Going Back-to-Back to Safado What kind of self-loving schmuck goes to re-edit a porn movie in order to sell it again?.

Let's leave that question unanswered for the moment, because first I want to talk about John Stagliano and the re-release of "The Challenge" and "Berlin" (those would be the official titles for the sequels of The Fashionistas). The first thing that people should know is that calling the Fashionistas film series, yeap I called them films, porn movies is a mistake. They are not just porn movies. It's true, Stagliano makes porn, but these movies even though feature a lot of sex can't by any chance be called just porn, the thing is, Stagliano has been on the business for nearly 4 decades and besides founding his own company, that would be Evil Angel, he had been making movies all these years. These movies are the perfect example of the way an author tries to accomplish a goal. In the case of Stagliano, and I'm just guessing here, is the expression of human sexuality in the most wild and deviant way, but also free of any prejudice. And not to be lapidary, but The Fashionistas films are in a way a culminating stage of Stagliano's exploration of sex. And when I say culmination by no means I'm saying Stagliano had nothing more to offer, on the contrary. By watching the movies you sense that while he is answering questions he is asking a few more. In the films, Stagliano has poured all the things that makes him tick. That includes a lot of stuff that people normally don't associate to a "porn director" in the more conventional way, things such as the whole world of fetish that is featured more predominantly in the third film (Berlin). Also in the second one (The Challenge) the stage-musical side of Stagliano reveals as you got a peak of what I can only presume is the way The Fashionistas's Vegas Show looks like. But what am I really talking about here?. Well a little background: Stagliano released the sequels to The Fashionistas back in 2006 and 2007, respectively. So what's the point of re-release this movies again? Does Buttman needs more money? Fact: according to the man himself those 2006 and 2007 releases are not the best presentation of the movies. The final edited versions are somewhat rushed to say the least. And in accordance to the liner notes of this re-release, selfindulgence took over and Stagliano opted to keep all the material he shoot but this time he would do a proper edit of the "monster" as he call it. The result? We no longer have two sequels but one now simply called Safado. And although the movie is 8 hours 40 minutes long, this cut is now put together with a real sense of rhythm and closure. It will take you some time to go through the whole thing, but take my word for, it'll be worth it. The other thing that put these movies aside from the rest is the cast. Again, yes,

these performers make a lot of porn on their respective careers but in here Stagliano get a real and raw performance out of every member of the cast. And when you see the names listed the first thing you could think is that this is no different from any compilation movie that you can find in every sex-shop across America. But in here you dont get a poorly selected series of scenes, in here you get a clockwork ensemble of actors and actresses . But more importantly, the cast that Stagliano gathered for these movies are the best of an era. A few of the performers are no longer working on the business (Sandra Romain, Sasha Grey and Melissa Lauren) so in way these movies are as well a culmination, a peak on their respective bodies of work. Unwrapping this new edition of Fashionistas: Safado its a delight in itself. The same kind of passion that went on to making the films is translated to its packaging. When you see the box next to other porn movies, thats when you start thinking that this is no regular movie. But you can say Hey, theres nothing new in that, theres plenty of high budget porn that comes in a so-called special editions box. Well its true, but rarely youll see such dedication of capturing all the preparation and thinking that went on during the making of Safado. The set has plenty of extra material, but there are several of these that can be considered true highlights. First you got a making-of documentary shot by Stagliano that is as immersive as any of his Buttman movies. One of the things that I really like about Fashionistas is that takes you to a world thats real. One of the locations is a real swingers club in Berlin. Nowdays, shoot on location (other than an apartment or a big house, that is) for adult films is something of a rarity. There are a few scenes in the movie that looks like something made up by a production designer, but the true is that Stagliano, as something typical of guerrilla-filmmakers, did a location scouting for several scenes of fetish tease, some of them are filmed on abandoned buildings and youll see that they really benefit from it. These real locations gave the scenes a certain dream-like feeling, in other cases quite the opposite. But you have to watch the movie to know what Im talking about. Besides the making of, you get 4 video commentaries by John Stagliano, Rocco Siffredi, Melissa Lauren and Sasha Grey. But the real special feature of this re-release is the movie on Blu-Ray. The set are 10 discs, but this is a dual-format release. If you want the movie on DVD youve got it, but if the high definition is your thing youve got that too. And with this movie is a real improvement. As the HD revolution becomes stronger the debate turns to the real necessity of shooting sex scenes in that format, because then you have to worry about the so-called imperfections on the actresses. With Safado HD Video is a blessing. This is carefully cinematography-wise conceived film even tough Stagliano decided to shoot the sequel on HD Video (the first Fashionistas was shoot on 35 mm film) the results are superb. When you watch the movie on Blu-Ray, as I did the first time, its almost as if you are watching the tape out of Staglianos camera, not only because of the image

quality but the audio as well. You feel almost in there with Nacho Vidal and Melissa Lauren, you can almost walk among the huge no holds barred orgy in the first half of the film. The other highlight in the extras are two full music cds with the score of the whole movie, composed by Douglas Mariah. Make no mistake this is not your typical annoying and dull porn music. These two discs are the sexy and sometimes haunting score of the film, a music that in some scenes are more than the perfect compliment for the scenery that Stagliano created. Very good indeed, take my word for, I know this, Ive been collecting film scores for years. The package case is impressive in its own right. It's the height of a standard Bluraycase and the discs are carefully placed in two separated book-like compartments. One to the DVD version of the film and the other for the Blu-Ray. The music cds are in the DVD side. In the Blu-Ray set you also have a booklet with extensive liner notes by Stagliano commenting on the making of the movies and the box itself. At the beginning of this review I asked: who would re-edit a porn movie in order to sell it again? Clearly not Stagliano, this is not a double-dip, Im sure there are plenty of people churning out dvds with repeated content on a daily basis. This is the best presentation ever for a kind of work that you dont see that much on the adult-film industry nowdays, a labor of love (both the film and the DVD/Blu-ray). I got my copy from the Evil Angel booth at the recent EXXXOTICA Miami, signed by the man himself (he signed previously, unfortunately I havent met the Buttman), even though I dont know if you can get an autographed copy yourself I would recommend to get the box-set regardless. I put mine next together with the rest of my Blu-ray Collection, it looks good next to the Alien Anthology. Juan Jos Espinoza Journalist