Cast: Sasha Byazrov, Giorgio Salieri, Matthias Vannelli, Max Veneziano, Eric Flower, Mario Perez, David Havien, David Scott, Ricky Martinez.

AAAA 1/2

Unlike Lucas Kazan's three other opera-inspired gay pornvids which follow their borrowed plots carefully, Backstage is a movie about making a gay porn version of La Traviata, one of Verdi's most famous operas. By going behind the scenes Kazan is able get around the complex plot and just give us highlights in the form of sex scenes. More than that, though, Backstage's real story is about a director who has a crush on his star. Beautiful Sasha Byazrov plays the star. Giorgio Salieri, in a superb portrayal, is the bored, harried, lovesick director (pre-nom Best Actor).

Another performer who must be singled out is newcomer Ricky Martinez who auditions for Salieri hoping to get a part in the porn movie. The bored, impatient director sits behind the lights chatting with his assistant and occasionally issuing instructions to the naked Martinez, who is blinded by the lights and can't see him. "Squat down! More. Show me your butt! Can you get hard?" Martinez can, and jacks off defiantly (pre-nom Best Solo Performance). The humiliating audition over, the director and assistant leave. Technician Matthias Vannelli, who has been observing Martinez appreciatively, emerges from the shadows to compliment him. Martinez is still naked-and Vannelli soon is too. Vannelli tops him and after he comes on Martinez' butt-cheek, Martinez stands up and comes "no hands," a technique Kazan picked up from his association with Kristen Bjorn.

The other sex scenes are opera-plot-related. After the haunting prelude is played (opera queens will recognize the tribute to Zeffirelli's 1980s film of La Traviata), lively music introduces the party scene-which here becomes a sex-club threeway between sexy, hung Mario Perez, and attractive newcomers David Scott and David Havien. Kazan puts them in several configurations (all take turns bottoming) that show off the sex wonderfully. There are multiple cum-shots and the climax is Scott jerking the jizz out of Havien's prick-a method of ejaculation we don't see often enough.

The famous "drinking song" becomes a duo between Max Veneziano and Eric Flower. Flower is more excitingly endowed than we recall from his previous movies, and his Veneziano-fucked ass is a beauty.

Salieri's flip-flop fuck with Byazrov is a fantasy sequence that occurs as Salieri imagines himself in the place of Byazrov's co-star during the filming of the big sex scene. (Though it is nice to see that Byazrov is versatile, his real appeal is as a bottom.) This scene also climaxes with Byazrov coming "no-hands."

In addition to the first-rate photography, story concept, and sex scenes perfectly woven into the plot, another of Backstage's major strengths is Kazan's attention to detail. Salieri's inattention and rude behavior during the audition scene, the cuts to Vannelli observing the proceedings, brief rehearsal sequences, a stagehand's handing a cigarette to Byazrov who waits, naked and alone, to hear how the take went-all these little things add to the richness of Backstage which is one of Kazan's finest and one of the most enjoyable of the year (pre-nom Best Foreign Release).