Ecstasy in Berlin, 1926 (2004) Poster

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8/10
Beautiful and sexy homage to Wiemar Berlin
guitarphil26 February 2008
Maria Beatty presents us once again with her take on the decadence of the Weimar era. A mistress and her slave perform a number of S&M flavoured performances. All of these are exquisitely choreographed with gracefully seductive movement and sometimes erotically vicious acts.

Foot fetishism, bondage and Beatty's trademark pearls all make an appearance. The actresses are beautiful and the costume is certainly convincing with regards to the atmosphere of pre-war Berlin.

Mostly in Black and White to focus on that 30s erotica vibe with touches of colour to add interesting psychological levels. Homage is paid to Anais Nin and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and there are some interesting ideas in how to present erotica in general. As is often the case with erotica/pornography directed by women the performances have a relaxed feel that refuses to be rushed. This in itself can be psychologically arousing.

A lush and beautiful experience marred only slightly by some depressingly bad music in places (stick with Zorn, some of the stuff here sounds awful and cheap).

This left me with the feeling that I had experienced one of the legendary cabaret sex shows of the time. Viva Chris Isherwood.
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All style, no substance
lor_8 September 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I would place this bondage/fetish film in the bucket marked "Sex for art's sake", as filmmaker Maria Beatty demonstrates her advanced sense of style. Not surprisingly, it is as static and tedious as the hackwork of so many bondage videos cranked out by untalented pornographers in what amounts to a cottage industry akin to Class AA baseball compared to the big leagues of mainstream porn.

The languorous Paula Rosengarthen is the blonde beauty who manages to be expressionless in what is almost an expressionistic visual exercise. Initial influence visually resembles Bunuel, especially "Un Chien Andalou" (with a touch of "Beast with Five Fingers"?), but the split-screen and shallow (or even out of focus) imagery is meager. Silent filmmaking drains all the life out of the piece, as even the cliched moans and groans of BDSM porn are missing.

We are left with the butch domme Sovereign Sonya (or Sonya Sovereign, take your pick on her stage name) sporting an hourglass figure worthy of a Gay Nineties heroine. The lesbian sexuality is there, but the Ben Wa Balls climax of her slowly pulling out a long string of pearls out of Paula's pussy in closeup delivering the absolute minimum of hardcore porn content.
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