Maria Beatty
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Maria Beatty is a New York filmmaker born in Caracas, Venezuela from New York City New York and currently based in Paris, who has been directing, acting and producing films for the past seventeen years. She is renowned for her exploration into the depths of female sexuality, fantasy and fetish setting new standards in erotic cinema. Her vision is inspired by German Expressionism, French surrealism and American film noir, thus her work reflects her knowledge and affinity for those genres. Here latest film was Boy in a Bathtub.
She sometimes stars in her own films, such as The Elegant Spanking (1995) and The Black Glove (1997). Maria Beatty is also interviewed in the 1996 Nick Broomfield documentary Fetishes and Monika Treut's film Didn't Do It For Love.
Her past work is indicative of the diversity of Beatty's creative work and dedication to her craft: In 1989, she produced and directed her first film entitled "Gang of Souls" a documentary exploring the insights and influence of the Beat poets. Soon after, in 1991, she directed her second documentary entitled, "Sphinxes Without Secrets" on women performance artists such as Diamanda Galas, Carolee Schneemann and Annie Sprinkle.
From 1994 on, she became renowned for her short films which explore the depths of female sexuality and fantasy, setting new standards in erotic cinema. Her unique vision is inspired by such underground sexually subversive gay filmmakers as Kenneth Anger and Jean Genet. Her sophisticated style commands the viewer with an enveloping aesthetic that unsettles even as it captivates. She has collaborated with John Zorn who composed the soundtrack for three of her films The Black Glove, The Elegant Spanking, and A Lot of Fun for the Evil One.
Beatty is currently in production, 2007, on her second feature film which will focus on lesbian thematics with a strong narrative structure unifying sexual fantasies and deep psychology; hauntingly disturbing and beautiful. She will also be unveiling on DVD and VOD four brand new fetish/sm films, Autumn 2007.
Beatty has received grants from the New York State Council for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Art Matters, and her films have been presented internationally: Canal + "La Nuit Gay" (France) ARTE "Soiree Thema" "INSPIRED" premiered May 28th 2004 (France/Germany) Channel 13 (NY) The Whitney Museum (NY) Museum of Modern Art (NY) The International Center of Photography (NY) The New Museum (NY) Lux Cinema (UK) The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (CA) Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir (France) San Sebastien (Spain) Rotterdam Film Festival (Holland) Clermont-Ferrand (France)
Filmography
- Gang of Souls (1989)
- Sphinxes without Secrets (1991)
- Imaging her Erotics (1992) with Carolee Schneemann
- Sluts and Goddesses (1992)
- Alot of Fun for the Evil One (1993)
- The Elegant Spanking (1995)
- The Black Glove (1997)
- Let the Punishment fit the Child (1997)
- The Dueling Pages (1997), first part of the Box of Laughter series
- Converted to Tickling (1997)
- Sassy Schoolgirl (1998)
- Doctor's Orders (1998)
- Sassy Schoolgirl 2 (1998)
- The Boiler Room (1998)
- Leda and the Swan (1999)
- Testify my Love (1999)
- Ladies of the Night (2000)
- Tight Security (2001), with Porsche Lynn and Inga
- Waterworld (2001)
- The Seven Deadly Sins (2002)
- Lust (2002)
- Ecstasy in Berlin 1926 (2004), with Sonya Sovereign and Paula Rosengarthen
- Silken Sleeves (2006), with Midori and Mayan
- Mask of Innocence (2006)
- COMA (2007), with Mistress Dakota and Storm
- BOY IN A BATHTUB (2007) Feature Film
- Sex Mannequin (2007)
- Skateboard Kink Freak (2007)
Maria Beatty’s first feature film “BOY IN A BATHTUB" was released in September 2006. An erotic melodrama, full of fantasy, fetish and beauty. To see a trailer and read the synopsis visit the official Bleu Productions website (below)
See also
Quotes
CULT STAR MARIA BEATTY was making alt-porn before there was a name for it. Ten years ago she unveiled The Black Glove, an intensely atmospheric film portraying an extended sadomasochistic session involving herself and another woman. Boasting an uncanny command of the medium and a soundtrack by hip avant-garde composer John Zorn, Beatty’s debut made a huge impression on New York City’s arty in-crowd, and word quickly spread through the worldwide fetish scene. Beatty, who now lives and works in Paris, France, continues to explore her fantasies in a string of self-produced girl/girl flicks. Marketed through her own Bleu Productions (www.bleuproductions.com) label, most of them star the entrancing submissive herself. She calls her cult style “erotic noir,”a blend of S&M hard-core and the shadowy look of vintage crime movies. In her words, “My films delight in the playful relationship between pleasure and pain.” ~ Mark Johnson, Hustler Magazine
Maria Beatty makes fetishistic film noir; imagine a kinky Louise Brooks, a sadistic Marlene Dietrich (who's the top?), and some nipple clamps and hot wax, and you're beginning to get the idea... ~ Tristan Taormino, The Village Voice
Maria Beatty's ..."Ecstasy in Berlin's" perverse pleasures are expertly filmed and deftly framed, giving it an air of luxurious decadence. Watching it made me feel like a wealthy sybarite in an elegant bordello, with lovely and expensive girls performing a series of degenerate sex acts carefully staged for my benefit. It looks like a German art film of the 1920s, like a dirty movie by Murnau or Fritz Lange, or like vintage porn photographs come to life. ~ Greta Christina
Maria Beatty's films The Black Glove, The Elegant Spanking and Les Vampyres are a Nykvist/Bergman/ Polanski festival: dramatic close-ups; massive, internalized longing; and gorgeous suffering. Think Persona meets The Tenant with some genuinely hot sex. Beatty is fonder of dramatic, artificial lighting than Nykvist, a little more along the lines of Sam Fuller mixed with Fritz Lang, and her soundtrack selections are very Bergmanesque... ~ SASHA, Eye Weekly
If you enjoy high end artistic porn with a kinky edge, then you are probably already familiar with Maria Beatty. Beatty is a New York filmmaker that has earned awards such as the "The Best Film" Fetish Category at the Festival Internacional de Cine Erotico De Barcelona XII. If you aren't an arty erotic film buff, then I'll take a minute and describe what makes this particular person's work different. It plays to the psychological state of the viewer first, and draws their mind into a rich world that somehow exists between retro film noir and dark masturbation fantasies that you would hesitate to tell a lover. Sometimes the images seem to flit by like memories of an erotic adventure from the past, with a brief glimpse of the curve of a waist or a lingering gaze at gloves playing over a nipple. Other times, the scenes unfold like more tradition pornography (but with a very careful eye for detail). You'll find BDSM, lesbian, spanking, latex, leather, lace, corsets, stockings, shoes, foot worship, medical play, water sports, and a lot more here. It is sort of a grab bag of shadow sensuality. If you enjoy artistic lesbian aesthetic porn movies with a retro feel to them, you should definitely check this out. - Vamp, Janesguide.com
