IS IT PORN? (reviews and discussions of films about which you're just not sure)

[M.10rda]

Content Warning: No question, this one is "porn":

BLUE ECSTASY aka BLUE ECSTASY IN NEW YORK (1980):
I rarely watch 70s/80s xxx features for the sex (if one wants to see sex, there are quicker ways to go about it) but then when I'm lured into such a feature for the actors, plot, or music (in this case, all three) I'm usually disappointed on all counts. Who were these films made for? Primarily the raincoat crowd, who were unlikely to make it to the closing credits anyway, and also - presumably for themselves! Much of BLUE ECSTASY is one scene after another of the actors lounging around an apartment, drinking wine, smoking pot and/or doing coke, and then having sex. (Tarantino would call this a "hang-out film", I guess.) And they were getting paid for it! Hey, who wouldn't want to be an adult performer in 1980? But it ain't all that much fun to watch.

"Veronica" (Leslie Bovee) is a seemingly nice/virginal girl-next-door type who talks in monologue about her free-spirited sister "Ronnie" (also Bovee), who visits her often but is (obv) not seen on camera w/ Veronica. Veronica also has a party-girl best friend named "Nikki" who she hangs out with and who does appear onscreen w/ Veronica, since she's played by Samantha Fox. Midway through the film, Veronica's hard-up boyfriend tries to sexually assualt her in the park, and Ronnie spontaneously appears to fight him off, then abruptly disappears again. Yup, BLUE ECSTASY is the porno version of MEMENTO/FIGHT CLUB/THE OTHER/Lynch & Gifford's HOTEL ROOM/etc. Of course I'd be drawn to this kind of film and I appreciate that the filmmakers wanted to get a little creative w/ their formula, but the Veronica/Ronnie/Nikki schizm is eventually sidelined (essentially forgotten) in favor of a long succession of mostly indistinct screwing.

Bovee and Fox are very nice- but pretty normal-looking women, which isn't a criticism. You'd see a lot of ladies who looked similar walking around NYC in 1980. Candida Royale appears as another (presumably real) friend of Veronica and is a bit of a rougher/funkier type that also seems emblematic of Manhattan in that era. None of them are great actresses but there are scenes where they've memorized lengthy dialogue (or improvised confidently) so at least they were trying.

The male cast is interesting. Bobby Astyr caught my attention in Roger Watkins' CORRUPTION, another dark, psychological XXX feature w/ an incredible first 45 minutes or so that predicts LOST HIGHWAY, w/ Astyr in the Robert Blake role. (CORRUPTION also loses track of itself at the end.) Unfortunately Astyr has no actual character to work w/ in BLUE ECSTASY, he just gets nekkid and bizzy w/ offscreen galpal Fox. BLUE ECSTASY also features Robert Kerman (aka "R. Bolla"), who doesn't do much acting here either but always raises my eyebrows when he appears in porn, as he's most famous for starring in the Italian cannibal trifecta of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, and EATEN ALIVE (as well as popping up in Raimi's first SPIDER-MAN). The heavy lifting (so to speak) among the male cast is provided by the ubiquitous Jamie Gillis, whose laidback libertine personality onscreen was likely identical to his offscreen persona.

The sex - well, there are fewer close-ups than in many adult films (though still too many) but it got boring pretty quickly. As often was the case in 70s sex films, the actors just do their thing - they aren't "performing", alas, just behaving naturally. This could be interesting in the hands of an insightful director, but I often feel like these directors would yell "Action!" and then walk away to smoke a doob. (Roberta Findlay was unashamed to admit she had no interest whatsoever in the sex scenes she filmed.) BLUE ECSTASY ends w/ a long S+M sequence in a scummy nightclub - leather, masks, a fist, etc. I found it neither shocking nor hot, but I guess it was a change of pace from the stoned couch-bound boffing.

2/5    I always want to enjoy these more than I do. The best part of BLUE ECSTASY is the occasional muzak covers of top 40 hits on the soundtrack. I'm a fiend for a good porno soundtrack.