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Synopsis: Asia Carrera takes Mozart into a different kind of musical bliss.

Our Review: A horny Mozart with Asia Carrera? Yep. And a whole bunch of other gorgeous vixens as well. Adam and Eve produced this fantastic title, which offers an 8-person orgy and the usual gamut of sexual positions, as well as a storyline and great cinematography. The actors are all gorgeous and filmed to show their, um, best attributes. Asia actually wrote and co-directed the feature as well, so the scenes play out a bit longer and slower than most other titles. Another plus is the musical score, which is classical Mozart at his best. A scene-by-scene description coming soon.

Another Review from D9Media: Appassionata is a film that any self respecting Asia Carrera fan should own. Not only does she star in it, but she also co-wrote, co-produced, and even co-directed. If that’s not enough, she even did the music for it…yes, that’s her playing the piano! Working alongside Bud Lee, Asia put together a unique film with aspirations beyond the normal fare of the porn world.

The story starts out in the 18th Century as Asia shows off her talent at the piano while the opening titles roll. As it turns out Asia is a student (and lover) of Mozart (Marc Davis) and is set to wed a Norwegian prince against her own wishes. If you think that’s tough, you should see what her life is like in the present. Like her historical counterpart, modern-day Asia is also a talented pianist with different problems; she can’t land any work. While hitchhiking along a stretch of highway, she hooks up with Alex Sanders. Alex is also a struggling artist waiting for his big break. Together, they travel around Southern California in Alex’s van looking for work, but only find disappointments…not to mention a few sexual encounters. The narrative drifts in and out of the past and present, telling each story a piece at a time, until eventually the two seem to merge. I’m not sure what the abrupt ending means, but I guess it could be interpreted as either happy or tragic...you decide.

I thought the best scene in the entire movie was the 18th century orgy featuring eight couples going at it in full period garb; though I’ve always been a sucker for costume drama porn. Orgies are always a problem for reviewers because there’s so much action going on, making it difficult to keep track of all the performers. The problem is compounded in this orgy because everyone is wearing a powdered wig. Through the process of elimination I was able to confirm the guys (Jonathan Morgan, Alec Metro, John Decker, and Steve Hatcher) but I’m not to sure about the four girls. I think I recognized one of them as Raylene but I don’t know about the other three. Although initially frustrating, I eventually appreciated the anonymous aspect of masking the performers in heavy wardrobe. It puts everyone on an even playing field and focuses attention on the overall action instead of one or two particular performers. Anyway, there’s some nice action here that’s well performed and photographed. At least one of the girls gets a nice ass pounding and even sports a nice gaper for the camera; not exactly something I was expecting. Even though there’s some nasty action going on, Lee opts for wider overhead crane shots as opposed to close-ups. This kind of got on my nerves at the beginning, but fortunately the scene gives way to a few more intimate shots as it proceeds. The scene concludes with four impressive pop shots, and even a few post-climax reinsertions. After all, the orgy is supposed to continue till dawn.

The first thing I noticed about this disc was the incessant graininess of the picture. At first I thought it was a terrible DVD transfer, but upon closer inspection realized the transfer was quite impeccable; it was simply the quality of the original film stock which gave the film this gritty look. Once I got past this point, I was able to sit back and enjoy the feature. It was shortly after watching the movie that I remembered a similar grainy look in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut. I hate to compare Bud Lee to Kubrick, but both films have this grainy look and deal heavily with dreams or dreamscape influenced realities. While Kubrick’s film conveyed a perpetual dream state, Asia’s character shifts between an idealized fantasy (dream) world and reality. However, there is no technical distinction between these worlds. It would have made more sense to use the grainy film stock for one world, and a more crisp film stock for the other. No doubt this would have been a bit more expensive, but it would have at least given a plausible reason (in terms of the narrative) for the poor image quality. The original intent was probably for an artistic Andrew Blake-like appearance, but it simply doesn’t work here.

Graininess aside, this is one of Adam & Eve’s best DVDs. Although the image quality is quite grainy, it would look the same if you saw it in a theater. This was a problem during the initial production, not during the DVD authoring. Due to all the intentional grain it was difficult to judge the quality of the transfer, but after studying several freeze frames, the picture looked quite sharp. Likewise, the audio is really crisp. However, there were several moments where the mixing was a little low. For example, the dialogue in the van (between Asia and Alex) is plagued by too much background road noise. But then again, that’s a problem with the original film.

The second disc contains a number of extras including some cast/crew anecdotes, interviews, and a bloopers reel. The anecdotes extra is a nice 20-plus minute compilation of interview segments detailing the production of the movie. In the interviews section Asia, Alex, Bud, Marc, Charlie, and Sindee Cox basically give short bios and reveal how they got started in the business. Labeled as “Bloopers” this short little featurette does a little more than it’s namesake suggests, providing a good behind the scenes look as well. There’s even a couple of director’s cut scenes of the two orgies which have been re-cut with additional footage. The rest of the disc is filled out with the usual trailers and a well done compilation of several Adam & Eve sex scenes. There’s plenty here, but I’m kind of shocked there wasn’t a director’s commentary.

If you’re into Asia Carrera, Appassionata is a must. Although she’s only in a couple of sex scenes, her other talents are fully utilized making this a highlight of her filmography. Other than that, the action is quite good with plenty of nasty stuff to keep most smut fans happy and occasionally surprised. The production values are also worth noting. Besides being shot on film, everything from the costumes to locations are top notch.