I saw "Not A Love Story: A Film About Pornography" at the Renoir Cinema, London two years' ago. I put the word 'sex' in inverted commas because what we see in porn films, whether hard-core or soft-core is ACTING. It is not real BUT it purports to show real, 'hot' sex. By interviewing people who actually work in the industry, in magazines and on film, and in live shows and peep-shows, both as producers and performers, this documentary shows a behind-the-scenes look at what really goes on. Watch the film to see for yourself; I'll just give one example here of an interview which stuck in my mind. The top porn actor Marc Stevens appears as himself and related the following anecdote. After a great date, he and a woman went home together the same night and had sex. Afterwards, she was angry that he didn't perform for her again immediately. To be friendly, he said if she gave him some time to recover he would try again. She was outraged - she'd seen him do it FIVE TIMES IN A ROW on-screen. Stevens said, "but it took me five DAYS to make that film!!" Unfortunately, Stevens wasn't joking when he told us that. People are fooled into thinking that the acting and gloss and smiles and enthusiasm are real. They watch the films and expect their partner to perform like that; they see the magazines and expect their partner to look like that. Conversely, OTHER people say the porn industry is all FANTASY and that NONE of it is real. Unfortunately, although the gloss isn't real, the misery behind it is. Real human beings, not fantasies, perform in those films. 10 out of 10 to Not A Love Story for reminding us of that.
