PASADENA, Calif.—AVN founder Paul Fishbein together with partner Darren Roberts and director Bryn Pryor presented a project they've kept under wraps for the past year to a crowd of adult industry royalty Thursday night at Pasadena's Laemmle Playhouse Theater.
The project, an astoundingly ambitious documentary titled X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time, is the first feature-length production from Fishbein and Roberts' Plausible Films, and offers easily the most comprehensive retrospective ever assembled on the landmark works of triple-X cinema, as relayed by many of the people who made them.
Hosted by Chanel Preston (who has served as the regular host of industry news program "Adult Insider" for Fishbein and Roberts' X3Sixty Network), the doc traces its way chronologically from Gerard Damiano's culture-changing Deep Throat to the reigning AVN Movie of the Year, Brad Armstrong's Underworld. Broken up into segments reflecting the industrial paradigm shifts of each decade (from film in the '70s to home video in the '80s to the rise of serious erotic auteurs like Andrew Blake and Michael Ninn in the '90s, and so on), such indisputably monumental opuses are touched upon as The Devil in Miss Jones, Behind the Green Door, The Opening of Misty Beethoven, Debbie Does Dallas, Taboo, Neon Nights, Cafe Flesh, Night Trips, Hidden Obsessions, Justine, Zazel, The Fashionistas, Pirates, Corruption and Wasteland.
What makes X-Rated truly remarkable, however, is the lineup of industry greats its producers somehow procured to comment on these revered pictures and the evolution of the industry. They include: Marilyn Chambers and Gloria Leonard (both in archival footage), Johnnie Keyes, Georgina Spelvin, Constance Money, Sharon Mitchell, Kay Parker, Herschel Savage, Eric Edwards, Veronica Hart, Ron Jeremy, Kelly Nichols, Cass Paley, Richard Pacheco, Mitchell Spinelli, Tori Welles, John Stagliano, Andrew Blake, Paul Thomas, Sunset Thomas, Mike Horner, Debi Diamond, Christy Canyon, Misty Rain, Janine Lindemulder, Julia Ann, Jenna Jameson, Savanna Samson, Evan Stone, Jessica Drake, Brad Armstrong, Jesse Jane, Manuel Ferrara and others.
A number of the newest generation's top performers and directors appear to offer their thoughts on classics modern and old, as well, including Casey Calvert, James Deen, Kimberly Kane, Kayden Kross, Ash Hollywood, Ana Foxxx, Bonnie Rotten, Riley Reid, Skin Diamond, Jacky St. James, Penny Pax, Allie Haze, Sarah Shevon, Lily LaBeau and Stoya.
Asked how this endeavor came to pass, Fishbein explained, "I had the idea a long time ago. After AVN actually did this [in the January 2007 issue], I always thought it would make a great TV show. I'm also a big fan of the AFI specials that were on CBS, where they would do 100 Years 100 Movies, 100 Years 100 Stars. And so I pitched [a major cable network] on an AFI type special that would count down maybe the top 25 adult movies of all time, and they like it, but felt that it should be done more as a historical document—not just from a critical point of view but from a historical point of view. So that's why it's sequentially from Deep Throat to the year 2014, so that it can kind of trace the evolution. So it's not just the greatest films, it's the most impactful, most important, most influential. And also the way the show is structured, we're able to chart the theatrical era, the VHS era when people were watching movies in their home for the first time, the DVD era, and then the high-def era ... the first 45 years of the industry broken up into those four categories."
The challenge of getting all the iconic faces he and his team did into the movie was no small one. "It was hard," Fishbein half-chuckled. "It was easy to get the current people, but for example, getting Constance Money to do an interview, who hasn't been seen in 40 years, who has never done an on-camera interview, it took the work of Richard Pacheco to talk to her four or five times to convince her that this was worth doing; it took the help of Steven Morowitz from Video-X-Pix, who distributes her two key movies, Misty Beethoven and Barbara Broadcast; and it took cajoling and begging and money and flights to Seattle, and all kinds of crazy stuff to get it done. Getting Jenna Jameson to sit down was not easy, because Jenna is sort of done with the business. Just trying to manage 75 interviews in a three-month period is a lot of work. But it was worth doing, because, like spending a day with Georgina Spelvin was something I could never imagine doing, and she was unbelievable, and delightful, and smart, and funny, and she's a piece of history."
Fishbein noted that some plenty noteworthy titles could not be included in the movie either because they contained no usable (i.e. softcore) footage or are no longer in circulation. "They have to be at least available on VOD or DVD or broadcast somehow, or on the internet, so that people can go and find them. One of my regrets is that I was under the impression that Alex DeRenzy's great films were out of circulation, Pretty Peaches and Femmes de Sade, and then I found out that they are actually available, so it was too late. But hopefully we're going to do some sequels."
Director Pryor elaborated on the enormity of the project: "It's been five months in post, and it's just crazy. I mean, I started out with over 200 hours of interviews, and getting that down is ... it's tough, it's a real chore. And I hope nobody feels shafted, because you know, you sit down with somebody for an hour interview and they get two soundbites."
From the reactions of those at the screening, Pryor need not worry.
"I loved it," said Paul "P.T." Thomas. "At first, I was counting how many of the girls I fucked. A lot of them. It's like that story about the jar, you put a penny in every day ... a lot of them. But not towards the end, not many of them. But good feelings. Good people, good feelings. I think a more intelligent statement might be they took it just seriously enough."
Remarked Herschel Savage, "It was great nostalgia for me. Seeing myself briefly in the shower scene in Debbie Does Dallas, I said, 'Wow, I look good, man.' I was like so young. How old was I there? That was '77 we shot that, so I was 24. Now everybody knows how fuckin' old I am. But whatever, it was nice. It's like a dysfunctional family that gets together for Thanksgiving dinner like once every 35 years."
Richard Pacheco had more sentimental comments to offer. "You know, it's extraordinary, I was a fan of adult films, then I became part of the industry, and then I became a fan again. And coming to an event like this tonight, I don't know who I am," he said. "The number of people who were on the screen who've passed away, the emotions were thick. Your whole life is dancing in front of you, and it's amazing. I get excited, I never met Evan Stone before, I'm like, 'Whoa! He's a star!' and then he's going, 'You're a star! Wait a minute!' So it's pretty overwhelming. Mostly what I'm happy for is Paul, he put together a nice thing."
Stone himself concurred with that assessment, stating with his trademark Evan Stone smarm, "It was a really amazing presentation. I enjoyed it immensely, and for the fact that every single person in that room either has ADD or ADHD or a combination of both, and no one walked out to even go to the bathroom, it's an amazing thing. Speaks for itself."
Some of the other notables in attendance included Steven Morowitz, Marci Hirsch, Nick Manning, Girlfriends Films' Moose and Dan O'Connell, David "Pussyman" Christopher, David Joseph, John Stagliano, Kylie Ireland, Ron Jeremy, Nina Hartley, Ernest Greene, Raven Touchstone, Jared Rutter, B. Skow, Brad Armstrong, Jessica Drake, Melissa Mann, Shanna McCullough, Will Ryder, Adella Curry, Chris Ruth, Casey Calvert, Claire Robbins, James Deen, Jacky St. James, Eddie Powell, Ana Foxxx, Jay Allen, Tee Reel, Isiah Maxwell, Andy Appleton, Eva Angelina, Alex Ladd, Manuel Ferrara, Kayden Kross, Chris King, Rachele Richey and Anya Ivy.
X-Rated: The Greatest Adult Movies of All Time will debut on cable in the first quarter of 2015.
Photos courtesy of Chris King.
