Bavarian porn (German: ''Lederhosenfilm'', "
Lederhosen
Lederhosen (; , ; singular in German usage: ''Lederhose'') are short or knee-length leather breeches that are worn as traditional garments in some regions of German-speaking countries. The longer ones are generally called ''Bundhosen'' or ''Kn ...
movie") is a
campy
Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting ae ...
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 Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...
, but these films continued to be produced up to about 1980. Today they live on as staples of late night European cable and satellite channels. Among the directors working in this genre were
Franz Antel
Franz Antel (28 June 1913 – 11 August 2007) was a veteran Austrian filmmaker.
Born in Vienna, Antel worked mainly as a film producer in the interwar years. After World War II, he began writing and directing films on a large scale. In the ...
(''Liebe durch die Hintertür'', 1969; ''Das Love-Hotel in Tirol'', 1978),
Franz Marischka (''Liebesgrüße aus der Lederhose'', 1973; ''Zwei Däninnen in Lederhosen'', 1979; ''
Three Lederhosen in St. Tropez'', 1980),
Franz-Josef Gottlieb (''
No Sin on the Alpine Pastures'', 1974), Alois Brummer (''Beim Jodeln juckt die Lederhose'', 1974), and Hubert Frank (''Jagdrevier der scharfen Gemsen'', 1975). Alois Brummer was the producer of many of these films. Being the owner of two cinemas, he became interested in films and filmmaking and thought he could make a director and producer himself. After some "Report" movies (so-called documentaries about "German housewives" or "schools for girls", as a reaction to serious documentaries about sexual items in Germany's late 60's) he became involved in the series as mentioned above. These were mainly situated in the Alps. Director Franz Marischka got the idea by a newspaper article in 1972 about wealthy female tourists in Bavaria who tried to seduce local young men or the landlord of the inn where they were staying (and paid them for it). Marischka was inspired and set himself to make films about the subject. Therefore, the Alps were chosen as background.
Bavarian porn films were usually set in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
(Bayern) or
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
(Tirol). At that time most German film studios were located in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
. This was somewhat ironic, considering the fact that Bavaria has been one of the more culturally and socially conservative areas of Germany, and has been run by the
Christian Social Union almost continuously since 1947. Not a few of those movies are of
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n origin, since many of them take place in Tyrol.
At the time, Bavarian porn seemed outrageous and shocking to the older generation, who had been instilled with the family values of the
National Socialist
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 Na ...
regime, not to mention traditional German sexual morality. To the
baby-boomers
Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. ...
who came of age after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the films embodied the freedom and liberation brought about through the
Sexual Revolution.
Today, these films are revered more for their camp value than any ability to cause sexual arousal. Their legacy is most evident in the poppy acid-jazz soundtracks used in these films, which became popular among
hipsters during the late 1990s, along with the resurgence of
space age pop
Space age pop is a subgenre of pop and easy listening music associated with Mexican and American composers and songwriters in the Space Age of the 1950s and 1960s. Also known as bachelor pad music or lounge music,''Pulse'' (Monthly music digest o ...
.
Gert Wilden composed and performed many Bavarian porn soundtracks with his orchestra.
Some Bavarian porn films were dubbed into English by German actors and actresses speaking English. The poor translations,
"Godzilla-style" dub quality, and German accents elevate the camp factor of these films to a level beyond that of the German originals. Bavarian porn was released in the United States under titles such as ''Naughty Co-Eds'', ''2069: A Sex Odyssey'', and ''The Sinful Bed''.
See also
*
Commedia sexy all'italiana
The commedia sexy all'italiana (, lit. "sex comedy Italian style"), also known as commedia scollacciata or commedia erotica all'italiana, is a subgenre of Italian ''commedia all'italiana'' film genre.
Style
''Commedia sexy'' is characterized typ ...
*
Mexican sex comedies film genre
*
Pornochanchada
*
Sex comedy
Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such ...
*
Sexploitation film
References
Further reading
* Annette Miersch: ''Schulmädchen-Report. Der deutsche Sexfilm der 70er Jahre'', Bertz-Verlag, Berlin 2003. .
* Jasper P. Morgan: ''Die sündige Alm. Die deutsche Sex-Komödie'', Verlag MPW 2002, 2003. .
* Stefan Rechmeier: ''Wo der Wildbach durch das Höschen rauscht. Das etwas humorvolle Lexikon des deutschen Erotikfilms'', Medien Publikations- und Werbegesellschaft mbH in Hille, 2005. .
{{film genres
Comedy films by genre
Culture of Bavaria
Erotic films by genre