The golden age of adult movies: still exciting, and still available!
Vintage adult films came out of anonymity and hiding in the late seventies, more than forty years ago. Until now, only a few Super 8 films were available under the table. Before the war, brothel clients could enjoy the filmed spectacle of a few prostitutes making love with moustached men keeping their socks on.
Total censorship was lifted with the 1974 release of Just Jaeckin’s Emmanuelle. It was replaced by the creation of a legal status that became a way of recognition: films were “X-rated”.
Theatres showing erotic and pornographic films flourished in major French cities. At first, spectators were eager to see shows they had been deprived of for too long. The first pornographic films even had educational virtues. Fellatio and sodomy, which were still not widely practiced in couples – or at least they didn’t brag about it – were trivialized on the screen.
Adult movies allowed several hundred thousand men throughout the world to discover the existence and location of the clitoris. Even though one of the first pornographic films released to the general public gave a rather false idea of its existence, since the heroine of Deep throat could be distinguished by having the clitoris located at the back of the throat.
The beginnings of erotic cinema produced masterpieces, such as Francis Leroi’s unsurpassable Je Suis à Prendre, released in 1978, sublimating the particular beauty of his heroine played by Brigitte Lahaie. Reviews praised him: “here at last is a good surprise. Unlike the many films that make do with repetitive situations and botched images, Je suis à prendre stands out for the coherence of its script, the formal beauty of its shots and the visual finds.” The admirers of Francis Leroi’s work also affirmed: “the film ends with the apology of collective hedonism against a background of rejection of ancient morals”.
For a few years, French directors were able to shoot films that are still considered classics of erotic cinema. Brigitte Lahaie was one of the indisputable stars. We find her for example in Body Body À Bangkok, by Jean-Marie Pallardy in 1981, featuring the other star of the moment, Marilyn Jess.
The outbreak of VCRs and video cassettes allowed the public to escape the now gloomy atmosphere of movie theatres. Adult movies were installed on the television set in the living room. This revolution led to the development of a second wave of erotic cinema, whose new stars were called Rocco Siffredi, the Italian stallion, Tracy Adams or Zara Whites whose film Rêve de Cuir is a classic of the genre. We can find them all in the collector DVDs proposed by Dorcel.
But why should we still watch these slightly old-fashioned films, which have nothing more to teach us? Naked men and women making love together in all sorts of positions, followed by fellatio, sodomy and ejaculation, we have seen thousands of them since…
There are many reasons for this, starting with nostalgia for a time when pornography was not considered a marginal activity but a popular film genre, just like thrillers or science fiction. Most of the actors and actresses we see in it in full action, they put all their heart into it, they don’t act, they live a still unique experience, transgressive, playful, really erotic moments… Their enthusiasm is a pleasure to see. The young women are naturally beautiful, rarely depilated. The directors shoot extravagant situations, phenomenal orgies, the setting of silly stories, close to vaudeville or crazy comedy.
And let’s face it, these films bring back good memories!
Rare memories of frenzied masturbation or sex with a girlfriend on the living room couch, when you tried to imitate what was happening on the screen. The first blowjobs, the first ejaculations on the pubis, the first clumsy attempts at sodomy, it is to the example of “vintage” pornographic films that generations of French people owe them.
It is thus urgent to see them again and to loot the vintage section of Dorcel.