Sexploitation film
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (January 2014) |
A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget[3] feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s[4] and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit sexual situations and gratuitous nudity. The genre is a subgenre of exploitation films. The term "sexploitation" has been used since the 1940s.[5]
In USA, exploitation films were generally exhibited in urban
The term
In the United States
After a series of
There were initially three broad types: "
Nudie cuties were soon supplanted by "roughies," which commonly featured male violence against women, including kidnapping, rape and murder.[11][12] Lorna (1964) by Russ Meyer is widely considered to be the first roughie.[12] Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman's Scum of the Earth! (1963) is another film that is cited as among the first in this genre.[13] Other notable roughie directors include Doris Wishman.[12]
In the United States, exploitation films initially played in
In the mid-1960s some newspapers began banning advertisements for the films.[17] By the late 1960s the films were attracting a larger and broader audience, however, including couples rather than the single males who originally made up the vast majority of patrons.[16] The genre rapidly declined in the early 1970s due to advertising bans, the closure of many grindhouses and drive-in theaters and the growth of hardcore pornography in the "Golden Age of Porn."[14] Many theaters which had screened sexploitation films either switched to hardcore pornographic films or closed down.[18]
White coaters
In the late 1960s, American obscenity laws were tested by the Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow).[4] After the 1969 ruling by the Supreme Court that the film was not obscene[19][20] because of its educational context,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a number of sexploitation films produced following this same format. These were widely referred to as "white coaters," because, in these films, a doctor dressed in a white coat would give an introduction to the graphic content that followed, qualifying the film as "educational." The ruling led to a surge in the production of sex films.[4] Language of Love and other Swedish and American films capitalised on this idea until the laws were relaxed.[30]
In Argentina
In the 1960s Argentine sexploitation films were made within a regular basis. The biggest national stars in that genre were Isabel Sarli and Libertad Leblanc. The genre rapidly declined during the 1980s, particularly with the advent of democracy in Argentina since 1983 onwards, and it disappeared completely in the 1990s, except for some low budget direct-to-video productions.
Although these movies were released in their home country, government censorship at the time (Argentina alternated between democracy and dictatorship for most of the 60s and 70s) was prone to -or had the steady habit of- heavily editing the films before their release, threatening with a full ban if the studio or the director did not comply. Armando Bó, who made several sexploitation and erotic films with his romantic partner and muse Isabel Sarli, is one of the most well-known cases in Argentina of having disputes with the censors who wanted to either put him in jail for making "obscene material" or ban his films, which were released mostly in a truncated form, and with many scenes excised from his movies at the time of their release.
One of the most notorious agents of government censorship during that period was
Rivalry between Isabel Sarli and Libertad Leblanc
Libertad Leblanc's rivalry with Isabel Sarli -who was, and probably still is, the greatest sex symbol in Argentine cinema- was very conspicuous in the 1960s. They were the two greatest figures of erotic cinema in their home country, competing for the headlines as well as the box office success, and at the same time the contrast between the two, in appearance and in personality (on screen and off as well) couldn't be bigger: Isabel Sarli was a flashy brunette, with generous shapes and natural attributes. Libertad Leblanc was instead rather slim, reportedly had breast implants, dyed her hair platinum blonde, and maintained her distinctive white skin by constantly avoiding exposure to the sun. Sarli had a shy and somewhat innocent personality, and she always exuded a "homely and easy-going" public image; her movies were usually melodramas and comedies with a lot of nudity. In contrast, Leblanc was uninhibited and cunning, and gave a public image of a vamp or a seductress; she was dubbed as "The White Goddess" (La diosa blanca) by the media,[32] and her filmography includes police movies and thrillers.
"La Sarli", as they used to call her, was, as an actress, a product entirely created by Armando Bó, since the Argentine director was not only her longtime lover —Sarli and Bó were never legally married, but lived together as a couple until his death— but also her manager, her film producer and director, and even an authority figure, simultaneously. On the other hand, "La Leblanc", as they also used to call her, had a different background and was already used -from a young age, actually- to make her way on her own, and she was a true self-made woman of her time: she had disputes and argued as equals with producers, directors and distributors; she was her own manager and she co-produced almost all of her films -at a time when no woman did so-, as well as being almost always in charge of the distribution and promotion of her films. In this regard, a Mexican producer, with whom Leblanc made eight films, once told the media that "Libertad Leblanc, when talking about business, has a mustache".
In fact, it was Libertad Leblanc herself who installed the rivalry between her and Sarli in the media, as well as the popular conscience. In order to promote her first film,
Notable sexploitation directors
- Andy Sidaris
- Andy Milligan
- Armando Bó
- Carl Monson
- David F. Friedman[4][11]
- Doris Wishman[34]
- Emilio Vieyra
- Fred Olen Ray
- George Harrison Marks
- Jean Rollin
- Jesús Franco
- Jim Wynorski
- Joseph W. Sarno
- Joe D'Amato
- Michael Findlay
- Radley Metzger[35]
- Russ Meyer[36]
- Stanley Long
- Stephanie Rothman
- Stephen C. Apostolof
- Tinto Brass
- Ted V. Mikels
See also
References
- ISBN 978-0870002441. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
- ISBN 978-0275507701. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
- ^ a b c Sconce, p. 20
- ^ ISBN 0-415-92295-X.
- ^ "sexploitation | Origin and meaning of sexploitation by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-10-08.
- ^ Fevrier, Andrés: Hollywood in Don Torcuato. The Adventures of Roger Corman and Héctor Olivera (2020, Argentina). "Hollywood en Don Torcuato. Las aventuras de Roger Corman y Héctor Olivera" is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
- ^ Un Importante Preestreno (2015) Santiago Calori RaroVHS.com
- ^ a b Sconce, p. 19
- ^ a b Sconce, p. 49
- ^ Sconce, p. 60
- ^ a b Sconce, p.50
- ^ a b c Sconce, p. 52
- ^ "The Defilers/Scum of the Earth (1965/1963)". digitallyobsessed.com. 2001-02-25. Retrieved 2010-01-04.
- ^ a b Sconce, p. 42
- ^ Sconce, p. 28
- ^ a b Sconce, p. 35
- ^ Sconce, p. 36
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-13.
- ^ "Byrne v. Karalexis, 396 U.S. 976 (1969)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2023-01-09. "Byrne v. Karalexis, 401 U.S. 216 (1971)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2023-06-17.
- ^ "Film International". filmint.nu. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/494979/barbara[dead link]https://caffecino.wordpress.com/1935/04/02/barbara-1970-an-underground-movie-scandal-in-its-time/[unreliable source?]
- ^ "'Barbara' Puts Emphasis on Sex". Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ Newman, Frank (1968). Barbara. Traveller's Companion, Incorporated.
- ^ "BARBARA by Newman, Frank [Sam Abrams]: (1968) 1st edition. | Alta-Glamour Inc". www.abebooks.com. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ "NEWMAN, Frank. Barbara". Cult Jones. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ "Nerdspin - Movie, TV and Celebrity Database". nerdspin.com. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ "American Genre Film Archive BARBARA". www.americangenrefilm.com. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-9905-2.
- ^ "Barbara (1970)". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ Harris, Will (2005-08-31). "Harry Reems Interview: Harry Reems Lays It on the Table". Bullz-Eye.com.
- ^ "Miguel Tato, aquel increíble señor tijeras". La Nación (in Spanish). 1999-02-28. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
- ^ "Muere actriz argentina Libertad Leblanc". Ibercine (in Spanish). 2021-05-01. Retrieved 2023-01-09.
- Página/12(in Spanish). Retrieved 2023-01-09.
- ^ Sconce, p. 10
- ^ Sconce, p. 24
- ^ Sconce, p. 22
Sources
- Sconce, Jeffrey (2007). Sleaze Artists: Cinema at the Margins of Taste, Style, and Politics. ISBN 978-0-8223-3964-9.
Further reading
- RE/Search No. 10: Incredibly Strange Films (ISBN 0-940642-09-3
- ISBN 0-312-13519-X