Castings 15: Anita's First Time Review

Reviewed by Nat Hocken  on  9/21/2003

I like porn, but when I watch the “Castings” movies I can’t help rooting for chicks who tell Pierre Woodman that they aren’t interested in doing what he wants them to do. They’re the underdogs, after all. And because Woodman occasionally includes a failure in his movies, their segments are far and away the most dramatic. Yet as Woodman himself points out, all the girls tell him that at first; certainly it’s a constant refrain in this film. So it’s the most reluctant chicks who are the most interesting, and no one here, in “Castings 15,” is more reluctant than Anita, an 18-year-old blonde who claims to be a virgin. So powerful is our desire—let alone our willingness—to suspend disbelief that I was mentally urging Anita off the bed and out the door despite knowing full well that the subtitle of this particular film is, “Anita’s First Time.”

Let me tell you a little bit about Anita’s first time. This cute blonde who is morphed into a sexy vixen by the covershoot photographer begins by saying she wants to be a film actress. Her excitement is obvious when Woodman tells her he makes films and asks if she’d like to work with him and do movies. Yes, Anita says, “as long as they’re not erotic films.” Point for her. When the director tries to sell her on the fun and travel that go with the job, she replies, through Nikita, Woodman’s interpreter, that she can go anywhere in the world she wants without having to get undressed. That, my friends, is a slam dunk—no way this chick is hanging around.

She does, though. And Woodman sees through her big talk. What you mean, he says, is that you could go anywhere you want IF you become an actress. Anita doesn’t deny it. Point for Woodman. The simple fact that she’s still there listening to Woodman’s line evens the score. (Woodman’s pitch includes the following gem, thrown at Nikita: “Tell her she can become an actress in traditional films through this….It’s true,” he says to Anita. “You don’t believe me?”)

Anita’s segment contains two significant cuts. The first one occurs after this initial interview. We return to the scene with Anita still on the bed and with blazer off. She agrees to show Woodman her body. She will not, however, assume the director’s signature doggy position on the bed. A little more talk and then—the second cut. Now Woodman himself is nude. He sits Anita on the bed, kisses her, and eats her pussy. How these changes in attitude were brought about, we aren’t allowed to see. What we do see is quite ridiculous: Woodman eats her, screws her in several different positions, pokes a couple of fingers in her ass, then fucks her anally, finishing things off with a facial. I say ridiculous because this all comes off as the porno version of a Virgin/Whore scene rather than the real thing, leaving me wondering how much of this segment was scripted, or if it all was. And if it was scripted, what does that say about the other girls’ performances and the issue of Woodman’s veracity?

Six other girls perform in the film. One of the prettiest, Zana, comes last, but she’s got splotchy skin so maybe it was Woodman’s decision more than hers that she isn’t featured in any photoshoots or film clips. The others are cute to reasonably attractive, they’re all young, of course, and all but one are ultimately double-penetrated. Brit chick Roxanne Hall takes on three guys in a photoshoot, but never gets double-dipped; she does, however, take all three facials. The best video action in the movie is a “backstage” scene with Oailany, a naturally big-boobed Indian girl who was adopted by Belgian parents. The scene, during which verbal directions and other chatter are flying off-camera, is a four-way deal, and the other chick, whoever she is, is a babe. Regrettably, despite saying in her interview that she likes girls, especially during threesomes, Oailany and the other chick never touch each other. (I have to wonder why one of Woodman’s standard questions is whether or not the girl likes being with other girls when the clips so rarely depict such action, even when the girls are willing.)

The most interesting thing about the “Castings” films, so far as I’m concerned, is the interviews. Most of the sex action, here especially, is of the photoshoot variety and by nature these aren’t particularly dynamic. (One of the guys, after delivering a facial, walks off the set as though it were all in a day’s work, and he’s had better days.) And the interviews are interesting mostly because they appear to be real. After watching Anita’s scene, however, I’ve about lost interest in these, as well. Sure, some of it’s real, but I don’t like to have to guess how much or which parts.