A lonely escort is recruited by a powerful business woman to leave the call girl life behind and join her empire.A lonely escort is recruited by a powerful business woman to leave the call girl life behind and join her empire.A lonely escort is recruited by a powerful business woman to leave the call girl life behind and join her empire.
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Campy lesbian soap opera -by accident?
My local cinema in Chelsea has Hedda Lettuce the drag queen introduce weekly camp classics (Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, etc.) for an adoring gay audience. If the lengthy XXX scenes were shortened, Girlsway's "Business of Women" would make an ideal booking for its campy scenes and acting.
That probably wasn't the goal of pornographers Bree Mills and "Stills by Alan", who identify this endless opus as "porn noir". They and their actresses (asked about film noir in the BTS short subject on the DVD) don't know what the film noir of the '40s is all about - you won't find the low-key lighting, or black & white visuals, or self-divided protagonists, or even any men in this baby. Just catty women, all portraying prostitutes or ex-prostitutes. Noir featured some of the greatest femmes fatales of all time but is hardly amenable to an all-female-cast approach, especially when domination/submission (and flipping the roles) is what these auteurs are interested in.
So I enjoyed the nearly 4-hour show for perhaps the wrong reason, but certainly the lesbian sex scenes are arousing -the real reason it exists. Led by India Summer, fine as always in a domineering role, the talent is not at fault. Major problem, assuming our duo behind the cameras really were serious about noir, is their decision to have strictly improvised dialogue. That works in their myriad vignettes cranked out for various lesbian-oriented porn websites, but for a feature letting the actresses wing it is a no- no.
As a result, often the cast, even great improviser Summer, spell out the plot and its twists so explicitly (and without style or nuance that is after all why screenwriters still exist) that an audience can only respond with either "duh!" or laughter. Hitting the nail on the head is not what's taught in Screen Writing 101, but like the majority of current pornographers, and especially the most successful ones, Alan and his partner want to be graded on "hot sex" and "stylish shots", not on dramaturgy -hence the iron rule of gonzo over 21st Century Adult Entertainment as contrasted with the "real movies" goal of the Golden Age.
Film opens in Las Vegas, where the pilot for this six-part series was shot. (A shorter prequel minus Summer is also in circulation, and which I will be reviewing anon). Central character is actually porcelain beauty Samantha Rone, a porn actress who one immediately reacts to in the manner of "what's she doing in porn?", but of course she's happy and successful so that's what matters. She's an escort and Ms. Summer is her surprise client, not the usual rich businessman fancying himself as the next Richard Gere.
Against a night panorama of Vegas outside the hotel window, they make love with Rone the slave, collar and all. Mood is like a Skinemax late night soft-porno but with explicit fingering, etc. as content. Summer offers Rone a job as personal assistant, and the stage is set for XXX "Devil Wears Prada" action.
Main thrust of Mills' story outline is a war between Summer and her former assistant Vanessa Veracruz, who is now a rival with her own call-girl service, seeking to topple Summer's empire. In mainstream we currently have the TV series "Empire" with Taraji P. Henson executing this type of retro-plotting quite well, but Veracruz's over-the-top styling and acting would have been more entertaining if the auteurs had pushed it further into Carmen Miranda territory instead of thinking she is merely sexy and not amusing. In a Brit porn remake, Veracruz would undoubtedly be played by Jasmine Jae, who brings the required edge to her acting.
Key to the scheming (and featured prominently in the prequel) is Charlotte Stokely as Summer's catty current assistant/slave, balking at the need to train her replacement Rone. Again, the double-dealing and infighting is too obvious and poorly improvised to carry any weight or impress the viewer accustomed to real soap opera dramatics. For sheer porn value, the other key protagonist is Abigail Mac (3rd member of the prequel triumvirate opposite Stokely and Veracruz), whose beauty and big chest have catapulted her to the top of the heap among porn's current starlets.
Thrown in the mix and given top billing in the opening credits is Girlfriends Films' jail- bait icon Shyla Jennings, at age 30 still playing underage roles (it's in the genes). She's no stranger to camp, as witness her apotheosis in the two "Poor Little Shyla" features, but is the least interesting character this time.
Predictable finale of the cast assembled and a victor in the battle of the bosses declared makes little sense as the directors merely want to mix and match the cast sexually and throw in some extremely lightweight BDSM. Film's ritual of a special, almost ceremonial presentation of elaborate dog collars as the sign of submission is all well and good, but Mills' non-script never addresses the inherent contradictions of the "freedom of submitting" philosophy that underpins these B&D exercises. "Business of Women" is built around the notion that in every sub their is a dom waiting to break out and take over - completely subverting (unintentionally) the cockamamie cult behavior on view. If being a sub were all it's cracked up to be, there would be no conflict or rebellions in these all-girl relationships.
Alan is enthralled and proud of his picture-postcard style of visuals, especially for boring transition shots, so perhaps his absurd moniker (even Mills calls him Stills by Alan when talking in the BTS) fits after all.
That probably wasn't the goal of pornographers Bree Mills and "Stills by Alan", who identify this endless opus as "porn noir". They and their actresses (asked about film noir in the BTS short subject on the DVD) don't know what the film noir of the '40s is all about - you won't find the low-key lighting, or black & white visuals, or self-divided protagonists, or even any men in this baby. Just catty women, all portraying prostitutes or ex-prostitutes. Noir featured some of the greatest femmes fatales of all time but is hardly amenable to an all-female-cast approach, especially when domination/submission (and flipping the roles) is what these auteurs are interested in.
So I enjoyed the nearly 4-hour show for perhaps the wrong reason, but certainly the lesbian sex scenes are arousing -the real reason it exists. Led by India Summer, fine as always in a domineering role, the talent is not at fault. Major problem, assuming our duo behind the cameras really were serious about noir, is their decision to have strictly improvised dialogue. That works in their myriad vignettes cranked out for various lesbian-oriented porn websites, but for a feature letting the actresses wing it is a no- no.
As a result, often the cast, even great improviser Summer, spell out the plot and its twists so explicitly (and without style or nuance that is after all why screenwriters still exist) that an audience can only respond with either "duh!" or laughter. Hitting the nail on the head is not what's taught in Screen Writing 101, but like the majority of current pornographers, and especially the most successful ones, Alan and his partner want to be graded on "hot sex" and "stylish shots", not on dramaturgy -hence the iron rule of gonzo over 21st Century Adult Entertainment as contrasted with the "real movies" goal of the Golden Age.
Film opens in Las Vegas, where the pilot for this six-part series was shot. (A shorter prequel minus Summer is also in circulation, and which I will be reviewing anon). Central character is actually porcelain beauty Samantha Rone, a porn actress who one immediately reacts to in the manner of "what's she doing in porn?", but of course she's happy and successful so that's what matters. She's an escort and Ms. Summer is her surprise client, not the usual rich businessman fancying himself as the next Richard Gere.
Against a night panorama of Vegas outside the hotel window, they make love with Rone the slave, collar and all. Mood is like a Skinemax late night soft-porno but with explicit fingering, etc. as content. Summer offers Rone a job as personal assistant, and the stage is set for XXX "Devil Wears Prada" action.
Main thrust of Mills' story outline is a war between Summer and her former assistant Vanessa Veracruz, who is now a rival with her own call-girl service, seeking to topple Summer's empire. In mainstream we currently have the TV series "Empire" with Taraji P. Henson executing this type of retro-plotting quite well, but Veracruz's over-the-top styling and acting would have been more entertaining if the auteurs had pushed it further into Carmen Miranda territory instead of thinking she is merely sexy and not amusing. In a Brit porn remake, Veracruz would undoubtedly be played by Jasmine Jae, who brings the required edge to her acting.
Key to the scheming (and featured prominently in the prequel) is Charlotte Stokely as Summer's catty current assistant/slave, balking at the need to train her replacement Rone. Again, the double-dealing and infighting is too obvious and poorly improvised to carry any weight or impress the viewer accustomed to real soap opera dramatics. For sheer porn value, the other key protagonist is Abigail Mac (3rd member of the prequel triumvirate opposite Stokely and Veracruz), whose beauty and big chest have catapulted her to the top of the heap among porn's current starlets.
Thrown in the mix and given top billing in the opening credits is Girlfriends Films' jail- bait icon Shyla Jennings, at age 30 still playing underage roles (it's in the genes). She's no stranger to camp, as witness her apotheosis in the two "Poor Little Shyla" features, but is the least interesting character this time.
Predictable finale of the cast assembled and a victor in the battle of the bosses declared makes little sense as the directors merely want to mix and match the cast sexually and throw in some extremely lightweight BDSM. Film's ritual of a special, almost ceremonial presentation of elaborate dog collars as the sign of submission is all well and good, but Mills' non-script never addresses the inherent contradictions of the "freedom of submitting" philosophy that underpins these B&D exercises. "Business of Women" is built around the notion that in every sub their is a dom waiting to break out and take over - completely subverting (unintentionally) the cockamamie cult behavior on view. If being a sub were all it's cracked up to be, there would be no conflict or rebellions in these all-girl relationships.
Alan is enthralled and proud of his picture-postcard style of visuals, especially for boring transition shots, so perhaps his absurd moniker (even Mills calls him Stills by Alan when talking in the BTS) fits after all.
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- Also known as
- Negocios de mujeres.
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- Runtime3 hours 5 minutes
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- 16:9 HD
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