Handcuffs

I got to see "Handcuffs" as a bonus short on the New Sensations Erotic Stories DVD release of its director Erika Lust's "Cabaret Desire". It's more evidence that she's not ready for prime time.

The style here seems derived from the work of British auteur Kendo at the time: splintered editing, cropped images, fetishistic detail and a cool, nay cold atmosphere. We're watching beautiful people in public, not interacting as humans but as sexual puppets of the God-like director, just like Kendo annoyingly does in now hundreds of features.

Mercifully brief at 8 minutes including credits, "Handcuffs" is built around that submissive theme -the captivating beauty brought to the bar in handcuffs by her lover, an image our heroine Olga Blanco finds spellbinding. She pursues them, watches Natalia Paris give Paco Roca a blow job, and then get her comeuppance.

The bold use of pink as dominant color for decor and lighting effect is my takeaway from this pointless exercise in style over content, a pantomime which seems to be the director's obsession.