There are some interesting ideas in this portmanteau investigation into both the purpose and appeal of pornography and its moral and psychological ramifications. Richard Prince re-records a skin flick to reduce its images to banality; Marina Abramovic trawls through the sexual superstitions of the Balkans; and Gaspar Noë makes strobe-lit contrasts between male and female masturbatory fantasies. But, there is also a good deal of pretention and exploitation involved, with Matthew Barney and Sam Taylor-Wood being particularly guilty of indulging themselves in artsy erotica.
Yet Marco Brambilla's mesmerising flash-cut montage of clips from mainstream and porno pictures compels a re-evaluation of cinema's attitudes to sex and passion, while the ever-provocative Larry Clark forces us to confront the realities of the porn business through a sheepish twentysomething's crash course in smut.