40 Ans: Mes Vacances Sans Mon Mari

I was way ahead, aware and "covering" (later professionally) the Miramax brothers Harvey & Bob at the outset of their movie career, with such minor music-related projects as "White Rock" and releasing a Genesis concert film. Later on they got criticized for heavy interference and editing of the many foreign imports they picked up for U.S. distribution before settling in as production entities themselves.

Marc Dorcel has been a major figure in Euro porn "depuis 1979" as it's inscribed on all his videos. Lately he's been relying heavily on British sources for his best new releases, with directors like Gazzman, Dick Bush, Kendo and Liselle Bailey, handing in footage either shot in Britain or on the Continent.

But with this latest "40 ans" (title was previously used confusingly for two of Kendo's similar efforts), one senses a pattern of interference not with outsiders but rather with his "hired hands" of the English persuasion.

That's because the cast members of this shot in London and on locations in the South of France primarily speak in English for Brit helmer Gazzman, but Dorcel favors pantomime, so that each video can be neutrally tracked on DVD with narration in half a dozen languages (French being #1 on the hit parade menu), rather than relying on pesky dialog.

This results in very sloppy and inane contradictions in the finished product, as Dorcel's quest for universalism stems not from some '60s Esperanto noble motives, but rather expediency and efficiency.

I became painfully aware of this on my second viewing of "My Vacations without My Husband" as I jotted down notes to prep for this review. The heroine of the title is Lexi Lowe, a beautiful if prematurely matronly British sex star who is the equivalent in American terms to Cherie DeVille or perhaps Brandi Love. I preferred to think of her as a sweet young thing when viewing her starring in the excellent "Down on Abbey" or the "Young Harlots" series, but here at real age 26 she is already cast as an oldie (yes, in this world 40 is considered old).

On that subject, Gazzman has cast American lesbian superstar Dani Daniels, clearly pleased to have this free vacation in the south of France rather than toiling under hot lights in Chatsworth, CA, as Lexi's BFF and host at her lovely villa for the title vacation. Dani has an adult (gotta be 18+ in 21st Century porn) daughter in the form of new French star Lea Guerlin. Like Lexi, Dani is all of 26 years old, so she must have been only 7 or 8 years old in this porn parallel universe when she begat the fictional Lea.

In the usual "how I spent my summer vacation" sort of escapism, we have pointless sex filler for the duration as Lexi deigns to live it up while philandering husband Clarke Kent is whooping it up infidelity-style back not in Metropolis but rather in London with Sienna Day. George Uhl, who made his name centuries back for the competing Private label as star of Antonio Adamo epics like the Roma trilogy (which oddly enough had Kendo in an acting role), is the recipient of much of the humping largesse. Plot gets lost quickly, as there is no followup, drama, or repercussions concerning Kent's hijinks.

Where the picture and Dorcel as head man (he weirdly personally always takes both a producer and musical score composer credit on each video release) got my goat is in the post-production crappiness. Lexi does speak in dialog scenes, not much but enough to recognize her British accented voice. But in that frequent narration that tells us dimwitted punters what's going on in the flimsy "story" she is outfitted with a neutral American accent, courtesy of some Paris dubbing studio. Making matters worse, in later reels the American accent is used for post-sync dialog for her, while all-American co-star Dani Daniels gets a dubbed British accent! I found this ridiculous and idiotic, but of course by then I had swallowed having 26 year olds with no makeup FX (and each looking beautiful, as always) passed off as 40-plus.

From the opposite vantage point, it is clear that Gazzman's latter-day "for hire" career has assembly line aspects. His recent Harmony Films release "Stella Cox Nymphomaniac" surrounds Stella with, you guessed it, a supporting cast headed by Lexi Lowe, Clarke Kent and Lea Guerlin. That one was shot in Barcelona rather than South of France, however. Then mysteriously the credits sequence plus DVD packaging for "My Vacations" prominently list Stella Cox as being in the cast (a pure case of false advertising), but she never shows up on screen. Another post-production blunder for Dorcel, and another indication that he, like other once-lofty pornographers from prior eras, no longer cares about his so-called "luxure" product but has devolved into a mere purveyor of generic porn by the pound or shall I say "livre"?