Thursday, November 5, 2009

Surrealistic Porno

On a lighter note, over at the haunt of my favorite art blogger, Dennis Cooper, guest blogger Tomáš Svec presents his list of 10 Best Surreal Fantastic Porn Movies. Cafe Flesh and beyond from an era when "art film" still had racy connotations.

On a side note, anybody have any idea whatever happened to Rinse Dream/Steven Sayadian? He seems to have disappeared from the face of both porn and art cinema in 1993 and hasn't been heard from since.

6 comments:

  1. Sorry I haven't been around the past few days. Work and all. Gets in the way of many of my hobbies.

    I'm not a big fan of surrealistic porn overall because I think it's counterproductive to the mission. Anything that calls too much attention to the fact that we're viewing a video is a distraction from the process by which it arouses us. I don't even like using a second camera when i shoot because I think cutting between angles violates my "single voyeur POV" dogma. I like to think of the camera as a stand-in for an audience of invisible voyeurs who can come close to the action or stand back from it, viewing it from any distance at any angle they choose, unnoticed by the players.

    That said, there are exceptions to my "no tricks" rule. I loved Andrew Blake's early pix, Nightdreams and House of Dreams, which were cleanly shot but organized in a very surreal way. His conventional narrative features that made him famous during the '90s are more accessible, but he's gone back to shooting the visions in his head and even if others can't always follow along, I think this style is more authentic for him.

    Of course, I also liked Behind the Green Door, a picture you couldn't even make today unless you want to be cell-mates with Rob Black, but I still think it may be the greatest porn movie of all time. It's got a linear narrative of sorts, but the atmosphere is certainly surreal.

    On the other hand, when I feel there's a strained attempt at artiness by the director, I'm outta there. Sad to say, much as I like him personally, I think most of Greg Dark's work falls into that category.

    Early Michael Ninn, such as Latex and Sex, I think are splendid in all respects, though he hasn't been able to match them since, but they really rocked on first viewing. In fact, Blake brought the trailer for Latex over to my place a couple of months before it came out and promised it would ruin my day. About two minutes in, I understood what he meant. Clearly, Ninn at that stage was a new contender to be reckoned with.

    I do know a little something about Steve Sayadian's post-porn career. He became a professional film and video editor and gradually moved out of the porn orbit altogether. Last I heard, he had moved to Austin, TX and was practicing his trade there. A lovely individual, he was very generous with his advice when I was first learning to direct. I'd love to see the pictures he'd make with the freedom and resources avialable today, but I respect his decision to start over doing something else.

    In retrospect, I think it was a wise one.

    Bottom line - solarization, cross-cutting, slow-mo and any other visual effect that breaks my concentration on the heat of the moment may be good for art-house play, but I think these things are better in demo reels than in porn.

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  2. I know what you mean in the case of films like Cafe Flesh, which ultimately end up being more of a cult/art film than an effective porno. Genre-wise, I'd actually put it in almost more with a film like Liquid Sky than with 80s porn.

    Andrew Blake is interesting, but I have a hard time getting into it as porn. Basically, I think his real aesthetic is still photography, and his videos are basically glorified erotic photography in a lot of ways. Not that there's anything wrong with erotic photography, of course, and I actually really like having that overall "look" in porn, but if I'm looking at a porn movie rather than porn photos, I'm looking for the definite element of action, not just shifting poses. I did kind of like his early stuff, though, especially since I'm fan of Zara Whites, one of his main stars at the time.

    Blake definitely has his audience, though – I'm told he's actually one of the most popular porn directors for a female audience. Which actually undermines the recent dogma that most women really want to see "realistic" "non-objectified" sex, women with "real" bodies, etc, something Andrew Blake is the total opposite of. Many women do want that, of course, but there's a definite subset that are into glamour for its own sake.

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  3. Stephen Sayadian doesn't live in Texas and never has worked there. He's directed theater all over Europe using any numbers of pseudonyms. He's the definitive recluse and avoids all
    publicity.Mr. Green was right about one thing. Stephen is indeed a lovely man.

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  4. I know Stephen Sayadian...in fact I live with him. He is working on an exciting new project which will debut in the next year or two. He is not living in Austin but he is living purposely under the radar. Keeps your eyes and ears open for follow up information....

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  5. By the way, Nightdreams was written & directed by Stephen Sayadian.

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  6. Anonymous,

    I stand corrected on both counts, and happily so. Must have been having a senior moment when I inaccurately attributed Nightdreams, which is most distinctively Stephen's work, as opposed to Night Trips, which is most distinctively Blake's.

    Glad to know that Steve has been keeping busy and look forward to his new project, whatever it may be.

    Do give him my best. It's been a long time, but during our brief association I learned some valuable things from him that are still relevant to the work I do now. He was extremely generous about sharing his expertise, a rare quality in any artist.

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