![Éxtasis tropical](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/%C3%89xtasis_tropical.jpg)
A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced,
low-budget
A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...
[ feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s] 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 film
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
s. The term "sexploitation" has been used since the 1940s. Sexploitation films were generally exhibited in urban grindhouse theatres, the precursor to the adult movie theaters
An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films.
Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patro ...
of the 1970s and 1980s that featured hardcore pornography content. The term soft-core
Softcore pornography or softcore porn, is commercial still photography or film that has a pornographic or erotic component but is less sexually graphic and intrusive than hardcore pornography, defined by a lack of visual sexual penetration. Sof ...
is often used to designate non-explicit sexploitation films after the general legalisation of hardcore content. Nudist films are often considered to be subgenres of the sex-exploitation genre as well. "Nudie" films and "Nudie-cuties" are associated genres.[
]
History of sexploitation films in United States
After a series of United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
rulings in the late 1950s and 1960s, increasingly explicit sex films were distributed.[ In 1957, '']Roth v. United States
''Roth v. United States'', 354 U.S. 476 (1957), along with its companion case ''Alberts v. California'', was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which redefined the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes o ...
'' established that sex and obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...
were not synonymous.[ The genre first emerged in the U.S. around 1960.][
There were initially three broad types: "]nudie cutie
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scen ...
s" such as ''The Immoral Mr. Teas
''The Immoral Mr. Teas'' (1959) is the first commercially successful film of director Russ Meyer. The film was described as a nudist comedy, and was noted for exhibiting extensive female nudity. The film cost $24,000 to produce, and eventually gr ...
'' (1959), films set in nudist camps like ''Daughter of the Sun
Daughter of the Sun is a 1962 sexploitation comedy film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and produced by David F. Friedman. The film follows the experiences of two young teachers at a nudist colony. Lewis and Friedman produced the film after th ...
'' (1962) and somewhat more "artistic" foreign pictures, such as '' The Twilight Girls'' (1961).[Sconce, p. 20] Nudie cuties were popular in the early 1960s, and were a progression from the nudist camp films of the 1950s.[Sconce, p. 49] The Supreme Court had previously ruled that films set in nudist camps were exempt from the general ban on film nudity, as they were deemed to be educational.[ In the early 1960s, films that purported to be documentaries and were thus "educational" enabled sexploitation producers to evade the censors.][Sconce, p. 60]
Nudie cuties were soon supplanted by "roughies," which commonly featured male violence against women, including kidnapping, rape and murder.[Sconce, p.50][ '' Lorna'' (1964) by ]Russ Meyer
Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that fea ...
is widely considered to be the first roughie.[Sconce, p. 52] Herschell Gordon Lewis
Herschell Gordon Lewis (June 15, 1926 – September 26, 2016) was an American filmmaker, best known for creating the " splatter" subgenre of horror films. He is often called the "Godfather of Gore" (a title also given to Lucio Fulci), though hi ...
and David F. Friedman
David Frank Friedman (December 24, 1923 – February 14, 2011) was an American filmmaker and film producer best known for his B movies, exploitation films, Nudity in film#Nudie-cuties, nudie cuties, and sexploitation films.
Life and career
Fri ...
's ''Scum of the Earth!
''Scum of the Earth!'' (also known as ''Sam Flynn'') is a 1963 American exploitation film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and produced by David F. Friedman. It is credited as being the first film in the "roughie" genre.
Synopsis
An innocent ...
'' (1963) is another film that is cited as among the first in this genre. Other notable roughie directors include Doris Wishman.[
In the United States, exploitation films initially played in grindhouse theatres,][Sconce, p. 42] as well as struggling independent theaters; however, by the end of the decade they were playing in established cinema chains.[ As the genre developed during the 1960s films began showing scenes of simulated sex. The films were opposed by religious groups and by the ]MPAA
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...
, which was concerned that sexploitation films were cutting into the profits of major film distributors.[Sconce, p. 35] Customers who attended screenings of sexploitation films were often characterised by the mainstream media as deviant, "dirty old men" and "raincoaters."[Sconce, p. 19]
In the mid-1960s some newspapers began banning advertisements for the films. 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.[ The genre rapidly declined in the early 1970s due to advertising bans, the closure of many grindhouses and ]drive-in theater
A drive-in theater or drive-in cinema is a form of cinema structure consisting of a large outdoor movie screen, a projection booth, a concession stand, and a large parking area for automobiles. Within this enclosed area, customers can view movi ...
s and the growth of hardcore pornography in the "Golden Age of Porn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Spam-whitelist/Archives/2018/01#Another_Worthy_Journal_Article_on_Wordpress --->
The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American porno ...
."[ Many theaters which had screened sexploitation films either switched to hardcore pornographic films or closed down.
]
White coaters
In the late 1960s, American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
obscenity laws were tested by the Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
film ''I Am Curious (Yellow)
''I Am Curious (Yellow)'' (, meaning "I Am Curious: A Film in Yellow") is a 1967 Swedish erotic drama film written and directed by Vilgot Sjöman, starring Sjöman and Lena Nyman. It is a companion film to 1968's ''I Am Curious (Blue)''; the t ...
''.[ After the 1969 ruling by the Supreme Court that the film was not obscene because of its educational context, 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
A white coat, also known as a laboratory coat or lab coat, is a knee-length overcoat or smock worn by professionals in the medical field or by those involved in laboratory work. The coat protects their street clothes and also serves as a simple ...
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.[ '']Language of Love
''Language of Love'' () is a 1969 Swedish sex educational film directed by Torgny Wickman. It was an international success.
It gained publicity when 30,000 people gathered on Trafalgar Square in London to protest against a nearby movie theatre ...
'' and other Swedish and American films capitalised on this idea until the laws were relaxed.
History of sexploitation films in Argentina
In the 1960s Argentine sexploitation films were made within a regular basis. The biggest national stars in that genre were Isabel Sarli
Hilda Isabel Gorrindo Sarli (; 9 July 193525 June 2019), nicknamed Coca, was an Argentine actress and glamour model who was known for starring in several sexploitation films by Armando Bó, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. She began her caree ...
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
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
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
Armando Bó (3 May 19148 October 1981) was an Argentine film actor, director, producer, screenwriter and score composer of the classic era. He is mostly known for his drama and sexploitation films of the 1960s and 1970s starring his favorit ...
, 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 Miguel Paulino Tato, who worked during ''de jure
In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...
'' and ''de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
'' administrations as the director of the Argentine ''Ente de Calificación Cinematográfica'' (Film Rating Organization). In that capacity, Tato censored -banned or heavily edited- dozens of erotic or sexploitation films (from Argentina and from all over the world) during the 1960s and 1970s; he also banned or cut hundreds of domestic/international films of any kind and genre during the same era, always using the pretext of a righteous and moral fight against either "Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
", "anti-catholic" or "subversive
Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...
" movies who were, in his view, trying to "contaminate" the country's values and national identity. Although he exercised a mostly bureaucratic
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
role, Tato was keen on giving interviews to the media describing his far-right authoritarian views and even boasting about being "a nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
" on several occasions. He was also -and proudly- a racist, and quite famously said on television, at the time of the Argentinian premiere of ''Shaft in Africa
''Shaft in Africa'' is a 1973 American blaxploitation film directed by John Guillermin, and the third film of the '' Shaft'' series, starring Richard Roundtree as John Shaft. Stirling Silliphant wrote the screenplay. The film's budget was $1.5 m ...
'' (1973): "Negro
In the English language, ''negro'' is a term historically used to denote persons considered to be of Black African heritage. The word ''negro'' means the color black in both Spanish and in Portuguese, where English took it from. The term can be ...
s go back to Africa!" ("¡Negros, al Africa!").
Rivalry between Isabel Sarli and Libertad Leblanc
Libertad Leblanc's rivalry with Isabel Sarli -who was, and probably still is, the greatest sex symbol
A sex symbol or icon is a person or character widely considered sexually attractive.Pam Cook, "The trouble with sex: Diana Dors and the Blonde bombshell phenomenon", In: Bruce Babinigton (ed.), ''British Stars and Stardom: From Alma Taylor to ...
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 or a seductress; she was dubbed as "The White Goddess" (La diosa blanca) by the media, 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 -they were never legally married, but lived together until his death-, her manager, her film producer and director, and even an authority figure, simultaneously. "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, ''La Flor de Irupé
''La Flor de Irupé'' is a 1962 Argentine film.
Cast
* Libertad Leblanc
* Luis Alarcón
* Héctor Pellegrini
* Mario Amaya
Mario Amaya (October 6, 1933 – June 29, 1986) was an American art critic, museum director and magazine editor, and ...
'' (1962), Leblanc suggested a promotional poster with a black and white nude and a caption that read: "Libertad Leblanc, rival of Isabel Sarli". Although Isabel Sarli did not say anything at the time, Armando Bó, in a wrathful rapture, accused Leblanc of deviously using Sarli's international fame. Some time later, in a 2004 interview, Leblanc was sincere about the whole affair: “And ówas right; but hey: we didn't spend a dime n publicityand everything came out perfectly"; in that same interview, when asked if she really believed there was a true rivalry between Sarli and her, Leblanc replied: "Not in any way. With Armando ówe did have our run-ins because that fame he publicity controversyalso circulated around the world. But she is divine, very naïve, yes, but she is a gorgeous woman...".
Notable sexploitation directors
* Andy Sidaris
* Andy Milligan
Andrew Jackson Milligan Jr. (February 12, 1929 – June 3, 1991) was an American playwright, screenwriter, actor, and filmmaker, whose work includes 27 movies made between 1965 and 1988. In spite of the fact that he directed a number of movie ...
* Armando Bó
Armando Bó (3 May 19148 October 1981) was an Argentine film actor, director, producer, screenwriter and score composer of the classic era. He is mostly known for his drama and sexploitation films of the 1960s and 1970s starring his favorit ...
* Carl Monson
Carl Monson (September 2, 1932 – August 4, 1988) a.k.a. Carlos Monsoya, Charles Monsoya, was at the forefront of independent low budget sexploitation/grindhouse films or paracinema during the 1970s and 1980s. He is most well known for '' ...
* David F. Friedman
David Frank Friedman (December 24, 1923 – February 14, 2011) was an American filmmaker and film producer best known for his B movies, exploitation films, Nudity in film#Nudie-cuties, nudie cuties, and sexploitation films.
Life and career
Fri ...
[
* Doris Wishman
* ]Emilio Vieyra
Emilio Vieyra (12 October 1920 – 25 January 2010), sometimes credited as Raúl Zorrilla, was an Argentine film director, actor, screenwriter and film producer, between 1950 and the 1990s. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is mo ...
* Fred Olen Ray
Fred Olen Ray (born September 10, 1954) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter of more than 200 low-to-medium-budget feature films in many genres, including horror, science fiction, action/adventure, erotic thrillers, crime d ...
* George Harrison Marks
George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films.
Personal life
Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926, Marks was 17 when he married his first wife ...
* Jean Rollin
Jean Michel Rollin Roth Le Gentil (3 November 193815 December 2010) was a French film director, actor, and novelist best known for his work in the fantastique genre.
Overview
Rollins' career, spanning over fifty years, featured early short film ...
* Jesús Franco
Jesús Franco Manera (12 May 1930 – 2 April 2013) was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a prolific director of low-budget exploitation and B-movies. In a career spanning from 1959 to 2013, he wrote, directed, produced, act ...
* Jim Wynorski
Jim Wynorski (born August 14, 1950) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer.
Wynorski has been making B-movies and exploitation movies since the early 1980s, and has directed over 150 feature films. His earliest films were releas ...
* Joseph W. Sarno
* Joe D'Amato
Aristide Massaccesi (15 December 1936 – 23 January 1999), known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres ( westerns, decamerotici, peplum, war films, ...
* Michael Findlay
* Radley Metzger
Radley Metzger (also known as Radley Henry Metzger, Radley H. Metzger and by the pseudonyms, "Jake Barnes", "Erich Farina" and "Henry Paris") (January 21, 1929 – March 31, 2017) was an American pioneering filmmaker and film distributor, mos ...
* Russ Meyer
Russell Albion Meyer (March 21, 1922 – September 18, 2004) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. He is known primarily for writing and directing a series of successful sexploitation films that fea ...
[Sconce, p. 22]
* Stanley Long
* Stephanie Rothman
Stephanie Rothman (born November 9, 1936, in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter, known for her low-budget independent exploitation films made in the 1960s and 1970s, especially ''The Student Nurses'' (1 ...
* Stephen C. Apostolof
* Tinto Brass
Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (born 26 March 1933) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the er ...
* Ted V. Mikels
See also
* Bavarian porn
Bavarian porn (German: ''Lederhosenfilm'', "Lederhosen movie") is a campy subgenre of comic erotic cinema from Germany.
History
The apogee of the genre was the late 1960s and early 1970s, corresponding roughly to the chancellorship of Willy Bra ...
* Black Emanuelle
''Black Emanuelle'' (Italian: ''Emanuelle nera'') is a softcore sexploitation film from 1975 directed by Bitto Albertini. This Africa set film was shot mostly in Kenya. The music was composed by Nico Fidenco.
''Black Emanuelle'' was followed ...
* List of Japanese sexploitation films
* Mexican sex comedy
* Nudity in film
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scene ...
* Pink film
* Pornochanchada
Pornochanchada () is the name given to a genre of sex comedy films produced in Brazil that was popular from the late 1960s after popularity of commedia sexy all'italiana. By the 1980s, with the wide availability of hardcore pornography through cl ...
* Pornographic film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
* Pulp magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...
Notes
References
*
Further reading
* ''RE/Search No. 10: Incredibly Strange Films'' (RE/Search
RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded by its editor V. Vale in 1980. In several issues, Andrea Juno was also credited as an editor. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanz ...
Publications, 1986) by V. Vale
V. "Valhalla" Vale (born February 4, 1944) is an American editor, writer, interviewer, musician and, as Vale Hamanaka, was keyboardist for the initial configuration of Blue Cheer, before it became famous as a power trio. He is the publisher and p ...
, Andrea Juno,
* '' Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984'' (1994) by Cathal Tohill and Pete Tombs,
External links
* Sexploitation Movies
Definition and data base
* Razor Reel
Sexploitation: The European Story
* Something Weird Video
Popular online resource for sexploitation movies
{{film genres
Film genres
Nudity in film
Pornographic films by genre
Softcore pornography
Obscenity controversies in film