"Matinée" is a Dutch English-language film from 2009 written and directed by Jennifer Lyon Bell and this is not her only adult film according to IMDb. It is about a pair of actors who are looking for new methods of giving their characters and performances more spark. So why not go for unsimulated sex right on stage before everybody in the audience? Well, this is basically what this movie is about. As a consequence, two thirds of it are sex. I personally was not really too convinced by the background story to say it was justifying and appropriate I must say. The actors were mediocre, same goes for the writing and honestly the film looked considerably older to me than 2009, even if it will have its 10th anniversary already two years from now. Looked more like something from the 90s to me. Oh yeah, the explicit intercourse scenes were more fun to listen to than to watch in my opinion, but maybe there my subjective approach that I did not find the female protagonist too attractive played a role. In any case, neither she nor his male counterpart appeared in a film before or after this one. JLB is still shooting films these days though. Her effort here does not really get me curious about other stuff from her sadly. I give "Matinée" a thumbs-down.

In Matinée, Jennifer Lyon Bell, one of the leading feminist erotic movie directors, presents a whole different approach to erotic movies. To her, sex is something to be savored not exploited. Her respect and feeling for her very-appealing characters permeates the movie and stands in stark contrast to the exploitive, misogynistic approach so often found in traditional supposedly-erotic movies.Jennifer Lyon Bell is also very well trained and it shows in Matinée. The quality of the production is first rate. She clearly took great pains in making a high-quality movie.The IMDb "director cameo" about the movie correctly notes that she appears briefly at the end of the movie, but fails to note that she is one of the members of the audience watching the play which is the subject of the film.

Presented as "a fresh look at what erotic film can be … an erotic film for people who like film," Matinée is about Mariah and Daniel, two theater actors who perform the parts of lovers: Lola and Tony in the play Two Days in Berlin. Despite a sense of personal chemistry between the two, we learn that reviews of the play have critiqued their performance for lacking spark. In response, the two take improvisation to a highly charged new erotic level. Matinée shows us how.Filmmaker Jennifer Lyon Bell has explained to Dutch television that for Matinée she wanted a story to develop the main characters and the intensely emotional sex the two have on stage. But not necessarily a romantic story. She didn't want her film to fall into the clichés about women wanting roses, champagne, and romance. She wanted to create feminist porn where the female character is also in control — and where the male character doesn't drop his underwear right away… And truly;Matinée is a unique viewing experience. Jennifer focuses on natural beauty and chemistry between the two characters, with close-ups that capture the warmth and textures of skin and curves, filming the sex in near real time accompanied solely by the sensual sounds of sex. As bookends the film features an effective original music score, but more noticeable during the sex scene is the resounding stillness of the theater through which the real sounds of each touch truly add to the atmosphere of the film—as if the viewer can feel the tingle of this kind of sexuality. The narrative framework of it taking place in the theater in front of an audience is well integrated and adds to the overall texture of the picture, so that the filling of the theater space with these sounds helps to enliven the senses. In whole, the film bears testimony to Jennifer's commitment to delivering cinematic quality. Matinée won the awards for best short film at Melbourne Underground Film Festival (2009) and at CineKink NYC (2009), and also received an Honorable Mention at the Feminist Porn Awards (2009).

I don't usually watch erotic film, but this was recommended to me as a balanced interesting movie that was also erotic, and it was terrific. There is a real plot, realistic couple and that made the erotic parts all the more meaningful. I also liked the fact that these actors were interested in the film and the nudity/sexuality part came as a natural outcome, not the other way around.I can imagine that dudes who watch regular "porn" might not like it as much because there is an actual story leading up to the "porn" part,and the erotic scenes are meant to add depth to the story and also extra pleasure, rather than the usual goal of pornographic movies. For those of us who want something more sensitive to relationship and to the woman's perspective, this film was great.