by Veronique Morin

Why on earth would a woman of Isabella Rossellini’s stature, success, wealth and beauty, who comes from a bloodline of film royalty — the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini — want to dress up as a male bumblebee and pretend she is screwing a female bee?

Despite a fulfilling life as an actress, filmmaker, model and writer, Rossellini seems ever more curious about sex in the animal kingdom and how animals copulate. Wonderment has led her to enter this world through Green Porno, a series of vignettes for the Sundance Channel. She writes and co-produces the series, humorously depicting animals’sex organs and their mating acts.

At 57, she performs a series of mock copulations involving puppet costumes with huge penises, crawling on floors not only as a bee but also as a spider, a fly, an earthworm, a snail and several other insects and marine animals. “Well, sex is not so important,” she says. “It is not so important at all for me,” she clarifies, looking away, searching for a genuine answer and suddenly — no, sexily – revealing a six-strand pearl necklace under the collar of her austere black dress. But it is hard to believe sex isn’t that important in her life. Flashing back to the roles she played in her acting career – most memorably, standing naked in the film Blue Velvet — or even during her 14 years as the magnetic model for Lancôme cosmetics, to many, Rossellini was the incarnation of sexual allure in its purest sense.

“Green Porno is a catchy name. I thought that it was too funny,” Rossellini giggles. “I don’t know why people are so obsessed with sex. Perhaps it is due to the fact that it is taboo and repressed …but, to me, it is a normal part of life.” The Green Porno series, all three seasons, is presented on the website of the Sundance film channel, founded and partly funded by Robert Redford. “Bob wanted a format that could fit on the web and be downloaded on cellphones,” she says. ”The short film format, one to two minutes, seemed appropriate for this.” But the length of the films is far less noticeable than the explicit material she mimics on screen.

Astonishing Fact #1 Snails pierce their skin to engage in sex. In one scene, Rossellini imitates this sexual act, emphasizing its sadomasochistic nature. The clip ends with her sighing with orgasmic
pleasure.

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