Sex City

Studio: Private
Director: Pierre Woodman
Cast: Xenia Lova, Sonia Carter, Aphrodite Night, Reda Semlahen, Alain Deloin, Vince Willis, Diana Gold, Pascal St. James, Philippe Soine, Divinity Love, Titof, Wildy, James Brossman, Bibi Fox, Kevin Long, Natalia Dinov, Rudboy, Justine Ashley, Frantisek Kubic, Nella, Robert Stangler, Gwen, Lucie Ann, Victoria Rose, Suzanne

Portions of this review originally appeared on Fleshbot

In this porn-noir takeoff on Sin City, Pierre Woodman recreates New York via matte shots and fills it with impossibly tasty Euro-hotties and fellas who more closely resemble Frank Miller’s original vision of tough guys than anyone who can catch screen time in the United States.

At well over two hours, this awkwardly dubbed but beautifully shot feature is the first in a projected three-part series.

This movie is made to watch all the way through. Chapter stops on the DVD skip over whole pages of dialogue and several story lines involving the return of a misunderstood criminal who has “erased a lot of smiles”, a contract killer, a police inspector in a coma, a psychopathic son of a Senator, and many more.

With a cast of 25 speaking parts with several dozen more extras, this is a big budget movie with narrative expectations unfamiliar to American audiences (Private is based in Spain and is Europe’s biggest porn company). But the stunted, humorless dialogue that isn’t a good impersonation of American noir is not the reason to own this movie.

The reason is Sonia Carter, Xenia Love, Aphrodite Night, and the several other Baltic pornstresses who perform without Porn Valley’s trademark self-consciousness and air of “I just showed up”. It is the difference between a feature and a gonzo, and the difference between an American feature, with its emphasis on stars, and a European one, which pays more attention to its actresses looking like works of art.

The art is in the pretense of no-body fat escorts wearing colorful lingerie in an otherwise grayscale room. The ten sex scenes, like their counterparts in American porn, don’t advance the plot, but they look very good.

If there were a version of this movie without dialogue it would be perfect, but as it is Sex City is great fun to watch with the sound off.

In the end, that which was added to this porn movie takes away from it. Still, Sex City is a huge achievement.