Paris Chic

OVERALL RATING: 3-

MOVIE TYPE: All Sex

90 Mins.

Studio A Entertainment

www.andrewblake.com

DIRECTOR: Andrew Blake

THEMES: Art Porn, Lesbian Sex, Models

CONDOMS: None

1997

9/96

STARS: Lea Martini, Coralie, Anita Blond, Taylor St. Claire, Eva Falk, Tanya La Riviere, Bruno Aissix, David Perry, Herve Pierre, Gustave.

REVIEW-

People have asked me to review Andrew Blake stuff for years and for years I have had it in mind to do so. I’ve never made it onto his screener list though a few Blake movies are in my own personal collection. Paris Chic is one of them, though I’ve never seen it. I actually bought this movie to review several years ago and it got lost under a pile of stuff in the office. It was later boxed up for the move into our new place, put into a special box of videos to review right away, unpacked and put into the top drawer in the review cabinet and now three years later, it has finally made it to the VCR. (Makes me wonder what else might be in there.) For those of you who aren’t familiar with Andrew Blake’s work, it’s time to come out from the rock for a while. Seriously, some of you may not have seen his stuff because he shoots decidedly softer porn than just about anyone else. His movies are beautifully shot, heavy on eye candy and often lacking hard-core action to please the raincoat crowd. I don’t expect anything different from this one. It should be wall to wall hot girls, slow motion, grainy picture and enough artistic content to make Skeeter Kerkove gag on his chopsticks.

Lea does the voice-over, telling us that she is an Italian model who has just moved to Paris. Her first shoot has her in a period costume with a blindfolded man sucking one of her breasts as a pretty redhead works the other. There is some sex in this scene, but the way she slowly licks the head of his cock is about as tame as porn can be. She moves quickly to reverse cowgirl where her breasts are bouncing pretty hard even in slow motion. He shoots onto her chest to end the first scene. It’s beautifully shot and about as hot as a lukewarm bath.

We transition directly into her new friend Coralie. She gives the blond e studded collar to celebrate their new friendship. They do some posing on the streets, kissing in the car and then go home for some bumping and grinding. Their scene is short, but she continues the fantasy with some anal beads and a whip. At this point, the movie is more about a series of images flashed in front of our eyes than anything resembling what is usually considered porn.

Coralie is photographing her lover while Anita Blonde is being undressed by a guy. Lea has nipple clamps on and slowly works a dildo inside of her while the other couple touches and kisses in slow motion. With all of the quick-cut editing and heavy-echo music, this feels like an erotic dream that doesn’t really go anywhere. You know I was just watching the DVD of “El Mariachi” with director’s commentary by Robert Rodriquez. He talked about how he extended the running time of that movie by using slow motion on any shot he could. Why do I bring that up? Because that is how this feels. Slow motion just to make things last longer for no apparent reason. It is nice to spend so much time staring at three very attractive women, but the pace just kills any heat we might get from watching Anita in reverse cowgirl. He finally shoots all over her tits, signaling an end to this scene and the start of the next.

Coralie takes charge of the relationship and turns Lea into her private slave. We get a lot of footage to back this up, but the next sex scene takes place when Coralie gives her blonde slave to a man to enjoy. They play with her breasts for a long time and kiss her soft lips. Coralie sends her out into the party to find someone willing to untie her hands. That leaves Lea open to all sorts of wonderful abuse. She finds a couple of women who spank her ass and slap her pussy, gently teasing her and enjoying her sweet flesh. When she finds Lea’s hands still bound, Coralie spanks her some more.

There is a really long scene next with Lea being fondled by Coralie as she is worshipped and touched by another woman. It feels like it goes on forever and I’m about ready to smash my TV from the annoying music that is pounding away in my head, but I suppose some people will enjoy it. By this point I just want this long dream to end. Everything is blurring together and unless you’re really into light-fetish, heavy eye candy stuff there is nothing here at all. Watching Lea feed her mistress food is somewhat interesting as foreplay or tease, but as the main course it’s just limp.

Next comes some black and white masturbation footage. Who knows what the fuck is going on any more? The music sounds like the stuff Oliver Stone found too annoying to include in “Natural Born Killers” and anyone who still has a hard on in the middle of this visual mess should probably lay off the Viagra for a while. Coralie mounts a guy and starts fucking, but the sex just feels like a distraction at this point.

It should come as no surprise that the movie ends with a lot more lesbian action. Whenever someone recommends Blake movies for couples, I always wonder if they realize that girl on girl action isn’t always what chicks want to see. I know that a movie like this is going to nothing to improve the romantic or sexual atmosphere around this house. (Not just because the music is bound to give everyone a headache.) They do some dildo play including some action with a strap-on mask. There is some bush trimming, crawling and a whole lot of nods to a whole lot of different fetishes. It goes on and on and on without ever really going any place.

The best moment for me was when the credits finally start to roll. That isn’t to say that this isn’t a good film. It is really nicely shot and the editing is quite impressive. It’s impressive technically that is. Sexually the thing is a mess. If someone wants to look at pretty girls in semi-fetish outfits, then why not pick up a magazine? The problem with Blake’s work is that as still images, it is brilliant, but as soon as the women movie, they are cold as ice. His movies are such a barrage of individual images that they don’t really build up any sort of energy. The women are beautiful of course and you can take almost any shot by itself and see how technically proficient Blake is. This isn’t completely typical of his work though. I found the quick-cut imagery a bit heavy handed and the flow to be way off in this one. He has made some great movies for people who like softer, prettier stuff, but this just isn’t very good. I don’t even think hard-core Blake fans are doing to like this one.