Box of Laughter: an Interview with Maria Beatty by Eithne Johnson
An interview from marilynsroom.com

Fashioned as much for film aficionados as SM enthusiasts, Maria Beatty's movies (all produced by Bleu Productions) evoke an expressionistic world of shadows and sighs, but insinuation soon gives way to hard-core scenes. In The Black Glove, the sense of danger escalates deliciously as shadows materialize into long legs on spike heels. The Elegant Spanking, with its naughty maid and narcissistic mistress, plays like a stag film scripted by a daring Ana's Nin. The original music by John Zorn is haunting.

Beatty's new Box of Laughter series promises to delight those who crave tickling. Part One, The Dueling Pages, featuring two Betty Page lookalikes, pays homage to Irving Klaw's classics, while infusing the bondage scene with a giggly spontaneity lacking in the originals. Part Two, Converted to Tickling, suggestively revolves around silver-screen moments in which the glamorous star awaited approaching danger with baited breath. Instead of King Kong, the Ticklemonster attacks, and fear gives way to anxious laughter.

E: It's hard for an independent company to get by in the adult market. Would you tell me how and when Bleu Productions started and where you would like it to go? Is your intention to provide commercial productions or art-world productions or both ? Can you do both ?

M: Bleu Productions was conceived in January 1997. My intention was to create and provide hot, classy fetish and erotica video for commercial distribution. My work offers viewers a more sophisticated way of viewing and understanding the intricacies of SM practices, rituals, performances, and psychology. They are aesthetic products rather than pure stroke videos.

E: Your work seems very knowledgeable about film. Was film study part of your training as an artist ?

M: I never had any formal training in film. I feel it's an innate talent and a gift. I try to interpret situations and relationships through fantasy, a specific visionary quality. Relationships between reality and fantasy have always existed for me, mysterious and inexplicable. The darker side of my sexuality stimulates my imagination and consequently plays an integral part in my films.

E: Are there specific films, film movements, or periods that you like or consider influential ?

M: Yes, film noir. In my films The Elegant Spanking, The Black Glove, and Let the Punishment Fit the Child, I create sequences of cinematic suspense by presenting a pursuer and a pursued, the dialectic of seduction and desire. The beautiful object of desire as the pursued. I like being in suspense of the unknown: it is a sensuous feeling which gives me intense pleasure and an adrenaline high.

E: Since you have worked in film and video, I wonder if you chose film or video for each project because of the specific look these technologies enable or were there other reasons ?

M: One of the main reasons I chose to work in black-and-white film, besides the way it romanticizes the story and the images, is that I feel safe by what I don't know and at ease in uncertain, half-hidden, shadowy situations. That made it seem right to me. The use of shadows in black and white (as in film noir) creates the illusion of depthówhich is mysterious and represents desireónot knowing something and wanting to know more. Black-and-white film also creates more tension, suspense, mystery (with more saturated and dense shadows), simplicity, beauty, more space for interpretation; you can present a more subtle form of reality with chiaroscuro lighting and the use of shadow play.

E: Who is the audience for your work ? Your promotional materials indicate art spaces and film festivals. What other kinds of spaces are there for highly stylized, artistic pornography, such as your work?

M: The art venues are very limited and becoming more scarce by the day for this genre of work. I have to focus on promotion in more commercial ways and through venues such as the Internet. Ninety percent of my sales are on-line; they keep the work alive and growing.

E: I'm curious about the perversions that appear in your tapes. For some people, foot fetishism is linked exclusively to male desire; would you agree? Or is it simply the key to an SM aesthetic, regardless of the gender of viewers and performers ?

M: Any so-called perversion or kink comes from childhood memories, desires, or traumas. The whole notion of "foot fetishism" being strictly a male desire is a myth. A fetish or perversion is not programmed to a specific genderóit's granting an object a power or mystery it lacks or is feared to lack. It's also the interchangeability of one body part for another, one person for another, or an object for a person. I'm not biased about which gender views and/or enjoys the work. I create and release it for all to see.

E: I have a similar question regarding The Dueling Pages. I like the way the actress "pages" claim Betty-adoration for women. Could you elaborate on this ?

M: The adoration of Betty Page between two girlfriends through their stylish imitation of her, comparing their lingerie and shoes with girlish delight and tease, is what bonds them in the first place. The whole process is a feminine ritual that bonds and protects their friendship: it's similar to the way men might adore, flaunt, and compare their cars.

E: I found it startling to see Sabrina in The Black Glove, especially since "she" is older and does not conform to the seamless femininity to which some TVs and drag queens aspire. Why did you cast Sabrina in this film ?

M: I wanted to create an obvious contrast between the bizarre and the beautiful la Fellini. I don't particularly go for stereotypical looks, and I found Sabrina unusually perverse, ominous, and bizarre. I thought playing with this contrast would be more challenging than conforming to the expected stereotype.

E: I enjoyed the sense of anticipation in your work: the montage sequence at the beginning of The Elegant Spanking, the slow build-up in The Black Glove, and the teasing sequences in Box of Laughter. How did you structure these works and how does their structure function in relation to viewer expectations ?

M: Very rarely do I preconceive how the finished piece will look. I have a general sense or intuition of the plot and mood of the piece, but everything thereafter flows into place. It's a very organic process, like the way a painter paints and a writer writes.

Copyright © Masquerade: An Erotic Journal, 1998.
This excerpt from The Dueling Pages is used by permission of Bleu Productions.
For more information please contact mjaye@akula.com.

Eithne Johnson teaches film and media studies in Massachusetts, where she also gives lectures on pornography and erotica to community groups.

 

INNOVATIVE & EROTIC FEMDOM BDSM & FETISH MOVIES BY MARIA BEATTY AND BLEU PRODUCTIONS