The Fashionistas

Warning to viewers - this movie is extremely rough and should only be viewed by the most jaded adult fan. A lot of money was obviously spent on this movie but that doesn't make it a great film. Good audio and video, but this will only appeal to the S&M crowd. This movie is also extremely long and would be very difficult to view in one sitting. The actors and actresses are attractive and seem to be enjoying what they are participating in. The acting is pretty good for an adult film but is still well below mainstream. Maybe the sound of Rocco saying "nasty, nasty" will do it for some viewers but not me. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind when I watched this one, though, because everybody seems to be praising this movie.

Definitively the best John Buttman Stagliano film in years. Only to see the performance of Belladonna (new queen of adult films) is worth of it. Great and rough action only for really adult films lovers.Rocco is back as actor and he is good. Also the supporting cast is doing very good, especially Kate Frost and Taylor Saint Clair.Everyone is convincing and enjoy what are doing.Besides is a look to the bondage world but in a soft way: hard but no illegal. And over all the things: here is Belladonna (as say Stagliano in the advertising):¨'the woman with the most incredible sexual abilities I ever see¨ if you wanna know if that is true: watch the film you will be speechless.

John "Buttman" Stagliano makes great porn because he was a porn fan first...and is still a porn fan. He publishes Buttman" magazine (probably the best and most cutting edge out there), runs Evil Angel Video, has starred in an s***load of vids, and has directed some of the best vids still out there. He's proud of his achievements and he continues to push the edge. Thus...Exhibit A: "Fashionistas".

The film (yes, film) is difficult to categorize, but it is an exploration of perception and perversion. It stars the incredible Belladonna, the current Queen of Extreme, and Rocco Siffredi, the Italian actor/director who is a living porn legend. It has a strong Sadism/Masochism bent and, though released under the Evil Angel label, is not the typical Evil Angel product, though EE is not your "typical" porn shingle, either.

Clearly a labor of love for Stagliano, the film is very rough, fetishistic, realistic and psychologically confronting. The sex is as hardcore as it gets with an emphasis on anal.

The lighting and production design are top notch, and Belladonna's performance (as Jesse) is heavy going indeed.

Although I am not an S&M aficionado, I still found the journey itself a very worthy one. Prudes be warned, though.

It is not possible to say how good I thought this film was. It has ruined me for any film of any kind now, not just porn. I am so much in lust for belladonna that it hurts - and I'm female and not gay (not completely anyway :) ) Anyway, if you only see one film, see this.

I'm still trying to get the soundtrack though. It doesn't come in the UK editions. This alone gives an indication of how good the film is.

As a warning, this is not suitable for the faint of heart, and maybe a first timer would be a little overawed - I'm flattened by it and I've had it for about three years now. Still not boring!

In a way, it's a shame none of the other people i it made any impression on me. I just keep thinking about her and her magnificent serpentine body!!!!!!!!

Spoilers herein.

Yes, this is porn, with some real negatives. One of these is its perversion, pretty much all the pain, bondage and fetish you can imagine.

But it is done as a parody. The watcher is being goofed on, tortured for fun. In fact, this is intelligent writing, and may be the only movie which you'll fast forward past the sex scenes to see the real movie.

The setup is a real fashion show of the ordinary variety. It is interrupted by gangsta cows in latex. This, it turns out is a DVD created by the very same gangsta cows.

So right away we have several folded layers:

• an erotic show (this movie) that's been hijacked by deliberately demeaning porn, featuring

• a similar women's fashion show similarly hijacked, within

-two DVD's showing the fetish fashions that are hijacked by the editor, Jesse, who places fetish fantasies that are as far out from those of the gangstas as their prancing is from the world of straight porn (which itself has exactly the same distance from real life).

And the thing is well acted and photographed on film with high production values. If you can stand it and transcend the material, this version of 'Clockwork Orange' will punish you for watching. Its all about the style.

The style that turns out to matter is the 'chameleon' line of clothes that start one way and shift levels.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.