Les Etalons de Mademoiselle

Kendo (a guy actually named Ken) has built a reputation in England for making atmospheric gonzo porn videos, and apparently France's premier pornographer Marc Dorcel took notice and assigned him to crank out several for the famed French label. I've seen the results, and MADEMOISELLE'S STALLIONS is typical -relatively big budget and decent cast but no story/no dramatic content.

So Kendo merely serves as the poster child for the insidiousness of the gonzo revolution: not just presenting wall-to-wall sex filler as an alternative to real adult movies for generations apparently addicted to immediate gratification in all things, but like kudzu creeping into the mainstream as well.

So this tale set and shot in England has an imported Dorcel superstar Anissa Kate (the reason why I purchased the video) traveling from Paris to Blighty to visit Charlotte, her British pen pal. The setting is an 18th Century horse farm, and there is an ostensible plot concerning jealousy and sex, but auteur Kendo plays down any acting/dramatics or even dialog, which per Dorcel standard is presented in one's choice of English or French, with narration frequently drowning out in voice-over any actual speaking.

Charlotte is played by the stunning Jasmine Jae, whose fake big breasts contrasted with Anissa's real ones in another (and better) British-made opus called CITY OF VICES, which had the temerity to include a real plot and story development. Stealing the show is British porn star Franki, who plays Jae's mother, and here presents a Barbara Steele quality which might be pursued to good (even mainstream) effect if a talented filmmaker would hire her instead of the dunder-headed gonzo helmers she's been stuck with to date.

A big party climax scene has very ugly color grading (or colour for any Brits reading this), and rather than commend the production for its lavish locations I deduct points for same locations wasted. If all the fans want to see (apparently) is big dicks and pretty girls humping with condoms and some d.p.'s thrown into the mix, then just shoot it in a dingy motel room and be done with it, like they did back in 1970/71.

A self-respecting 21st Century pornographer should want to deliver better, and perhaps go back and study literature or the theatre and acquire some working knowledge of dramatics, acting and story arcs before cranking up the video cameras.

I recently re-watched a classic episode (dated Jan. 21, 1972) of Dick Cavett's ABC late-night talk show featuring a round table of directors Altman, Mel Brooks, Frank Capra and Bodganovich, in which both Altman and Capra made the point that cinema is (was) in its infancy, drawing from earlier art forms (like literature and stage as I just alluded to above) but capable of becoming wholly original in its approach some day. The jettisoning of narrative, a given in the work of Kendo and hundreds of other untalented current practitioners, is not what these giants had in mind.