Like his closest US counterpart Andrew Blake, Christophe Mourthé is very much a photographer first and a filmmaker only a very distant second. Both men also share a now de rigueur fondness for fetish fashion already apparent in the work of their most obvious inspiration Helmut Newton, though fortunately Mourthé seems rather less Sapphically obsessed than Blake who no longer bothers to disguise his distaste when shooting the token hetero sex scene for his interchangeable pose 'n' pout girlie shows. In a porn industry increasingly preoccupied with surface gloss, he was bound to be hailed as the Second Coming, complementing an ever expanding dynasty of visual stylists including the likes of Michael Ninn, Cameron Grant and Michael Raven to name but a few of its more accomplished acolytes. His stuff may be eye-popping, none more so than his color-coordinated carnal confection COLORSEX which put him on the movie-making map, but to the already severely bludgeoned sensibilities of a grumpy old-timer such as myself who lived through adult's avowed Golden Age as it was taking place something is most definitely missing...
Occasionally, a flick's title can tell you the whole story and AMAZONESEX pretty much covers the load. Rival tribes of imaginatively attired futuristic female warriors do battle, predominantly from a horizontal position, for the favors of the apparently few men left in the proximity. That's as "deep" as the plot gets, since there's not a single word of dialog or - as with Blake - a breathless voice over to fill audiences in on the scenario's specifics. Just scene after scene of gorgeous girls groping each other which they under the circumstances may label as "warfare" but looks suspiciously like "the love that dare not speak its name" to me. With actresses as scrumptious as superstar Olivia Del Rio (headliner on Alain Payet's atmospheric CARGO), Liza Crawford (from Francis Leroi's fitting farewell film REGARDE-MOI), Ksandra (who co-starred in John B. Root's infinitely superior FRENCH BEAUTY) and especially Katsumi (one of Yannick Perrin's PARISIENNES), who has NEVER looked more breathtakingly beautiful, there should be little cause for complaint from most viewers.
Downside to all the elaborate costumes, apparently inspired by Jean-Paul Gaultier at his most warped, outlandish hair creations and painstaking make up jobs is that it renders the women hard to differentiate, unintentionally robbing them of what makes them distinctive and personable, their voices drowned by the droning techno thump to add insult to injury. If you're watching this on the lavish French DVD from local industry giant Colmax, sole producer of Mourthé's porno output so far, make sure to check out the making of, unfortunately also bereft of dialog though, which goes some way of restoring the actresses' humanity, showing them cuddling and cracking up. Principal stud duties are performed by handsome Ramon, who has added a variety of surnames (here it's "Enrique") throughout his busy career. He was married to splendorous Hungarian actress Léa Martini with whom he had an absolute barn-burner of a scene in Michael Ninn's exceptional DARK GARDEN.
Sexual sequences are lengthy, professionally if not always passionately performed and largely lacking in variation. Mourthé's occupational hazard assures that considerably more attention is paid to the intricacies of composition rather than the carnality taking place within. In at least one instance, this pays off huge dividends however, a side by side Sapphic suck-off that groups all four stars with wild horses stampeding in the not so distant background. Those viewers who were worried about the mention of a horse wrangler in the credits, undoubtedly envisioning Marina Lotar type freak show perversions, can now breathe a collective sigh of relief !
Occasionally, a flick's title can tell you the whole story and AMAZONESEX pretty much covers the load. Rival tribes of imaginatively attired futuristic female warriors do battle, predominantly from a horizontal position, for the favors of the apparently few men left in the proximity. That's as "deep" as the plot gets, since there's not a single word of dialog or - as with Blake - a breathless voice over to fill audiences in on the scenario's specifics. Just scene after scene of gorgeous girls groping each other which they under the circumstances may label as "warfare" but looks suspiciously like "the love that dare not speak its name" to me. With actresses as scrumptious as superstar Olivia Del Rio (headliner on Alain Payet's atmospheric CARGO), Liza Crawford (from Francis Leroi's fitting farewell film REGARDE-MOI), Ksandra (who co-starred in John B. Root's infinitely superior FRENCH BEAUTY) and especially Katsumi (one of Yannick Perrin's PARISIENNES), who has NEVER looked more breathtakingly beautiful, there should be little cause for complaint from most viewers.
Downside to all the elaborate costumes, apparently inspired by Jean-Paul Gaultier at his most warped, outlandish hair creations and painstaking make up jobs is that it renders the women hard to differentiate, unintentionally robbing them of what makes them distinctive and personable, their voices drowned by the droning techno thump to add insult to injury. If you're watching this on the lavish French DVD from local industry giant Colmax, sole producer of Mourthé's porno output so far, make sure to check out the making of, unfortunately also bereft of dialog though, which goes some way of restoring the actresses' humanity, showing them cuddling and cracking up. Principal stud duties are performed by handsome Ramon, who has added a variety of surnames (here it's "Enrique") throughout his busy career. He was married to splendorous Hungarian actress Léa Martini with whom he had an absolute barn-burner of a scene in Michael Ninn's exceptional DARK GARDEN.
Sexual sequences are lengthy, professionally if not always passionately performed and largely lacking in variation. Mourthé's occupational hazard assures that considerably more attention is paid to the intricacies of composition rather than the carnality taking place within. In at least one instance, this pays off huge dividends however, a side by side Sapphic suck-off that groups all four stars with wild horses stampeding in the not so distant background. Those viewers who were worried about the mention of a horse wrangler in the credits, undoubtedly envisioning Marina Lotar type freak show perversions, can now breathe a collective sigh of relief !