Pleasure, a shocking and realistic behind-the-scenes porno film

Released in France in October 2021, "Pleasure" has been hailed by critics as a fairly realistic film about the porn industry. However, it has also been criticized by a number of porn personalities, including writer and producer Noelle Perdue, who criticized the film in part.

Ninja Thyberg's Pleasure has been hailed as a raw, realistic depiction of the porn world: "As a porn writer and producer, I've never seen a traditional film capture the subtlety of the genre's aesthetic so well," details Noelle Perdue. For those who haven't yet seen the film, Pleasure follows the story of Bella Cherry (Sofia Kappel), a 20-year-old Swede who wants to make her debut in the Los Angeles porn industry.

A realistic portrayal of the porn world?

In the Slate article, Noelle Perdue praises the film's realism. "I even recognized some of the settings in the porn world. Making your way in porn can be impossible unless you have a connection: a friend, a colleague or even a relative."

The film features Casey Calvert, "a porn actress who stars in the film herself and confirmed that much of the film was shot on the same properties I knew," Noelle Perdue details.

"When I asked her about the film on the question of realism, she was circumspect. 'In Ninja Thyberg's intention of trying to make a realistic representation, I thought she succeeded,' Calvert told me. But, she added, 'when people look at Pleasure, they get what they want out of it. If they want to have a negative view of the porn industry with Pleasure, they can have that, and if they want to have a positive view, they can have that too. It depends a lot on personal perception," the writer emphasizes.

Behind the scenes in the world of porn

For industry players who have seen the film, this may be a fairly close description of reality. In the feature-length film, we can see behind the scenes in particular, everything that's " Behind the scene ". "I liked the enthusiasm of Bella Cherry's first scene in the porn industry. It rang true," says Noelle Perdue. We see, for example, the signing of contracts, exchanges with the director and technicians.

While some young women join the porn industry in the hope of making a quick buck, being an actress in this industry is hard work for many reasons: self-promotion on social networks, finding work without an agent, getting an agent, scheduling scenes or getting waxed regularly...

A film deemed too dark

"Watching the film, I asked myself: if a work of art only reinforces clichés about a subject, is it useful? Many people in the industry don't seem to think so. Such is the case of porn producer Axel Braun, who felt the film overemphasized "the negative side of our industry" in a since-deleted tweet. Actress Lucy Heart tweeted that the central plot was "an overly simplistic idea that made us appear negative". She told the Indiewire website that the film's ending "wasn't very sex-positive".

Noelle Perdue disappointed by the film's outcome

"As someone who has watched many documentaries and media about pornography, Pleasure lost its luster as it moved toward exiting the industry. The jokes about overexploited plots in porn are starting to fall flat. On the other hand, documentaries about porn end up with the same outcome over and over again: the sex worker quitting her job, a decision clearly intended to elicit relief from the audience," laments Noelle Perdue.

This was the case, for example, with the documentary " Hot Girl Wanted ", released in 2015. The dark side of the business was also highlighted, including the brutality of the porn world. Writer Noelle Perdue also thinks the film lacks nuance.

All the actors in Pleasure come from the porn industry, with the notable exception of Sofia Kappel, who plays the main character. "This casting seems representative of Thyberg's failure to follow the true contours of this industry: an inability to fully engage. Despite years of research and a clear desire to innovate and do something new, Thyberg stumbled in his storytelling," laments Noelle Perdue.

"The film focused on worn-out storytelling. If the porn industry can abandon plumbers and pizza delivery boys, can Hollywood also, I hope, abandon its obsession with seeing every sex worker 'escape' the industry?" concludes Noelle Perdue.