a distant focus intermixed with Eddie Powell’s frequently moving camera. He shoots sex through encircling the lovers, inviting the viewer in for a closer look. Brandon and Veronica’s scissors action, popular in girl/girl scenes, seems perfectly placed as the sequence wraps up.

Buddha is ready for the shoot after Jacky finishes. Photo by Jeff Koga

Buddha, face partially obscured by the light, waits while Jacky finishes.
Photo by Jeff Koga

Speaking of placement, two images dominate the scene where the sex happens. First, is the large gold face of Buddha. It’s a bright and alive wall decoration that adds a serene touch to the room. Next to the couch is the metal artwork, a reminder of the tangled lines that ensnare Brandon’s world. At one point during the doggie action, a vertical light blocks out half of Buddha’s face, leaving a phallic-like ear and the vulva shape of one eye on the screen. The images are not joined, of course, and speak of separation in Brandon’s sexual history.

Evident here is another motif Jacky St. James loves, candles. There are three, but they are not arranged in a triangle at this point. That occurs later, dropping a hint that Danny may be know more than Eve or Brandon suspect.

Keep these early images in mind, because the second sexual rendezvous is contradictory to the first. Eve and Danny will take the viewer into a muted, almost colorless and visually shaded room saturated in with a film noir flavor. But the mood is different there, the lovers are more somber with an embrace that spells survival.

Wetness

Two awkward scenes set the stage for the second half of the film. Danny’s job hunting is a continued failure and Brandon offers to help him out. In the kitchen Brandon pours coffee into Eve’s mug which he brought with him. She mentions it is hers.

“I know, you left it in my room,” he retorts.

Despite Brandon’s caustic comment, the sting of discovery does not move Eve. Why should it, she probably spent a few nights there in the past. Perhaps her neglect was deliberate and serves to embolden Brandon.

Time for another flashback, this time sex in the bathroom.

Flashback.
Photo by Jeff Koga

Later while Danny sleeps, Eve is distracted by guttural moaning and giggling downstairs. Investigating, she catches Brandon having sex with a nameless girl who is wearing Eve’s clothes.

Confronting him, Eve says, “Did you ever think about how that may make her feel, making her wear someone else’s clothes?”

Interesting, is she projecting her feelings into the slut he’s doing at that moment? Is this another fantasy?

Minimally affected by her remark, Brandon confesses he thinks about Eve all the time and asks why she was in his room earlier. Of course, he knows and reaches into her pants, feels her wetness, and walks away in triumph. Is he setting up something?

Brandon's hands, Eve's kiss. Photo by Jeff Koga

Wetness.
Photo by Jeff Koga

Jacky St. James certainly is because Eve must face her dual realities—Danny and Brandon—with an understanding that the game of emotional hide and seek cannot endure.

* * * * *

The second part of my review of The Temptation of Eve will be up soon.

Xander and Remy check the script.
Photo by Jeff Koga

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Tagged as Bailey Blue, Eddie Powell, gonzo porn, India Summer, Jacky St. James, New Sensations, Remy Lacroix, The Temptation of Eve, Tommy Pisto, Xander Corvus

April 5, 2014 · 11:02 am

Anna Lee, Part 3: Behind the Scenes

by Rich Moreland, April, 2014

This is a brief look at a part of the Behind the Scenes interviews in The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee.

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Prevalent in adult DVDs is a “Behind the Scenes” segment in which the camera makes impromptu visits with the cast. Fairly standard in its make-up, the backstage lens catches porn performers in their casual moments and is typically filled with small talk and clowning around.

On the Anna Lee set, director Jacky St. James chats informally with three of her stars about the film’s theme, repressed sexuality, examining the issue with a seriousness not usually found in BTS fare. The director, who also authored the script, offers insights into childhood upbringing as a factor in sexual attitudes.

Maddy O’Reilly

An A-list Spiegler girl, Maddy O’Reilly resides at the upper end of the adult industry food chain. Despite her true porn star status, Maddy confesses that her adolescence was similar to that of Anna’s character: sexually reticent physically, but intensely sexual mentally.

Because anything unforeseen could happen, Jacky asks Maddy if she had any concerns about being tied up and blindfolded. Maddy confesses she was definitely a “little nervous” and had “butterflies.” Her arousal level was sky high; she was “heated” and “sweaty” before the sequence was filmed. But, Maddy adds, getting anxious before shooting sex scenes is normal for her.

“Why are you shy and nervous about sex?” Jacky inquires.

“I’m from a very conservative background,” Maddy says. Her childhood was shaped by the religious community in which she lived. There were “churches on every corner,” Maddy remembers, and going to church “three times a week” was an expectation that defined the norm in her Bible-Belt hometown.

Jacky, Steven St. Croix, and Eddie surround a shy, conservative southern girl. Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

Jacky, Steven St. Croix, and Eddie surround a once shy, church-going girl.
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

Maddy’s mother taught her daughter that the simplest physical contact could be misinterpreted as unacceptably sexual and therefore verboten. “Hugging someone was considered loose and not classy,” Maddy says with an innocent smile that bespeaks a small town upbringing and emphasizes once again that church attendance beyond the usual Sunday services reinforced her rural culture’s moral ethos.

“Being hit so hard with a religious background,” Maddy says, caused her to escape the southern backwater atmosphere of her childhood. The result? Porn became Maddy’s personal “liberation.” Entering the adult film business allowed her “to break free” to do sexual things she thought about but didn’t “have the guts” to do in her adolescent years.

Life is “very vanilla back home,” Maddy comments matter-of-factly. “People don’t talk about sex, ever.”

Jacky remarks that being in a sexually driven business must have been a big change for Maddy considering her upbringing.

“Absolutely,” the North Carolina native says. “Because it was so conservative, I wanted to go the complete opposite of that!” Maddy O’Reilly laughs and throws out her arms for emphasis.

“My mom and I never talked about sex until I was performing in the business,” she exclaims. The situation is different today, Maddy’s mother now believes it’s fine to discuss the once forbidden with her daughter. One has to wonder if others in Maddy’s hometown might succumb to their unspoken curiosity and also enjoy some small talk with her.

The Cast of Anna Lee.
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

By the way, Maddy O’Reilly’s favorite thing in Anna Lee was being tied up, especially in the St. Andrew’s cross scene where she was “liberated by everyone in the cast.” Jacky asks about Anna’s assignment in which she let other people “worship” her and how that felt from an actress’s point of view. Emphasizing that her co-stars were some of her favorite performers in the industry, Maddy insists that “not knowing” what each was going to do to her was exciting. That’s a stimulating aspect of doing bondage work I’ve heard from other performers, though for the record, not everyone adjusts to the blindfold as easily as Maddy appears to do.

Maddy loved the hot wax but cautions interested viewers to not experiment with real candles. There are special products made for that type of BDSM play. And for the curious, the twenty-four-year-old did orgasm when Johnny Castle skillfully applied the vibrator to her.

Hot wax residue.
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

Finally, Maddy giggiles about breaking the handcuffs in her scene with Xander Corvus. Because she usually gets “very romancy roles,” the psychological mood and rough and tumble sex of Anna Lee was a welcome change for her.

Maddy and Xander in the final scene.
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

For the record, Anna Lee has forged Maddy O’Reilly into a star any feature director should take into account casting his or her next film. Hopefully her hometown North Carolinians won’t hold that against their native daughter!

Jessa Rhodes and Steven St. Croix

In their Behind the Scenes segment, Jessa Rhodes and Steven St. Croix discuss another aspect of Anna Lee, their scene of fantasy sex with an older man. In the film it’s the therapist, Gaige, and the young staffer, Elize. Jessa comments on the “daddy” fantasy it represents and she speaks from experience. That’s “my thing,” she says, though until recently she thought it was “so wrong.”

Steven, a veteran of years in the business, believes the “daddy” issue is “a sublet of the authority figure fantasy,” like a policeman or a teacher. Jessa agrees, “It’s definitely an authority thing for me.”

At this point, Steven offers that his co-star’s fantasy (fetish?) may be a result of her background. Jessa was raised in a very religious home.

“What religion?” Jacky St. James inquires.

“Christian,” the A-lister responds, but offers no information beyond that. Growing up in an environment similar to Maddy O’Reilly’s, Jessa’s exposure to adult material “on a scale of one to ten was in the negative zone. I was in a bubble,” she chuckles.

Joking about masturbating at age eleven, the twenty-one-year-old was unsure of what she had just done, anxieties typical of an adolescent discovering her sexuality. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked herself at the time. “I felt bad.”

Jessa Rhodes
Photo by Bill Knight

Recovery from doubt was swift and the native Oregonian entered the adult industry at nineteen, quickly discovering that it’s “a healthy thing to live out your fantasies.” Though Jessa adds that some people don’t want their “dark side” to be seen by others, she assures them it is alright if they do.

Of course, performers in the adult industry can act out their fantasies in a safe environment, an advantage a non-industry person may not have.

Jessa Rhodes eventually realized what most people in business quietly understand. She can separate her “sexual self” from her “day-to-day person” because “it’s ok to be those two different beings.”

It’s an affirmation I’ve heard from several performers. In fact, an adult actor’s life off the set is more mundane that most people think.

Some years ago, an industry PR person mentioned to me that the public often assumes porn stars have unending rounds of partying and sex, burning the proverbial candle at both ends. Not in her experience, she said. Their lives are very ordinary. When I first began writing in the business, a prominent performer let me in on the secret about blogs and other social media that are a vital part of a porn star’s lifeline to her fans. “Sometimes we just make this stuff up,” she said. It’s what people want to read and believe.

A director I know put it best. The set is just about all the sex industry people have the time and energy for, he said, explaining that most performers go home to a typically uneventful American household. Take care of day-to-day needs and go to bed early.

Tomorrow becomes, as a performer friend of mine said, “just another day at work.” Porn is a business, after all.

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Tagged as Behind the Scenes, Jacky St. James, Jessa Rhodes, Maddy O'Reilly, Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee, Steven St. Croix, The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee, Xander Corvus

April 3, 2014 · 5:56 pm

Anna Lee, Part 2: A Mind Equally as Sexy as Her Body

by Rich Moreland, April, 2014

This is the second part of my review of The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I don’t want to lose myself in someone else, I want to find myself in them.”

Anna Lee wonders if everyone wears a mask, hiding and fearing who they are. She craves sex and its emotional connections, but her body refuses to cooperate with her libido.

Receiving a vibrator to unfetter her sexual anxiety, Anna listens as Gaige explains that sexuality is often shamed by a distressed past. Don’t let the “baggage of your childhood stifle your adulthood,” he says. “You can create the kind of sexual identity that you want.”

He arranges a task for Anna that will presage her interactions with Emmett. Gaige introduces a smuttily dressed female staff member to Anna, who is asked to describe the girl. Responding to Gaige’s insistence that her “imagination is a powerful sexual tool,” Anna believes the young woman, Elize, to be “seductive and tempting.” Of course, the exercise persuades Anna to unconsciously project herself into Elize and serves as a transition to the next sex scene. In a fantasy sequence inside Anna’s mind, the staffers have a delightful frolic enhanced by Elize’s nicely tatted body.

Jessa Rhodes as Elize
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

When the pop shot lands on Elize’s tummy, Anna’s reverie passes and she turns her attention to Gaige who wants more insight into the image presented by his assistant.

“She never leaves him satisfied, she always gets what she wants,” Anna says.

In her imagination, does Anna secretly identify with Elize’s sluttiness?

Maybe. A smiling Elize verifies Anna’s intuitions. “You’re good at reading other people’s turn-ons, or maybe you’re talking about your own.”

Up to now those softly spoken, yet boldly confident, words might have borne some embarrassment. But change is happening and Anna is preparing her own sexual future.

Eyes Open and a Closed Heart

Anna checks in with her video diary. Her confidence is growing and she announces that her attitudes are shifting. She confesses Emmett scares her, though not in a bad way because she is attracted to him. Letting him know is the fault line that could doom everything, however. In reality, Anna is intimidated by her own desires because her shield, the little girl whose sexual needs were terrorized by an uptight mother, is melting away.

An unforeseen development blindsides everything. Anna and Emmett are thrown into a boiling cauldron of honesty brought on by a hot seat exercise.

This pivotal episode is not to be missed. The camera frames the chair (hot seat) from the therapist’s view. A position change occurs when the camera’s perspective moves behind the head of the person on display. In this location, the camera illustrates the hot seat’s overwhelming presence and the divide it creates between patient and therapist. It is a cinematographic master stroke that sends just the right message at just the right time.

The hot seat is a Gestalt therapeutic intervention and allows participants (usually in a group setting) to spontaneously assess the person sitting before them, no holds barred. Each participant in the exercise takes their turn in front of the others. The conversation is stripped of pretenses and exposed to a glaring frankness that can enlighten, heal, or harm. When Emmett evaluates Anna, what he says is meaningless, devoid of feeling, merely polite and shallow. Hoping to move this exercise forward, an exasperated Gaige sends Emmett to the chair to replace Anna.

What follows is the most dramatic scene in the film and Maddy O’Reilly’s finest moment as an actress. In a revealing dialogue she indicts Emmett.

“He fucks with his eyes open and his heart closed.”

If understatement can blow up a room, it happens right here because Anna’s heart is blooming like all the flowers on all the paintings in all the rooms of this film. Emmett crushes her with sarcasm and the viewer reacts with disgust. Superb. Adult film does not get better than this.

The Paddle

Emmett and Anna are now assigned a series of tasks together to to expose vulnerabilities and erase anxieties, the ingredients of sexual repression. Upon completion, trust will replace fear. Or, at least that’s the plan.

At first their connections are hesitant, but gradually they, like the flowers, begin to unfold with color and warmth. But the tender buds of their relationship are fragile. Anna is ready for sex, she wants to be spanked and penetrated while Emmett is suffering through a cosmic blizzard of dissonance between his inner feelings and his self-protective demeanor.

Three scenes are worth an extra look as the pair negotiates their improbable odyssey. In the first, they are told to write a message on each others’ bare backs. Anna chooses green paint, Emmett orange, a watered down red. She’s good to go, he’s still holding back though his resolve is weakening.

Another scene is cleverly shot and has too much meaning to recount here. Blindfolded, Anna and Emmett must stimulate their erotic senses and experience each other through taste. Between them is a small table; they are sitting in equally small chairs. Childlike and cooperative, Anna takes Emmett’s index finger in her mouth and sucks it with obvious double meaning. Of course, he can’t resist looking because he always has his eyes open, though he sees very little.

Her psyche is breaking through to Emmett, but time is now a factor. The gigantic clock on the shelf above them is headed for eight. Four hours left. Is it the terminal hour of midnight, or an awakening to a new day?

Anna's Hope? Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

Wasted Desire?
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

The last of the scenes mentioned here takes place in a room with three sides, an arena of sorts, empty of furniture. Anna and Emmett put their bodies before each other; they strip down, everything exposed. Anna’s observation? Emmett is well endowed.

Will it ever happen, she thinks, or is it wasted desire?

Notice the shelves on opposite sides of the central window. Two equally-sized bowls are paired on each shelf above the ever present prints of flowers in full bloom. Sexual openness is never more evident.

Later, Anna is surprised by a note left outside her door. It’s from Emmett and accompanies a gift he has given her. “This might come in handy when you get out of here,” it reads. She picks up a paddle, a little kinkiness that puts her fantasies one step closer to reality. But if they involve Emmett, likely they will evaporate into the misty abyss of her imagination.

In an abrupt turn of events, Emmett decides Variel and its techniques are not for him. The exercises and tasks did their job, of course, Emmett had to confront what he always knew: caring lays bare vulnerabilities that challenge trust. Anna reached into his soul and pulled out what he refused to accept about himself.

Leaving Anna a note, Emmett slips away.

Later, Anna is further stunned when Gaige explains it is also time for her to leave. Except for one last farewell experience, her therapy is over.

In preparing her for a task that will come with a bondage stage and the staff on hand, Gaige instructs Anna to knockdown that last barrier, “Allow yourself to be pleasured by another.”

The Final Task. Elize, Gaige, Anna, Whitney, and Michael.
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

Sensuality arrives with a St. Andrew’s cross to which Anna is bound. Blindfolded, she experiences hot wax, among other tastes and touches, a brief flogging, and the application of a vibrator. Appreciate Anna’s anxiety concerning trust in this scene. Strapped in position, her hands are clenched fists. Letting go is never easy.

As the staff participates in this last exercise, they surround and caress Anna bringing the Statue of Five to life, its intertwining arms and hearts symbolizing her triumph. With Whitney and Gaige her surrogate parents, the statue becomes Anna’s new family. Once again in their mixture of images, Jacky St. James and Eddie Powell produce an unforgettable moment. Originally Anna may have been the statue’s smallest person, but now she transitions into the largest, overwhelming the scene with arms stretched on the cross. Honored by those who care about her, Anna has grown up sensuous and sexy and ready to move on. This is Anna’s rebirth as it was foretold in her bedroom at Variel before she took her first step to enlightenment.

Treatment over. Time to go home.
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

Though Maddy O’Reilly has filmed for Kink.com in San Francisco and is familiar with the heavy duty BDSM scene, her character in Anna Lee is for viewers who want to see the fetish and its intimacy in bondage sequences that are less intimidating. Anyone thinking about some BDSM in their private lives will be intrigued by Maddy and Natalia Starr’s earlier performance as Marielle.

When Anna returns home, the statue goes with her to her bedroom, watching over, comforting, and encouraging her . . . for this is not the end of the story. To experience its crashing climax in which Anna realizes her mind is equally as sexy as her body, see it for yourself.

* * * * *

The Liberation of Anna Lee follows in the footsteps of the other Jacky St. James/Eddie Powell BDSM classic, The Submission of Emma Marx. Both films are part of the emerging Submission Pornography genre. Like Emma Marx, Anna Lee positions itself in the feminist pornography camp. Anna seeks her pleasures and acts on her own desires with affirmation thrown in along the way. Women who want to experiment with a BDSM component in their personal lives and on their own terms, should see both productions. For couples who enjoy a highly charged sexual atmosphere to go with their romance, the films are a must. For information on the DVDs go here.

The Cinematographer and the Director. Another Triumph.
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

A final comment is appropriate. Too often in porn, sex scenes are shot in a rote manner that kills off any interest beyond male self-pleasuring. With Eddie Powell’s inventive eye and deft camera movement, the viewer is engaged in sex as art, a key dividing line separating an anatomy lesson from the ageless expression of lovers consuming each other. Add Jacky St. James’ flair for selecting the right actors to fit her scripts and her ability to bring out the best in them, and the 2014 adult film awards have an undeniable candidate for their various honors.

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Tagged as BDSM, Eddie Powell, India Summer, Jacky St. James, Jessa Rhodes, Johnny Castle, Kink.com, Maddy O'Reilly, New Sensations, Steven St. Croix, The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee, Xander Corvus

April 2, 2014 · 8:53 am

Anna Lee, Part 1: Too Real for You, Huh?

by Rich Moreland, April, 2014

A story with character development is rare in a film business that cranks out thousands of shoots a year. That said, The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee is a truly an exception to traditional adult fare. With a bigger budget and more time, New Sensations might have turned this gem into an indie film marketable in legitimate Hollywood, sans the hardcore, of course. If this reviewer used stars to rate film, then Anna Lee would be a five-star knockout.

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Sexual hang-ups and the psychology of their destruction is the theme of a New Sensations romance titled The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee, another superb collaboration by writer/director, Jacky St. James, and cinematographer, Eddie Powell.

Maddy O’Reilly is Anna Lee, a young woman raised by a sexually inhibited single mother who insisted her adolescent daughter cultivate chastity. Budding into young womanhood, Anna has reached her exasperation point. Turning to Dr. Sabato, (a cameo appearance by Jacky St. James), Anna learns of a clinic, Variel House, whose unorthodox methods combat the emotional and sexual paralysis caused by repressed desires.

During her stay, Anna meets a fellow patient, Emmett (Xander Corvus) whose sarcasm and surliness conceal a fear of women as claimants to his erotic sensibilities. While Anna pursues emotional connections to her sexual awakening, Emmett is evasively headed in the opposite direction, preferring his fornications to be nameless and faceless.

India Summer as Whitney Savage
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

The clinic is run by a brother and sister team, Gaige and Whitney Savage, whose intuitive techniques sometimes reflect their surname. Played by Steven St. Croix and India Summer, the pair holds the narrative together with outstanding performances and solid dialogue delivery. The viewer homes in on their every word, following the logic of their treatment and the warmth with which they deliver both advice and action.

The Statue of Five

A St. James/Powell film exists on three levels, creating a sumptuous feast for a reviewer. First is the story which is closely linked to the second, its theme and motifs. Of course, the final level is the sex, filmed by Powell in a way that keeps the camera interacting with the lovers. More on that later.

St. James and Powell love to plant images and symbols, turning their films into artistic statements. The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee has a sentinel to watch over Anna’s quest and protect her spirit: a modern art statue of five figures positioned in a circle with arms intertwining each other. The figures are of different sizes with the smallest embraced by the others. When Anna checks into her room at the clinic, Whitney places the figure on the far right side of the shelf behind the bed. Four candles already occupy the shelf space away from the figure to the far left. Coincidentally, a night stand contains two smaller candles apart from the others, one with a capped top and the other an open one. Symbolic on two levels, these candle are male and female with emotions hidden and open.

The bedroom explains the film. Four people staff the clinic, Whitney and her brother, and their two helpers, Michael (Johnny Castle) and Elize (Jessa Rhodes). There are two patients in residence, Anna and Emmett, who are apart from them as shown in the arrangement of the two smaller candles. But, the Statue of Five is the key to the narrative because the staffers will sexually interact with each other on some level during Anna’s treatment, then welcome her into the circle with her final task.

The sex scenes are crafted to move with the narrative. Each one is carefully placed within the storyline and indicates where Anna and Emmett are psychologically in their treatment. Appreciate the flow of the scenes, especially Eddie Powell’s ability to move his lens around lovers as they kiss and caress, then pull away and float back when the penetration begins. The statue’s encircling intimacy metaphorically comes to life as the sex plays out on the screen.

For Anna, disentanglement from her past and her sexual rebirth is a work in progress, an opening up that intensifies as the story moves toward its conclusion. Sexual awakening appears in repeated images throughout the film. Various pictures of flowers in bloom, the stuff of Freud and Victorian dream analysis, dominate the rooms.

Pure Vanilla

Anna is informed that she must keep a video journal of her stay and is cautioned not to interact with Emmett. A fair warning, indeed, because he will eventually emerge as confusion and apprehension for her, a sexual time bomb that might derail her therapy.

Maddy O'Reilly and Xander Corvus Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

Trouble Ahead?
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

Anna’s treatment requires that she complete a series of tasks with Whitney presenting the first. It’s tactile, focused on the male anatomy, and a reminder of behavioral desensitization and relaxation techniques. This is Anna’s initial dip into the churning waters of her own sexual doubts, longings, and anxieties. Little wonder there is a small figure of Buddha on the table when she experiences maleness through her imagination. Stay calm and absorb the present.

The first sex scene emerges from this task and involves Whitney and Michael. Blindfolded, Anna kneels in front Michael and under Whitney’s guidance experiences his manhood with light touches. For the record, this part of the scene is shot with a sensitivity that is a welcome departure from much of today’s gonzo porn in which female talent eagerly open their mouths to stuff themselves, gagging on an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The sex scene is run-of-the-mill vanilla, but appropriate for where Anna is at the moment because she is instructed to relax and listen. India Summer’s mature sexual nature carries the scene beautifully; she and Johnny have chemistry. The shoot lines up the standard series of sex acts and ends with a pop that is not a facial. As is Eddie Powell’s habit, both bodies are framed equally and, in this case, he cuts into the action with darkened silhouetted images as Anna would see the lovers in her mind. It’s a warm-up for our repressed heroine.

Maddy O’Reilly
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

By the way, Maddy O’Reilly is perfectly cast as Anna. She begins with a school girl innocence, conservative in dress and manner and reticent about what is happening around her. Maddy is huggable with a girl-next-door prettiness and a hint of naiveté that is foreign to the normal expectations of a porn performer. As Anna, Maddy must open up as story progresses, take on a more exotic look until Anna’s acceptance of her body (as illustrated in a nude stairwell scene) completes her transformation. By the film’s conclusion, the viewer is joyously invested in Anna, the proof of a superior film and Maddy’s acting talent.

When Anna inadvertently meets Emmett, he sticks in her consciousness. Later when she is taught to self-pleasure (the best is the shower scene with lighting that accentuates Anna’s curves and Maddy O’Reilly’s eroticism), visions of him drive her mind’s eye. He will haunt Anna’s dreams, both day and night, forging a bond with her imagination that is unknown to Emmett until it’s many layers are peeled away in a deepening narrative.

Anna’s next task is to ditch her conservative appearance. A closet filled with party clothes and “do me” heels is at her service. In a fabulously shot meeting, Anna and Whitney face each other reflected in two oval mirrors on the wall beside them. Reality and image are combined in the manner of traditional cameos framed in small portraitures, gifts to lovers a century ago. Ann is told, “If you dress the part, you’ll feel the part.”

Anna Lee is now positioned to break from the past and escape the admonitions that shamed her childhood. Whitney encourages Anna to live the moment, like the frozen presence of cameos in the mirrors, and not over think and analyze every situation. Another quick peek into Anna’s bedroom reveals a hint of things to come and an image easily unnoticed at first. Over the shelf is a painting of woman with her nude back to the artist. A guidepost, she is leaning to the right in the direction of the Statue of Five.

Emmett
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

Anonymity

The narrative switches to Emmett. He talks of a girl he hires to provide him with kinky pleasures.

“Do you always pay for sex,” Whitney asks.

“Yeah, every time,” he responds with off-putting flippancy.

Emmett describes the hired girl as the camera cuts away to the masked Marielle (Natalia Starr), tied to a bed. Emmett says she’s a body (a prostitute?) to use with no identity and no feeling on his part.

Mariele awaits Emmett
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

Unseen, Anna slowly approaches the conversation, eavesdropping made easy because the door to the therapy room is open.

“She craves that stranger fuck just as much as I do,” Emmett says of Marielle, swearing that he will never get lost in another person. Has Anna often faced the same demon for a different reason, a psychological paralysis her body imposes upon her?

The sex between Emmett and Marielle is a visual romp for male domination fans. He rips away her fishnet outfit and they play rough and tumble with hard driving thrusts. Emmett’s detached expression during Marielle’s oral work sells the atmosphere of their mutual disinterest in each other. Though anal and a facial might seem appropriate here, any hint of further degradation is avoided. Not surprising, because Jacky St. James wants her films to be couples oriented and many women don’t get excited about anal penetration or cum stinging their eyes regardless of their partners’ attitudes.

Natalia Starr as Marielle
Photo Courtesy of Eddie Powell

Later when Marielle checks the envelope, she starts to remove her mask.

“Don’t do that,” he says.

“Why not?”

“I don’t need to see your face.”

“Too real for you, huh?” Marielle answers haughtily and leaves, dropping her mask in the hallway.

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Tagged as BDSM, bondage, Eddie Powell, India Summer, Jacky St. James, Jessa Rhodes, Johnny Castle, Maddy O'Reilly, New Sensatons, Steven St. Croix, The Sexual Liberation of Anna Lee, Xander Corvus

October 13, 2013 · 11:14 am

No Short Cuts

by Rich Moreland, October 2013

An earlier post on these pages introduced a newly emerging adult film category I’ve identified as “submission pornography.” The subgenre takes the growing interest in BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) and adds a storyline emphasizing romantic consensual elements. It’s Fifty Shades of Grey without the assumption that kinky people are psychologically damaged deviants who must be shown a better path to sex and love.

New Sensations’ The Submission of Emma Marx defines the intention of submission porn and is one of the best adult films I’ve seen. I evaluated the movie in three blog entries (August 2013) the reader can find under the title A Different Kind of Normal.

Here’s the tricky part with submission porn. Emma Marx’s writer and co-director Jacky St. James explains that balance is needed between BDSM as a “torture chamber” where “pain trumps the psychological” and the “connected relationships between doms and subs” that are more reciprocal and loving. Accomplishing this equilibrium is tough because a bondage film must include an effective mixture of fantasy and reality that doesn’t come across as a Marquis de Sade short story.

On the other hand, how does a writer/director authenticate bondage scenes and avoid the fluff and silliness that was the industry standard decades ago? I asked Jacky what she did to verify that Emma’s character was accurately presented.

Before getting to specifics she wanted to make a point. Jacky insisted that new ways of looking at BDSM are giving women the “opportunity to spread our wings.” There is little doubt today that a female porn audience is leaving the patriarchal nest and books like Fifty Shades have moved women forward at light speed. That alone is minimizing pain and the medieval rack.

A Thoughtful Moment from the Director’s Chair
Photo Courtesy of Jacky St. James

And it created Emma.

Jacky then emphasized two concerns she considered most important in preparing to bring her vision from the writer’s pen to a well-produced DVD.

Personally unfamiliar with the BDSM scene, Jacky went to message boards within the kink community. She discovered that kinky people think BDSM films tend to be “extreme and violent” in portraying what bondage enthusiasts love so much. There is “little consideration” for describing “the psychological aspects” of what turns people on to that type of sexual relationship, she says. At that moment Jacky decided an accurate picture of one particular view of kinkiness would become her mission in writing Emma Marx.

Once that goal was established, Jacky moved to her second issue.

“Kinky somehow implies that it’s different than the norm or not standard practice,” Jacky says. “All sex should be normal provided it’s legal and between consenting adults.” Emma Marx clearly reveals that kinky has several definitions of normal.

A Penny for Success

Casting Penny Pax, a seasoned BDSM performer, in the lead role made Emma Marx one of the best films of 2013. “I worked with Penny on getting her to go to those dark emotional places,” Jacky mentions, and the petite twenty-something responded in spades. Penny’s energy for the type of sex she relishes (she has shot on several occasions at Kink.com) takes Emma Marx up several notches.

The script was constructed to induce Penny to animate her persona as a BDSM devotee. Jacky presented Emma’s growth in three sex scenes that highlight Penny’s talents. The first entailed Emma understanding what surrender means; the second was “an exploration” into bondage and discipline; and the third was her discovery that a BDSM relationship can bring sexual freedom and emotional liberation.

Involved in the planning process was the question of how to handle the film’s anal scene because Emma is persuaded to experiment with something she doesn’t thinks she wants. A woman-friendly point of view, albeit in a BDSM atmosphere, was the sought after benchmark. Jacky vehemently opposed a rough and violent act that focused on “crazy, insane thrusting” so common in anal gonzo. She insisted that the script develop an episode that is “less intimidating and more connected,” a kind of “romantic anal.” In short, it’s anal sex as a female viewer would experience it.

Throughout the filming Penny Pax was BDSM gold. Penny “was gung-ho about some of the more painful montage scenes we shot,” Jacky said, pointing out the clothespins on her breasts as an example. Jacky gave Penny, who markets herself as “Lil’ Miss Masochist,” the freedom to decide what she was “game to do” and what she preferred to avoid. That is real life BDSM.

Penny and Emma
Photo Courtesy of Adult Video News

Jacky St. James is the perfect script writer for submission porn. She likes the taboo element of pain and pleasure, but she wants to move it away from a Fifty Shades “weak female protagonist” who is consumed with “winning over the heart of a man as opposed to a fearless journey into the depths of her own sexuality.” And of course, the storyline must avoid gratuitous pain popular in some male-oriented entertainment.

Emma Marx’s timing is perfect. The Fifty Shades momentum is “mainstreaming BDSM,” Jacky believes. Women previously confined by vanilla definitions of sex are visiting female-friendly storefronts like Good Vibrations and attending Tupperware type parties to buy sex toys which now include ball gags, floggers, and leather restraints. Pornographers are poised to market their video products to these same women, cultivating the further growth of submission porn.

Absolutely Feminist

Jacky St. James is a feminist who believes that her spin on feminism is “critical to the adult genre.” Putting women in the XXX driver’s seat is her goal. Composing scripts, directing, and producing can be profitably forged from a female viewpoint. Despite old sex-negative feminists who have circumscribed female sexuality as docile and soft, Jacky assures us that a woman’s desires can be as hardcore as a man’s. Women don’t want to be limited by the overly romantic eroticism of decades ago that was quickly pigeon-holed as sex as a woman sees it.

Female porn, however, is not monolithic. Though approaches to the carnal may differ among feminist filmmakers, Jacky reinforces one important point. Women directors have more of an “equal focus on both sexes” when shooting the sex. With a few exceptions, feminist directors are going to minimize the gonzo aspects of cinematography. As Jacky puts it, there’s more to porn than “simply a woman and a penis.”

“The films I direct and write are absolutely feminist,” Jacky explains. That means finding performers who exude the feminist ideal appropriate for female characters Jacky describes as “the strongest, most independent” women she can create. Jacky’s women aren’t “solely defined by their relationships with men, but by their own values and desires.”

Likewise New Sensation male actors are more that buffed bodies behind their engorged masculinity. Jacky wants them to have feelings and personality and, of course, an intellect. They must be able to handle the “mental aspects of sexuality.” Jacky explains that her idea of good filmed sex means that both sexes must understand what sensuality means. It’s “a thought” and “a look,” part of the foreplay element that often distinguishes feminist filming.

Casting for Jacky St. James can be daunting because of the standards she demands. “I look for talented, well-adjusted people with great personalities,” she says. Shooting for the formally trained actress and director means that skill trumps a well-recognized porn name. Jacky’s hires must have a “level of intuition” for the character they are portraying and must be “in tune” emotionally with themselves and others.” The job is more than just reading a few lines. Performers are best suited for a New Sensations film if they carry the “passion and desire” to give their best. Jacky has the experience to encourage and persuade performers to come through with flying colors if they are willing and driven to do so.

Getting it Right Takes Time
Photo Courtesy of Jacky St. James

A native of the Washington D.C. metro area, Jacky studied theater in college graduating with honors, drama degree in hand. For her the stage play is “a living and breathing human experience,” an art form like no other. One of her favorite dramatists she mentioned in our interview is Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian playwright known for his social commentary. A good training ground for Jacky, where else is the political and social tweaked more than in porn?

In 2004 Jacky migrated to Southern California in search of new adventures. Six years later she “stumbled across a career in porn.” Adult film consumers have benefited since.

Powerful Moments

How important is a good performance to Jacky St. James? In a business that spends most of its filming budget on talent, Jacky insists on getting it right. She’s been called a slave driver, humorously of course, for her perfectionism. “If it takes twenty to get a scene right, then I’ll shoot twenty takes. There are no short cuts,” she declares.

A New Sensation’s production may require eighteen hour days, Jacky says, and often filming can consume a handful of days. That means her actors must have an “incredible work ethic.”

Like Penny Pax.

She was a “rewarding experience” for Jacky who admits she has “always connected” with Penny because the five foot dynamo is “a naturally open person.” Reaching “those places inside of her” are keystones that holds the Emma Marx narrative together. Jacky summarizes the film best when she says of Penny, she is “able to bring those powerful moments to life.”

No doubt. Penny Pax and New Sensations have one of the best porn films of all time in this Jacky St. James narrative.

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August 12, 2013 · 9:23 am

A Different Kind of Normal: Part Three

by Rich Moreland, August, 2013

This is the final installment of my review of The Submission of Emma Marx. The film is wrapped in many layers, among them an overwhelming feminist statement.

Part of Her Training Photo courtesy of Jeff Koga

Are We Normal?
Photo courtesy of Jeff Koga

A Deliberate Process

“We’re not like normal people.”

Like women who long to start that conversation with lovers who seem distant, Emma Marx voices her doubts to the man who is refining her kinks.

Not that her BDSM education is for naught. Emma is learning the rules and William is a patient instructor.

Emma’s intitiation into bondage is tastefully handled by directors Jacky St. James and Eddie Powell. BDSMers who prefer total nudity with their “training films” will be disappointed with this part of the movie because Emma is being “broken in” slowly and with care. It’s not about displaying her body; she has deeper issues with her psychological barriers.

One provocative image occurs at this juncture in the film. As part of her training, Emma, clothed in a red dress, is taught to kneel inside the front door of William’s house with hands behind her back. Later in the story’s most dramatic moment, this submissive shot is re-visited with new purpose.

William directs all aspects of her education and woven into the harsher scenes of flogging are shots of him massaging her (BDSMers call it “aftercare’) and a brief shower episode artistically framed at a distance through the glass enclosed stall. She is on her knees cleansing him.

Likewise, preparing her for anal is a deliberate, loving process. In feminist-oriented pornography, anal sex is generally avoided because most women don’t like it and don’t care to see it. Emma Marx has another message: anal is also a kink once considered an exclusive male fantasy. Over the last two decades, it’s become a standard in adult productions and has gained wider acceptance among female viewers.

Like the protagonist in The Story of O, Emma Marx is moved gradually into anal. With William’s help, she applies the butt plugs she received as a gift to increase her physical capacity to accommodate him. When the anal scene arrives, it is without foreplay. No oral, just insertion and rhythm with lots of tenderness.

The directors’ approach abandons formulaic gonzo porn’s oft used ATM (ass-to-mouth), a questionable sexual behavior for health reasons. Mixing oral and anal randomly and without care sends the wrong message. Sex should be fun, not risky.

By the way, the scene is pure Penny Pax. Though as Emma she must come across as reluctant to experiment with anal, Penny is no stranger to it. For female viewers, St. James and Powell communicate that with preparation, anal is enjoyable. As for Penny, her passion and ecstasy is hinted in her voice and her face, but the flushing around her shoulders and chest reveal her authentic arousal.

Lying Awake at Night

In the office scene that accelerates the movie’s pace, Emma voices her fears that their relationship is not normal. William’s frustration reaches the breaking point. Knowing she is resistant to her true feelings and cannot act on her own to leave him, he unties her, gets her to her feet, and forces her down the stairs.

Submissively at his Desk
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Koga

The action tumbles down the steps and speaks for Emma’s world as it is crumbling. She is driven by her attraction to William and not the BDSM, denying what she feels inside. Dominated by her need for society’s approval, Emma struggles with the word “normal,” not yet understanding what he already knows. Normal has various meanings and is not always a reflection of what everyone tacitly agrees it should be.

William knows he has failed and slashes back at her doubts, telling Emma that continuing together is no good. He’s seen this show before. “You’ll lie awake at night, wondering if something is wrong with us because we’re different,” he shouts.

Emma Marx explores the dilemma many BDSMers face. What is the true passion, the person or the kink? In fact, kinksters sometimes will drop vanilla lovers because the fetish is a part of who they are and cannot be abandoned. This is Emma’s conflict. Is it William she wants and is she just playing along, like Anastasia Steele in Fifty Shades of Grey, to keep her lover, try to understand him, and remove her own kinks from the equation? Or, is the BDSM beginning to take hold inside her like O in The Story of O who can change lovers but keeps her whippings? And if it becomes strong enough, will Emma someday replace William with a tougher dominant, an act of independence?

Emma is astonished and fearful. At the foot of the stairs she asks William to punish her for her doubts. She removes his belt and hands it to him. It’s a desperate act of bravado to forestall rejection. He complies, expressing his anger. But it’s brutality, not pleasure, and she quickly safewords with “red.” Their relationship is over. He can’t go on with her; she doesn’t get it.

In this scene, like the paddle in her office disciple earlier, the belt is not shown striking Emma because meaning is not tied up in the physicality of the punishment. It’s about bridging a mental abyss; the camera lets her facial expressions and the sounds of the instrument carry the action. Once again, Penny Pax is superlative as Emma. She is a treasure in adult film.

* * * * *

Emma resigns her position with William Frederick’s company and in a well-conceived overhead shot they pass on the stairs: she descending; he ascending. He is going to the privacy of his mountain top; she’s headed out to find another job.

Thoughts of What Could Be
Photo courtesy of New Sensations

Time is laboring on, the days pass. Working to pull off a successful wedding for Nadia, Emma is haunted by her thoughts of William.

Images of her efforts to forget float across the screen. In one, she sits on her bed, holding a butt plug as her mind drifts.

“Will happiness always elude me?” she says in a voice over.

On her big day, Nadia talks happiness and suggests that it lies within, confirming the inescapable Emma cannot shake. She has only one choice.

Happiness in a Vanilla Wedding Photo courtesy of New Sensations

Happiness is a Vanilla Wedding for Nadia
Photo courtesy of New Sensations

Penance and Purification

Emma must yield to her desires and return to the safety of William Frederick’s house, his galaxy of BDSM delights circling the Sun of acceptance.

Emma clarifies for herself what she has always known: she is not comfortable in her sister’s vanilla world. She now accepts that finding someone who shares her perversions “for a different kind of normal” defines happiness for what it is: universally sought and individually discovered.

But purification must come first and the final scene in its entirety does exactly that with an initial self-imposed ritual of penance. Emma returns to William, enters his front door and submissively falls to her knees with hands behind her as she was previously taught. She will wait an eternity if need be. Beside the door on the right is the sanctuary’s sentinel, the mirror and the plants repositioned now so that the stalks are leaning in unison, one above the other, toward Emma.

William sees her from the top of the stairs where he had previously bound and flogged her, but does not come to her. Not yet.

Hours later he descends, scoops up a sleeping Emma and carries her to the mountain top.

The music is spiritual and Handelesque.

All for her Pleasure
Photo courtesy of New Sensations

Binding her spread-eagled to the bed, William welcomes her home in a sex scene that is focused entirely on her. He blindfolds her, gives her earplugs with music, and covers her body with sensation: hot wax, ice, and lots of oral.

Emma’s feet clench forcefully, she curls her toes and grasps the bed covers with her hands as if trying to rip an unseen life force from the fabric and absorb it into herself. Her cries and moans punctuate the energy of a sex scene that is a visual experience.

Emma becomes worthy in her own eyes and a disciple-like vision for William.

Though BDSMers might challenge the use of perversions to describe their kink, they surely will agree with the film’s belief that normality is in the eye of the beholder. However, Emma Marx delivers another message of what it means to be normal, the emerging power of the independent woman—a seeming contradiction to the BDSM submissive.

As the film closes on a sunny day, Emma receives a message from William to come to his house for another round of bondage play. Smiling, she is delighted and secure that she is now in a different normal. The moment is significant for what it does not tell the viewer. Emma Marx is not married and is not living with William. At this point, at least, she is unwilling to embrace her sister’s interpretation of normal. She remains her whole self, an undeniable feminist statement.

* * * * *

No adult film is perfect because sex, and in this case an accompanying fetish, has no standard definition of how it should be presented. But The Submission of Emma Marx is pretty darn close. I could go over a short list of things I would have liked to have seen: at least one internal pop shot because most women viewers don’t care for facials (Emma gets a partial one at the end) and some more time devoted to BDSM training with total nudity to please the bondage and discipline crowd. But this is just quibbling.

Most important, I urge New Sensations to consider an Emma Marx series, though corralling Penny Pax and Richie Calhoun for another film is probably easier suggested than done.

Emma Marx is about the liberation of a woman and her soul accomplished through the seeming contradiction of consensual BDSM. As I pointed out previously, its intensity, drama, and pure emotion coupled with discipline and punishment makes this film a leader in the submission porn genre. It has a strong cast and one of porn’s best players, Penny Pax, a BDSM veteran who can act and be carried away with authentic orgasms. She communicates directly with the audience, persuading the viewer to step into the scene and sweep her up. I found myself concentrating on her every nuance, especially her eyes that seem to speak directly the viewer. That’s something rarely found in the commercialism of the porn industry that insists producers quickly get on with the next project.

The Submission of Emma Marx is art and sex combined into a narrative that moves the viewer. But what is the film really saying? Early in the story Emma tells William with a touch of haughtiness, “I may look submissive, but I can assure you I’m not.” Perhaps Emma Marx, who later admits that “deep down” in her “demented mind” she actually likes her punishments, lets us know that love is many layered with confounding emotions darting among our fantasies.

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August 10, 2013 · 1:51 pm

A Different Kind of Normal: Part Two

by Rich Moreland, August, 2013

This is the second installment of my review of The Submission of Emma Marx, a well-crafted story from Jacky St. James and beautifully filmed by Eddie Powell.

Penny Pax as Emma Marx
Photo courtesy of New Sensations

Sit!

Emma now meets William Frederick on his own turf. He invites her into his home for dinner. Though visiting Frederick had become an “obsession,” the revelation of its purpose is more than Emma anticipated. He confronts her with a D/s (dominant/submissive) contract.

Though she is destined to cave to his demands, Emma is no fool. She will eventually use her reticence to sign the document as a negotiation tactic to get a job with his company, showing him a strength that enhances her character. But we jump ahead in the story here, so a quick backtrack is in order.

Arriving at his home, Emma lets herself in as she was instructed to do. She wears thigh-high stockings and heels as he requested. Emma pauses in front of a large mirror and idly wastes a quick moment fixing her hair. Only her head and shoulders are reflected in the lower right of the massive glass, very small in comparison with its total size and a statement of her current position in the narrative.

However, a closer look reveals a powerful message. Two plants, barren stalks really, in a vase on the table in front of the mirror are, like Emma, minimized by the glass. The one on the right is taller and slightly bent over the shorter one. The smaller plant has two stems projecting toward the taller one like upraised arms. On the end of each stem is a portion that is bent downward in a begging position like a dog on its hind legs ready for a treat. Later when Frederick enters the dining room and Emma gets up from her seat to greet him. He walks by her, pushes her slightly back into her chair with the command, “sit.”

Rarely is such creativity found in adult film.

* * * * *

The dining room sex scene, the first of three between Emma and Frederick in the film, has a special moment. Emma, who rises to leave when she realizes she cannot accommodate William Frederick’s “perverse and shocking” kinks, is frozen in her tracks by his demand to know why she came tonight. He walks over and pulls up her dress to check on the stockings, revealing Emma’s true intentions because she was under no obligation to follow his instructions. Caught like a child in a fib, she is psychologically out maneuvered.

Bending to His Will
Photo courtesy of New Sensations

Her defenses are gone. As her face is enveloped in a confounding look of submission, desire, and desperation, Emma says with miserable weakness, “I like being in control.” But it’s futile now. She is told to disrobe and pleasure herself, this time shamelessly in a replay of the immature sexuality she hid in the darkness of her bedroom. Somehow, he knows her secret and will patiently use the rest of the film to chip away at her barriers.

William Frederick is the conductor of an orchestra that is the many layers of Emma Marx. The scene is dictated by his gentle and firm commands and her unquestioning obedience. She kneels in front of him and as ordered, places her hands behind her back as a sign of compliance, daring not to jump ahead of his baton. Softly instructing her how to use her mouth, Frederick gently holds her hair to control her rhythm.

Emma’s entire personhood is at his feet, bending to his will and tasting a desire she never knew she possessed or a new kind of love she never knew she wanted. When the pop shot arrives, Emma’s fawning eyes gaze up at Frederick while her mouth remains agape. Though formulaic in its conclusion, the scene is puppy play at its sexiest, only a collar and leash are absent.

The intensity of this scene is one of the best this reviewer has ever encountered in adult film. It is highly emotional and delivered with clarity. A haunting blend of pop and classical music flows through the sexual interplay, metaphorically reflecting Emma’s emotional turmoil and joy.

When she is orally pleasured, Emma’s fantasies suddenly become reality. In the scene’s most powerful moment, Emma is sitting open legged on the table replacing of her lover’s dinner plate. The table is long and decorated with two candles and a bottle of wine, phallic symbols for the three sexual episodes between Emma and William. The camera moves away to show that her chair to the far left is empty. Indeed, she has moved from her world into his. From now on, it will become a rocky process of refining the perversions she finds most arousing into a fresh look at what it means to be normal.

* * * * *

Foreplay for women does not always immediately precede their sexual encounters. Jacky St. James flavors Emma’s story with just such a set up that reveals how powerful the mind is in sexual desire.

In His Office
Photo Courtesy of New Sensations

Emma is a work in Frederick’s office. A buzzing sound distracts the woman next to her who becomes uncomfortable and leaves. Knowing that self-pleasuring in the office via his orders is more than she can take, Emma removes the small vibrator in protest. Such an action cannot go unpunished; she is called into the boss’s office. Disgusted with her disobedience, Frederick paddles her. Striking the flesh is not shown, but the sound is deafeningly sharp. Emma’s blow by blow grimaces tell the story, emphasizing the erotic power of BDSM. In a key moment later in the film, she will admit that “deep down” in her “demented mind” she liked it.

Not Knowing

Emma becomes immersed in Frederick’s lifestyle, but remains at a distance. She still lives with her sister, visiting him on weekends. She is getting a BDSM education and in a voice over tells the viewer that she gets off on not knowing what will come next.

Performers who shoot at Kink.com have told me that “not knowing” is part of the thrill of filming there. Dark and uncertain anticipation in a controlled environment is the excitement of BDSM. For Emma Marx, whose name aptly describes her position in their D/s relationship (the toughest submissives like the “marks” of their sexual play as badges of honor), her trust in Frederick is now the heart of their relationship.

To prepare her for her first weekend of training, Emma receives a box at work with instructions. In it is a collection of different sized butt plugs. The message is clear. Though Frederick tells her that nothing will happen between them unless she gives the okay, he does insist she will “beg” for anal play eventually. Her voice over says she can’t believe she will beg for something she doesn’t want, but she concedes that their relationship is “intoxicating.” Sex with him is “the ultimate mindfuck,” Emma admits, swirling in anticipation long before the actual sex takes place.

Little does she know.

When Emma goes upstairs to meet William, she walks past her future and its pleasures hanging on a bookshelf—whips and handcuffs.

She never notices them.

The final installment of this review is at hand. Stay tuned.

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Tag Archives: Jacky St. James

A Single Mirror: Torn, Part 2

Moving to a Younger Lover: Torn, Part 1

Gnawing at the Heart: The Temptation of Eve, Part Two

Containment: The Temptation of Eve, Part One

Anna Lee, Part 3: Behind the Scenes

Anna Lee, Part 2: A Mind Equally as Sexy as Her Body

Anna Lee, Part 1: Too Real for You, Huh?

No Short Cuts

A Different Kind of Normal: Part Three

A Different Kind of Normal: Part Two

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