Porn Loop Orgy

 
A brave and passionate fellow named 42nd Street Pete has been compiling and introducing a stack of porno "loops" from the 70's and 80's for distributor After Hours Cinema. Loops were short films that were played over and over again -- in a "loop" -- in porn emporiums on 42nd Street, NY, and in other cities throughout the world during better times (for sleaze fans, anyway). In many countries, they were also sold in Super-8 compilations -- or alone if they were long enough.

The Extreme Sleaze Showcase/Part 3/The Peepland Collection is Pete's latest offering, and it's a good one.  Loops don't have complex storylines. They have simple premises. For example, my favorite in this collection is *Violence*. The premise is: A young woman riding a bike is kidnapped and taken to a barn. There, she she is raped and abused. That's it.

*Violence* fascinated me because it's visually similar to some rough little shorts I made myself in the early 80's; they had titles like 'Horsing Around' and 'Beyond the Pale, and although they were not hardcore, they had a similar storyline, and were shot on Super-8 (like *Violence*). Although Pete introduces and comments on these movies, he doesn't say a lot about their origins. *Violence* also appealed to me because it has what I can only call a Color Climax look.

 In the 70's and early 80's, Color Climax was the premier European producer and distributor of loops and magazines featuring every sexual bent imaginable (legal and illegal) . Notorious, now hard-to-find films like *Kilroy Was Here*  and *Debased Dolly*  were distributed if not always produced by Color Climax, and I have always associated the grainy Super-8 look of films like *Violence* with the company (now an on-line concern only).  If I'd frequented 42nd Street, my reference points would probably be different.

Many of the loops in this compilation are clearly American, but several appear to be European. The films are silent, so there's no dialog to identify anybody's origins, and the locations are fairly generic (countryside, the odd city street, sleazy rooms) Another reference I have for the Euro -- or Scandinavian look, more rightly -- is what I've seen of Bodil Jenson's bestiality loops. They, too, have that distinct and magical Super-8 quality where the colors are muted, the grain is thick, and film scratches dance across the screen.

Another suspiciously Euro aspect of *Violence* is the inclusion of shots of pigs during the rape. The pigs are not part of the sex, but shots of them hanging out, eating, roughhousing, and gawking at the proceedings are intercut in order to up the sleaze quota. Perhaps the original producers were appealing to the beasty crowd?


The Extreme Sleaze Showcase DVD's are all must-haves.

 The artwork for After Hours' DVD mirrors the look of porn paperbacks of the period

There is a bit of confusion in some of the attached notes. Although the loops collected for Part III are said to have originally been screened at 'Peepland', the written notes for Part II cite *Violence* as a loop that screened at Blackjack Books. It's a minor confusion, and I simply point it out to invite clarification.

One of the most curious loops involves Louie De Jesus (from Bloodsucking Freaks) going the whole hog with the wonderful Vanessa Del Rio. This is a hardcore scene, and features the little guy penetrating a porn queen who is undoubtedly all woman.

Super-8 loops aren't produced today, but their equivalent is the gonzo porn that keeps the internet humming, and DVD shelves (in some countries) filled. Although S/M-themed porn -- porn that is structured around scenarios and adheres to master/slave dynamics -- is still produced, material along the lines of 'Violence' is not as common. The work of adult filmmakers such as Simon Thaur,  Belladonna, John Stagliano, Khan Tusion, Rob Black, Rocco Siffredi, Jake Malone, Cristoph Clark, Max Hardcore, Nacho Vidal, and Thomas Zupko (among others) is descended from the rough loops -- like *Violence* --  that once made 42nd Street so special.

These collections are a priceless reminder of recorded sexual culture, a culture that echoes today, and will echo well into the future.

One Man And His Pig

I saw Thierry Zeno's Vase de Noces ('74) a little while ago. I intended to write about it immediately, but I needed some processing time.

It is an infamous, controversial film, and it was banned in several countries. I have learned that it wasn't banned in Australia. The censorship board there asked to take a look at it, but after Zeno appeared before them and explained his intentions with the film, they permitted it to be screened.

That should tell you that Vase de Noces is not pornography. In the 70's, pornography in motion (not photograph) was totally outlawed Down Under.

In fact, there is no hardcore footage of humans coupling with humans or humans coupling with hogs in this film.

There is lots of nudity, though. Naked man nudity. He's the only human in the film, a man-child with unconventional notions about life and creating it.

The first twenty minutes of the film felt very familiar. It was like I watching a gay version of Alex De Renzy's infamous Animal Lover ('71), the pseudo-documentary on Bodil, "The Boar Girl". That thing burnt a permanent tattoo onto my eyeballs. Unfortunately, I can't unsee it.

Animal Lover was set on a dirty farm amongst old, decrepit buildings. There's no narrative, per se, but it establishes a grotty milieu that seems consistent with its intention of showing a woman rutting with dogs and pigs.

The setting of Vase de Noces could easily be the same farm, minus a building or two.

The main character is played by the film's co-writer Dominique Garny. He lives alone, doesn't speak, and may be the last man on Earth.

After he is established in his home, he chases a pig, mates with it, and is rewarded with piglets several months later. Unfortunately, they're not horrific piglet/human hybrids with gnashing teeth and surly attitudes. They're cute, helpless piglets, and we get to see them oozing out of their mother's vagina.

Later, the man kills the piglets. He hangs them. We don't see this happen, but Zeno cuts to them dangling from strings over a trough.

Things get a little strange after that. Our "hero", who has been collecting feces and assorted bacterial compounds in jars (a ritual echoed loudly 20 years later in Katsuya Matsumura's All Night Long 3), defecates into a large bucket, mixes it with samples from his collection, and eats it (these scenes are tough to watch). After vomiting the feces cocktail up, and therefore completing the metaphor, he buries himself for a time, and is then renewed.

As stated previously, there are no pornographic images in this very experimental film that has a distinct Otto Muehl/Gunter Brus feel to it, and slightly better production values. If you're familiar with Viennese Actionist Cinema, you'll know what I mean. Even Dusan Makavejev's Sweet Movie springs to mind. Tonally, they're akin.

But it is Muehl's Manopsychotisches Ballet ('70) that Vase de Noces most resembles. Muehl's short work featured a great deal of nudity and fetishistic copulation. Bloodletting involving chickens was also incorporated into the overall anarchy.

Vase de Noces is certainly more disciplined, and it's narrative line is clearer, but it would not be a stranger in the company of the Actionists.

A more correct and apt translation of the title is Wedding Trough.

The recently released DVD from Freak-O-Rama includes a second disk devoted entirely to the making of the film. It is well worth the rather steep asking price of the DVD.

Zeno and co-conspirator Garny discuss ever aspect of the film, leaving absolutely no stone unturned.

They possess true independent spirits as filmmakers, and stand proudly by their eccentric, unconventional work.

Would I recommend the film? I'm not sure. I took a while to warm to it, and I definitely appreciated it more after I'd watched the interviews with its creators.

Definitely a chewtoy for open minds.