Sexgate

I was thrilled with the near-classic opening sex scene of Luca Damiano's take on the Monica Lewinsky escapade, but his video is something of a letdown after such a strong start. It certainly delivers the required porn content in any event.

Porn regular Mike Foster is quite convincing in the role of the President (Clinton, but never identified, given that this is fiction, nudge/nudge), testifying in front of a commission investigating his affair with a young woman, Marika Lesbinski. Dialog is strictly in Italian, which helps distance the action somewhat.

He tells them in flashback of an explicit relationship, unlike the real-life story of Clinton denying it. We see a beautiful, bespectacled Hayni (a porn makeup artist, rarely straying in front of the camera) wearing a trademark beret, interviewing for an internship with the president. He's smoking a cigar, natch, on a cheap set that doesn't approximate the oval office at all well.

Since he's telling the tale, she comes on to him, suggestively moving her legs around in her chair and even grabbing his groin. The resulting sex scene is very arousing as Marika gives the prez a blow job, sucks on his cigar and rides him. Anal sex follows, and the prez puts a fresh cigar in her rectum for good measure, leading to a copious ejaculation on her face and breasts.

The unusual aspect of this opening vignette is Damiano's emphasis on "gaping" shots of Hayni's rectum -more commonly seen in fetish videos. They represent a make-or-break aspect for the fans, but while I'm usually unmoved by these "doctor's exam" closeups, the shock value of Hayni as "Marika" made them work to the video's advantage.

Where to go from there? Perhaps Damiano would have been better off quitting while he was ahead, perhaps using this opening 20 minutes as a complete segment in some portmanteau feature about famous people's missteps. But instead, we're back before the commission, with the prez insisting he was seduced by Marika. He badmouths her by relating an incident where he caught her making love to a bodyguard at his home.

Actually we see it is two bodyguards, with Marika getting a double penetration, while the voyeuristic prez watches through a window. More gaping shots are included - I wonder why Hayni never made a porn career out of her specialty.

The commission next wants to know about the prez's dallying with a jogger, and we see his affair with a cute blonde. Head commissioner next confronts him with testimony from his driver, who witnessed the prez making love to his secretary in the back seat of the presidential limo, duly illustrated for us fans.

The prez retorts that he has a videotape of the head commissioner Mr. Shrink caught in a threesome involving the Shrink's wife and a stud. We watch this incident, then the prez makes a brief speech on how his private life is his own and does not interfere with his executing the duties of his high office, and the other commissioners explode into applause. Mr. Shrink flees in disgrace and the film ends sardonically by dissolving from a shot of the prez to a still of the Statue of Liberty, framing the usual disclaimer that "any resemblance to people, places...is purely coincidental".

So Damiano has it both ways, ridiculing Bill Clinton, but rather slavishly supporting his party line of how blameless he was. He also quite tastefully doesn't picture Hillary in the video at all. It's an okay premise for porn, but the presentation, with Marika deflowered in the opening reel, is anticlimactic to say the least.