DVD Review: “Memoirs of A Madame”

Not the Wayland Flowers biopic I'd been expecting but still of great use, "Memoirs of A Madame" explores the complicated power structure of the modern-day brothel and the bittersweet choices we make in passing on the torch of responsibility.

It is like "Lethal Weapon" meets "All About Eve" meets "Fantasy Island" meets "Madame's Place". Read our review of "Memoirs of A Madame" after the gap. - GP

- - -

Memoirs of A Madame

Studio: Sinsation
Director: Dee and Shy Love
Cast: Shy Love, Lindsey Meadows, Brad Hardy, Vanessa Lane, Scott Styles, Cassie Young, Mikey Butders

Review by: - GP

"I don't want to fuck fat old guys anymore," says Trixe, "I want to fuck rich fat old guys."

Since watching "The Mission" on HBO the other night, I have been fascinated with hookers and their hierarchies.

Granted, "The Mission" was about a Jesuit order in 18th century Paraguay, but the missionary followers of Ignatius Loyola share a great deal with Madame Shy, operator of a high class escort agency who just wants to get out, and Trixe, a two-dollar whore fixin' on replacing her.

What they share is Difficult Choices.

Sinsation Pictures releases artfully-shot couples' films with scripts and performers who are attractive in a way particular to hardcore couples' films rather than softcore couples' films. I came to this conclusion after seeing two people in a late-nite Cinemax movie who I'd just seen in a one-act play in Los Angeles. Does that mean that hardcore performers can't act? No, it just means that I wouldn't believe Shy Love as Nora in "The Plough And the Stars".

Anyway, the movie begins with Trixe (Meadows) in two scenes of play-acting. First she works out with her john in a seedy motel room. A slap-bass soundtrack reminiscent of a Stephen J. Cannell montage sequence plays over their dialogue, full of dirty porn-standard patter that somehow sounds like taunting:

"You like me Baby?"

"Yeah I like you. Am I the biggest you ever had?"

"Yeah Baby, you're the biggest. Am I warm and wet enough for you?"

"Yeah Baby."

Through my own exhaustive research with cheap hookers, I have found that none were as slight as Trixe, and not a single one wore fishnets. After the deed is done, Trixe looks in the mirror and practices curbside pickup lines, finishing with:

"Hey, how about you pay me a lot of money to fuck you in your mother's car and pretend you're not a loser?"

The scene switches to Madame Shy, embodying both Mr. Rourke and most of the characters Danny Glover has played: she's in a white suit and she feels like she's getting too old for this. She is looking for a replacement as a Madame.

In a tribute to softcore "bordello" movies, Shy's manner is imperious and her words are clipped. "Leave us!" she snaps to her attendants as a favored customer enters. I don't know, I have a feeling that the adult industry plays at prostitution in the way that performers of Asian extraction play at being schoolgirls. I'm sure Heidi Fleiss never said "Leave us!"

Introduced to Madame Shy, Trixe rises fast in the organization. But the other girls are jealous about being passed over by a newcomer. This also happened to Chief Justice John Roberts. Trixe breaks their spirit and builds them back up in her image by getting fucked with a strap-on.

Technical aspects of Sinsation Pictures' products are still not first rate. The soundtrack is of the type that can be purchased along with certain editing programs, and at one point it is sped up ridiculously fast to accommodate the ending of one scene and the beginning of another. And we still hear the echos common to a movie set poorly insulated from the warehouse around it.

But they are trying hard, and directors Love and Dee lend their own performing experience to staging excellent sex scenes. And the movie ends better than "The Mission" does.

· Buy "Memoirs of A Madame" (sinsationpictures.com)

Previously: DVD Review Archive