Adam & Eve's A-team of Nicholas Steele and Kay Stanley delivered another near- classic Couples video with "The Sixth Reflection", a highly erotic vehicle for stars Alexa Rae and Carmen Luvana that is esoteric entertainment for today's audiences, who have lost sight of what porn films used to be capable of achieving. If you're not open to the dreamy, New Age mysticism of the A & E releases of this period you probably should skip it (cf., IMDb's current set of low ratings).
Main stumbling block here might be pacing, a problem for both classical viewers and current audiences. Steele adheres to the current 95:1 ratio of XXX content to story material that pornographers in today's gonzo environment prefer, but the underlying narrative is subverted by the lengthy sex scenes and long delays in advancing the plot. Shooting title was "Reflections" with the "Sixth" referring to the structure of 6 sex vignettes.
Besides the actors, the other main character is the house, a glass edifice with atrium structure that our newlyweds Julie (or Julia Ann as was originally scripted, apparently in hopes of casting the actual Juila Ann) and Gavin, inherited from Gavin's aunt Georgina. The house is filled with mirrors and glass panes bearing cryptic inscriptions in many languages and alphabets (Hebrew letters predominate) creating the effect of those projections we see on almost every CSI styled TV series, anticipating new technology (visually) a decade before it came into play.
As often is the case, Steele & Stanley's collaborators provide much of the style, mood and essence of the show, with Christopher Saint Booth's hypnotic musical score, art direction and costuming plus especially Reenie Varga's mystical voice-over and recitation of love spells that hang over the film turning it into fantasy. Writer Philip O'Toole's crystal clear HDV camera-work is also a major achievement, far better than today's fake trying-to- look-like-film porn.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Crux of the suspense derives from the mysterious Georgina, played extremely sexily by Carmen Luvana before she became a superstar and A & E's number one actress. It turns out that she was not Gavin's aunt but rather his wife, about which he lied to his new bride Julie. And she has cast a spell over the house, entrancing both principals, leading to a delightfully macabre twist ending that is subtle and highly effective -IF you have bought into the supernatural goings on that lead up to it.
Along the way both Gavin and Julie imagine, as if hallucinating, erotic episodes either as voyeur or participant. There is a strange jungle setting (shot in the studio) of masked/hooded figures in fetish gear making love, the male (big-dicked Lee Stone, recognizable under all his gear by his distinctively shaped cock) being dominated by the two femme warriors Flick Shagwell and Lola. Ian Daniels portrays a hunter, returning to home and hearth carrying his trusty axe, who humps the lovely Tommi Rose; Gavin gets it on with undead Georgina; Ann Marie Rios is truly exotic in gold outfit including long golden gloves for super fetish action set in ancient Egypt with Dale Dabone as the Egyptian king; and Georgina seduces her successor Julie.
All this is easy to reject out of hand, as have all the IMDb voters prior to my review. That reaction reminds me of modern audiences' misinterpretation of most of film history -few people other than initiates watch silent films anymore, and when they do fail to get with the program of an entirely different (of necessity) approach to acting and storytelling. Similarly, the great comics of the Golden Age including Bob Hope and Red Skelton have sunk in popularity compared to so many of the current and recent relatively untalented comedy superstars from the age of SNL and Second City.
But if you are open to a different, and for me (as well as anyone else electing to delve back into turn of this century Porn) superior artistic Adult Entertainment world prior to today's vast wasteland, "The Sixth Reflection" is high-quality, hypnotic cinema. Except for his unsuitability in a key dramatic scene, Julian is idealized physical perfection as the duplicitous hero, and both Luvana and the ethereal Alexa (here thankfully spotlighted before she went the pierced-nipples route) are entrancing beauties, far more interesting than today's firmament of superstars and that includes the reliable but oddly down to Earth Julia Ann herself.
Main stumbling block here might be pacing, a problem for both classical viewers and current audiences. Steele adheres to the current 95:1 ratio of XXX content to story material that pornographers in today's gonzo environment prefer, but the underlying narrative is subverted by the lengthy sex scenes and long delays in advancing the plot. Shooting title was "Reflections" with the "Sixth" referring to the structure of 6 sex vignettes.
Besides the actors, the other main character is the house, a glass edifice with atrium structure that our newlyweds Julie (or Julia Ann as was originally scripted, apparently in hopes of casting the actual Juila Ann) and Gavin, inherited from Gavin's aunt Georgina. The house is filled with mirrors and glass panes bearing cryptic inscriptions in many languages and alphabets (Hebrew letters predominate) creating the effect of those projections we see on almost every CSI styled TV series, anticipating new technology (visually) a decade before it came into play.
As often is the case, Steele & Stanley's collaborators provide much of the style, mood and essence of the show, with Christopher Saint Booth's hypnotic musical score, art direction and costuming plus especially Reenie Varga's mystical voice-over and recitation of love spells that hang over the film turning it into fantasy. Writer Philip O'Toole's crystal clear HDV camera-work is also a major achievement, far better than today's fake trying-to- look-like-film porn.
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Crux of the suspense derives from the mysterious Georgina, played extremely sexily by Carmen Luvana before she became a superstar and A & E's number one actress. It turns out that she was not Gavin's aunt but rather his wife, about which he lied to his new bride Julie. And she has cast a spell over the house, entrancing both principals, leading to a delightfully macabre twist ending that is subtle and highly effective -IF you have bought into the supernatural goings on that lead up to it.
Along the way both Gavin and Julie imagine, as if hallucinating, erotic episodes either as voyeur or participant. There is a strange jungle setting (shot in the studio) of masked/hooded figures in fetish gear making love, the male (big-dicked Lee Stone, recognizable under all his gear by his distinctively shaped cock) being dominated by the two femme warriors Flick Shagwell and Lola. Ian Daniels portrays a hunter, returning to home and hearth carrying his trusty axe, who humps the lovely Tommi Rose; Gavin gets it on with undead Georgina; Ann Marie Rios is truly exotic in gold outfit including long golden gloves for super fetish action set in ancient Egypt with Dale Dabone as the Egyptian king; and Georgina seduces her successor Julie.
All this is easy to reject out of hand, as have all the IMDb voters prior to my review. That reaction reminds me of modern audiences' misinterpretation of most of film history -few people other than initiates watch silent films anymore, and when they do fail to get with the program of an entirely different (of necessity) approach to acting and storytelling. Similarly, the great comics of the Golden Age including Bob Hope and Red Skelton have sunk in popularity compared to so many of the current and recent relatively untalented comedy superstars from the age of SNL and Second City.
But if you are open to a different, and for me (as well as anyone else electing to delve back into turn of this century Porn) superior artistic Adult Entertainment world prior to today's vast wasteland, "The Sixth Reflection" is high-quality, hypnotic cinema. Except for his unsuitability in a key dramatic scene, Julian is idealized physical perfection as the duplicitous hero, and both Luvana and the ethereal Alexa (here thankfully spotlighted before she went the pierced-nipples route) are entrancing beauties, far more interesting than today's firmament of superstars and that includes the reliable but oddly down to Earth Julia Ann herself.