PRIMITIVE PORNOGRAPHIC FILMS -Frederic Tachou
This programme is dedicated to anonymous pornographic movies produced before 1950. The motion pictures originally shot on 35 mm or 16 mm and conserved in institutional or private collections have been transferred to the modern digital format. These mute, short black and white films are called ‘primitive pornographic films’ and present sexual situations without any inhibitions, shot during the first half of the 20th century in different locations in the Western world.
FILMMUSEUM n°1, 2 min 20 s, origin unknown, approx. 1910
One of the oldest known movies of this type. Property of the Amsterdam Film Museum
ON THE BEACH / THE GOAT, 7 min, USA, approx. 1915
This film appeared in the first official pornographic programme called “History of the Blue Movie” shown in the United States in 1970. It contains a sort of “moral”, indicated that at that time, during the 1910’s the directors still tried to imitate the burlesque style of popular short films.
MISS BUTTERFLY, 8 min 20 s, France, 1925
An example of intertwining homosexual and heterosexual affinities within one movie.
EL CONFESOR El. Ricardo et Ramon de Baños, 28 min, Spain, 1926
A very interesting film because the director and the sleeping partner are familiar: the Spanish King Alphonse XIII.
THE CASTING COUCH, 12 min, USA, 1930
It ridicules the Hollywood star system and the casting for female roles in the movies.
UNSCHULD VOM LANDE, 3 min, Germany, approx. 1935
German movie directed in an avant-garde soviet style.
MASSAGES, 9 min 20 s, France, 1935
The film shows how the viewers get involved in the film, incited by actors looking straight into the camera.
AVEC SES PIEDS, 9 min 6 s, France, approx. 1940
In this movie the formal research seems to bee more important than the sexual exhibition.
LA FEMME AU PORTRAIT, 11 min 42 s, France, approx. 1950
A classical French movie of the 50’s with a gentlemanly moral.