Hey chaps and chappettes. I've been meaning to properly sample Pierre Woodman's work for some time now, mainly because I like his locations and production values and his cute and silly attempts at feature plot. However, besides the PYRAMID, what is the stuff worth buying (in Sydney, we can't really rent porn, remember), and how much of it is anal intensive? (I get bored with just vaginal sex.)
THE COLLECTOR looks good, but the rest looks suss. His Hustler stuff looks avoidable. Reading the threads here has educated me, but I thought I'd ask the specific question and see what you all say.
Madness one and two are good .I havn't seen them in a while but there are some nice out door scene's in them , in particular in the first film with Judith Fox and in the second film with Agnes
The little I've seen of Woodman has been all very anal intensive, so I don't think I'd worry about that. From the little I've seen of it I'd probably recommend Kruger Park. I'm normally fairly disappointed with Woodman's big productions because he doesn't care to translate the entire movie (be it with subtitles or dubbing). Instead they just have little summaries in whatever language you'd like, leaving me feeling like I'm only getting a fraction of the movie.
I like his work for Private, some of my favorites are Brazilian Snake 1&2 (filmed in beautiful locations in South America with lots of hot girls and a murder suspense story in the background) Fatal Orchid 1&2 (with the lovely Katja Kean), Fugitive 1&2, Gigolo 1&2, Riviera 1-3, Sweet Baby 1&2 (Nikki Anderson is red hot in this one) and maybe the best trilogy is The Tower 1-3 (Think Sliver with hardcore nasty sex in it)
Generally, if you like any early Woodman you'll like all early Woodman. His style changed when he went over to Hustler, but while with Private he was pretty consistant. His features were all similar, exotic sets, beautiful girls, lots of anal, etc etc. If you liked the Pyramid series also try the Tatiana 1-3, Fatal Orchid 1-2, That's Life 1-2, Madness 1-2, Riviera 1-3 and Kruger Park.
I wish I could suggest something but Woodman has never been my idea of porno. If you like all the costumes and pretty girls, I suppose the Pyramid series is as good as any of them, but the editing is too choppy and the sex for me is rather cold, clinical and detached. But I think the value system is different for his stuff. Give me a standard issue RLD any day, it's about 47 times more strokable. I seem to recall that the "Gigolo" movies were good for this sort of porn. But the only stuff of his I would bother with would be to see a particular actress -- like a Nikki Anderson -- at an early stage of her career.
{sorry I know I swore off Woodman-bashing a long time ago ... everyone likes what they like, but for this sorta thing I'll take Andrew Blake}
The Shayse Manhattan scene in Tower 1 is in my top ten scenes of all time. Can't say why, it just really gets me. Superhot french fuckbitch, fucking her a-hole boss to save her job. It doesn't get much better than that.
Gigolo has that crazy scene with Gabrielle Scream in it. Madness is nice. I've got both Fugitives but right now I can't remember anything truly stellar from those.
Shameless promotion perhaps, but we would recommend 'Manipulation' , which will be our our biggest production yet with Woodman. It's coming out on May 4th.
I'd say that Woodman's best work wasn't done either for Private or Hustler. There was a moment when Woodman stopped being a Private exclusive and also shot a few movies for a French company called Blue One. Woodman’s biggest effort in my opinion came at that period. It is called Safe Sex.
I don't like Woodman much. I don't really know what to think about him. I heard of various sources that he didn't behave very honnestly to some girls. Maybe it’s because he considers that sex is something very usual and natural, that having sex even in front of a camera is not such a big thing, so you don’t need to take much care of following too many rules of conduct. Maybe he’s some kind of sex-crazed guy who doesn’t care much about procedures. I don’t know, but anyway he seems to me a little borderline sometimes. On the other hand, he is also a bit narcissistic. I remember seeing him once in a report, saying stuff like “Yeah, that very much reminds me of my own style!”. Come on Woodman, you’re no Andrew Blake! All you have done is shooting a massive number of girls on exotic beaches or in your average hotel room. When he says “I’m sure not making movies for the lone stroker, but with the intent of appealing to couples.”, it makes me want to laugh. Women are continuously insulted in his movies, and for long he has kept on hiring some really poor looking male talent. Get real! Alain Deloin is not the French equivalent of Marc Davis. He also argues that he knows special body touching techniques that enable him to make even unexperienced personnel willing to perform anal, whereas the key to this ability seems much more prosaic. So all in all I’ve not read, seen or heard anything about Woodman that lead me to think that he is a wonderful person.
Anyway, back to Safe Sex. Don’t be scared by the title, it’s probably Woodman’s best title anyway. To start his stint with Blue One, Woodman came to Francis Mischkind (boss of Blue One) with the idea of making a film that would contribute to the struggle against AIDS. The film would cost a bit more than your average porn film, and the price difference would go to a medical funds against STD. At least that’s what he said, along with the fact that he did interviews with several medical specialists in order to prepare the movie. Now to make up for the price difference, Woodman would be offering an especially long movie to the viewer, even by Woodman’s standard. No feature split over two tapes here, like it happened with the Swedes, here you’re treated with a 3-hour/17-girl movie all in one piece. I consider Woodman as a rather lame director, especially when you consider his background as a photographer for a few mainstream women’s magazines. Even in his blockbuster The Gigolo, there were some focus problems. Also, most of his features are just painful remakes of Hollywood hits (The Tower, Indecency). Those nonetheless remain the best movies he has directed technically. Some others, like Madness for instance, where just half feature, half gonzo crap shot without much lighting or serious direction, alternating cliche landscapes with the sight of dull hotel rooms.
But Safe Sex remains quite well directed and even offers a few creative visual efforts (to call them CGI would still be going a bit far). The shots are good, the picture is bright, the scenes are well lit. The camera is stable, and it’s less striking than in other Woodman works that it is hand-carried. It’s not quite like the best US features for sure, but it stays acceptable and that style fits reasonably well the atmosphere of the project, which tries to be at the same time realistic (for it’s vague educational purpose as well as the focus on characters) and feature-oriented (for the camera handling and the attention to certain settings). Safe Sex looks much less amateurish and gonzo than the vast majority of Woodman’s work, yet it delivers the goods in terms of sex. It’s not freaky, super filthy stuff of course, but it’s quite like your usual Woodman, simply more carefully done. It does not attempt for once to be an action film or a chiller, something that porno movies will always fail to be. The girls are all beautiful, with some being really stunning. They have different styles. Most have mid-size natural breats, even if I remember at least one having really large ones. And for those who care (I don’t), you’ll find a black stud. The loose storyline (actually more a common denominator) is logically centered around various sexual encounters between unknown people and the way to prevent from STD in such situations. Woodman actually tried to deal a bit with the personal problems surrounding one’s sexual life in a few scenes. Of course, that attempt is not always totally successful but the situations described are often different from each other. There still remain a few cliches about Woodmanesque easy and horny women, but there are also a few more unusual situations that it was interesting to see depicted, luckily not in gruesome fashion, during a mainstream program. From time to time it even shows a real sense of intimacy and sensitive relationships, something that you don’t see too often from Woodman. Safe Sex benefits from assorted locations. It’s not exotic like in Woodman’s classics, and it’s also not so typically French and classy as in a Dorcel. Still, some dialogue was shot outdoors in a snowy landscape, or in a crowded bar, which gives the whole thing quite a real-life mood. A sequence takes place in a disrupted place, while others occur in a bathtub or at a gym club. You have a few nightmarish shots thrown in the mix for story purpose, but the sex is nonetheless frequent and attractive. You’ll obviously get your share of buttfuck, and you’ll get DP too. Safe Sex is all well balanced, and you can see that the project was carefully thought of. It is quite coherent even if it is not an absolute masterpiece (at least according to my standards). So of course, there are condoms. It’s a bit annoying, but Woodman manages to keep the scenes hot and sometimes turn the condom thing to his advantage. Condoms are for example used as accessories for some hot cumplay. And surprinzingly, there are actually facials in that movie. I saw it quite a long time ago, but at least I remember one very clearly, and being surprized that there actually was a facial in such a project.
The DVD includes a making-of and other stuff like trailers. Overall, if you like Woodman’s movies, I think it’s the one to keep in your collection, even if Blue One’s cover artworks are always ugly, and this one is no exception.
I can't tell you if Safe Sex is available in NTSC. I think the original French DVD is not zone encoded, but I doubt it's NTSC. Unfortunately, I can't give you any weblink for the film's label, as I never found myself any site for this society. It's rather strange since it's quite famous to French porn fans, but it's like that.
However I know that Orgazmik.com, which happens to be a partner with ADT, sells that DVD. Unfortunately, I looked at their site and it seems that it's only available in the French and German sections of their virtual shop, not in the US one. Maybe you should mail them to ask about that product's specs and its availability.
Sorry that I can't help you much more. Maybe others ADTers will come up with a better advice or address.
Little Puck Interview
Posted - Feb 14 2004 : 3:23AM
