A Look at Andrew Blake

Tired of all the loathsome gonzo porn that seems to be everywhere these days, plastered over all corners of the Internet and even reviewed, title after title, on this site? Tired of spitting, ass-to-mouth, and gagging? This may seem a ridiculous question, but when did adult films become so debased? I remember a time, back when I was a horny teenager—not so terribly long ago—when a good porn film featured beautiful people having pleasurable, mostly vaginal sex, and when a great porn star was renowned more for her good looks and passion than for her willingness to perform any ugly act imagined by man. Not too long ago, erotic films were truly sexy, favoring passion over shock value. Sure, there's always been a subculture of violence and filthiness in adult entertainment, but that soul-staining cult aspect seems to have gone mainstream.

I've seen a good number of adult films, and the most erotic and arousing have always been the early efforts of Andrew Blake. Here's a man who understands erotic desire and knows how to show it. I was introduced to Blake through his earliest films, such as Night Trips, Secrets, Night Trips 2, and House of Dreams, in which the director/cinematographer/editor explored a tapestry of sexual hunger and captured it on film more effectively than anyone before him. He was also unafraid to delve into fetish fantasy, and in his films you could always expect high-fashion leather kink, playful teasing, imaginatively designed dildos, whips, masks, and toys full of strange and captivating promise.

Most of all, his performers were universally beautiful, captured on film in slow motion, with nary a blemish on their skin. I once likened Andrew Blake films to erotica by way of Patrick Nagel—idealized, high-gloss erotic perfection. Some viewers balk at Blake's so-perfect-it's-unreal approach, but to me, the gloss is part of the fantasy. Blake is the most careful of pornographers, a perfectionist editor and a photographer with a practiced eye for the erotic. You can sense his control over every frame, as if he's maximizing the passion quotient of each moment. Blake's early work is beautiful adult entertainment, absolutely perfect for couples and very accessible for first-timers. As Blake himself once said, "Porn can be art, porn can be sensual, porn can be uplifting. It doesn't have to live in the gutter."

In my experience, you either love or hate the work of Andrew Blake. If you're into the aforementioned scat play and rough, hard sex, you'll probably find these films frustrating. And it's true that Blake's most recent work tends toward softcore eye candy—which is even frustrating to me, a longtime fan. But in this reviewer's mind, there's just nothing hotter than Blake's late-80s and early-90s erotica. In this edition of Blue Room, I want to take a look at a large sampling of Andrew Blake titles, all released by his own Studio A Entertainment—from his early work to his more recent, tamer, experimental films.

Andrew Blake's Classic Hits: 3-Disk Set

Andrew Blake's early films have been frustrating no-shows on DVD (or at least have been available only on lackluster discs with horrid image quality) until now. Sadly, we have yet to see top-notch editions of those previously mentioned classics, but Studio A Entertainment has just released his early-90s hits Hidden Obsessions, Sensual Exposure, and Les Femmes Erotiques in a scrumptious 3-disc set. All three hardcore films are from Blake's "late" classics period, before he turned to softer material.

Hidden Obsessions

Hidden Obsessions stars Janine in her first erotic performance (she's billed as Janine Lindemulder), and it's a doozy. The plot is almost a riff on Night Trips' notion of erotic segments produced by a sexually charged dreamscape. In this film, Janine plays a writer paid by a handsome stranger to write erotic stories. These stories are, of course, lovingly filmed, mostly in slow motion and to a jazzy, sultry soundtrack. There are scenes of incredible eroticism here, beginning with a fantastically hot lesbian encounter between Janine and another blonde, involving a long ice dildo. The pulsating soundtrack provides excellent counterpoint to this sizzling scene. You'll also find a wonderfully filmed lesbian encounter that takes place almost entirely underwater, in a pool. How often in adult entertainment are you aroused by the simple sight of a nude woman gliding through water? It helps, of course, that these women are very much into cunnilingus, but you see what I mean. My wife's favorite scene occurs on a boat, in the deep blue sea, between Deidre Holland and Jon Dough, and Holland looks as perfect as I've ever seen her. I could go on and on about this film's many gorgeous shots of female flesh, and its splendid attention to coupling detail, but it's better that you experience it for yourself. This is high-class porn at its finest, offering arousing hardcore action combined with sensual lighting and pacing and movement. It's adult entertainment as erotic dreamscape. And your wife will adore it, too. My grade: A

Sensual Exposure is in much the same vein as Hidden Obsessions—a film made up of erotic segments, surrounded by a flimsy narrative device. The beautiful and demure Kelly O'Dell and Raven headline this film, and it mostly follows Kelly's experiences at a mansion full of sexual surprises. As with all his films, none of the scenes in Sensual Exposure are like any other scene in any other film. Look at the scene in which Kelly watches a threesome from a distance. She's masturbating with a black-gloved hand while Peter North, in full suit and tie, has his way with two stately lasses, looking perfect in their leather boots and stockings, hair lush and flowing, moans breathy and barely discernible beneath the jazz. This film also boasts one of the finest blowjobs I've ever witnessed, occurring outdoors next to a swimming pool, followed by some very acrobatic sex on a lawn. And watch for a surprisingly hot scene between two lovely ladies involving garden hoses. Scene for scene, Sensual Exposure isn't quite as effective as Hidden Obsessions, but it's still a very sexy film, full of the sense and style of Andrew Blake, and better than most on the market. It rates a B+

Les Femmes Erotiques might be the hottest of all three of these classic Blake films. It's jam-packed with gorgeous women and erotic scenarios, dispensing with overt attempts at a binding narration and instead going for a wordless theme: A beautiful woman wears a pair of virtual-reality goggles and witnesses sex scene after sex scene through them as she pleasures herself with two other women. There are so many scenes in this film worth savoring: an outdoor coupling near a stable, a volcano-hot lesbian encounter in and around a swimming pool, an acrobatic threesome on an open stairwell, an outdoor lesbian coupling with a western/denim theme, and a surprisingly hot black-and-white scene of a woman simply posing and masturbating in the surf. But as with all these films, such scene encapsulations don't do justice to the eroticism of the images. With Les Femmes Erotiques, Blake is in full command of his powers, creating truly passionate—even artful—adult entertainment that makes most porn ugly in comparison. This film gets an A+

The audio/video quality of these three films is about the same throughout—full-frame presentations that accurately capture the 1.33:1 aspect ratio in which Blake originally filmed them. And here's another Blake hallmark: He shoots all his movies on film, as opposed to the stark, ugly video that most pornographers use. By using film, Blake gives his films an even more sultry, soft, arty appeal, very different from the hard-edged images that video provides.

The three films in this set look very good—but not great. For the simple reason that they're about 10 years old—a particularly long time in the porn universe—they don't look as spectacular as I hoped. Yes, detail is good, and colors appear accurate, but I noticed quite a bit of compression artifacting and unnecessary grain in the image. Many of the image's problems might be due to a breakdown of the source material. Of course, I'm watching these films on a 65-inch monitor, which tends to magnify flaws. On a monitor half that size, these flaws might be unnoticeable. These are minor concerns. As I write this paragraph, I'm rewatching a scene from Les Femmes Erotiques, and I'm just overjoyed that these films are available on DVD at all.

Sound quality is exceptional for a Dolby Digital 2.0 track. The jazz soundtrack comes across with terrific depth and spaciousness. The front soundstage, in which the music is mingled with moans, is very wide and sexy.

The discs don't contain many extras. They're limited to trailers for other Andrew Blake films. But these trailers, I must say, are pretty fantastic themselves. On each disc, they amount to about 25 minutes of erotic scenes and fragments set to excellent music. But still, I can't help but be disappointed. How wonderful an Andrew Blake commentary would have been! Or some kind of behind-the-scenes peek at how he works with his actors, how much attention he gives to setup and filming. (Hint: Keep reading.) Such is the type of attention I'd love to see him give to his classics Night Trips, Secrets, Night Trips 2, and House of Dreams, but sadly he's retained no control over those older films.

Okay, now that we've seen the best of Blake, it's with a certain amount of disenchantment that I travel forward in time to take a look at Blake's more recent work. In the mid-90s, Blake scaled back from true hardcore—in essence, removing the penis from his films, and indeed, most insertion shots—and went instead for beautiful, kinky women playing languidly with their own bodies and the bodies of other beautiful, kinky women. (The decision seems to have occurred in conjunction with a partnership with Penthouse Video.) And there's nothing wrong with detouring into softcore, I suppose, except that you can't help but yearn for the Andrew Blake of the early 90s—that master of sensuous hardcore, that man who could actually film a man having sex and not make him look ridiculous.

Aria

Let's start with 2001's Aria, a slow, studied look at a single gorgeous woman (Aria Giovanni) and her interactions with lusty beauties Adriana, Kelle, and Sierra. Undoubtedly, Aria Giovanni is one of the most beautiful women I have ever set eyes on, as she's writhing slowly and opening herself luxuriously for the camera. Her body is the stuff of high-class fantasy, her face is sultry and pouty, and she certainly knows how to move that flawless body. But here's where widespread complaints about Andrew Blake's work start to begin making sense. There's no denying that this film is filled with erotic imagery, but watching a lot of it can also be strangely sexless and therefore frustrating endeavor.

Take, for example, the opening of Aria, in which Aria writhes around seductively, mostly in slow motion, her eyes on the camera—for the first 10 minutes of the film! It's an exercise in patience for even the most highbrow of porn connoisseurs. After that opening, the film offers some slow, lesbian fondlings, some tongues on breasts, and even some mild insertion as masturbation. And Holy God, are these women statuesque and outrageously fine! They're a step above the women in most porn, and perhaps Blake has corralled such beauties only because they've insisted solely on softcore terms.

The key, perhaps, is to take it at face value: Consider it a living, breathing magazine spread, in which a bevy of Penthouse models, for example, writhe around for a photo shoot. If you watch Aria with any preconceived notions built up by your past experiences with Blake's films, you're going to be disappointed. However, if you know beforehand that Aria is going mostly for a more softcore approach than Blake's past work, you'll find moments within that are intensely satisfying as pornographic eye-candy.

But wait, what's this? At about the 20-minute mark, Aria surprises us with its first hardcore scene, starring Vince Voyeur. It's intercut with some more lesbian fondlings atop a couch, but that hardcore footage startles us from the relative torpor induced by the slow writhing and posing. It's also incredibly hot. And yet—more frustration—after this throbbingly effective scene, the film devolves into somewhat repetitive encounters involving a single short-haired blonde, in several settings. Later, Aria becomes an extended, kinky, fetish-laced romp between three young ladies, and still later we get a catfight that's strangely compelling, but we're left with the memory of that hardcore scene stuck like a blatant reminder of former glory in the middle of the film, because no more insertion—even tongue to labia—occurs for the rest of Aria. My grade: B

Aria's video quality is also a tad frustrating, because it was shot in 1.85:1 widescreen, and yet the transfer—unlike many of Blake's current DVDs—isn't enhanced for widescreen TVs. Despite that oversight, this film looks fabulous, with supple, accurate colors and fine detail. Even though it's not anamorphic, Aria looks better than the three films in the Andrew Blake's Classics set. Even better, the disc offers a fantastic and involving digital 5.1 track, and Raoul Valve's music is quite impressive.

For extras, you get a Still Gallery and a 32-minute Featurette called Visual Stimulation. By featurette, Blake means "Short Film." Blake has many such short films spread throughout his filmography, so it's nice to get this here. Also in nonanamorphic widescreen, it's in much the same vein as Aria—gorgeous women fondling each other in slow motion.

Exhibitionists

A year after Aria, Andrew Blake created Exhibitionists, and it's in much the same vein as Aria. This film showcases Blake favorite Anita Blond (Blond and Brunettes), as well as centerfold model Kyla Cole, Sierra, and a new beauty named Justine. With no discernible plot, the film shows off its women across the French countryside around Paris, as they massage each others' bodies in slow motion but never go much further than mild finger (or even toe) penetration. The girls are fabulous, as usual, but you won't find any true hardcore material in this production.

That being said, the images throughout Exhibitionists hold an undeniable power. Perhaps it's simply the beauty of the female flesh on copious display. Maybe it's the combination of the sultry jazz and the sensual close-ups of passionate embraces and kisses. More likely, it's Blake's skill as an editor and photographer to capture exactly the right images to invade the sensual pleasure centers in the brain. True, there's still a level of frustration at the absence of penetration and sex, but as you watch these images more and more, you find yourself increasingly immersed in them and unquestionably aroused. This film evokes an erotic sensation that's not as immediate as that produced by bump-and-grind porn, but in its own way, it's just as powerful. My grade: B

Exhibitionists is presented in a stunning 1.85:1 anamorphic-widescreen transfer. Detail is magnificent, and colors are warm and accurate. The digital 5.1 audio track is active and entertaining. However, I notice as I watch these films is chronological order that Blake has gradually eliminated virtually all vocal talent from his models—a shame. In his earlier films, he never shied away from the moans of pleasure, particularly from his ladies. I think these sounds are a necessary component of sensuality. In Exhibitionists, we hear only Raoul Valve's jazz soundtrack.

Extras on Exhibitionists are the most abundant yet. You get five Featurettes that add up to 35 minutes. The first, Leather Bikini, stars Justine in a very hot screen test in which she pleasures herself with what appears to be a glass dildo. The second, Screen Test, is another screen test for Justine. These are two of the most alluring and professional-looking screen tests I've ever seen. The fourth, Leg Fetish, is a very hot boy-girl scene in which we get the only hardcore sex on the disc. Again, as in that single scene in Aria, we're reminded what a brilliant film Exhibitionists might have been had Blake allowed himself to explore true sex. The fifth, French Photos, features Kyla Cole with a bevy of beauties snapping pictures of one another in black and white. The final featurette is a montage of scenes from the Exhibitionists DVD.

Girlfriends

Love it or leave it, Girlfriends is firmly in Blake's "high-gloss erotica" mode—magnificent statuesque nude women, writhing around in slow motion, fondling themselves and—with minimal sexual contact—other magnificent nude women. As in Exhibitionists, you'll find nary a penis in this production. Labeled a "leg fetish" fantasy, Girlfriends celebrates long legs, silken thighs, creamy calves, demure feet, and flawless butts.

The film stars Blake faves Justine, Aria Biovanni, and Sierra, as well as Monica Mendez, Hannah Harper, and April. All are fantastically stunning, and for the most part, they're really into feet and legs. In one key scene, we see a woman inserting her stocking-covered toe into another's vagina, while her other foot massages a breast. This film is a high-class foot-fetishist's dream. A few of the scenes, in fact, focus on only one girl, as with Justine's powerful solo, in which she's all alone onscreen, mostly lounging around on the floor of an undecorated house, moving her legs and touching herself in slow motion. That description might sound boring and exasperating, but there's an undeniable steaminess escaping the screen as you watch her display her long, beautiful legs.

Andrew Blake is asking a lot of his audience—an audience that might not have the patience to step back from the frenzied humping and semen-jettisoning of most porn to just lose themselves in the simple beauty of a nude woman. Is he asking too much? I believe that many, many porn viewers would think so. Consider that only a couple scenes of "penetration" actually take place in Girlfriends, and they comes almost an hour into the film, for perhaps a minute. They involve half-inserted toys. Then, we're back to sucking feet. And look at the lipstick-lesbian scene that follows: One woman is spread-eagled on a counter while another bends toward the waiting, slathered vagina. We would expect and hope for a mind-blowing cunnilingus scene as only Blake can film—but the woman merely plants demure lipstick marks on the seated woman's inner thighs. You're left staring at that slick, waiting maw, feeling for the woman who's writhing in frustration, surely thinking, For Christ's sake, touch it! Lick it! I admit to feeling that frustration vicariously. Has Andrew Blake become merely a tease? My grade: B-

Girlfriends, like Exhibitionists, is presented in a wonderful 1.85:1 anamorphic-widescreen transfer. Detail is top-notch, and colors are warm and accurate. Grain appears plentiful, but I think it's intended. The digital 5.1 audio track is aggressive, but be warned that Blake has now completely eliminated the vocal talent of his models. On the plus side, the Raoul Valve music is terrific, far above usual porn fare.

For supplements, Girlfriends offers three Featurettes that add up to 37 minutes. The first, April's Perfect Legs, is a terrific one-woman show. The second, Justine and Hannah, is a great lesbian scene that involves some toy penetration, and some damn fine women. The third is simply the Girlfriends trailer.

The Villa

Promisingly, The Villa—which Blake shot 3 months after Girlfriends—starts with a hot lesbian coupling that involves some enticing fingering. We move on to a black-and-white scene between two women, outdoors, playing around a fountain, and it's exquisitely shot. We're in for another sumptuous erotic fantasy from Andrew Blake, and I'm happy to say that this one gets naughtier, with quite a few roving fingers exploring splayed vaginas. The film does stay true to Blake's recent predilection for all-jazz soundtracks and ever-present slow motion, but it's nice to see some more contact occurring.

The Villa, shot in Italy, stars Kyla Cole, Nika, Justine, Elsa Versus, and Tara Radovic—all delicious. Although I must interject with an anecdote: My wife came into the room as I was watching this particular title, and she sat down with me for a while to view a few of the fantasies. I asked her for her thoughts. She said without hesitation that the women didn't appeal to her (and this from someone who doesn't mind the occasional lesbian coupling in adult film). She thought the women looked "euro-trashy" and wore too much makeup. I politely disagreed with her. But I did agree with her when she said she wanted to hear the girls making some kind of pleasurable sounds—something that Blake has provided quite effectively in the past. She also wanted to see more touching of private spots, more roaming fingers and tongues. (Yes, I adore my wife.)

The Villa ups the number of mild penetrations and even boasts—at about the 35-minute mark—the sight of a tongue gliding through the moistened folds of a vagina. I can't tell you how happy I was to see that sight. What a hot moment! But the scene ends shortly afterward, and I was left on the edge of my couch, feeling as if the scene faded out just as it was getting interesting. And at the 45-minute mark, behold!—a lesbian scene in which one participant rhythmically inserts a glass dildo into the other's waiting kisp! And some amazing kissing followed�but the scene abruptly faded out. The old frustration reared its head. The Villa does offer more "penetration" than some of the immediately previous titles, but does it offer "enough"? How much such sexual contact did I want to see? And why do its scenes end so prematurely?

Is it enough for Blake to show us these fragments of eroticism? Is it enough to set the scene and show what amounts to slow-motion striptease and foreplay? I would be very interested to know what most viewers of adult entertainment think. For me, it's a mood thing. There are moments when I can play a title like The Villa and let it wash over me in a slow wash of sensuality, but there are more moments when I have no patience for such subtle turn-ons. But, damn, does this film look pretty. And what fantastic kissing Blake captures! Grade: B

The Villa looks positively stunning in this vivid, filmlike 1.85:1 anamorphic-widescreen transfer. Detail is even better than other recent efforts, and colors are warm and erotic. The digital 5.1 audio track is just as aggressive as others reviewed here. The Raoul Valve music remains terrific.

For supplements, The Villa offers three Featurettes. The first, Burgundy Satin, is a great 10-minute boy-girl hardcore scene featuring Angela Crystal. The second is a trailer for The Villa, and the third is a selection of Andrew Blake Trailers.

HardEdge

As if acknowledging my frustration, Blake followed up The Villa with HardEdge, a film that lets you know right up front that it's going to be something different, something much harder-edged than Blake's other 21^st century efforts. The first minutes of the film give us an uglier-looking production, with significant grain and harder music. The girls have a nasty, drugged-out look. They wear more makeup and are generally less appealing. This time around, the stars are Kelle Marie, Adriana Sage, Nika, Justine, Julia Taylor, and Faith Adams.

And then, here it comes—at about the 11-minute mark, the first male in an Andrew Blake feature film in about 10 years. He spends about 5 minutes fingering the woman, then out comes the penis, in slow motion, into her mouth, slapping against her skin�finally, some hardcore action after years of waiting. Is the scene worth the wait? Well, it's a great scene until the guy puts his penis in a high-heel shoe. See, then we have some problems. The scene progresses into high-gear foot fetishism before it gets to penetration. If you're into feet, this is the scene for you, but if feet don't do it for you, you'll find yourself fast-forwarding to the sex—and finally we have a strong Andrew Blake sex scene, complete with varied positions and artful close-ups. In the end, of course, he comes to fruition on her toes.

Targeting that harder audience, perhaps acknowledging the current trends in porn, HardEdge disappointingly devolves into scenes involving spitting, and asshole licking and fingering. Even a hardcore cunnilingus scene at the midway point is lacking in sensuality, according to my wife, because of the strange blood-red finger marks striped across one woman's ass. The scene suggests violence to her, and this notion of violence carries through more obviously in two simulated slapfests between three women. One of these scenes suggests bondage and rape. There's also a scene of banana insertion that's unnecessarily ugly. Despite essentially "getting what I asked for," I was disappointed in HardEdge, because instead of going for sultry and sensual hardcore, like the Andrew Blake films of old, it goes for unsightliness. Grade: C-

As I mentioned, HardEdge looks grainier than other recent Blake films, but it's still an accurate transfer. The 1.85:1 anamorphic-widescreen effort captures exactly what Blake wants it to. Detail is terrific, and colors are intentionally oversaturated. The digital 5.1 audio track is aggressive and involving. The Raoul Valve music is harder-edged, per the title.

For supplements, HardEdge devotes the second side of a disc to 100 minutes of Featurettes. As far as I can see, these short films are untitled, but they involve actresses—with their names scrawled across their bodies for identification—writhing around and playing with themselves. We get Kelle Marie, Adriana Sage, Nika, Nicola, Justine doing these private shows, then we get some lesbian couplings. All of the above are in the "nasty" mode of HardEdge. The models frequently wear sneers on their faces, and there's lots of makeup and, in general, more penetration.

The most interesting featurette is a 50-minute behind-the-scenes documentary by Celeste called The Making of Andrew Blake's HardEdge. This is a spectacular glimpse of Andrew Blake at work. His set is exactly as I imagined, involving hours of preparations and a focused Blake behind the camera, composing every shot. The models sometimes just lay there, looking bored as they wait. Ever-present behind the camera is Celeste, one of Blake's actresses. She engages the models by interviewing them casually, asking about their sexual fantasies and visits to strip clubs. I got a real kick out of watching Blake work—the first time I'd ever laid eyes on my porn hero!—and hearing him say things like, "Kelle Marie has a set of world-class boobs." Interestingly, we get to see a lot of real-time filming of footage that ends up in slow motion on film—it has a very different look from the end result. Some choice quotes from this piece: Justine says, "I'm so lucky! I get to go down on Adriana Sage in 10 minutes!" And how cool to hear Blake say, at one point, "Stand by for your orgasm!" This is a wonderful documentary, and I'm grateful Blake and Celeste produced it. For me, it's the highlight of the disc.

Dollhouse

The final title in my look at the work of Andrew Blake is Dollhouse, produced in mid-2003, and it's an appropriate title to end on. It captures everything about Blake that this fan has become disillusioned about. The film intercuts scenes of creepy hardcore with the kind of erotic-fantasy posing that Blake has become known for. And damn, if there isn't some strange kink going on in this film.

Starring Jacqueline, Dahlia Grey, Monica Mendez, Nike, Jade, Rachel Rotten, and Celeste, Dollhouse is a strange and weirdly colorful Ken Russell phantasmagoria of porn. After a promising boy-girl scene starts things off (ever seen a tattooed cock?), Dollhouse descends into one of the strangest scenes I've ever seen in porn: a lesbian cunnilingus scene in which the licker alternates her tongue between a vagina and a plate of raw beef. She then proceeds to smear the beef against the vagina and take "bites" out of both. Okay, I can see the statement here, but is it a statement I want to see in a film that should be arousing? Nope. And what of the scene involving the insertion of a lit cigar into a waiting pussy? Shades of the Oval Office, surely, but is it hot? Where is the market for Dollhouse? Who is Blake making movies for?

On one hand, you get the feeling that Blake has lost his mind, finally and irrevocably. You also get the feeling, in this film and in HardEdge, that he has responded to his critics, even to his audience, and tried to create something with more hardcore elements—but in doing so, Blake has cranked the kink element into otherworldly strangeness and left the vast majority of us behind. Grade: C-

The image quality of Dollhouse is similar to that of HardEdge—intentionally grainy but detail-generous. Colors are oversaturated again, accurately so. The 1.85:1 anamorphic-widescreen transfer is really quite effective. The digital 5.1 audio track offers the same aural quality of recent previous efforts. The Raoul Valve music is again very fun.

The extras on Dollhouse are reminiscent of those on HardEdge—a plethora of featurettes and a long behind-the-scenes piece that add up to over 90 minutes. The featurettes, again, are short films, and these—like all the rest on all the discs—could be scenes left out of the main feature. The real draw is Andrew Blake's Dollhouse: Behind the Scenes, which is made, this time around, by Blake regular Monica Mendez. Right away, I knew I was in for a treat, because I get to hear Blake say again, "World-class pair of tits." All in all, Monica is a quieter documentarian than Celeste (in the documentary on HardEdge), and so there are long moments of contemplative silence in this one—an interesting stylistic change, but not as entertaining. This is more of a fly-on-the-wall approach to some of the scene setups. Still, there are a couple of tantalizing moments.

Conclusion

That documentary on the Dollhouse DVD ends with a telling moment involving Blake. For about 10 minutes, he's been setting up and shooting a scene in which two beautiful women lounge atop each other, slowly writhing, and looking sensual for his camera. He guides their bodies into many positions, capturing different angles and pouty expressions. Near the end, both girls look exhausted, and one is simply slumped over on the bed, lifeless. At that point, Blake considers her and says, "Okay, now what can we do with her?" Fade out.

I get the feeling that the moment encapsulates the mood on Blake's sets for past 7 or 8 years. This is a man who has all the tools and talent to create scintillating porn, and yet he's contenting himself with capturing bizarre, languid, often static images of seemingly uninterested women. Where has the passion gone, Mr. Blake? I can watch bored gorgeous women for only so long before I have to press the Off button on the TV. As evidenced by your early work—for example, in the just-released 3-disc box set, reviewed here—you are a legendary chronicler of hardcore passion. To this reviewer, your strange and dark explorations of upper-class ennui and softcore kink are getting increasingly monotonous.

The porn industry, besieged by filth, is primed for your return to form. The stage is set for you to revolutionize adult entertainment once again. Please come back.

- Jack O'Toole