John Stagliano Talks Best Director - Foreign Feature Win

LOS ANGELES—Evil Angel’s John Stagliano added another award to his overstuffed trophy case by winning Best Director - Foreign Feature for Hard in Love at the 2017 AVN Awards Show. And that movie’s encounter between Misha Cross and Nikita Bellucci was named Best Sex Scene in a Foreign Feature at the 34th annual ceremony on January 21 at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Hard in Love, his epic two-parter about an obsessive love between two women (Cross and Samantha Bentley), was Stagliano’s first all-girl feature. “I thought it was a very successful experiment in working with more emotional stuff," Stagliano said. "And to make it real, to shoot it on an interesting budget... It came out good. “Samantha Bentley’s very talented—and Misha Cross, I mean...They had some kind of relationship. They’re primarily straight, but...they have a relationship of some kind. That was good to work with. They had some real sense of jealousy and they knew what those things felt like. Samantha was capable of going to a dark place of desperation.” He shot the movie primarily at Rocco Siffredi’s studio in Budapest, with some additional work in Berlin. The studio of the dominatrix played by Angel Long, loaded with SM devices, “that’s Rocco’s place.” The movie is notable for its extreme sex scenes. “Really, the basis was that I shot Samantha with Rocco in the vampire movie [Voracious], that incredible scene that she did [a threeway with Siffredi]. In fact, Rocco told me about Misha Cross right before I shot that but after I’d already cast the other girl, the very beautiful Mira Sunset. Misha was brand new at the time and may not have even met Samantha Bentley. The scene was quite interesting because it was so strong and real. One of the best things I’ve ever done. And that gave me insight into Samantha.” As for the award-winning scene between Cross and Europorn star Bellucci, “that was really good even though the lighting was all fucked up. It got dark and I was using natural light and had to use artificial light for the transition. Nikita’s pretty interesting. Very beautiful. I enjoyed shooting her. I had talked to Rocco about her and he highly recommended her. Rocco had a big influence on the movie. Advice and recommendations.” Angel Long on the other hand “was recommended to me by Samantha, I looked at some of her recent stuff and really liked it. She was looking quite incredible.” Stagliano revealed that a scene with her in Hard in Love 2, in which she works over Misha while Samantha is forced to watch, was deemed “too strong” for his website, EvilAngel.com. It appears on the DVD but not on the Web “because the lawyers said it was too hard.” When asked if he’s planning any more features, he replied, “I don’t believe that’s in the plan. Features don’t make money any more. I can’t figure out how it’s worth the extra value and stuff that you put in a feature. I’m going to venture into vignettes, kind of a combination gonzo-narrative storytelling. When I pull it off I’ll let you guys know.” Photo by Rick Garcia/IndustryByRick