Bob Taylor
I have no idea where this film was made (the exteriors suggest Los Angeles, the interiors New York), and no idea who these actors are, except for Mark Pellegrino who played the hit man in Mulholland Drive memorably. The shooting may have taken a week, or perhaps a bit more; this is certainly no prestige production. But for the presence of Catalina Martone (Larranaga) it would be quickly forgotten.Catalina is sensational as the call girl: just hear her stretch out the phrase: "caaal girrrlll" as she taunts the director (Pellegrino) of the silly documentary on the hooker's life. She has the presence of an Angie Dickinson on the screen, even if she lacks the acting ability. The sex scenes go by quickly enough.
dougjn
No spoilers in first three paragraphs. I for one would love to read a review such as this to get a better idea of whether this bit of soft core is really all that special in a way that appeals to me, or not.Catalina Larranaga does indeed have the attractions ascribed to her by the two previous reviewers. I for one don't think she's stunningly beautiful, though she is very attractive in an adult stylishly very cute, flirty sort of way. What's more, she adds up to utterly stunning in her own way. Very intelligent, wonderfully coquettish, always in control but in a playful, beguiling, "having fun together" sort of way. She acts quite French in the sense of that most attractive subset of French coquettes. She knows how to make men's fantasies happen in ways that leave her on top and both sides happy. Does she always want to be a little on top, though not meanly, or is that how she knows it's best to do her highly skilled work? Will she ever release?The erotic works on several different levels in this film. And it's VERY erotic. First it's just wonderfully teasing. It does indeed help get any self pleasuring job done. It is great couples erotica as well. Her body is all natural, and the sex isn't freakish in any way, nor highly athletic. We can all do what she does physically. But it's really hot, not only because she has a fine body, but more because she is a great mental sexual performer. Most of what's especially hot is what she's putting in our heads.Beyond that though it's also a fairly subtle, but also right there in front of us, exploration of the role of control, light but real control and sexual power skillfully exercised, in many sexual fantasies. Here as in so much American erotica, particularly of the soft porn variety, it's the woman who's really in control, while she sometimes makes the man feel he is. But here it is done really engagingly. It's not so bad to have this woman in control. It looks pretty wonderful.Part of how she manages to have such a female fantasy sort of call girl lifestyle, is by being extremely selective in her client base. Every one of her clients whom we see (except one) is someone who looks and acts like an intelligent stud. She is at such a rarefied level of her profession that she can manage to be so choosy and still charge top dollar and get apparently all the business she wants. Well, in real life she probably couldn't demand absolute top dollar and be so tightly filtering, but she probably could get fairly close to it. Part of how she manages to be so selective is by getting a really good crowd trying to get in. She does that by limiting her clientèle to "word of mouth" referrals. Start with a smart high earning stud or two (perhaps with freebies or big discounts first time or two or upon referrals that both meet her standards and become new regulars. All this makes sense - pretty smart way to go, any would be call girls out there. ;-) The movie doesn't actually say all this, but there are hints.But perhaps the most interesting thing about the film is the exploration of the budding infatuation the starting out documentary filmmaker is feeling for her, and which she first claims to be feeling for him – but we're never entirely sure if it's not another act, or partial act. Probably partly true and partly acting, like the rest of how she's arranged her sex life. Like her feelings for clients she kisses warmly and has orgasms with and whose company she enjoys – but never allows herself to feel any clingy attachment. She never allows herself to be swept away.She once was swept away in a marriage to a former client, and it ended in divorce we learn, when he couldn't handle her profession after loving the world traveling high life the two shared apparently as she classily hooked, before their child was born, and then taken from her. We can feel through her playful seduction of the filmmaker (a seduction it appears she can take or leave but would rather take) that she's so special that maybe one could live with her having done this work, especially when she says that this time she'd quit if someone like him helped her leave the life for something else like legit movies that was attractive. But then we wonder if she really would leave it, or anyway having multiple liaisons. She evidently loves the playful power trip and also the sexual variety, if not having no one to truly love or be loved by in her life.And yet we've been induced to feel great attraction for this woman, who is not mean or thoughtlessly hurtful, and we even wonder if we could deal with her work or its less frequent analog without pay continuing to some extent, after we'd fallen mutually in love and moved in together. He evidently decides he couldn't, and that he can't be at all sure she'd really stop. But how much is he still fantasizing about her? His film asks him and he says he isn't, but it's hard to believe. Perhaps WE'LL go on fantasizing about her? No doubt he made the right decision, especially for him, but would everybody? Especially with someone like her who is not going to be submissive to him, though PERHAPS not really dominant either? Just able to get it all while we probably couldn't, really. Not so much anyway, as a beautiful woman always easily can, if she wants to and her mate will let her.It's all pretty intriguing erotic stuff. And VASTLY more intriguing than 90% of the rest of the porn, soft and hard, that's out there.
Badman5
Catalina Larranaga is the best thing to happen to the erotica genre yet. She's got a latin/spanish/mediterranean look with a tight body to match. The plot is about a director making a documentary about a classy call girl (Catalina). He starts falling for her, with every sizzling story she recounts for the screen. The scenes are very good and plentiful, if you know what I mean. Excellent rent.
