How different is Buttman in Barcelona from any given porno vid you're likely to pick up out there amidst the blinding infinitum of porno vids? Well it's evident in the first few moments, when Buttman -- following a sexy brunette into a dark maze of spectacular Mediterranean architecture, comes across his pal Hatman in the doorway of an ancient church, whistling and twirling a black cane like a character out of an MGM musical. This is romantic stuff. And that air of whimsy and old-world enchantment is carried out through all two hours and 20 minutes of this 1997 feature from maestro Stagliano, a spellbinding time capsule from the formative years of gonzo and still one of its most virtuoso achievements.

Back to that brunette, though, she turns out to be Czech goddess Stephanie Silver, and our two tour guides chase her down on -- get this -- Paradis Street, where they convince her, as a light rain begins to fall, to go back with them to Buttman's hotel room. There, Hatman strips her out of her sleek, white slacks and black top pieces, and lays back on a satiny, striped couch for her to climb astride him and begin riding his other cane like she's been reservedly creaming to do.

Some early Rocco footage comes next (in which, curiously, Stagliano keeps referring to him as "Dario"), a terrific London-shot scene that finds Siffredi and Buttman picking up cute blonde Elizabeth Shay and bringing her to a "mini-bar" (a.k.a. their room), where Rocco shows her the true meaning of grande. As an interesting sidebar, Stagliano says in his video commentary (really just a brief taped segment available for viewing with the disc's bonus materials) that after shooting this scene, Shay took off in a cab and was never heard from by anybody in porn again.

Two more amazing scenes are the fourway with Maria and Oliver Sanchez, Lucie and Hatman, whose setup takes place outside the breathtaking Gaudi Cathedral, and the closer with exotic brunette Belinda and, once again, Hatman. The warm afternoon sunlight reflecting off Belinda's impeccable derriere through the room's window during her scene is a thing of sheer, luminescent beauty.

The only drawback to this DVD is that the picture tends to be fairly grainy at times, especially during those opening nighttime shots, but that's probably more a deficiency of the source material than a problem with the transfer. Meanwhile, the last scene... man, it's clear and gorgeous as can be.