Catherine Review

Studio: Ninn Worx
Director: Michael Ninn
Editors: Stephen Katz & Nan Vega
Year: 2005

Feature Time: 1:59:22

Extras: Preview of Collector's Edition (0:11:39)

Starring:
Audrey Hollander
Nikki Blond
Victoria Swinger
Adriana Rouso
Valentina Velasques

Themes: Feature, Artistic

Single disc edition (screener version)

The much-hyped "Catherine," Michael Ninn's latest artistic work of pornography, has finally arrived. I've been watching the print advertisements for a while, depicting the great redhead Audrey Hollander in some beguiling period costume. Is Audrey supposed to be Catherine the Great, the famous queen of history, or what? In typical Ninn fashion, that question and many more are left unanswered.

The confusing nature of this feature film becomes apparent from the beginning of the movie. Audrey is of course the protagonist of this movie, but in what capacity I cannot ascertain. In the first scene, Audrey is dressed in what looks like some 17th Century period costume with a large Elizabethan collar and velvet dress. Audrey's real-life husband Otto Bauer plays what I guess is supposed to be her husband in this movie as well.

So, Audrey strips out of this costume and does a scene with Otto out on some steps in front of a gothic looking building with stone columns. There's another version of Audrey running around too: a dwarf? dressed in the same costume, flaming red hair, and ghostly white makeup. This smaller version of Audrey pushes around a baby carriage. There's also a naked, obese man present during some of the introduction and scene. What the fuck does any of this mean or represent? Your guess is as good as mine.

Otto verbally abuses Audrey as she masturbates out on the snow covered steps. They do a pretty hot scene including anal, of course. Audrey looks a little strange but still quite attractive in her wild, elaborate hairdo and pale white makeup. The scene is very dream like, with a shot-on-film look and a blurry feel. Was it a dream? Audrey wakes up with Otto in what I assume is the present.

The second scene features Valentina Velasques doing some rough stuff with a bald guy. He slaps her ass and pussy and gets quite rough with her in an aggressive anal affair. This is supposed to be a sort of punishment scene as Audrey looks on and urges the guy to get rougher and rougher with Valentina. There is more energy in this scene and it's better than the previous one, but I still have no clue as to what's supposed to be going on.

The next one of Audrey's (Catherine's?) visions? dreams? memories? involves Nikki Blond and Adriana Rouso outside against a stone gothic building like the one in the first scene. Everything is visually intriguing and artistically done, but I still can't help but wonder what exactly is going on. Also the sex is not particularly engaging due to the dream like feel and constant motion and camera effects.

Euro starlet Victoria Swinger is featured in the fourth sex scene of the film. She is a quite beautiful blonde who does a guy in a quickly moving fuck fest inside what look like castle walls. This was perhaps the highlight of the movie for me as I've never seen Victoria in action before but she proves to be quite nice to look at.

Audrey is back for the final scene of the movie which is a pretty rough copulation with Otto and two other guys. This involves some more verbal abuse and domination by Otto. He calls her names and pulls her by the hair out on the stone steps again. Audrey gets double teamed while Otto looks on in disdain. Audrey gets double penetrated and even does some double anal in this grand finale.

The weird symbols and images return and the movie is finally done. I must say "Catherine" is very visually and aesthetically interesting and is certainly not your average piece of porn. As a feature film it doesn't quite work, however. The viewer is left wondering exactly what's going on. It reminded me of Ninn's other recent attempt at a "rougher" kind of sex, "Neo Pornographia 2." It's nicely done overall, but there's just something missing from the sex scenes. People who are into mixing art with porn will want to give this one a try but it's not the much-hyped movie with universal appeal that everyone was waiting for.

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