From the Blue Room Feature 'A Look at Andrew Blake'

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.

2001's Aria is 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.