Page 71 - AVN March 2017

FEATURE
STAGE MOMENTS Left, Morgan Lee, ChronicLove, Piper Perri and Gina Valentina (photo by Curtis/EMMReport.com);
right, Ana Foxxx, Romi Rain and Ron Jeremy; (photo by JFK). Below, John Stagliano (photo by Rick Garcia).
‘HARD’ CORE
Best Director – Foreign Feature winner John Stagliano
Evil Angel’s John Stagliano added another award to
his overstuffed trophy case by winning Best Director -
Foreign Feature for Hard in Love at the 2017 AVN Awards
Show. And that movie’s encounter between Misha Cross
and Nikita Bellucci was named Best Sex Scene in a
Foreign Feature at the 34th annual ceremony on January
21.
Hard in Love, his epic two-parter about an obsessive
love between two women (Cross and Samantha Bentley),
was Stagliano’s first all-girl feature.
“I thought it was a very successful experiment in
working with more emotional stuff,” Stagliano said. “And
to make it real, to shoot it on an interesting budget ... It
came out good.
“Samantha Bentley’s very talented—and Misha Cross,
I mean ... They had some kind of relationship. They’re
primarily straight, but ... they have a relationship of some
kind. That was good to work with. They had some real
sense of jealousy and they knew what those things felt
like. Samantha was capable of going to a dark place of
desperation.”
He shot the movie primarily at Rocco Siffredi’s studio
in Budapest, with some additional work in Berlin. The
studio of the dominatrix played by Angel Long, loaded
with SM devices, “that’s Rocco’s place.”
The movie is notable for its extreme sex scenes.
“Really, the basis was that I shot Samantha with Rocco in
the vampire movie [Voracious], that incredible scene that
she did [a threeway with Siffredi]. In fact, Rocco told me
about Misha Cross right before I shot that but after I’d
already cast the other girl, the very beautiful Mira Sunset.
Misha was brand new at the time and may not have even
met Samantha Bentley. The scene was quite interesting
because it was so strong and real. One of the best things
I’ve ever done. And that gave me insight into Samantha.”
As for the award-winning scene between Cross and
Europorn star Bellucci, “that was really good even
though the lighting was all fucked up. It got dark and I
was using natural light and had to use artificial light for
the transition. Nikita’s pretty interesting. Very beautiful.
I enjoyed shooting her. I had talked to Rocco about
her and he highly recommended her. Rocco had a big
influence on the movie. Advice and recommendations.”
Angel Long on the other hand “was recommended to
me by Samantha, I looked at some of her recent stuff and
really liked it. She was looking quite incredible.”
Stagliano revealed that a scene with her in Hard in
Love 2, in which she works over Misha while Samantha
is forced to watch, was deemed “too strong” for his
website, EvilAngel.com. It appears on the DVD but not
on the web “because the lawyers said it was too hard.”
When asked if he’s planning any more features, he
replied, “I don’t believe that’s in the plan. Features don’t
make money any more. I can’t figure out how it’s worth
the extra value and stuff that you put in a feature. I’m
going to venture into vignettes, kind of a combination
gonzo-narrative storytelling. When I pull it off I’ll let you
guys know.”
BEST DIRECTOR - FOREIGN FEATURE | By Jared Rutter
3.17 | AVN.com | 71