Nina Hartley's Guide To Sensual Submission 1 Review

Reviewed by astroknight  on  9/24/2005

The Little Details

Running Time: 80 min.

Production Date: 9 / 16 / 2003

Director: Ernest Greene

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

The Short Story

Initial Expectations: Nina’s educational releases have been pretty good. I’m going into this one with a bit of hope.

Initial Reaction: Although the lecture isn’t nearly as well done as the demonstrations, it’s still a pretty good movie.

Who Should Watch It : Anybody who’s curious about bondage but a little nervous about bringing it into their sex play

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for the darker side of bondage

The Technical Stuff

Audio /Video Quality: The technical aspects are a bit hit or miss, but end up well below average. The audio shows by far the most variation, with some of it coming across nicely clear without background noises while other parts are very hard to hear. During Nina’s scene with Sean I had to crank the volume way up to hear Sean, and even then he was barely understandable over the hiss from the speakers. Sadly, it doesn’t change for Frank and Amber’s scene, which seems horrible with the importance of communication during sex. The video is okay. The lighting varies pretty well, and I didn’t mind some of the darker spots just because of the subject matter. There’s also a bit of minor pixelation, and although I often expect it with bondage releases I don’t expect it from a studio with the resources Adam & Eve has.

Music: None

Disc Complaints: For some reason, this release doesn’t have a full time stamp. This means that although this is an educational release where the viewer may want to jump to specific places in the movie or back up a couple minutes, they can’t do either easily and are reduced to chapter breaks and scanning. With chapters running over a half hour, this is more than a little annoying and I seriously considered docking the overall score a half point because of it.

Menus: The main menu is okay, and blends a still with a bit of the movie. The chapter menu is pretty unimpressive, and lets you choose a scene based on a small clip of each scene and a scene number over the same scene clip that was in the background of the main menu.

The Feature

Nina and Amber start out this instructional feature wearing black and baby blue latex dresses, respectively. Nina starts out talking about the power exchange between partners, the importance of picking the right partner, and the importance of limits. She also covers much of the standard bondage overview she gave in Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Domination 1 as Amber acts nice and submissive for her. Nina talks about the power a submissive really has and how the submissive often controls much of the action. Afterwards, Nina gets dressed while talking about some of her rituals and how she prepares to be dominated before she’s joined by Sean.

Scene 1 - Nina Hartley and Sean Michaels

Sean, one of the top black male actors in the history of adult entertainment, shows up wearing a black latex trenchcoat. Nina greets him respectfully and submissively before introducing him and stating how much trust she has in him after years of working together. She lets him put a collar on him and kneels before him to kiss his shoes. Nina asks what she can do to please him, and he has her open his coat. Sean doesn’t let her remove his coat, and instead has her get back on her knees to kiss her way around his cock. Nina is allowed to suck Sean’s fuckstick without any help from her hands before he has her bend over so he can spank her ass. Sean also gives her a little pussy play, a few licks for her asshole, and teases her with a flogger before giving her a few slaps with it. Sean continues to slap Nina’s ass and work her over with his tongue and fingers as well as teasing her with his cock. After allowing Nina to cum, Sean fucks her missionary style as she lies back on a couch and lets her roll over so he can fuck her ass from behind. Finally, Sean pulls out and stucco’s Nina’s fantastic ass.

This is a very nice scene. Nina and Sean both do a fantastic job with their roles, and you can see that Nina is more than happy to submit to Sean rather than submitting for having a lack of willpower or personal strength. There’s great chemistry between them, and they mix things up nicely. I love how well Nina took the anal from Sean as well as the passionate kiss afterwards. This is a very nice scene that does a very good job of demonstrating the sensual side of submission.

Scene 2 - Amber Michaels and Frank Fortuna

When Frank plops himself down in his chair, he finds a crop on the table next to it. As he gives his hand a couple slaps, Amber arrives with a drink wearing a very nice rubber dress. She gives Frank a little show and chats with him sitting in his lap before getting on all fours and letting him slap her ass with his crop. He strips Amber out of her dress and has her hold the chains on a post as he admires her body and lightly flogs both her front and back while mixing in a little oral attention. Frank rewards Amber by letting her suck his cock before letting her ride him reverse cowgirl style. They mix in a bit more oral before fucking her missionary style, and Amber even gives up the ass doggie style. Finally, Frank pulls out and pops on Amber’s ass.

This is another very good scene with Frank and Amber doing every bit as nice of a job here as they did in Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Domination 1. There’s plenty of chemistry and the darker domination aspect blends very well with the sensual lovemaking feeling that flows between them. They do a nice job of mixing things up through the scene and I was quickly drawn into it. This is a great scene to demonstrate sensual domination.

Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Submission is a pretty good instructional release. Unlike most of Nina’s instructional releases, its strength doesn’t lie in the lecture but in the demonstration scenes. That isn’t to say that the lecture’s bad, as it does have some good things about it, but it comes off as very limited with Nina being the only person who gives advice on the subject throughout the entire movie. This leaves her scene with Sean and Amber’s scene with Frank to really show off the subject, and they both do it very well. The sensual and the domination sides of the scene work together in both scenes rather than fighting with each other, and my only complaints with the two scenes is that the camera angles are a bit limited at times. Sadly, the demonstrations are the only time you see the guys in the movie too. I think Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Submission would have been a much stronger release if Sean and Frank were allowed to talk about what turns them on about a submissive woman, and what they very much like and dislike about different things a submissive woman might do. That lack of depth holds back Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Submission from where it might have gotten, although nowhere near as badly as the poor audio quality. Nina Hartley’s Guide to Sensual Submission is a decent instructional release that I’d recommend to people interested in it despite its faults.

The Extra Stuff

In addition to a listing of all of Nina’s Guides, there’s a cast list that gives you a photo of the star after choosing their name. The cast list seems almost like a joke, and seems like it would have been much better if it would have been worked as a bio or as an Adam & Eve filmography. The photo gallery contains about twenty very nice looking snapshots. There’s also a behind the scenes featurette and weblinks.

The behind the scenes featurette lasts twenty minutes and is presented in classic black and white. Amber starts things out in the makeup chair talking about being hungry and horny before running outside after bumming a smoke. When she returns, she lets Ernest help her get dressed as he marvels at the joy of working in a space that he recently painted. Nina shows up for a little bit before testing out a serious love swing and playing around with Amber a bit. The next day’s worth of footage starts focusing on Ernest before Sean Michaels arrives showing the class that always seems to go with his name. There’s a very nice conversation between Sean, Nina, and Ernest about the movie followed shortly afterwards by a talk with Nina sitting in Sean’s lap that seems like a borderline interview. Sadly, it’s cut off in the middle feeling like there’s much more to come. With the exception of Nina and Sean’s chat being cut off, this is a very nice featurette. It shows a very good feeling around the set as well as a lot of class among Nina, Ernest, and Sean. There’s some nice depth added to the DVD with this featurette, but more than anything it adds a very nice feeling that makes you feel like when you watch the movie you’re watching a bunch of good people who love what they’re doing. It’s a feeling that I wish more adult films gave me, or for that matter, just entertainers in general.

The Down -n- Dirty Sex Stuff

Themes: Straight, instructional, B&D, inter-racial, rimming (male > female), spanking, and anal

Raincoat Factor: High

Condom Usage: Between Nina Hartley and Sean Michaels

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. This one’s worth a rental or the low end if you’re interested in the subject. There’s an okay lecture and two very nice scenes to demonstrate the sex. The technical aspects are on the weak side, and although there is some effort put into the extras, it isn’t as much as I normally expect from Adam & Eve. This is an okay DVD that had the potential to be a lot better.

Note to Adam & Eve: The technical aspects in this series have been quite the roller coaster ride. I hope they don’t sink any further than they did here!

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

Other reviews by Astroknight