There are two ways to look at Fashionistas Safado: Berlin -- on its own merits and as part of a larger work, and Fashionistas Safado: Berlin has merits and drawbacks in both lights. As another porn reviewer once said, once you've pitched a perfect game, are you disappointed if your next outing is just a no-hitter?
Properly speaking, the whole Fashionistas effort is divided into two parts, not three, with The Fashionistas coming first, followed by Safado, which consists of two chapters, The Challenge and Berlin. If you know the story of Cyrano de Bergerac, that's basically what the original Fashionistas is about -- an elaborate story, set in the world of fashion design, of a plain person wooing an object of desire with the use of a more attractive person as a front. Fashionistas Safado: The Challenge is kind of a new-kid-on-the-block story in which Antonio and Jesse, (Roxanne and Cyrano, respectively) have to respond to a guerilla attack by a brand new outfit that's much edgier than theirs; the hazards to both their relationship and their business make for tricky sailing. In The Challenge, Antonio is enthralled by the dark world revealed in Safado's viral marketing/propaganda and heads off, after a number of sexual adventures, to Berlin, the headquarters of the new company.
Mixed up in all this is an exploration of fetish and the revelation of the sexual natures of two women, Jesse and Lauren, both designers of extreme fetish wear. The two are competing for both financial success and for Antonio's attention, and Antonio himself is falling deeper and deeper into the world of fetish activity as a result of his interest in the fashion aspect of that world. Our own view of the fetish world, and in particular the part of it that depends on rubber and latex gear, comes from Antonio's perspective as he explores various parts of Berlin, a city legendary for its perversion.
Like The Challenge, Berlin is very heavy on the sex and fetish activity and not so heavy on the plot. Although it's slightly longer than The Challenge, at four and a half hours, Berlin doesn't represent a significant development of the story. Rather, it constitutes a dive into the world of underground fetish fashion and a chance for John Stagliano to feature a great deal of fetish wear, a lot of hot people in it, and a lot of fetishy sex by hot people in fetish wear. In fact, its contribution to the overall plot of the saga is really the presentation of a slight twist at the end, otherwise, the whole thing is about Natonio's journey through the underworld of fetish.
The kink in the movie spans a pretty wide range, although almost all of it fairly innocuous in terms of what real devotees of fetish would consider extreme. In that sense, although Safado: Berlin is both more extreme and darker than its predecessors, it is still more about the fashion of fetish than the actual practice of it. Thus, although Nacho Vidal puts in an appearance dressed as a priest in drag in a scene in which he has sex with girls dressed as latex-clad nuns, the religious aspect of the scene is muted, almost limited to the impact of the clothes. Similarly, although the Safado fashion show features girls with pony-tail butt plugs, no action is taken toward pony play.
The only fetish that really gets explored in any depth, other than rough sex and dominance and submission, is a heavy flirtation with enemas, and even that isn't played for maximum impact. Most enema fetishists spend a lot of time with the preparations and the psychology of the practice, but Safado: Berlin just shows the results, and those in the context of a larger sex scene. The perversion on show here is largely entry-level; there's no blood, no body waste, no play-piercing, no animals, and none of the many other things for which the German fetish scene is so often lauded (or vilified, depending on what you think of German porn). The sex tends to the more hardcore, but Fashionistas itself pushed the envelope so far in the sense of mixing rough play and penetration that the new movies don't have very far to go before bumping up against the legal ceiling; the rough sex in the sequels is ultimately not much rougher than the rough sex you see in the average gonzo.
What it may lack in revolutionary envelope-pushing, however, it more than makes up for in both quality and quantity; like its predecessors, the movie comprises two discs, both of which are packed with sex scenes, all shot and edited with meticulous attention to quality and detail. There are a dozen or so scenes, depending on how you count them, most featuring Melissa Lauren in combination with one or the other of the other principals (Rocco Siffredi, Nacho Vidal, and Katsumi). Lauren make a breakthrough performance here, taking everything that Rocco and Nacho can dish out and even leaving you with the impression that they're not quite enough for her. Katsumi is excellent, too, although she is oddly less attractive in fetish gear than she is out of it (that might be just me, though). Both of them show strong, but nether of them is the powerhouse that Belladonna was (Bella's fans will be saddened to find her relegated to one appearance at the end, and that one not even a full scene). Lauren and Katsumi are both undeniably anal queens, but it's Lauren who takes the most punishment, and she looks good doing it. I was never much of a fan of hers before this movie, but I like her more after watching it; the ability to stretch her acting wings gives her a depth that she doesn't get much of a chance to display in her gonzo work.
Rocco is the same old Rocco -- if you like him, you like him. He is no longer as lean and hungry as he once was, but who is? This was his last appearance in front of the camera as a sex performer (or so he says; it remains to be seen whether he will stay retired), but there is no diminution of his skills or prowess. He has never been the greatest actor, but putting him in a situation where he plays a confused guy who is just figuring out how much he likes slapping women around while he fucks them is a perfect choice; his combination of bedroom savagery and skill as a lover -- not just a fucker -- makes him perfect for the role and vice-versa. Nacho Vidal, on the other hand, is set loose like a crazy bird to do as he will in the role of Safado. Nacho usually rolls with a crazed glint in his eye anyway, and giving him the chance to live it up as a wild-eyed lunatic is just as inspired a piece of casting as Rocco's.
If Fashionistas has a flaw, it is that there is almost too much sex. The editing style often leaves me wishing that I could see more longer shots of continuous activity, especially in the group and orgy scenes that take place in various clubs. There are so many people in almost every scene that it's difficult if not impossible to tell who is who -- if you really like someone in the giant orgy scene, you're never going to have the faintest clue who she was, unless she shows up in some other movie. Likewise, there are four girls who act as Safado's henchgirls -- listed in the credits as Annette Schwarz, Sintia Stone, Judith Fox, and Vanessa Hill. As a porn reviewer, I know where to go to find out who is who and what else they've done, but how is the average fan to seek out more movies by one or another of them when they don't know who is who or how to find out? Then there's the confusing welter of names like Pit, Fraulein Schmitt, Rubbertik, Doublestone and LatexRonni in the other credits -- finding them aside, how is one even to tell if some of them are male or female? Even with the surfeit of stimulation, though, Safado: Berlin's sex scenes are more than satisfactory, assuming you like a tinge of fetish with your hardcore. There's a little bit of everything in the four and a half hours, and fans of Buttman, Rocco, Nacho, or the Fashionistas are sure to enjoy it all.
In the end, it has to be said that the Safado chapter, taken as a whole, does not quite make it over the bar set by the original Fashionistas; however, it is still head-and-shoulders above most of the rest of the porn on the market. In terms of sex, production quality, consistency and overall entertainment, Fashionistas Safado: Berlin is entirely worthwhile, and less of a disappointment than almost any other sequel.
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P. Weasels
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