Mr. Pink's Blog

Suze in the Afternoon

It’s not often that the worlds of pornography and intelligent, arthouse cinematic fare cross paths, but one particular French film of the ’70s played a small but crucial role in the development of one of porn’s most enduring talents.

The blonde woman in the above image from Eric Rohmer’s 1972 masterpiece Love in the Afternoon is none other than famed pornographer Suze Randall. Born in Worcestershire, England in 1946, Randall started her professional life as a nurse but soon turned to fashion modeling and taking erotic photos of her model friends in her spare time. In 1972 Randall landed a role in the newest film from Rohmer, a French critic, novelist, and filmmaker who had found international recognition three years earlier with his Academy Award nominated film, My Night at Maude’s. In the film, Randall plays the au pair of bourgeois couple in the midst of a crisis of fidelity – for the husband Frederic at least. Randall’s character, of course, makes things even more difficult for Frederic by waltzing around sans clothing as she prepares for a day caring for his family.

So, yes, for those with a question they’ve been dying to ask, Suze Randall does appear nude in Love in the Afternoon. And, no, I’m not going to show you. For that (and a profound meditation on fidelity, morality, and manipulation) you’re just going to have to buy, rent, or steal a copy of Love in the Afternoon and see it for yourself. (Well, either that or… Mr. Skin?)

As more and more adult entertainment companies strive to reach viewers in a more “cinematic” way, it’s good to remember that there are trailblazing cross-over successes like Suze Randall still churning out great work. Suze Randall’s work can, of course, be seen at her website, Suze.net.

Left High and Dry

Dear Missy Pink,

Our daughter just moved out of the house for college, my wife is suffering from the empty nest syndrome, as well as no sex drive! I have wined and dined her, only to be told that she’s 40 years old now, those days of hot wild sex are a thing of the past. I’m not ready to put it behind me yet, maybe a woman’s point of view can help me over this horny hurdle?
Left High and Dry

Dear Dry;
Well, I have good news and not so good news for you, depending on how you look at it. The positive being, you’re not the only man that suffers from a lack of lust in the bedroom over this very issue, and the more negative angle stems from the fact it may take some work on your part to help her overcome….to cum.

Many times women basically leave their life behind as they bring a family into the world, they become a cook, housekeeper, doctor, financial wizard, and everything but a youthful, seductive woman. The causes soon take over and then suddenly when everyone is grown and gone, they don’t know what to do with themselves, they feel old and will act accordingly.

Your job, should you choose to accept it, bring back that wild tigress that slid across your sheets many years ago, with thighs open and eyes twinkling at the prospect of hot, hardcore sex with you. Sometimes marriage can put a damper on the excitement, suddenly you’re in bed with a relative. Take plenty of time with foreplay, not just the touching of her body, but the stroking of her mind as well. Tell her how much she turns you on, bring her flowers, share pillow talk, show her the advantages of having the house all to yourselves, make her realize you are turned on by being married to a MILF.

Make your moans loud, let actions speak louder than words. When the lights go off, turn the charm on. Hold back on your own masculine desires until she experiences multiple orgasms, she will indeed feel like not just A woman, but YOUR woman again, and she will be eager to feel you penetrating the area that will join your bodies and hearts.

Oh, and as a gentlemanly gesture, you be the one to get up and get a warm washcloth, bring it to her and then slide it up the inside of her thighs slowly…who knows, the terrycloth temptation may have her in the mood for round 2!

James Deen as James Dean

When James Dean took the starring role in the now iconic 1995 film Rebel Without a Cause, nobody had any idea that he wouldn’t live to see the films premiere, dying in a car accident one month before its October 27 release date. The public would embrace his character, Jim Stark, as emblematic of the fifties’ trouble youth culture stripped of its innocence in the years after World War II. Dean would go on to solidify his status as an immortal heartthrob, even amidst rumors of his bisexuality and affairs with both costar Natalie Wood and director Nicholas Ray (who also allegedly had a tryst with Wood). Now, thanks to renaissance man James Franco, the behind-the-scenes romps that rocked the Rebel set are being presented in very, very explicit detail.

No, a ’55 Natalie Wood and James Dean-starring sex tape hasn’t surfaced; Franco has just turned to his friends in the porn industry to recreate an imagined encounter between the two Hollywood legends. Presumably cast not just for his name, but also for his sensitive heartthrob status in the adult industry, James Deen finally had a chance to play his namesake in a hardcore flick. Heather Vahn, a vastly underrated performer, plays Natalie Wood and the two get it on in thoroughly hardcore fashion, bringing the backstage tryst to life.

What’s the point? Is this another Axel Braun-directed porn parody? Nope, it’s another of Franco’s art exhibitions, though this time he is ably assisted by Douglas Gordon, Harmony Korine, Paul McCarthy, Terry Richardson, Ed Ruscha, and Aaron Young, who all contribute artistic odes to the era-defining American film.

Those interested can head on over to LA’s MOCA and see the works in person. The exhibition, simply titled ‘Rebel’, runs until June 23rd and will be followed by a book release of the same title.

The Kickstarting of Misty Beethoven

Now that the HD format wars are well and truly over – how about a hand for the victor, Blu-Ray – you might think it’d be a cinch to release the unquestionably classic and culturally significant adult films that, throughout history, have closed to gap between niche hardcore porn and sexually-oriented mainstream acceptance. One such title, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, a hardcore adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, is on the verge of seeing a High Definition home video release, but it needs your help!

Produced and directed by adult cinema icon, Radley Metzger, The Opening of Misty Beethoven was one of the handful of hardcore films that approached mainstream acceptance in the sexually adventurous ’70s and now, thanks to the efforts of New Jersey-based film preservation and restoration company, 435 productions, Misty Beethoven is very nearly ready for her HD debut. Over at Kickstarter, the crowd funding website used by everyone from acclaimed musicians wishing to be free of record company restrictions and guidelines to aspiring cinema auteurs to robotics engineers intent on bringing the future to 2012, 435 productions is now asking for donations to the tune of $10,000 to realize their Misty Beethoven Blu-Ray project. Already more than halfway to their goal and with just 18 days to go, the future of this preservation project is completely in the hands of the fans.

With pledge packages ranging from $10 to $3,000-plus, donators can be intimately involved in the production process and receive anything from a woodblock print of Anthony Palumbo’s stellar artwork that adorns the DVD release to a Blu-Ray, DVD, poster, and soundtrack package to a framed replica of an award presented to Misty Beethoven after the film’s release in 1976 and even a producer credit! There’s also four DVDs worth of “raw, unfiltered” Misty Beethoven outtakes that have never before seen the light of day, t-shirts, and, absurd as it seems, martini glasses etched with Metzger’s nom de cinema, Henri Paris!

While it’d be pretty damn neat to be able to serve your friends cocktails in Henri Paris glasses as they stare in awe at your vintage posters from the Distribpix archive, it’s even cooler to be partially responsible for preserving a landmark production in the history of adult cinema. Hey, if film preservation is important enough to give Marty Scorsese a hard-on, it’s important enough for you to pay a mere $10 to ensure this vital project reaches fruition.