After sitting through well over 8 hours of "Hard In Love", covering 4 DVDs, I have come to the conclusion that my original assessment of John "Buttman" Stagliano's talents arrived at 25 years ago is true: an indulgent fetishist making porn for his own amusement/titillation. The fact that he has achieved such accolades and financial success in the Adult industry is no different than a similarly talent-challenged one Quentin Tarantino pulling the wool over the eyes of mainstream folk.
I had watched many of his '80s videos, innovative at the time for their single-mindedness (butt-crazed) and POV 1st-person camera-work. I interviewed him (by phone) around that time, and my interest in the new guy on the block faded after enjoying his first actual feature (with story) "Wild Goose Chase", a film that had one great scene of Jeanna Fine deep-throating Sean Michaels.
For this latest lengthy exercise, John worked from a detailed script by actresses Sam Bentley and Misha Cross, and we learn in the BTS short subject that he re-arranged their scenes in the editing room according to his own principles (of pacing and impact). The result is deadly dull.
For this second half, he does not supply any recap or preparation for the viewer, in case one has missed the first video (which often happens). The story of lesbian sturm und drang is not complicated, but without any background the action is more cryptic than involving. Also, JS's rearranging had left the first half hanging - saving the real dramatics for Part II.
But those dramatics have zero impact. Basically, we see Misha and Sam's love/hate relationship, with both lesbians ready and willing to humiliate each other, carry their jealousy on their sleeves, and live out "L'amour fou" with wild, over-the-top abandon. A good director (not even a great one) would have sat on them more than a bit to rein in their impulses to overdo it and ruin the germs of quality in their script. After all, if they just wanted a vanity production, they should have directed it themselves and not brought in Johnny Stag. Rocco Siffredi also must share some of the blame, as he inspired Misha to "push her limits" as well as those of her co-stars, as in the BTS Rocco reveals a pretentious side to his filmmaking personality that is purely self-indulgent and only useful for sycophants out there in videoland to enjoy.
Secret weapon and only real point of interest emerging in this farrago is Angel Long, the British actress who has appeared in countless projects, but here gets the plum role of dominatrix. She gets to push everyone else around, manhandling them (if you'll permit me to inject the proper word into a Lesbian extravaganza) and humiliating them. It's a showy performance and the most professional one on view.
The leading ladies who wrote this vehicle for themselves do themselves no favors, as one has to conclude after living with them (including the BTS) for 8 and a half hours (oops, Fellini reference; sorry!) that we are watching two talented performers let loose to air their dirty laundry, not in the usual use of that term, but rather play-acting to get out of their systems whatever demons or mixed feelings they have about co-dependent lesbian relationships. This isn't Living Theater or Theater of Cruelty (to use mainstream analogies): it's more like an acting class exercise -and to me Misha and Sam are actresses, not mere "models" as Adult Industry denizens like to call them.
SPOILER TIME, KIDDIES:
To belabor my criticism I will merely point to one crucial scene in the piece, that is completely botched. The star duo have been mistreated and basically been victims of assault & battery by the "bad guys" Long, Proxy Paige and Jessie Volt, though blonde beauty JV has very little to do in Part II, even in that scene. Later they are summoned to Long's parking garage-sized lair, and the scene is set for a big showdown. But, staying in character, Long immediately dominates the situation and at the drop of a hat is treating Misha as her instant slave, doing to her what comes naturally -as we've already seen her do to her minion Sam and other women (Tiffany Doll and in Part I, Henessy), to create content for her hardinlove.com website.
The scene is utterly ridiculous, as both strong-willed heroines cave for no credible reason, and Misha even whispers soon after to Sam words to the effect that they better go along with Angel's orders so that they can get out of there, as if this were some prison break. It's so unconvincing I couldn't believe my eyes and ears, and had to conclude that Sam, Misha & Buttman had all given up on credibility and were merely focused on delivering an hour of "award-winning" lesbian S&M. After all, he ran out of mantelpieces to hold the awards he took home for similarly showy (and empty) S&M stagings in his magnum opus "Fashionistas".
Making matters worse, Johnny Stag does his own camera-work and insists on a single-camera approach that is about as exciting as Hitchcock's failed "Rope" stagy film experiment nearly 70 years ago. These endless sex scenes, no matter how violent or overdone they become, are boring, boring, boring when one eschews reverse-shot cutting or any creative editing at all. The sad fact is that Buttman has complete creative control as head of his Evil Angel Empire, and as they say, 60,000 Frenchmen (i.e., mindless gonzo followers) can't be wrong. To which I respond, as this review conveys, "Au contraire!".
I had watched many of his '80s videos, innovative at the time for their single-mindedness (butt-crazed) and POV 1st-person camera-work. I interviewed him (by phone) around that time, and my interest in the new guy on the block faded after enjoying his first actual feature (with story) "Wild Goose Chase", a film that had one great scene of Jeanna Fine deep-throating Sean Michaels.
For this latest lengthy exercise, John worked from a detailed script by actresses Sam Bentley and Misha Cross, and we learn in the BTS short subject that he re-arranged their scenes in the editing room according to his own principles (of pacing and impact). The result is deadly dull.
For this second half, he does not supply any recap or preparation for the viewer, in case one has missed the first video (which often happens). The story of lesbian sturm und drang is not complicated, but without any background the action is more cryptic than involving. Also, JS's rearranging had left the first half hanging - saving the real dramatics for Part II.
But those dramatics have zero impact. Basically, we see Misha and Sam's love/hate relationship, with both lesbians ready and willing to humiliate each other, carry their jealousy on their sleeves, and live out "L'amour fou" with wild, over-the-top abandon. A good director (not even a great one) would have sat on them more than a bit to rein in their impulses to overdo it and ruin the germs of quality in their script. After all, if they just wanted a vanity production, they should have directed it themselves and not brought in Johnny Stag. Rocco Siffredi also must share some of the blame, as he inspired Misha to "push her limits" as well as those of her co-stars, as in the BTS Rocco reveals a pretentious side to his filmmaking personality that is purely self-indulgent and only useful for sycophants out there in videoland to enjoy.
Secret weapon and only real point of interest emerging in this farrago is Angel Long, the British actress who has appeared in countless projects, but here gets the plum role of dominatrix. She gets to push everyone else around, manhandling them (if you'll permit me to inject the proper word into a Lesbian extravaganza) and humiliating them. It's a showy performance and the most professional one on view.
The leading ladies who wrote this vehicle for themselves do themselves no favors, as one has to conclude after living with them (including the BTS) for 8 and a half hours (oops, Fellini reference; sorry!) that we are watching two talented performers let loose to air their dirty laundry, not in the usual use of that term, but rather play-acting to get out of their systems whatever demons or mixed feelings they have about co-dependent lesbian relationships. This isn't Living Theater or Theater of Cruelty (to use mainstream analogies): it's more like an acting class exercise -and to me Misha and Sam are actresses, not mere "models" as Adult Industry denizens like to call them.
SPOILER TIME, KIDDIES:
To belabor my criticism I will merely point to one crucial scene in the piece, that is completely botched. The star duo have been mistreated and basically been victims of assault & battery by the "bad guys" Long, Proxy Paige and Jessie Volt, though blonde beauty JV has very little to do in Part II, even in that scene. Later they are summoned to Long's parking garage-sized lair, and the scene is set for a big showdown. But, staying in character, Long immediately dominates the situation and at the drop of a hat is treating Misha as her instant slave, doing to her what comes naturally -as we've already seen her do to her minion Sam and other women (Tiffany Doll and in Part I, Henessy), to create content for her hardinlove.com website.
The scene is utterly ridiculous, as both strong-willed heroines cave for no credible reason, and Misha even whispers soon after to Sam words to the effect that they better go along with Angel's orders so that they can get out of there, as if this were some prison break. It's so unconvincing I couldn't believe my eyes and ears, and had to conclude that Sam, Misha & Buttman had all given up on credibility and were merely focused on delivering an hour of "award-winning" lesbian S&M. After all, he ran out of mantelpieces to hold the awards he took home for similarly showy (and empty) S&M stagings in his magnum opus "Fashionistas".
Making matters worse, Johnny Stag does his own camera-work and insists on a single-camera approach that is about as exciting as Hitchcock's failed "Rope" stagy film experiment nearly 70 years ago. These endless sex scenes, no matter how violent or overdone they become, are boring, boring, boring when one eschews reverse-shot cutting or any creative editing at all. The sad fact is that Buttman has complete creative control as head of his Evil Angel Empire, and as they say, 60,000 Frenchmen (i.e., mindless gonzo followers) can't be wrong. To which I respond, as this review conveys, "Au contraire!".