The Elegant Spanking

It seems amazing to me that I should only now, some fifteen years after this short film was made, come to discover it. Having dabbled with all manner of erotica, it seems impossible that this never appeared above the radar. The reason has to be because it is unlike most erotica/porn and is utterly convincing as a piece of passion, pictured perfectly. Almost dreamlike with a period feel, helped by the silent movie like captions, this b/w gem goes places I am little interested in like urinating into the mouth or sucking a spiked stiletto, and yet I am drawn in and convinced all pleasure is here. This is so beautiful to watch and at the same time so stimulating because the viewer is convinced he is there with the two girls, or is one of the girls, is a participant in some wondrous love/sex ritual. There is much foot and shoe fetish but also the water sport business, the spanking and much masturbation, but even if none of this sounds fun, believe me it is as if a hand reaches out and you find yourself, spellbound.

The trouble with pornography is that it tends to view desire strictly as a resident of the body, pure atavism with all intellect shunted into the role of providing the simplest available pretext to grant meaning to the acts of the flesh. This two-dimensional view is especially glaring in S+M porn, which is compressed into simplistic displays of aggression and acceptance, it's participants made caricatures of punishment and supplication. Most of the time, the resulting images seem more a cautionary on why we shouldn't want to see or experience it rather than why we would. Even in a well-meaning [and mainstream] film like Secretary, failure to understand the deeper truer meanings and energies of S+M leads the filmmakers to explain the behaviors of the protagonists in emotional shorthand more suited to an After-School Special.

Maria Beatty's films inhabit and reveal a new world. A New York-based performance artist and professional Submissive [bottom], Beatty regards both her films and her lifestyle as art forms demanding [and worthy of] respect [both hers and ours]. Beatty is an omnivorous filmmaker, drawing inspiration from everywhere. German expressionism, the edgy futurism of the best music videos, the larger-than-life personas of early century vamps like Theda Bara, Louise Brooks and Pola Negri, the artful stylish horror films of Whale and Browning, as well as her own experience both in performance and S+M. Shooting in black and white, her best films sculpt and paint light on the screen while glowing skin, dark kohl-smoked eyes and the hard gleam of leather, pvc and metal flash through the velvet shadows. The films are silent, accompanied by fascinating sounds capes that vary from ambiance to atonality. Often the soundtrack becomes an additional character, commenting on the tension that rises in the viewer as desire heightens in the characters. Expertly familiar with the power of sensory stimulation, Beatty uses both sight and sound to draw us in. The best filmmakers have all known the most memorable special effect is the audience's imagination; Beatty takes ours and bends it to her will.

The Elegant Spanking has a near classic silent-era feel, with Rosemary Delain and Beatty portraying Mistress and Maid Kitty respectively in a 'post-modern romantic subversion' that feels like a scene from a lost Anais Nin story. Buoyed by John Zorn's exquisitely fractured score, Delain and Beatty glide through their role-play smoothly and [yes] elegantly, most notably during their take on water sport, so tender and intimate that it reveals the true nature of the women's dynamic. What Delain and Beatty exchange is stronger than Power…it's something that will linger long after the lovers have parted