Once More, with Feeling: How We Tried to Make the Greatest Porn Film Ever (Paperback)

The description of this book by some critics a "rip roaring, thigh slapping comedy" falls a little short. It is more than that. It is also a moving, dark and often sad self discovery process for the authors and also the reader as they explore the 'darker' side of humanity...in the form of rent boys and whores with no money, no prospect and no passports just trying to get by in the city of sin - of people taking advantage of others - and of people seeing and living this dark side and then trying to make a difference. There are some witty, profound, sexy and occasionally downright weird characters that Vicky and Charlie (the authors) pick up along the way, but all are given a chance to explain themselves and their industry, and i think the authors give them a very open minded (if not slightly tongue in cheek) hearing before handing down judgement. The authors also seem to maintain an almost psychotic sense of optimism even in the most dire circumstance (actors walking off set...refusing to do certain backdoor scenes etc) which only adds to the affection you feel for them by the end of the book!!

The only thing that slightly bogged the book down (i think) were the slightly lengthy asides the authors were prone to on the morality of making such a film...they obviously discovered it wasn't going to be the pg swashbuckling adventure they had imagined and it starts to take its toll on their conscience.

Anyway - in a nutshell - a great, funny, poigniant novel with a dark, shaddy and rather sexy underside. Its no catch 22 but give it a read just the same.

What keeps the book going is that the two writers do sound honest, and who isn't interested in a story about two outsiders that get themselves in way over their heads and react by ploughing on with all their might and meagre resources ... out of sheer desperation.

Which gets me back to the original point. Either I am missing a huge joke here, or I'm going to have to claim that the book presentation is extremely misleading. It is pretty clear from early on that this pair is not out to make "the greatest porn film ever". In fact, from the scarce yet alarming technical details that once in a very long while show up throughout the book, they never had a chance ... or really tried. Sure, modern DV cameras are excellent tools by themselves. But the same could be said of English - and if you do not know how to spell or use grammar properly, you'll never write anything "great". Likewise, you cannot make a great movie if you do not know anything about cinematography, light, sound ("we discovered that our cameras had no input jacks for external mikes" - pleeeeease) , etc.

In summary, this is a book written by people who do know how to write about their experiences trying to make a movie that, far from being "the greatest porn ever", sounds a lot more like a high-school class movie project. The key words here are "highly amateurish approach to filmmaking". Thus, the book does not really teach you anything new about porn that you couldn't find in the many articles written in the mainstream press about the subject - but it does dissect extremely well the reactions of a pair of well-educated Western liberals to the world surrounding blue movies. In that sense, it reminded me quite a bit of "Patpong Sisters", in which an American woman dives into the Thai sex industry and tells yet another intimate account of a liberal Westerner confronting the sexual taboos of the times - looking to write her PhD dissertation about it. Intriguing in both cases, but don't expect to be blown away.

Note to the authors - next time, consider giving some explanation about the budget. Where did the final figure come from? Where did the money come from? At the end of the day, the only reason porn movies are made is to make a profit. Discussing the finer points of the script is good, but the script is not the movie, like the shoot is not the movie and the editing is not the movie. The movie is a combination of it all, and there are large gaps in this portrayal.