I've been spending my non-porn hours absorbing the great silent films on the last century. Given that the adult industry looks to mainstream movies for title and sometimes feature ideas, it got me thining - has anyone attempted making a silent porn film in the style of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, etc.,
I suspect someone might offer up movies directed by Celeste since there is no dialogue and music over the grunts and groans. However, I am asking about black & white feature that includes cutaways to read what the actors are saying.
I'll tell you, there are some phenominal classic silent movies out there that have held up incredibly well over the past eighty to ninety years.
But seriously, aren't there already compilations of the old, underground stag films? Although many more were made, but the film degraded and the films were lost. That would be a better complement to the old B&W silent movies you've been watching. But it wouldn't make much sense for modern porn to make a B&W silent feature, unless it becomes a big trend for Hollywood which porn feels it must copy/spoof. And I don't see Hollywood making a full length feature in B&W and silent anytime soon.
I saw a silent porn from that era (though it was probably from the 30s/40s, and simply shot without sound to save money). It was interesting, but it killed my interest in seeing any more.
One of the problems with movies from that era is that they're so static, and we're used to variety and angles. We're used to unobstructed views, of different views, good lighting, etc. If you tried to replicate a silent movie in its look, I think people would be annoyed at the camera placements.
I think it would be fun as a scene in a movie--dress everyone up in Victorian clothes and shoot a silent-era scene, but I think it would have to be short, fast, and funny (maybe speeded up, with rapid silent-movie piano music) to make it worth watching.
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro 306 Posts 2/07
Posted - Mar 4 2007 : 6:26PM
I love silent movies too. I try to catch the ones they show every Sunday night on TCM. But I think GJ's right. Any films from that era have disintegrated by now. And I don't think it would work trying to replicate it today.
On another note, one of my problem with some of the newer porn (in hd), is that the cameras are using 24fps, because the want to mimic the "film feel". Compared to most porn shot for vhs/dvd release in regular ntsc (30fps), motion looks a whole lot less smooth. And for sex, which is all about motion, that is really a shame. We gain resolution, but lose smooth motion. Someone should up the frame rate to 48 or 60, that would tremendously add to realism.
Part of the reason I asked this question was that when it was brought up at a discussion at my poker night, we got more than a few laughs imagining what the dialogue placards would say during sex.
"Keep it cumming, sheik! Your bat is much bigger than Babe Ruth's!" "That's just right, Sheba! Lick that Lolli! You're the Cat's Pajamas! "Right there, flyboy - you're hittong on all sixes!" "That's right, Mrs. Grundy. Open that ass! You came in like a Deb but now you are a Rag-a-muffin! "Now you're on the trolley! Ride it! RIDDDE ITTTTT!!!!!!"
I have a few silent-screen era pornos on tape. One has a guy fucking a goat through a hole in a fence because he thinks its a woman. Although in this case he's doing it silently.
Well I haven't seen it in awhile, but I remember the scenario was this man was hanging over the top of a tall wooden fence watching a group of naked women frolicking on the other side. He flirts with them and they start giggling. He tells them that he is going to jump down and stick his dick through a small hole in the fence and requests than any one of the girls fuck him through the whole. But as soon as he sticks his dick through (he can no longer peer over the top of the high fence) the girls get a goat grazing nearby and back it's ass up against the hole, so the guy starts fucking the goat, thinking it's one of the ladies. I don't really remembering seeing any real man-on-goat close-up penetration shots, although you do see the guy's dick when he pokes it through the hole. The whole scene was obviously done for laughs more than titillation, so I never considered it a strict bestiality movie. I admit it's been awhile, but I get the feeling if there was real penetration involved I probably would have really remembered something like that!
Not many porn movies will have the budget allocated to a "real" movie.
I have a copy of Erotica anno 1950 from Cult Epics and whislt I didn't find it personally that arousing it is mostly good fun and kind of interesting to watch - no porn by numbers routines and moves, more intrigue about what may happen next.
I have a little screenplay for an almost silent porn movie that plays in my head sometimes - a series of vignettes that rely on the visual mostly and a some quiet sounds and a few words. I'd like to make it some day.
True, yet I find that many of the "golden era" movies hold up extremely well despite the tiny budgets, hairy actresses and less than supermodel-look actors/actesses to work with. Why? It's simple - they tease and titillate. The great films never let the sex act happen between the two top stars in act one. Today, you are lucky to get a short interview or above the clothes masturbation. To convey "eroticism", you need more than a sexy woman gyrating on screen. It is something that must build.
I jusr re-watched one of my all-time favorite films again last night, Taboo 2. Junior (Kevin James) has the HOTS for his sister Sherry (perfectly played by Dorothy Le May) and attempts to get her in-line with his feelings. She'll have nothing to do with it - "You're gross, Junior! That's incest!" Scene by scene, he wears her down until Junior enlists the assistance of his girlfriend, MaryLou (Bambi). MaryLou brags about what a great lover Junior is and eventually MaryLou goes down on Sherry. Sherry is getting closer and closer to orgasm. She looks down and to her shock, it is not MaryLou, but Junior tonguing away, brining her to nirvana.
That is a great example of erotic movie making. INstant gratification is great if you are cheating on a diet, but I prefer some thought to go into my porn, and I would certainly delay gratification if it made the story mopre erotic.
History Of The Blue Movie has some of these in the first part of it, it's got one from 1915 that I think is the oldest porn footage that exists. I think it has that goat one in it too.
Introducing Dallas Rea
Posted - Mar 3 2007 : 7:32PM
