Sophisticated fetish leads to intense orgasms in a stylish, XXX lesbian feature from director John Stagliano. “Hard In Love” premieres May 8 at EvilAngel.com and May 18 on DVD and VOD. Just three weeks later, on June 6, “Hard In Love 2” concludes the two-part, eight-hour epic. Each installment runs about four hours and includes an additional half-hour of behind-the-scenes footage — available in all formats — showing the writing process and on-set direction.
In the exquisitely acted “Hard In Love,” stars Samantha Bentley and Misha Cross embody love at its most dark and psychotic. The two accomplished performers had perfect insight into their characters because they wrote the script. The resulting action is hard, real, desperate and messy.
Stagliano explains the genesis of the project: “Somehow I found myself escorting Ms. Bentley and Ms. Cross to a party at Insomnia in Berlin. I realized I was in the presence of two very talented women. We talked about love, and falling hard. I soon realized I was out of my league trying to create a story about female emotional drama. Samantha and Misha are much more intuitively equipped. We connected with regard to the type of sex I wanted to shoot and they loved to do. ‘Hard In Love’ was born.”
Evil Angel anticipates an enthusiastic fan response to “Hard In Love.” Company Domestic Sales Manager Justin Rich says, “John’s big, ambitious features — like ‘The Fashionistas’ and ‘Voracious’ — have always done well. And this new one has incredibly marketable talent. Misha is the 2016 AVN Female Foreign Performer Of The Year, after X-Biz named her the Foreign Female Performer Of The Year in 2015. And Samantha does big-time, mainstream drama, appearing in multiple episodes of HBO’s ‘Game Of Thrones.’”
To promote “Hard In Love,” Bentley and Cross will be doing Periscope broadcasts May 13-15 from London. Then on May 18, Stagliano will do a Periscope broadcast linked with Bentley and Cross. Follow Evil Angel on Periscope to catch all the action: @Evil Angel. Also on the 18th, Bentley and Cross will take over Evil Angel’s Twitter account, @EvilAngelVideo.
Stagliano found Bentley and Cross truly compelling. He observes, “Samantha can go from thoughtful and intelligent, in our script discussions, to a demon-driven psycho, seamlessly, believably and intensely. This is the second time I have edited a movie she was in for me, where I find the material we have created to be too disturbingly real for me to watch, at first.”
The director considers some of the movie’s best acting to be in a scene where Bentley must watch provocative video of Cross. Says Stagliano, “Misha is a driven bitch who says to Samantha, ‘When you watch this, I hope your head explodes.’ Misha’s body looks like a teen, but her face and emotion are sophisticated and depraved.”
A major presence in “Hard In Love” is striking, towering Angel Long, who like Bentley is British. “Samantha recommended I hire Angel to dominate her,” recalls Stagliano. “I was a fan of Angel’s when she did scenes in the early 2000s. Today she is a dom, and is obsessive about working out. Her flaming red hair and powerful, sexy, English-accented voice really work for me. The Brits always sound smarter and more depraved than Americans. Angel was the catalyst that ignited this jealousy-driven story of revenge and psycho depravity. She became like Rocco in a boy-girl movie to me. She drives scenes.”
Stagliano shot “Hard In Love” in some favorite locations, with the help of reliable friends. “Rocco offered me the use of his studio in Budapest. Things always go better for me when Rocco is around. And we shot in Berlin! Dominique, the owner of Insomnia, offered to let me shoot at her club. Insomnia is where I shot my ‘Fashionistas Safado’ movies, and is my favorite club in the world.”
It all comes down to two intense, gorgeously made up young women: Cross filling her void, finding her love; Bentley the psycho Sappho, sexual savant, dominated. Both of them falling hard. “I had the girls’ demented imagination to save me,” says Stagliano. “As with so much of this movie, the ending was a surprise to me and my narrow male thinking.”