MESS OF BLUE POTTAGE FRENCH AW MAKE MILLIONS FROM EXPLICIT SEX FILMS

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33959, 27 September 1975, Page 14

MESS OF BLUE POTTAGE FRENCH AW MAKE MILLIONS FROM EXPLICIT SEX FILMS

I By

PAUL WEBSTER

Paris /or :he Observer Foreign .Vens Service )

On the Avenue des Champs Eh sees. •’Emmanuelle has achieved the respectability of a well-establisWd institution. Fourteen months oi being exposed in more detail than the most thorough surxex map ' nearly two million cinemagoers have reduced the life-sized nuv<• photographs of the star, Sylvia Kristel. to little more than a anuliai rendezvous point for couples setting out for other erotic shrines letueen j the Arc de Triomphe and the Rond Point.

"Emmanuelle.’ the pione’er who made a profit of 50: million francs ($11,440,000) for her producer. Just Jaeickin, is now obscured by a 'much more explicit type of pornography and a poten-' 'tially more scandalous attempt at middle-class erotica that has even found echoes' |in government. The Minister for Women’s Affairs, Madame Francoise Giroud, shocked to see the campaigning weekly I “L’Express” giving over its (cover to a free and naked advertisement foi a’ new film which runs contrary to the principles of women's lib has withdrawn her name from the magazine's directorship. The unrepentant "Express,” which made its name by exposing torture in French Algeria, continues .serialising the film, I‘THistoire . d’O.” France’s most notorious erotic novel, to boost its flagging weekly; 'circulation and making no ! apology for running a series of photographs which Hugh Hefner would envy. The “Express,” excusing jitself for throwing off its' ‘serious image for a mess of pornography, makes the . point that it has a duty to (take a lead in a social phenomenon and it is hard to

deny that the excuse has aj good deal of reason. ' As the cinema-going public has been literally raped i by every level of sexual! activity in the wake of “Emi manuelle” over the last year,) i it is impossible to pass an ‘ ) evening in any company | without someone discussing | the latest scene of sadism, .masochism, masturbation, bestiality, child seduction, ■lesbianism, orgy or pure '(gymnastics. What seemed to (be a minor political decision] Hto lift cinema censorship has turned into a crash sex education course. President Giscard' d’Estaing abolished the censor for all but political films! ] last year as a reaction to 17! (years of Gaullist hypocrisy.! (Like the Victorians, the Gaullists are remembered for forbidding others to do what ‘they did themselves, but ■ Giscard, the President who: believes in a private life,]

.could hardl> refuse the samel ((choice to an electorate! i which void'd for change. “Emmanuelle, drawn from] i, France's top erotic novel ofi ■ithe sixties and written by; | the Eurasian wife of a| I French U.N.E.S.C.O. official i! was already nearing comopletion. It would probably have been a good deal] . milder without the Presiijdent's decision. The producer ■ was depending on its sixties’ notoriety and the presence of one of France’s most reI spected actors. Alain Cuny. Curiosity made “Emmai nuelle," bringing in the middle-class, middle-brow, . middle-aged audiences and making a fortune for the cinemas which have sprung up on the Spanish, Italian; (and Belgian borders where hundreds of thousands of tourists consider a good :meal and a pornographic film the image of a day in ■France. i‘ If the Americans laughed i at the film — it was panned ijby “Time” as being tame — French national pride has . done everything possible to J; catch up. Basically there ‘were two production ; streams. One tried to put on ) films in major cinemas in which middle class audiences could watch sexual

j acts, within an excuse for a ■cultural context; the second i stream stepped up exposure and variety for the old, furftive dirty raincoat brigade. • As in ’ the films them1/Selves, quite who is doing I what for whom is becoming impossible to tell these days. There are about 20 cinemas on the Champs Elysees or in adjoining streets showing pornographic movies, about I half of the picture houses' having been opened only for i this purpose. But the big success of rejcent weeks before “Histoire d’O” came along was a film i called “Exhibition,” which was shown in major cinema ; houses. The star of “Exhibition” was Claudine Beccarie, 1 a one-time whore in a Spanish brothel, whose body has been even more thoroughly scrutinised than Sylvia Kristel’s. “Exhibition” was the first I j hard core (the French havel not bothered to translate thej i expression) movie to be; shown in France and was: made by the producers ofl I “Clockwork Banana,” the; most successful soft core film! lof the pre-Giscard edict. The' cultural excuse for “Exhibi-i tion” was a running interview with Claudine on why she took part in these films, (she has made a hundred orj so) but leaving ample time; for non-simulated, closely photographed sexual acts: with men, women and her-' self. Titillated by a five-minute > masturbation sequence, a I number of orgies that cut 1 across racial prejudices and the use of basic vocabulary! of sexual expression, the: same mixed audience which! went for enlightenment to; “Exhibition” can now be| seen turning up at “The Big| Orgy” — the first'true-blue I film to be shown on the; Champs Elysees. The terms blue, pornogra-, phic, hardcore and erotic arel presumably used roughly ini relation to what the audi-< ence is likely to have seen; before which is why “His-j toire d’O,” which concern i trates on sadism, is termed! erotic. In a sense it is the apo-1

■itheosis of the revolution, the >1 final attempt to make the whole round respectable pot iinographv into mundane fare f like Westerns, police thrillers and musicals. Already i(about a third of French cinema receipts are taken by ■ erotic films and. with the •'“Express’s" imprimatur, the II last stronghold of middleclass resistance can go with•iout embarrassment. Just Jaeckin. •Emmanuelle’s” “father, ' also conceived "O” abd in spite of I fairly cool reviews and a common remark that the ■(film is aseptic, it adds “tone" to the whole argui ment on film pornograpnv The "Express" used the ;]book’s introduction by Jean ijPaulhan, a member of the >! French Academy, as a seal 'of approval and Francoise 1 Giroud's reaction adds controversy and diversion. For the argument is not over whether anyone from I 18 years upwards can bee I naked women sexually •ibrutalised at the drop of a . fiat (come to think of it noi oody actually wore a hat) ■)but whether women’s lib has i been insulted by the premise that women love to be physically dominated. I Power to shock

There has always been an argument about the author of “O,” because the book has been attributed to all the best known names in I contemporary French literature (writers like Andre Maurois enjoyed not denying . that they wrote it). In fact | the author, Pauline Reage, the pseudonym of a well|known woman journalist, dijvorced with two children, is i real enough. feminine lenough and middle-aged enough to add another profitable note of respectability. I She has added to the diversion by making it clear to the "Express” that she does not think much of women's lib and stands by her 20-year-old thesis for which she ■is supposed to have been the guinea pig. The type of discussion surrounding “O” — seven itop cinemas are showing the film in Paris alone — suggests that the whole phenomenon has taken a new turn. With “Emmanuelle,” j there was more emphasis on discussing feminine physical j detail and desires. With later films, once-inhibited women 1 began discussing the male anatomy with remarkable frankness. In the last few weeks the | use of four-letter words and 'the mention of perversions 'have lost their power to shock. Inevitably there will I soon be university theses on the effects of free cinema on sex crimes or much heavier sociological investigations ' about middle-class revolutions. There is even a feeling i that people might just be 'getting a little bit bored and That one day the cinemas (will be restored to the faithiful mackintosh brigade. “O,” i which kicked off with the I biggest publicity of any ;film for years ('“Express'' had to deny that it owned a snare) is in fact drawing in 120 per cent fewer entries Than "Emmanuelle” was a year ago. The producers say that “Emmanuelle II” — almost ready — will be ( aimed more at starved foreign audiences, particularly the Japanese. — O.F.N.S. Copyright.