Barcelona Sex Project (2009)
Director: Erika Lust
Studio: Lust Films of Barcelona
Cast: Silvia RubÃ, David Galant, Irina Vega, Joni La Paz, Dunia Montenegro, and Joel Acosta.
Language: Spanish with subtitles: Spanish, English, French, German
*My apologies for a seriously long review. I guess I had a lot to say!
I’ve heard a lot of talk about Lust Films after the director Erika Lust’s first project, “Five Hot Stories for Her” won the Best Movie of the Year at the Feminist Porn Awards last year. So, naturally, I’ve been hoping to review one or both of her films myself. Thank you to Blowfish Video for sending me the new North American release of “Barcelona Sex Project“, Lust’s latest film.
To premise the film, I think it is important to address the filmmaker Erika Lust, to give a bit of background about her and her motivations as a filmmaker. In the ‘making of the film’ documentary, Lust talks about being a modern urbanite feminist and how she was always very turned-off by regular porn made by men. She discusses the tacky scenarios, the stereotypes, the misogynous elements and generally bad filmmaking in mainstream porn, which are all accurate criticisms. However, she does put a lot of emphasis on male filmmakers here, which for the most part is likely true, but it comes off sounding a bit sexist. If she has ever seen Tony Comstock’s films, she doesn’t reference him there, even though he is a fabulous male filmmaker doing the very thing she is doing in Barcelona Sex Project and has been doing it much longer. So, while her judgments are mainly accurate, I wouldn’t say they are completely fair.
Lust continues, saying that women have not been getting credit as filmmakers and creators of porn, and that she is a part of a new age of independent filmmakers (women) who are creating films that that express female desire. This is also true. However, there is a history of women filmmakers (albeit short) making porn such as Candida Royalle, Annie Sprinkle, and Nina Hartley, to name a few, all who are creating their vision of what female desire is, at least to them. So, this stance is a tiny bit arrogant on Lust’s part, as it is important to acknowledge the female pioneers who first broke the boundaries of adult filmmaking to give new age women filmmakers that creative freedom. And, then there are all the independent avant garde female filmmakers like Maya Deren-the Mother of Experimental Cinema-to take into consideration as well. So, while she may feel she is breaking new ground, she is certainly not the first to do what she is doing.
“Barcelona Sex Project” is a pseudo-documentary of six people (three men, three women) with each “subject” having three parts: the interview, video diaries shot by themselves, and a masturbation scene. It is an interesting concept and has both good and poor elements. The interviews and sex scenes are shot in a minimalist white studio, whereas the video diaries are shot on different locations, depending on the subject.
I have to say that, visually, the minimalist background worked well by making the subject the main focus of their environment. However, this also detracts from getting to know the subjects in their own personal milieu, which lends much to the intimacy that is created on film. After watching the third interview, I felt like the people were blending into one space, even though each individual is very different. Also, Lust gets them to sit on these high stools that look really uncomfortable to be interviewed in. They look as if they are “put on the spot” and being interrogated rather than having a comfortable intimate conversation and this caused a bit of tension for me.
The video diaries may have compensated for the lack of personality in the minimalist studio environment, and contrasted well with it, if there were more of it in each portrait. But, this footage is sparsely interspersed with the interviews, and you only catch glimpses of the subject’s personality through these clips. For some of the subjects it worked better than others.
The background also works well for some masturbation scenes, and not well for others. But, I will discuss this more through each individual portrait.
Scene 1- Silvia Rubà is an alt-goth girl with tattoos and piercings, a bit of a rebel type who wants to be a rock star even though she and her start-up band don’t know how to play music. She begins by saying she is “drop-dead-gorgeous” and while she has a pretty face and nice tattoos, I think she is a bit overconfident in her youth. She masturbates in a white retro-style chair which looks to me very hard and uncomfortable, although visually appeals to the scene. The performance is not bad, but nothing memorable either, except she seems rather self-conscious of the camera at the end of the scene.
Scene 2- This is my favorite scene in the film. David Galant is pretty hot in a boy-next-door kind-of way. Casual good looks, hot hard body. He likes to walk his dog on the beach and cook. His scene is very cool as he is set up on Japanese style mats and he gives the impression of being totally comfortable and at home in his surroundings. I love how he rubs his body like a lover would with his own hands-this is very erotic-before beginning to play with his penis. David totally gets into the masturbation session and you don’t really feel that the camera is there watching him at all, as all your focus is on him. He is slow and sensual and it was fascinating for me to watch a guy masturbate by themselves, with no visual or other stimulation, just their own imagination with their eyes closed. Super hot scene that really stands out in the film.
Scene 3- Irina Vega is a bit of a shy computer geek who creates websites for adult porn stars. She is not extraordinary looking but cute with sad eyes. She does have a very nice lean body and her masturbation scene is fairly hot despite her seeming so shy. First she plays with a vibrator, the Late Late from Late Chocolate, which is a luxury sex toy company like Lelo and JimmyJane in Barcelona. Later she turns around on her knees and sticks her ass out and masturbates that way, which looks a bit like a typical porn pose to me, although it doesn’t look forced. Her scene is pretty good, but, regrettably doesn’t get me off.
Scene 4- We then have Joni La Paz, a young guy who works as an electrician at the airport. Joni has a very cool velvety bean-bang vulva-shaped chair that I just loved and want! It looks very comfortable as he relaxes back into it and begins his masturbation scene. He is a very quiet masturbator, but you can tell his emotions by his facial expressions and body language. Plus, he starts breathing hard about half-way through. All the time watching him, I kept wondering what he was imagining with is eyes closed and his face twitching, wishing I could share his deep erotic fantasy with him. In this case, and in the others, it could have been a cool afterthought to interview the subjects after their scene and ask them what they were fantasizing about? He-like all the men in the film-has a perfect hardcore body, very short military-style hair cut and Brazilian shave, which I guess is the thing in Barcelona. He comes on his hard muscled stomach and chest, and the come looks like drops of shiny pearls on his tanned skin. Hot!
Scene 5- Dunia Montenegro is from Brazil, has a dark complexion, and is petite but voluptuous, just my kind of girl. She is very girly and wears a sweet little dress as she shakes her tush, showing the camera a few of her dance moves. She is a bit older than the previous 20-somethings, which I like, as her maturity adds to her confidence which makes her even sexier. Plus, she’s openly bisexual and talks about what she could do with Angelina Jolie’s lips. Yum! She masturbates with the Onye Vibromasseur and really gets into it, climaxing in a screaming orgasm (sorry, pardon the pun). Definitely, this is the hottest girl scene in the film.
Scene 6- The final scene features Joel Acosta, a male dancer/stripper. Again, like the other guys, hot body. The video diary shows him stripping at the club where he works which is pretty cool and the highlight of this scene. His masturbation scene features a hard wooden bench that is not long enough for him to lie on (his feet hang off quite bit) and a mirror. It’s supposed to look like gym I guess, since he works out a lot? He looks very uncomfortable the entire scene, fidgets positions, and the scene looks very staged. In fact, I’m sure he is directed into various positions, as they show a bit of the pre-scene with another guy sitting in for him in some of the same positions. He ends masturbating standing in front of the mirror and you can guess where his ejaculation goes. So, kind of a bit contrived and predictable.
Barcelona Sex Project is a fairly long film (much like this review). It has some great aspects as well as some parts that didn’t work so well. I’d say the good outweighs the poor elements however, and if you’re a girl who wonders what guys do when they jerk off, this is a must-see just for that alone. I found myself utterly fascinated by the guy’s scenes and very turned on, which I didn’t expect. It did get nominated this year at the Feminist Porn Awards, but only got an honorable mention, which I think mirrors my own thoughts about the film. Good, but not great, but worth looking into.
You can watch the trailer of “Barcelona Sex Project” at Blowfish Video where you can also buy the film.
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