Is nuance a lost art in porno? Does anyone get off on insinuation anymore, innuendo, implication. Not the thing but the esssence of the thing, its echo or premonition? Not the grind but the get-up ... get it?
Silvera's really good at it. Not tease so much as the idea that what's gonna happen could go anywhere. Instead of where it always exactly goes.
Again, I might mention Rendezvous from Wicked Pictures.
Yeah, it's not perfect. Yeah, it's a feature. Yeah, it's got condoms--but it has a dual "masturbation" sequence that somehow manages not to show a DAMN thing except the faces of Carmen Heart and Randy Spears. "It's not what you see, it's what you feel." It's arguably the sexiest scene in the movie, and, I'd venture, one of genuinely sexier two minutes of porn that I've seen in a long time.
There's more to like about the movie than just that, but that tiny little scene is a perfect example of what you're talking about.
I wouldn't say that it's a lost art, but I would say that it's a dying one and that it isn't limited to just porno. Nuance requires a bit of thought on your own to fill in the blanks, and that's being killed more and more all the time. It's the need to see every last thrust into and drop of lube or juice coming out of the hole in porno and the full spray of blood form the back of the bad guy's head in the action movie. It's the difference between Unforgiven and Rio Bravo or how a modern feature needs to cut away from the story to go to the sex as opposed to a golden age porno working it into the story. More than anything, I guess it's just another sign of the dumbing down of the current culture. It's pretty damn sad when you can even see signs of cultural dumbing down in gonzo porn.
On the plus side, it also works to separate some of the top directors out there from the rest of the crop. Yes, Joey Silvera is a master of it, and I see some of it from Jonni Darkko as well. Hell, one can pretty much look across the Evil Empire and see that skill and understanding. Beyond that, Stormy sticks out in my mind with some of her features, and few have done it as well as Eli Cross did with Corruption in recent times. Sophia Santi's tease scene with Scott Nails and the glass (I think it was in Robby D.'s first Deeper movie) where you never knew if she was finally going to get cock or not comes to mind as do many of Devinn Lane's early group scenes before she was taking cock (Vegas or Bust is foremost in my mind here) where she was so involved that even without getting any male meat she was a complete part of the scene rather than feeling like a third wheel. Finally, Celeste comes to mind with many of her scenes (Peek and the knife scene is in my head right now). I know her artistic style doesn't work for a lot of people, but I think it really plays into how that nuance works. She has such a focus on beauty and the visuals you never know how nasty a scene is going to get or how far she'll take anything. I think that's a big part of the reason I've become a big fan of hers over the last year...
"Vegetarianism for me is about saying ‘yes’ to things - even meat." - Coupling
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tritone Deactivated User
1009 Posts 4/03
Posted - Jan 17 2007 : 5:27PM
MLyons? Man I haven't seen you around here in ages! I thought you were long gone. I always appreciated your view on things.
I don't know if there ever was a lot of it in the first place.
Porn is just one of those things where the majority reigns supreme. And in this case, the majority is probably a bunch of people who wouldn't know nuance if it fell out of the sky and hit them in the head. These are the people who think everything that doesn't move at light speed is "boring".
Of course, there are those times when I just want to get right to the down and dirty sex but I find that has completely replaced just about all traces of anything that's actually erotic.
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john thomas Deactivated User
1168 Posts 6/06
Posted - Jan 17 2007 : 9:27PM
Viv Thomas can do this sort of thing well. I've mentioned before (several times, I think) the bonus scene in Sophie's Wet Dreams where Sophie slips her hand down the front of her girlfriend's jeans into the crotch and all we as viewers see are the other girl's reactions as Sophie (presumably) plays with her clit. Immeasurably more erotic than the boring sequence of gynecological close-ups that too many director think is what porn requires.
There is a similar scene in Pink Velvet 3 where Lisa fingers Lolita but underwater so all you really see is Lolita slow-burning to orgasm. That title is very strong for "insinuation...innuendo, implication" in general: the slow lead into the Ella/Sophie Moone scene as the women talk business but flirt outrageously through their eyes and half-smiles, and then the clothes coming off only gradually as the two give in to their desire; Henrietta seducing Peaches before Peaches shows she isn't as innocent as she was pretending; Lisa's reunion with Jo - all well-balanced, well-paced, nuanced, erotic scenes where much is hinted and implied instead of being said and shown.
Just another bare bum in the shiower 1739 Posts 12/04
Posted - Nov 6 2010 : 12:15AM
It seems to be a lost art. My biggest problem with porn currently is in story or fantasy based porn where the performers are immediately out of character once the sex begins - they just become super, pneumatic fucking-machines that pound away for the next 45 odd minutes. So, for me, the build-up, tease and expectation as to what might occur becomes even more important.
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10000 days Deactivated User
Keep on trolling. What a bullshit! Im fucking unstoppable now ... 717 Posts 3/06
Posted - Nov 6 2010 : 10:50PM
Why do directors/talent/producers always stay away from topics like this as if they were doused in plague?
^ They believe most viewers want uncompromising hardcore. Which they do. But they focus so exclusively on that the product feels a whole lot like android sex. The closest the women get to expressing any kind of feeling Is the constant exaggerated moaning and screaming. The men do occasionally get to express some genuine humanity when they climax and sometimes even the women have a real orgasm (although it doesn't always appear real). Maybe one reason they avoid it because nuanced body language is one of the hardest things to get exactly right. And if it isn't exactly right, it comes off really tacky. So much of sexual arousal goes on in the mind of the beholder when you're talking about porn. It seems like it should be easy to make a rich, nuanced and realistic portrayal of sex and yet very few of those who even try actually succeed. Frankly, sometimes you can see that the desire and the effort was there but something always goes wrong.
