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Not a Love Story: A Film About Pornography (1981)
Accurate portrayal of the 'sex' industry
I saw "Not A Love Story: A Film About Pornography" at the Renoir Cinema, London two years' ago. I put the word 'sex' in inverted commas because what we see in porn films, whether hard-core or soft-core is ACTING. It is not real BUT it purports to show real, 'hot' sex. By interviewing people who actually work in the industry, in magazines and on film, and in live shows and peep-shows, both as producers and performers, this documentary shows a behind-the-scenes look at what really goes on. Watch the film to see for yourself; I'll just give one example here of an interview which stuck in my mind. The top porn actor Marc Stevens appears as himself and related the following anecdote. After a great date, he and a woman went home together the same night and had sex. Afterwards, she was angry that he didn't perform for her again immediately. To be friendly, he said if she gave him some time to recover he would try again. She was outraged - she'd seen him do it FIVE TIMES IN A ROW on-screen. Stevens said, "but it took me five DAYS to make that film!!" Unfortunately, Stevens wasn't joking when he told us that. People are fooled into thinking that the acting and gloss and smiles and enthusiasm are real. They watch the films and expect their partner to perform like that; they see the magazines and expect their partner to look like that. Conversely, OTHER people say the porn industry is all FANTASY and that NONE of it is real. Unfortunately, although the gloss isn't real, the misery behind it is. Real human beings, not fantasies, perform in those films. 10 out of 10 to Not A Love Story for reminding us of that.
The House Bunny (2008)
Designed to whitewash Hugh Hefner and groom girls for p*rn
Shelley's college sorority house is just like her former home, the Playboy Mansion. Indeed, Hugh Hefner ("Hef") seems just like a house mother to all the girls who live with him. I found his portrayal most believable - when Shelley leaves, he pines for days alone in his bedroom - he almost had me in tears. Almost. Until the cognitive dissonance set in: Playboy Enterprises (who run 6 p*rn channels in the UK alone, each one showing over 50 films (eg, one recent title was, "Fresh and Juicy Lolitas")) may deny that their Playboy pencil case (de rigeur for 10-year-old schoolgirls nowadays) and Playboy single-size bed linen are designed to groom girls for a future in the porn industry but, with a mainstream film showing in London's West End rated 12A, which begins and ends with pages turning on a fairy tale, in which Shelley's student housemates contrast unfavourably next to her (their fellow students break in and paint "LOSERS" on the livingroom wall, whereas she is a delightful, pleasing, uninhibited, popular, attractive, Playboy bunny (resembling the most-purchased model out of all the Barbie-doll products) whose preferred home is the Playboy Mansion and whose proudest moment is being chosen by Hef for the Miss November centrefold in Playboy magazine) says otherwise. Come off it, Playboy! Who are you trying to kid?