Good Vibrations Magazine

We traipse into the porn section at the video store looking for a hot S/M video. Instead, we come home with a poorly shot, sexless, unconvincing flick with silicone-stuffed players dressed in awful outfits. What we really wanted was something sleek and sexual, with scenarios like short stories, acted out by actual S/M players wearing real fetish gear, enduring authentic pain and showing genuine devotion. It seems like such a simple thing to deliver — so why is it so hard to find?

Most S/M films come from Los Angeles, home of that deep, introspective place known as Hollywood and center of the universe for plastic surgery, entertainment-by-committee, Disney living in tandem with “Silicone Valley,” and the Baldwin family. So, as viewers, what we get is a giant culture of mixed perceptions and things being done for seemingly mysterious reasons. Filmmaking committees speculate viewers’ desires, in both Hollywood and porn. S/M films contain no sex, even though we watch them because it gets us off, and in Hollywood film only serial killers do S/M — even though (according to Bound to be Free by Charles Moser, Ph. D., M.D.) upwards of 50% of the general population practice some form of S/M. And the Baldwins keep getting film roles, though thankfully, not in porn. Has the whole world gone crazy?

Not the whole world: there are a few S/M filmmakers who are making the films we want to see, in addition to some random gems that crop up now and again. However, because of federal and state pornography prosecution fears, sex in S/M films is even harder to find than a good Baldwin film. You just can’t show someone restrained having sex — to do so invites big trouble, and the result is split genres: films with sex in them, and films with S/M in them. The trick is to ferret out directors who know how damn sexy S/M is, and know how to show it — some do, though don’t expect genital close-ups.

Last year, New York S/M filmmaker Maria Beatty released the film that we fans knew was living inside of her waiting to be born: Les Vampyres. Beatty’s all-female S/M films are a breed apart — they’re dark, eloquently lit, shot on film, showcase real Dommes and delectable submissives, and then go on to make the rounds in international film festivals. With her dramatic lighting, taste for heady feminine S/M themes, and penchant for using black and white film stock, she has the gothic erotic S/M market cornered.

Les Vampyres begins showing a lost, frightened schoolgirl (played by Beatty, herself a lifestyle submissive) who wanders into an unfamiliar neighborhood. Next, she is whisked away into a richly appointed castle, where she awakens to find she is bound securely to a chair. From that point on, she becomes the plaything of two beautiful and squishy Domme vampires, who torture her to their heart’s content. The scenes are stunning to watch as Beatty learns erotic body worship, is beaten, whipped and caned, before being subjected to penetration. In the finale, it’s impossible to look away as plain-Jane Beatty is femmed-up, made over, and then made into one of them.

Ernest Greene knows the truth about S/M — that it’s hot, sexy and when it’s done right you want to fuck like bunnies. In fact, he regularly editorializes on the industry’s foolish attitudes about mixing sex and S/M. His films show us a director who knows a thing or two about S/M, and regularly include women who love their roles and really want to fuck each other. However, the actors are conventional porn stars so be warned that half of them have creepily obvious boob jobs, talon-like fingernails and “perfect” bodies. This is L.A. after all. Regrettable, yet this quickly takes a back seat to real pain and teary-eyed submissive adoration coupled with authentic sexual arousal, allowing us moments of experience that overshadow the actresses’ self-inflicted physical abnormalities.

In 1998 Greene made a few wonderful films with Mistress Midori that contain moments of S/M magic. Somewhere between the direction of Greene and the quiet authority and grace of Midori, a group of L.A. porn actresses transcend their own boundaries — even prompting Greene to register unexpected surprise in interviews after the films’ completion.

Portrait of a Dominatrix is based on a magazine interview with celebrity Mistress Midori, where she recounts in detail the sessions that shaped her training. In this co-ed torture tape, the interviewers and photographers end up as actors in these fictional vignettes, later becoming inspired enough themselves to try out their own sessions. Highlighting the film is plenty of male submission, often at the hands of more than one femme top, with some excellent cock and ball torture and spirited pony-boy training. Midori steals the show at every turn with razor-sharp skills, including whipping, spanking, gorgeous Japanese-style rope restraint and her persona itself used as a weapon of forced servitude. No sex, no genital close-ups, but plenty of sex-charged heat between the players. If you’ve ever pained watching porn actresses’ fumble around faking S/M, then this tape will be like taking yourself out to dinner after weeks of ramen.

The all-female Dark Paradise stars pornstar Shayla Laveaux playing a female fetish artist (ála Eric Stanton) whose fantasies stem from her own drawings and take the viewer through a stunning series of fetish, bondage, domination and S/M scenarios. In them, she becomes like Stanton’s own big-titted Mistresses, enslaving her assistants in elaborate gear, such as the erotic ponygirl session. She also creates the “imaginary” persona of Mistress Midori to whom the lusty lovelies around her succumb to — after they realize that Midori is real. Encounters that can only be described as truly decadent mingle pain and erotic pleasure with breathtaking whipping, caning, ponygirl play and inventive couplings. Though the sound is spotty in places, the tender energy between Midori and her submissives has to be seen to be believed, and the cinematography is beautiful. It’s this energy that makes this film so arousing to watch — you can tell that these actresses are not acting for Midori. Genital close-ups and plenty of vibrating sex toys round out the bill.

“Truly exquisite, moody, artistic, eye-candy” — these words best describe the breathtaking The Art of Bondage 1 and The Art of Bondage 2. Each of these first installments (in the series) contains three stark, simply shot black and white (and some color) vignettes that haunt, arouse, and lull the viewer into a dreamlike erotic state. They’re all shot in high contrast, contain no dialogue (and no fake boobies, either), each scene is put to a hypnotizing soundtrack, and all portray S/M fetishists that one can sense real relationships between. In #1, two stunning women explore feminine dominance, bondage and sensory play; a woman receives intense breast bondage and nipple torture from an anonymous, loving tormentor; lastly, a caring, tender male dominant spanks his female partner. In #2, two women try to please their Mistress to no avail; a chunky babe delights in electrical torment from her male partner; a schoolgirl finds herself in a lot of trouble; and the final scene contains some amazing suspension bondage. Both films have imagery that promises to haunt long after the TV is off, and would make great background visuals for a party. Neither contains explicit, or inferred, sex.

The Ivy manor series promises to bring some of the most polished and perfected lifestyle rubber and latex fetishes to the small screen, peppered with medical torture, whippings, hardcore sensory deprivation and more. Start with Ivy Manor: The Beginning, where we get our first taste of the manor through the wide eyes of a journalist set out to uncover why this home for wayward girls is so… effective. The atmosphere is a glimpse into a world where magazines like Skin Two and Secret have sprung to life; an atmosphere that erotically seduces our little journalist to partake in life’s most extreme pleasures. Inferred sex with no genital close-ups, and contains a mix of natural and not-natural bodies.

There are several reasons why Mistress Cleo DuBois is loved by both our staff and the folks who regularly fill up the S/M classes she teaches at our stores — see those reasons for yourself in her recently-released video, The Pain Game. Two devoted submissives — one male, one female — each gave consent to be filmed during a session with their benevolent Mistress, and the results are electrifying. In scene one, a handsome older gentleman is tortured to his heart’s content and teasingly aroused with Cleo’s expert cock and ball torture techniques; scene two’s female submissive burns with devotion for Cleo as she puts her into the most exquisite, and intricate, harness of piercing needles and rope.

So when you’re out and about, searching for that perfect S/M film, keep these names and titles in the back of your mind: this is in no way a complete list of everything these folks have done, and these people are very busy bees. Happy hunting — and don’t forget your best friend, the fast-forward button.