When most people reflect upon bygone era's before the dawn of "sexual revolution" in the 1960's, they tend to think of a more simplistic, innocent or naive way of life, as if all taboo breaking and "pushing the envelope" was somehow carried out within the last 30 or 40 years. While this may be true in part, it can itself be a rather naive, rose-tinted view of nostalgia... life before drug fuelled, hippie love-ins wasn't all simply coffee mornings or coat-hanger smiles with Ozzie and Harriet!
By clinging to this belief we conveniently overlook the fact that often our parents, grandparents or even great grandparents generations were there long before us in pushing boundaries of acceptability and at times we are simply walking along an already well worn path.
It is in-part my intention with this article to address this mindset and demonstrate in terms of cinema, that the "liberated" 1960's and 70's were the result of a slow build up, rather than just an overnight development. Of course, covering several decades worth of cinema history in a single article (when in fact it's a subject that could fill several books), means I will not be focusing too much in depth upon any one specific area or by any stretch of the imagination intend to be fully comprehensive.
It is rather my aim to provide an overview of films, artists and sub-genres that had an impact within each era, while giving a rough timeline of events and charting their development. I decided the easiest way to do this is to break things down into a series of smaller articles that will be added week by week, rather than as one exhaustive article that would make for less palatable reading. It is also worth noting that the article will lean more towards heterosexual sex, as the overall subject of gay sex in cinema or gay cinema theory would prove to be worthy of another entire article in itself.
At the end of the article I will provide a recommended reading list and list of web resources for those who want to learn more on the topics covered. Please note that some of the material covered here is suitable for open minded adults only and that some pictures used during this article are liable to cause awkward questions from your boss if being viewed at work!
Despite what many people would like to believe, the use of nudity and sexuality in cinema is almost as old as the moving picture art-form itself. Given an "exploration of the female form" was displayed in every other medium from cave painting to early photography, it would seem somewhat inevitable that once the novelty of filming race horses, buffalo and mudane objects in motion had worn off, the first pioneers of cinema would turn their attention to the fairer sex and sexual pursuits. The concept of pornography as we understand it today is in fact Victorian in origin, as is its censorship.
As early as 1883 to 1887, English photographer, Eadweard J. Muybridge used test footage including glimpses of naked men and women in simple day-to-day activities such as walking up and down stairs or carrying buckets of water, in the development of his "Zoopraxiscope", a machine similar in nature to the "Zoetrope", but that projected images in realistic motion.
Muybride's ground-breaking work was quickly followed by that of Thomas Edison and his employee, William Dickson in the creation of the "Kinetograph" - the first motion picture camera. In 1891,Edison built the "Kinetoscope", or peep-hole viewer, a device installed in penny arcades which enabled people to watch short, basic films.
Along with his numerous patents, such as the electric lightbulb, Edison holds the dubious privilege of being the first director to have a film censored, when in 1896 his short nickelodeon of a belly dancer, Fatima's Coochee-Coochee Dance had a grid of white lines imposed across her gyrating form. Similar "risqué" films featuring exotic dancers existed around this same time, such as vaudeville performer Annabelle (Whitford) Moore's series of dance routines from the mid 1890's (pictured left) and the routines of Little Egypt from 1897. Edison had also caused controversy with another of his kinetoscope outings; The May Irwin Kiss, also from 1896, displays a Victorian couple briefly kissing in a 15 second loop that caused outcry amongst moralist viewers and its denouncement by the church as "pornographic", calling for the film's censorship.
On the 22nd of March, 1895, French filmmakers, The Lumière brothers, held their first private screening of projected motion pictures. A mere year later, one of the first known "pornographic" films was produced by fellow Frenchman Eugène Pirou; Le Coucher de la Marie (aka Bedtime for the Bride) is a short film directed by Albert Kirchner (under the name Léar), in which Louise Willy performed the first on-screen striptease rountine. In their joint venture, Pirou & Kirchner had given birth to the
pre-cursor of a staple (if an often disdained one) of adult cinema, that would last for decades after the release of
Le Coucher de la Marie: the "stag" movie.
The following year saw pioneering filmmaker, Georges Méliès' contribution to the world of erotica in his Après le bal (After the Ball). As the title would suggest, this short film simply features a woman arriving home from a ball, to be helped to undress by her servant and take a bath. The film is credited as one of the earliest examples of nudity in cinema.
Realising from an early stage that "sex sells", the proprietors of arcade parlors used hand-cranked nickelodeon viewers to exhibit films such as The Birth of Pearl (USA - 1901); a simplistically short erotic feature in which two chorus girls flank either side of stage curtains holding placards reading 'The Birth of Pearl'. As the curtains are drawn back, an oyster shell is revealed in front of a painted ocean backdrop, which slowly opens to unveil a long haired young girl and recreate Botticelli's 'Birth Of Venus' in a tableau vivant style. The deceptive camera technique and lighting make the viewer believe that the girl is naked, when in fact she is simply wearing a flesh-coloured leotard and tights.
These humble and naive beginnings, from the great grandfathers of erotic cinema, were the starting point of what would soon, with the turn of the century and the further shrugging off of supposed "Victorian values", become more graphic and sexual in nature...
