On the Set: Kay Brandt and Marc Dorcel Deliver ‘Climax’

This article originally ran in the December 2019 issue of AVN magazine. Click here to see the digital edition. Above, Angela White. Photos courtesy Marc Dorcel. On a lovely spring day in Los Angeles, director Kay Brandt is a whirlwind amid a sea of bodies. In addition to the ten performers on set, she’s got her sizable production crew plus a team from the studio she’s working for today: none other than Marc Dorcel, the pioneering French company that marks its fortieth anniversary this year. And this production, to be titled Climax, will help celebrate that occasion. The location is also worth celebrating. A sprawling, idiosyncratic house nestled in the Brentwood hills, it offers a riot of irregular angles in each room. Even the pool isn’t the usual rectangle. The decor is white and gray, with black accents, and blonde wood floors. Light streams in through huge picture windows as crew members set up the living room for the ten-person orgy that will take place there in the evening. Outside on the tree-line hillside, hummingbirds dive-bomb the deck while scrub jays alert anyone who’s listening about the presence of a nearby red-shouldered hawk. Reigning AVN Female Performer of the Year Angela White is out on the patio, striking a pose. She is all in black—bra, panties, hose, garter belt and shiny pumps—and her long, dark hair is perfectly curled. Avi Love Brandt goes over the script for the movie, which is about an orgy club run by Angela White’s character, Anais. “She’s the event coordinator who arranges very special orgy events for curious couples. This is where it’s all going to go down. Right on that spot,” she says, gesturing to the living room. Brandt is thrilled to have been chosen by Dorcel to direct Climax. “Now we’ve opened up this door to be able to make content for Dorcel America,” she says. “We’ve been chatting for years about different things.” Then, at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo last January, plans solidified. “For their fortieth anniversary, they wanted to have some special scenes. This was the perfect opportunity to do something in America.” Studio head Gregory Dorcel is also pleased about the collaboration. “At Dorcel we are looking when we produce for high-end production, quite sophisticated, most of the time with storyline,” he says. “We want our content to be acceptable to couples. To produce for couples doesn’t mean to produce something soft. But it is to produce something without all the clichés that you can find often in porn. So what we like with this director is that she has got a vision which is a little bit different, which is quite sophisticated.” Top, Jane Wilde. Bottom, India Summer The storyline—a celebration of polyamory and the pursuit of sexual happiness—is classic Kay Brandt. And the look of the production, from the location down to the carefully chosen lingerie, is pure Dorcel. A company spokesperson shares how hard it was to obtain a setting that would fit the Dorcel style. “It took two months to find the location. I think it is the first time a porn movie is shot here. … It was important to find a location that we haven’t seen yet. That’s the Dorcel way of thinking.” Before the big orgy, Brandt first directs a scene with Avi Love and Ryan Driller in one of the bedrooms. After that, Angela White gets into character as Anais, inducting two new members of her club: India Summer and Seth Gamble. Also in the cast are Jane Wilde, Whitney Wright, Britney Amber, Eric Masterson and Codey Steele. With six women in the cast, it will take some time before everyone’s camera-ready, which gives White a little time to talk prior to the big scene. “I’m the owner and host of an exclusive sex club, so I’m doing an initiation today,” White says. Driller and Love play a couple who “want to experience group sex, so they’ve come to me to help arrange the experience. It’s very exciting. Ten is a big orgy. When it gets to those numbers you tend to forget where you end and the next person starts. It becomes this undulating mass of bodies and there are hands everywhere—hands and mouths and other appendages. It’s very nice. Especially when you can get to that point where you’re taken over by the sensation because you connect in this really symbiotic, really natural way where you’re all just experiencing the same thing. That’s the ideal to get to that point where we can all let go and enjoy.” She also is impressed with the professionalism of the Dorcel organization. "They were very particular on wardrobe—they wanted photographs beforehand of what we were planning on bringing and what our options were. Even asking for photographs of the jewelry. It’s down to the finest detail, which I really appreciate,” White says, noting she shares that passion for details. “This is going to be stunning. And obviously you see the cast. Sexually it’s going to be incredible. “An orgy scene is a big deal. It’s a very expensive scene to shoot. Having so much talent on set—even the crew is a lot larger,” White muses, “A big thing like this costs a lot of money. So even being invited to be part of that project is a privilege and an honor.” Climax is out now from Marc Dorcel. The studio’s DVDs are distributed in the United States by Wicked Pictures. To see a trailer on MarcDorcel.com, click here. Top, Britney Amber; bottom, Whitney Wright.