Suze Randall Returns
to Live Action Porn
By: Jared Rutter
02-20-2004
CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Veteran photographer Suze Randall, whose hyper-erotic photo layouts have steamed the pages of Penthouse, Club and Hustler for more than two decades, is returning to live-action porn after an absence of 17 years.
The new Suze Randall line, distributed by Pure Play Media, kicks off April 28 with the five-scene video Addicted to Sex. Reissues of vintage Randall features will go out in alternating months. The first re-release is Too Naughty to Say No, with Ginger Lynn, shot on Super 16 film in 1984. It ships May 26.
Shipping in June is Dark Side, an S/M-themed video with Ander Page and Victoria Zdrok. Randall’s other new titles, so far, are Undressed and Over Sexed, Lust for Fun, Sophisticated Sluts and Insatiably Yours. Reissues will include eight volumes of the Suze’s Centerfolds loop series, and such features as Stud Hunters, Sky Foxes, Unveiled and Kiss and Tell. All releases will be simultaneous DVD/VHS.
Richard Arnold, Pure Play CEO, called his distribution pact with Randall “very exciting, a good deal for both of us.” Although a fan of hers, he wasn’t aware how large her following was until the Adult Entertainment Expo, where Pure Play’s booth promoted the Randall line.
“It was amazing,” Arnold told AVN.com. “We had as much positive feedback from that as any from any other line we carried at the show. I completely underestimated the response from consumers and other company owners, saying ‘I can’t believe you made a deal with her!’”
Addicted
to Sex stars Katsumi, Anais, Jana Cova, Cytherea, Lanny Barbie, Cherry
Rain and Sophie Evans. As in all of Randall’s new productions, each
scene begins with a brief montage of Randall shooting a photo layout of
the girl, intercut with voice-over comments and tease footage. This segues
directly into the sex. DVDs include still-photo “pre-creations”
shot on the set, plus extended interviews and tease scenes.
Randall, an AVN Hall of Famer, works closely with her husband, Humphry Knipe, as co-producer, and her photographer daughter, Holly Randall, as co-director. According to Knipe, after Suze sets up the scene and does her photo shoot, the set is re-lit for video and Holly takes over behind the camera. “She’s really the one calling the [video] shots,” her dad told AVN.com. “She’s emerging as a really good directeuse.”
Randall and Knipe stopped shooting videos in 1986. When AVN.com asked Suze what inspired their return, she chortled: “The money!”
Then she waxed nostalgic. “It used to be so much fun when [porn] was illegal,” she chuckled. “Running from the vice cops and being given lots of money by very suspicious characters—it was kind of exciting. But once they legalized it and every Tom, Dick and Harry started shooting very cheap films, we kind of lost interest.
“And it used to be so difficult. In the old days we were shooting 16mm and going on location, it was technically much harder. Now it’s video and you can see what’s happening. It’s a lot simpler—and a lot of fun.”
It took her a year of talking to distributors before deciding to go with Pure Play, which is affiliated with Michael Ninn’s Ninn Worx. She and Ninn are mutual admirers. “Michael told me that he’s been my biggest fan,” she said, “that I was the reason he got into the business. And Michael’s style is such high quality. We work better together than a lot of the other companies, which are a little on the rough side. Michael’s into loving beautiful women, and he’s a great filmmaker. He really helped us get our look with the montage tease.”
Randall is pleased that the acceptance of gonzo porn has freed producers from having to create a story framework for the sex. “We’re not having to pretend we’re something we’re not,” she said. “It’s kind of embarrassing when you have to do soap opera things just to explain why you’re there. We want to do really erotic, hot, sexual scenes. Nobody really wants acting; you want the beauty, the passion.”
She said she’s been bowled over by the glamour and heat of such new adult stars as Victoria Zdrok, Ander Page, and Anais (whom she bills as “Anais Alexander”). “You just sit back in awe and watch these girls in action!”
“Suze gets the best talent in the business,” Pure Play’s Arnold said. “They like working with her.”
Taking stock of her return to the trenches, Randall let out something between a laugh and a sigh. “I never thought I’d be here again: back to square one, doing it better.”
For ordering information, contact Pure Play Media at (866) 820-3000. To view more of Suze Randall’s work, go to www.Suze.net or www.SuzeVideo.com.