The Pornographer: A Love Story (2004) User Reviews

Proceeding at an obscenely slow pace...

[hf201-1 · 4/10 · 3 May 2004]

I saw "The Pornographer: A Love Story" at the Tribeca Film Festival on May 2, 2004 and, thus, was surprised to learn that it was produced in 2000. Having said that, however, I am not surprised to learn that it has never been distributed. It's not that it's "bad" as in uninteresting or poorly crafted, so much. The problem is more that it proceeds at a snail's pace to...well, nowhere. There is some decent dialoge, attractive actors who engage each other well (for the most part), and a flair for taking a different approach to the production (such as having the characters use the digital video camera that is an important set piece as a practical prop that captures some of the video in the movie). But there's no "there" there, as the saying goes. It might have been much more effective as a 20-30 minute short instead of a roughly 90-minute feature.

Add that to the fact that the title (which the director himself seemed unable or unwilling to explain, since it's got nothing to do with pornography) would probably not draw the average American movie-goer and I would expect this one will never even see the inside of most arthouse theaters. I also haven't seen it in the video store; any chance it can't even get a decent straight-to-video release?

Women on top (Spoilers)

[jae1 · 13 July 2004]

SPOILERS HEREIN

I saw this film at the Avignon film festival, where it won Best American Feature. Deservedly so, as it is a well layered work.

What excites me most about this film is that while both the camera and the male lead, Michael, look at women with the normative gaze, the film is driven by strong female characters – especially Irene Jacobs who plays the lead Anna with stunning results.

Going beyond the cliché of beautiful women as omnipotent, director Allen Wade strips it down to the way in which his players play with good results. One IMDb reviewer lamented that the film never went anywhere, but that is just the point. Michael is mentally and emotionally impotent and is thus dominated by all the women in the film. His mother and sisters browbeat him, an ex-girl tells him to get a life and a young Maggie Gylenhall, in an excellent turn, plays an aloof prostitute. Michael does nothing, goes nowhere because all he can think about is himself. And this in turn highlights the performances and presence of the female characters. A good lesson in that real men show their feelings before it is too little and too late.

Tripe

[kpdavis12 · 1/10 · 8 July 2004]

I saw this movie at The Avignon film festival in France in June 2004, and since this film was made in 2000 it means that thankfully it hasn't been picked up for any sort of distribution. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyway, by the time the film ended most of the audience had walked out. The director was on hand to tell us that the film was projecting a little darker than normal, total darkness would have made it more watch able. A word of advice to said director, if a film is at the very least engaging an audience will overlook the technical stuff. The film has nothing to with pornography by the way and to add further insult to injury this rubbish won the award for best American film, there was definitely a fix in there, somebody was paid off because I saw the other features that were in competition and they were quite good by normal standards, by The Pornographers standards they were works of genius. Avignon is a wonderful city, my vacation time there happened to coincide with this film festival, which was the centre of attraction in the local square. I met a lot of filmmakers from France and America all excited to show their films which is why I went along to the Pornographer, I met the director, who had managed to persuade Maggie Gyllenhaal and Irene Jacob to be in it. The lead male, Martin Donovan is so boring to watch that he could develop a cottage industry in torture boredom, if you want to torture somebody, strap them to a chair and make them watch the pornographer over and over, they'll beg you to kill them I swear.

Truly Must See Independent movie

[MEtheMovie · 7/10 · 14 June 2005]

Movie took me by surprise from its very beginning opening credits. This movie is self conscious of its medium and its culture, about a director and his obsession with his actress, shot on video but switches between the film camera and the small digital camera footage used in the story. The story works in many different layers. It's a story of a director and his obsession to take charge and be in control. It's a love story between in a man and a woman who are both uncomfortable expressing their feelings. It's a story about film-making. It's a story about life, about men and women, about control, and desire. Movie has a slow pace that is actually adding to its truth and the emotions, helping the audience to explore the relationship between the characters. What makes the movie more beautiful and important the most, is its simplicity; almost all the film is happening in the confide space of Michael's apartment. There are two major characters and a few minor characters. The props used in the space are all chosen carefully for the purpose of adding to the story and the characters. There are great lines in the movie, smart script. The audio is also interesting as I realized the absent of ambient sound in the movie in some of the scenes that helps the story in creating a tense intimate environment for the characters and also for its audience absorbing them in the story and making the movie very effective also sexually without any actual sex scenes.

Intelligent and imaginative

[venable24 · 10/10 · 5 August 2005]

A rare film in that it presumes intelligence and imagination are virtues that one can expect from an audience. A patient, dense, elegant film, it tracks a compelling, odd, coldly romantic (!) character (wonderfully explored by the always-beguiling Martin Donovan) as he circles a curious young actress (the wondrous Irene Jacob in her most mesmerizing performance). It is the manner of the circling that is so peculiar: it is all done through a series of working sessions for a film project that may or may not be real. It is much more than a clever device. It is an oblique and surprising meditation on men and women, in the guise of a spry, stylish 'relationship' film. The interior lives of the characters are beautifully created in a series of tableaux, that seem simple, but are wonderfully imagined and always moving forward.

The touching, smartly playful and clear direction of writer/director Alan Wade give the film a tone that leads inexorably to a truly moving, quiet, uncompromising ending. The last moments of the film are the perfect closure to a film that is quite unusual in it's ambitions and it's subject matter. Martin Donovan, even when completely still, gives the impression of intense, personal thought. So does this film.