Agony Of Ecstasy, The Review

Description
This is a documentary about the making of Kristen Bjorn's Crossroads of Desire. It follows the filming of five scenes, each including 3 or 4 performers, and each taking four days to film. It also includes brief interview questions with 15 of the 16 performers.

General Impression
I have several times heard the advice given to porn fans not to visit a porn set if they want to continue to enjoy porn. It has been said that, "you don't want to see ketchup being made." Near the end of this documentary, Bjorn discusses that idea with some of the performers - "Not everyone wants to see how it's made." "They want the fantasy, right?" "It ruins the fantasy, but it's good for those who want to know." Before seeing this documentary, you can decide for yourself how curious you are.

This movie does provide just about everything you'd want to know about the making of porn. I'd especially recommend it to anyone who is thinking of going into the business, whether male or female, gay or straight.

Although there is soft romantic guitar music playing throughout, beautiful settings, and plentiful nudity and sexual activities, this is not a romantic or particularly erotic movie. In spite of the fact that there are countless cumshots seeping, oozing, and squirting everywhere, much of the movie is about setting up lighting, and rehearsing positions, and hours of wanking to keep hard. It is enlightening, interesting, and somewhat numbing to see the performers lounging together between scenes, stroking themselves absent-mindedly to porn magazines yet again while the crew sets up lighting.

In the interview segments, we learn that the men are from Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Canada, and Argentina. And that quite a few of the guys have jobs as personal trainers or working at gyms, or want to own a gym. Some are strippers, and others turn tricks, among a scattering of other jobs. Various other questions are asked and given brief answers, just enough to give a basic sense of the mens' personalities.

Bjorn spends a lot of time directing the men on how to pose for the action without blocking the camera, eg. to lift ones balls while sitting down onto a dick, so the camera can get a clear shot of the penetration. "Open your eyes, look at each other," he says, followed by, "Move your butt around," and, "Open and close your asshole." Then he approaches to instruct one of the men, "Suck his dick like this, up and down... You can't just leave it in yourt mouth... Suck his balls, but not the way you suck his dick... Would you suck his balls so he can see how it's done..."

The movie provides a sense of how much work is involved in producing one of Bjorn's movies. And we also get to see the still photo shoots, during which the men are cued just before each shot to squeeze their sphincters, raising their dicks in unison. "Again," dicks rise... flash goes off, dicks drop. "Again," dicks rise... flash goes off, dicks fall. Fun stuff!

Extras
The only extras are photos, and a website address.

Summary
Very informative for the curious, it gives a very good look at the making of porn, warts and all. At 150 minutes, it runs long, and its $50 price tag makes it advisable as a rental only.

Please email any questions or comments to me at lindi@my.adultdvdtalk.com