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SINFUL
Produced by Michael Raso
Directed, Written, and Edited by Tony Marsiglia
Director of Photography - Dang LenawacLilith - Misty Mundae
Aisha - Erika Smith
Sam - Nikos Psarras
Jim - Ronnie KerrAs Jim and Lilith screw (you can't call what they're doing "love making"), she rides cowgirl, letting viewers know in the opening shot that she's the one in charge. After emasculating her husband with barbs such as "are you even hard" and "are you even in," Lilith angrily replies to his plea of "you're suffocating me" with the harsh condemnation of "you fucking faggot, look at these tits." In no way are these the words of people in love.
Contrasting this dysfunctional couple are their neighbors, Sam and Aisha. Viewers are introduced to them in much the same way, only it's clear that these two are in love and that's exactly what they're making. Watching the two is one of the only times Director Tony Marsiglia has made sex a loving, beautiful act. Visually, he reinforces this message with the way in which he photographs each pair - Jim and Lilith awash in cold blue light while Sam and Aisha are awash in warm, passionate red tones.
That warm world of love is what Lilith longs for and she's often found fantasizing about the two worlds melding. We learn early on that Lilith lives in a world filled with self-delusions, but when she learns that her neighbor is about to have the one thing Lilith longs for the most, a baby, she becomes completely unglued from reality.
On the lone night that both couples are together, eating dinner, it's apparent that the two worlds can't intertwine. Jim and Lilith are both surprised when Aisha states that she's attracted to each of them. Their words reflect surprise; their tone reflects lust. Not simply a sexual lust, but the overwhelming desire for something more, something loving. To Jim and Lilith, a night with Aisha is worth more than an eternity with each other. Being the alpha, Lilith wastes little time in emasculating him again by telling him to shut up repeatedly.
Before this dinner scene, it's relatively easy for viewers to distinguish where reality lies and Lilith's delusions begin, but as the dining events unfold everything distorts with a Lynchian perversity. It becomes clear that Lilith's inability to have a child only reinforces the overwhelming insecurities she developed due to her own strained relationship with her mother. Lilith believes that she can get things right by being everything her own mother wasn't: loving, caring, and nurturing. It's clear from the opening scene that she's none of things. Instead, she's mean and selfish to the point where she covets her neighbor's happiness.
Marsiglia climaxes his movie with an act of violence that, while horribly atrocious ,is not all that surprising considering the relationships between the characters, as well as Lilith's distorted view on events around her. When Aisha says something to the effect of "what's mine is yours and what's yours in mine," Lilith takes it to the extreme as her jealousy overwhelms and she literally rips what she covets from Aisha's womb.
Marsiglia uses Lilith to explore the themes of what it means to be a woman in today's society. Is a woman a sexual creature? Of course. Does the ability to create and carry life make one a woman? To Lilith it does. Does the inability to bare children make someone less than a woman? To Lilith it does. Like the Biblical Lilith, Adam's first wife according to Jewish scripture, she was cast out of Eden as punishment for her sins before she had the opportunity to mother mankind. To Mundae's Lilith, Eden is family, and she's punishing herself for something that can only be described as "sins of the mother."
Lilith is the most complex character Misty Mundae has played to date, and not that far removed from the title character in Marsiglia's remake of Nick Philips' CHANTAL. Both women suffer from a shallow view of the world that's limited by their views of themselves. Misty is asked to be loving, hateful, cruel, petty, and nurturing, often all within the same scene. Like her other films released through ei under the Seduction Cinema label, Misty is often naked. Unlike those films she's never titillating in SINFUL, which probably has more to do with Marsiglia's hallmark as a director in making radiantly gorgeous women unappealing than it does with Mundae's looks (ie. radiantly gorgeous).
Unlike his more exploitation-oriented pictures, Marsiglia displays a frankness about nudity that stems directly from the characters. Fans of Erika Smith will see her in her only full frontal nude scene, but the scene stems from sexual openness in the character rather than the need for late night cable sales. With SINFUL, Tony Marsiglia has masterfully made an adult film about sex which explores deeper subjects dealing with very human and emotional issues, and it's probably safe to say that SINFUL won't be enjoyed by the cable crowd at all, at least not those looking for mindless t&a.
The SINFUL dvd features a commentary by Marsiglia as he details the events of the production, as well a pair of behind-the-scenes interviews, one of which focuses on Misty Mundae.