Tales from the Pink

I've bad-mouthed most of director Nick Orleans' recent videos, more from disappointment than animus. Back in the day he was making classic porn, and "Tales from the Pink" for Adam & Eve is a prime example of his stylish work.

Times have changed, and this wonderful feature was not even listed in IMDb until I added it to the database last week. Oddly, thousands of ephemeral gonzo junkers are duly added each month simply because they are new, creating a vast body of listings that no one will ever consult let alone annotate.

In my current reviewing of XXX features from the turn of this century, I was surprised to see virtually an entire genre abandoned, especially since it is such a rich source of quality.

These are a series of romantic, dream-like features aimed at Adam & Eve's target couples market, and another surprise is that they consistently look fabulous (clarity, color, lighting, etc.), far better than more recent productions made with the touted (and hyped) HD processes.

Amber Michaels gets lost out for a spin in her magnificent big-fins vintage Pink Cadillac convertible, putting to shame that frivolous Clint Eastwood movie of the same name starring Bernadette Peters. She's directed to Pinkville, and her fantasy adventures there all revolve around sex, sex and more sex.

It's not a strict storyline or narrative per se, but instead a mood piece in which auteur Orleans juggles many motifs and characters in a spell-binding manner. For example, a mysterious top-hatted figure turns out to be the mayor of Pinkville, joining in on the orgies later in the film.

Several prominent guest stars liven things up, notably Stephanie Swift in a fine lesbian scene as well as other top stars of the era like Temptress and Shayla LaVeaux. The constant pink color scheme is quite creative.

After watching over a dozen of these fabulous Adam & Eves from 15 years or so back, I deduce that this particular New Age-inspired genre was deemed "too soft" by the next generation of internet-trained porn fans, and written off as old hat. My takeaway is that just picking a random A&E title from this era a neophyte viewer could be astounded at the drastic contrast in quality compared to today's horrible, often unwatchable (and bloated) garbage that passes for best-selling porn. And the beauties of this recent past also put today's jail-bait and instant chart-toppers (the Keisha Greys, even before that the Sasha Greys) to shame.