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The homosexual's movies use virtually no script, instead relying on innovative editing and lavish art direction. Night Trips, House of Dreams and Hidden Obsessions number among his best work. Andrew never pushes adult performers beyond their meagre acting abilities, and hence they rarely speak in his films. Blake told the February 2001 issue of Talk magazine: "I'm into looking at women. Not all this 'pissing and fisting.' I've never had any legal problems." After retiring from hardcore in 1993, Blake made softcore for three years. The films only differ from X by the absence of genital close-ups, penetration and cum shots. "From the looks of Fantasy Women, Andrew Blake has finally found his rightful home. What were once considered his weaknesses - slight stories, wispy characterizations, a refusal to go in depth with just a handful of scenes - rarely come to play in softcore tapes. Yet his strengths - sustaining a sensuous mood, creating inventive situations, capturing breathtaking images - are the foundations of the genre." (AFW V. 15 N. 5) Bisexual pornographer Susie Bright criticizes Blake for not showing female orgasms in his hardcore work. Blake: "You don't think my stuff portrays the woman's arousal?" Bright: "...You tease, but I don't see the climax. In Night Trips with Tori Welles, I had the feeling she was coming..." Blake: "And I cut away?" Bright: "Yes. I wanted to kill you. The guy was doing Tori from behind, and she was holding on to something, getting aroused, and all of a sudden you pulled away from a close-up to a medium shot. I was dying to see the flush on her chest, her sweat - I wanted to see her mouth she came. I wanted to see her clit swollen and her pussy contracting." Caballero released House of Dreams in 1990. "Zara Whites is the central figure in this series of silent sex vignettes where an out of body experience in a house leads to varied types of sex... This lavishly produced and lovingly edited excursion into new age erotica serves up a stylish series of encounters that are often breathtakingly beautiful images with a nonlinear approach that creates an erotic atmosphere adults tired of raincoat porn will be thankful for. Director Andrew Blake has reintroduced elements of subtle eroticism into the adult movie genre." (AFW 96D p. 258) Hidden Obsessions appeared in 1993. A rich man hires a woman to write erotic fantasies for his eccentric reclusive wife. Janine comes up with more than a dozen erotic scenarios. "Andrew Blake does his carnal career best in this shining jewel of erotica that will stand the test of time as one of the best adult films ever. His previous work was merely a warm up for this film. Hotter, harder and more beautiful than the sum of his former output, Blake sets the high water mark for gorgeous people in highly evocative sexual situations. The lavish production values make this cast the prettiest they have ever looked. The locations are breathtaking, the photography superb, and the lighting is the icing on the cake. The whole gamut of erotic possibilities is explored and realized here: masturbation, girl-girl, male-female, kink, group sex. The unforgettable scene is that between Janine and Julia Ann, with deep penetration performed with an ice-sculptured dildo. The girls take it all the way and turn the thick frozen tool into a slender dripping icicle. (AFW 96D p. 257) Andrew Blake, born around 1947, returned to hardcore in 1996, releasing Unleashed, the first part of a Sleepless Nights collection. With ten sex scenes, no plot, little dialog and little audio track of performers having sex, Unleashed is Blake's attempt to bring back pretty porn. AFW: "Over the last few years, the industry has turned to either reality porn featuring an almost amateurish, hand-held camera approach, or gone the way of Michael Ninn with a video game meets MTV style. Gregory Dark is probably the closest stylistically to Blake. Where Dark is nasty, Blake is beautiful. His images look like they've been ripped out of the pages of fashion magazines, making even the most ordinary of porn performers look...sensual." In 1995 Blake made a fantasy fetish video Captured Beauty. "It focuses on anatomy and has flogging and hot wax, but no sex. It's been successful in Europe. "We hope to do four [hardcore] movies per year, so there's something interesting to see in the industry. I still can't believe how much I've been copied, but I don't think I've ever been duplicated. They always seem to miss the mark on the production design, the choice of location or the styling. It comes down to taste. They don't have the vision or the concept of beauty. You take somebody like Selena, who is considered a B player, and nobody has taken the time to make a mark with her. In this film [Unleashed], particularly the box cover, she looks spectacular. "The only [other] person in this business who has a vision is Michael Ninn. A lot of the business have lovely box covers but there's nothing inside. Once you get inside the box, it's the same people in the same locations. It's like sexual Muzak." (AFW) Andrew Blake derives much of his porn vision from photographer Helmut Newton who grabbed the attention of the fashion world by posing famous models in pseudo-bondage leather gear. AVN 9/96: "To the raincoat crowd, Blake may as well be preaching Taoism from Mars. His ardent fans, however, will be sporting chubbies from the first glimpse of every rubber-wrapped nipple to every pink moon boot rubbing against a chiffon-clad crotch. "Blake treats the pop shot as if it were a ritualistic potion to be anointed on the chosen few... Marc Davis, after humping the lead girls [Laura Palmer and Selena] deviates from expectations and unloads his lusty glue onto Palmer's high heel, letting it drip down into Selena's waiting mouth..." Diesel wrote on RAME: Did Andrew Blake shoot for Playboy TV? I am talking specifically about those "Fantasies" segments which often featured porno actresses like Kari Foxx and Jamie Summers. Some of those segments were shot in the same style as he did in his movies SECRETS and HOUSE OF DREAMS. Anybody know? I also thought Blake had something to do with this series but I pulled out a copy of one episode I made many years ago and the following credits were listed at the end: Produced by Sherwood Price Conceived and Written by Paul Nevitt [Blake] and Sherwood Price All the other credits were for costume and make-up ect. I'm not sure but perhaps Blake used another name for his softcore work. I'm almost certain I read that Blake and Playboy parted ways partly because the people at Playboy placed a limit on how explicit Blake could be, and I always assumed that refered to this series, now I don't know. The episode I pulled out was from 1987. I recognized Playmates Rebekka Armstrong and Barbara Edwards, Playboy model Sandra Wild, and another model I think is Kari Foxx. 1/15/00 James Hibberd, editor of New Times Phoenix, writes about the adult CES. Here's an excerpt from his column: Director Andrew Blake is looking forward to being able to charge fans directly to download his products. Blake, whose relatively high-budget stylistics and use of immaculate-looking models have made him one of porn's most famous directors, stands imperially at a booth for his Studio A Entertainment production company. "Unless we end up under some fascist dictator," he says, "soon we will be able to send a whole movie over the Internet." Blake is dressed entirely in black and wears expensive-looking wire-frame glasses. He keeps wiping his hands with a pre-moistened towelette. "There has been an evolution into a slicker medium," he says, "with slicker-looking women. A lot of people have tried to imitate me, and that's elevated the medium. I'm looking forward to producers like me being able to have a direct link between the product and the buyer."
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