PORN IN THE MOVIES
film is about Singapore/American actress (‘hong whose biggest claim to fame to date is taking part in the world's biggest gangbang. She is
shown to be a conceited and misguided victim of
the modern porn world (the Sl().()()() she was promised for allegedly having sex with 25l men while being filmed never even materialised). Right. there are a couple of things going on here. Firstly. the mantra seems to be: ‘if you are a product of pomography‘s supposed golden era of the 1970s you are worthy of re-evaluation. anything more recent is just filthy and corrupting‘. Secondly ‘the objectification of women is still alive and healthy — it has just been given cultural kudos by a new irony towards the sexploitation industry.’
And then there's fiction film. Hollywood and beyond. arthouse or mainstream. have all long held a fascination for their celluloid bad brother. Depictions of the porn industry can be traced back to the silent era but let’s start with three very diverse films: Ken Loach‘s groundbreaking I967 docudrama I’oor Cow. Russ Meyer's I970 sex. drugs and sleaze extravaganza. Beyond The
Valley of the Dolls and Paul Taxi Driver
Schrader‘s remarkable l979 film. Hardeore. l.oach‘s film depressingly touches on the domestic porn club where pathetic unwashed amateur photographers ask a cash-strapped young mother to lower her blouse a little. Meyer‘s film (co-scripted by popular US film
critic Roger libert) luridly details the cost of
fame for a bevy of lovely female musicians. and Schrader‘s movie follows an evangelising George C Scott as he trawls California‘s porn underbelly in search of his daughter. As flagrant and different as their depictions of the adult industry world are in these films not one of them celebrates the existence of such illicit trades. American‘s founding Puritan dreams were still holding strong through to the late l97()s.
The change. of course. came in the shape of two films — Milos liorman's wistful I996 biopic The P'ople Vs Larry l’lynt. a largely fictionalised account of the controversial pornography publisher‘s attempt to uphold Article l3 of the American (‘onvention on Human Rights (freedom of speech) and more importantly Paul Thomas Anderson‘s 1997 epic Boogie Nights. at
22 THE LIST 13427 Nov 2008
film that borrowed heavily from legendary porn star John Holmes‘ biography to create a wacky portrait of dirty movie making in the 1970s in all its big budget. 35mm. dniggy decadence. Almost overnight the pornographic film scene became ripe for appropriation in theatre. television and film. Among others films Wonderland (oddly and tangentially based on the real events upon which Boogie Nights was also based) and amusing Sundance hit The Fla/fer tumbled forth along
with all manner of aforementioned manner of
Clockwise from left, ‘celluloid’s bad brother’ as portrayed in Boogie Nights, The People Vs Larry Flynt, The Girl Next Door, I Want Candy and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
revisionist documentaries about those hazy. crazy. lazy days of Johnny Wadd. Sereu' magazine and high times in the Laurel Canyon woods.
Strathclyde University’s Professor Brian McNair. author of two excellent books on the subject — Medieated Sex: Pornography and Post Modern Culture and Striptease Culture puts it best when he points out that: ‘Since the 1990s popular culture has lost its fear of pornography. and embraced porno-chic — the appropriation of pornographic styles and iconography in fashion. style magazines. literature. pop music and video. and mainstream cinema. Boogie Nights and The P'ople Vs lurry l’lynt looked sympathetically at the porn industry and those who work in it. Documentaries such as Sex: the Annabel C‘hong Story. and Louis Theroux" W’ird Weekends on TV have also shed light on a once taboo subject. The current vogue for comedy pomo-chic in the cinema like The Moguls and The Girl Next Door are a logical extension of the pomographication of mainstream culture‘.
In Zaek and Miri Make a Porno Smith uses YouTube as the entry point into the filthier side of erotica. as the hapless duo become overnight celebrities through some fumbled footage from the cafe in which they work. By doing this he democratises and crushes any notion that what these two are doing has anything to do with the more sinister side of the business of sex. Indeed the films they make have more in common with Mel Brooks wretched 1987 Star Wars spoof .S‘paeelmlls than anything on Video Box or the Bangbros Network. This is porn defanged and made cuddly and warm. but there is also something else going on here. From Welles to Warhol. from Sam Peckinpah to Ken Russell. filmmakers have long used sex to bring opprobrium and oxygen to their ailing careers. I really must have a look at those box office takings of Clerks II and .lersev Girl.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno is on general release from Fri 14 Nov. See review.