Lesbian Farewells

All that stands between Girlfriends Films and actual quality cinema is hiring scriptwriters. Whether from laziness or penny-pinching, the label's insistence, now covering 600 or so features to date, on avoiding the inclusion of professional writers results in messed-up projects like the one-shot "Lesbian Farewells".

Winging it translates into still-born vignettes, with minor set-ups and then the gals humping away endlessly after walking through whatever small talk they can conjure up. Fans seem only to care about the "chemistry" and "heat" of individual scenes, but there's a basic contradiction operating here, as head honcho Dan O'Connell and his Girlfriends team purport to be delivering something different (and romantic) in place of generic girl/girl porn.

A note of melancholy differentiates this DVD from the usual Girlfriends' output, most of which dwells on sure-fire high-concept premises like May/December romance or seduction. Best segment by far features the least-known (or popular) talent -perhaps they have to try harder while their superstar sisters in Adult coast from video to video.

The quasi no-namers are Sativa Rose and Vicki Chase, latter one of my all-time favorites who is high on casting directors lists but never seems to get a leading role. Their vignette has Sativa forlorn because Vicki is heading off to war (or at least a foreign hitch in the military that will keep them apart). We hear a baby crying in the next room, so these are lesbian parents, not mere lovers.

Sativa is uber-sexy here, beginning with rather tactile see-through clothing before the XXX content begins and quickly overwhelms the nicely done set-up. This particular scene had the makings of a quality story and romantic drama, but it is soon frittered away as mere porn, and just one-quarter of the compilation.

The other segments go nowhere, and the top talent perform as if in need of a Geritol cocktail to get them a bit animated. Case in point is the opener teaming Penny Pax and BDSM superstar Aiden Starr. They talk us through a heavily melodramatic plot, in which a jealous guy (never shown) is threatening a double murder and suicide, upset by wifey cheating on him with another woman. None of this has any impact (all talk - no action) and is made worse by Aiden's listless, uncharacteristically monotone line readings.

It's apparent that no one cares at all about anything but XXX footage being created, girl/girl style, and more's the pity. If that's all that matters, then Girlfriends Films and its several major competitors are all dodo birds that are merely waiting to be put out of their misery, as sex workers the world over are delivering uncountable hours of generic porn on an amateur level -no need for an Adult Industry or professionalism if narrative cinema in this field is dead.