This was one of the films of the festival that really deserved its 18 certificate! Essentially the film was simple, it was a collection of pornographic films from the days before the ‘talkies’! Compiled by Michel Reilhac the films were apparently shown in the waiting rooms to brothels, more amusingly they were often made by off-duty filmmakers who had access to the necessary equipment (pun intended).
The cinema staff had taken the unusual step of placing signs warning of the content every few feet en route to the screen. To be perfectly honest I was pretty shocked, not so much by the content as I am fairly desensitised now, but more by the high turnout for the film. There were a few walk outs too, but I saw a lot of “Cambridge Characters” lurking around, which made me realise that there is probably a good market for this sort of film here… hmm.
Without going into too much detail the films were pretty simple and tended to reach their climaxes fairly quickly! They were quite funny, if you could get past the unsubtle eroticism, I almost fell off my chair laughing when the ‘stud’ – dressed as an older gentleman – nearly lost his moustache during a menage a trois! Other highlights included a small dog with a willing tongue, and an animated feature that was fairly surreal. One word to sum it all up, bizarre.
*** (out of 5)
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