Nina Hartley's Guide to Sensual Domination 1 Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  9/22/2005

20

The Little Details

Running Time: 81 min.

Production Date: 9 / 23 / 2002

Director: Ernest Greene

Cast: Amber Michaels, Chris Cannon, Frank Fortuna, and of course, Nina Hartley

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Nina’s educational releases have been pretty good. I’m looking forward to this one.

Initial Reaction: It’s got a couple nice tips, but it didn’t impress me as much as some of Nina’s other instructional releases.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody curious and nervous about bondage play

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for the dark side of BDSM

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are pretty good. The audio is clear and well balanced for the most part, but there are a couple spots that seem a little hollow. The audio is much the same. The lighting is good, but not the most even, and sometimes leaves the video looking a little tinted. It’s fairly clear, but there are areas that appear a bit too pixelated. As a bondage release the technical aspects are pretty good, but for a mainstream release they don’t get too far above the average mark.

Music: There’s a little music at the start, but that’s about it.

Menus: The main menu is very impressive. It has a very nice design that works together a still of Nina with a bit of the movie. The chapter menu is broken down scene by scene, and lets you choose where to go based on sex acts. Sadly, it doesn’t list the performers in each scene.

The Feature

Nina starts off her domination series covering how a woman can dominate a willing man. She covers the attitude that often goes along with domination as well as it’s emphasis on mutual pleasure, rather than discipline and punishment. It’s about pleasure, not pain, and there’s no room for politics. Nina covers trust issues and the importance of boundaries, as well as the roles not being set in stone. She briefly discusses the costumes, tools, and techniques often used for sensual domination before moving on with a demonstration.

Scene 1 - Nina Hartley and Chris Cannon

When Chris joins Nina on the set, they discuss some of what he likes and dislikes as well as a “safe word” in case he becomes too uncomfortable with what Nina’s doing. She has him stand against a bondage table bare chested with his hands holding onto the bars on each side of it as she kisses her way around his body. Nina continues to kiss and rub her way around Chris’s body while talking about how the man should be treated as she starts to flog him softly. She continues the treatment after having Chris turn back around before letting him worship her ass and stockings. Nina rewards him by sucking his cock and teasing him with her ass, and makes him earn more by letting her watch him stroke his cock. Chris eats and thumbs Nina’s pussy as she lies back for him and straddles his face before pulling off her gloves with his teeth and letting her work a condom onto his cock with her hand and mouth. Chris slowly fucks Nina from behind before giving it to her missionary style. Nina also climbs up and rides Chris cowgirl style before rewarding him by letting him cum as she strokes him off.

This is a pretty good scene with a couple faults. There’s great chemistry between Nina and Chris, and it definitely comes off as being extremely sensual. They take their time moving through the action, and it never feels either rushed or drug out. Nina also does a very nice job of explaining what she’s doing and why. Unfortunately, as a domination scene it just didn’t work for me. It came off as extremely soft, and it seemed a little lopsided by having Nina doing roughly 99.5% of the talking (with a margin of error of 10%) after the introduction. As an instructional scene, I think it would have been much better if Chris would have been able to add things now and then during the scene (with permission, of course) or after he popped. This scene seemed to have way too much emphasis on the “sensual” and not enough of the “domination”.

Scene 2 - Amber Michaels and Frank Fortuna

After Nina’s scene, she gives Amber permission to be dominant with her man Frank. Amber crawls toward the camera with a naughty smile on her face before she’s magically taken to a bedroom set and given a change our outfit. When Frank appears home early from work she decides that he needs a vacation from his responsibilities, and has him polish up her black fetishwear. She teases him with her pussy before allowing him to lick it, and then rewards him with a footjob. Amber also works on Frank’s cock with her hands and mouth, and allows him to eat her pussy as she works on him. Next, she has him put his hands in the right places on the bed canopy as she flogs him before rewarding him with another blowjob. She blindfolds Frank and puts a leash around his neck before having him lick her pussy a bit more and then rewards him by climbing up and riding him in both cowgirls. Amber also lets Frank fuck her ass doggie style and bounces her ass on his cock cowgirl style before he unleashes a great ball burst on her face.

This is a very nice scene. Amber and Frank do a great job of blending the “sensual” and the “domination” aspects of the scene, and keep the action nicely mixed up and passionate. Amber does a great job of staying in control through most of the scene, and I love how she kept things a little darker with the masks and flogging without losing the sensual feel for the scene. I love the anal near the end, as I think it gives the scene another darker edge, but at the same time I think I would have liked to have seen Amber “give it to him” as more of a reward. I’ll admit to having a minor revelation with the facial at the end, as it’s not something a dom would normally like, but at the same time it fits because the roles can reverse quickly and nicely. This is a very nice scene, and I think it showed sensual domination much better than Nina did with Chris.

Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Domination 1: How to Dominate a Man walks what seems to be a fine line between loving sex and bondage, or more closely bondage and “normal” (yes, I hate that word too) couple sex. Perhaps its because of that fine line that it didn’t work overly well for me. Nina does a pretty good job quickly brushing over domination and sex, but the quick look at domination at the start didn’t give the feature a strong start for me because it felt like it was barely touching on anything. It continued fairly weak through her scene with Chris, which did a great job with the sensual aspect but never really captured much of a domination aspect. Thankfully, Amber Michaels and Frank Fortuna were on board as they saved the movie for me. They did a great job showing domination worked into a loving sex scene and enhancing the action rather than making it seem like bondage-lite. Perhaps the biggest fault of the movie, however, was the lack of male input (even though Ernest Greene did write and direct the movie). Neither of the men in the movie made a single suggestion, which I think is a major problem. I think there are a lot of men who would like to be dominated, but with the “male image” they’re afraid to admit it. I think having Frank or Chris talk about their experiences here and why it turns them on may have made many guys more comfortable with talking about it with their lover. I’ll admit that I have no interest in learning to dominate men sexually, but as a man I can comment on how some of the suggestions came across. Basically, after watching Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Domination 1: How to Dominate a Man, I can’t name a single good suggestion I remember from it. Nina says it’s okay, but never lets anybody else add anything to it. Perhaps that’s some of why Amber and Frank’s scene worked so well. Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Domination 1: How to Dominate a Man is a good idea, but it never comes close to being as good as the idea is.

The Extra Stuff

The A-side of the DVD includes a cast listing that gives you a photo of the star when you select their name. There’s also a listing of all of the Nina’s Guides which have been released. Oddly, this is a two sided DVD with the extras taking up all of the B-side. The photo gallery includes about twenty very nice looking full screen photos and snapshots. There’s also a bonus scene, a behind the scenes featurette, and an interview with Nina.

The interview lasts nearly a half hour. Nina starts things out talking about getting her start in the jiz biz before talking about the changes she’s seen during her time in the trenches. She also gives tips for those who are thinking about getting into the adult industry as well as talking about some of her greatest joys being in the industry. Nina talks about some of her own sexual education and experiences, both in general and as related to BDSM. Finally, she talks about her experiences with Boogie Nights and how it compared with working in the adult industry. It’s a very nice interview segment with Nina coming across as articulate as ever. If you’re any kind of fan of Nina Hartley, this interview is definitely a must-see.

The behind the scenes lasts seventeen minutes and looks at the making of Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Domination Parts 1 & 2. Unlike most behind the scenes featurettes, this one’s nicely presented in artistic black and white and the non-anamorphic widescreen format. The camera moves all around the set, chatting with the performers and capturing them as they chat back and forth with each other, Ernest, and Nina. It’s a very nice behind the scenes featurette that does a great job of showing that bondage people aren’t complete freaks. As usual, Ernest and Nina come across as being very into the action they’re trying to teach people about and they both put a smile on my face as they “worked”. My only complaint here is that the audio balance leaves a bit to be desired, as there are many times when the action around what’s happening on screen controls the audio more than what’s on screen. This is another featurette that’s well worth checking out.

Bonus Scene - Nina Hartley and Alex Sanders

The bonus scene comes from Nina Hartley’s Guide to Better Fellatio with Alex helping Nina with a demonstration. She adds a few tips with things such as how to tell when he likes what you’re doing (he’s hard) or small techniques. She also gives a few tips for women who don’t really enjoy cocksucking or for when you’re interrupted by things like the phone, your kids coming in, or a surprise birthday party. She covers most everything for blowjobs from the traditional stereotypical style to mouth fucking to combining the hand and the mouth while also subtly emphasizing the importance of communication during sex. Nina does a great job of combining her narration with her demonstrations and all the time making it look like it’s one of her absolute favorite things to do. She finishes it off with a nice demonstration without the commentary ending up with Alex’s ball butter all over her tits.

This is a pretty good segment. As usual, Nina does a great job with the lecture as well as the demonstration. The biggest problem with it is that it feels extremely dated. The feature was made in 1994, and it definitely feels over ten years old. The technical aspects are just as poor as one would expect with the age of the feature, and definitely doesn’t start the scene off with a good first impression. This is a good segment that would have come across much better if it were cleaned up. As it is, I can’t see it inspiring somebody to check it out.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, instructional, B&D (light), fetishwear, tease, footjob, and anal

Raincoat Factor: Medium high

Condom Usage: Between Nina Hartley and Chris Cannon

The Bottom Line:

Currently, many of Nina Hartley’s educational DVDs can be found online for between about $8 and $25 with several stores offering them for around $15. I’d aim low here. The subject isn’t covered with Nina’s normal depth and the scenes are a little hit or miss. The technical aspects are above average and there’s some nice effort put into the extras. This is a pretty good DVD.

Note to Adam & Eve: Although it’s nice to see you putting the extra effort into your overall DVD, it didn’t seem to be so much that you’d need to go two sided here.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

Other reviews by Astroknight