European Pervert Cinema Week Part 2: The Lickerish Quartet

Yes it's become a week, OK? What do you want from me? Mama's tired.

The short version of the version of the story is that if you think you want to see Abre Los Ojos, you should see this film instead. 

The long version is that it's soft-core porn. Soft-core porn that Andy Warhol described as "outrageously kinky" (of course it says that on the cover of the DVD box). Porn that's smart enough to quote Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of An Author at the beginning of the film. 

 And it's just as eloquent and interesting a meditation on the nature of erotic obsession and desire, and how elusive and mercurial they can be, as Vertigo or even Bunuel's That Obscure Object of Desire. Which we'll be discussing next. Yes, I know we said we'd start with that, but TypePad ate the posts three times. and I just don't have the energy right now. 

One of the critics who voted in the 2002 Sight and Sound List was Joel David of the University of the Philippines, who added the following comment to his list ten films:

"So are American porn films better than Citizen Kane? Almost all of them aren't, but a precious handful are."

And I say amen to that, I'm very much for legitimizing porn, especially porn that manages to reach for something higher than your groin.

If you're interested, David picked two American porn films for his list, the first being the famous The Devil In Miss Jones (semi-recently remade with Jenna Jameson) and the other was The Opening of Misty Beethoven, which has become one of my favorite movies of all time. Actually, it fits in with our European Pervert Cinema project very well, and I may be watching it tonight (What? Mind your own damn business...) So maybe tomorrow. 

Misty was directed, under the pseudonym Henry Paris, by Radley Metzger, who also made Lickerish Quartet and a whole bunch of other really great soft-core films. He's an interesting guy, who got his start in the film industry making trailers for Janus films releases. He was very familiar and enamored of the work of the great European directors, and sought to bring that level of visual interest and quality to the soft core genre. And someday someone is going to publish my profile of him, because he really deserves the renewed attention, and wouldn't it be a fun project?

Lickerish Quartet embodies all his ideas of sleek visuals and a classy, continental air, as well as being philosophically profound. And there are titties. Like I said, better than Abre Los Ojos. A family staying in a castle in the beautiful wild Abruzzo region of Italy watch a porn, then think they recognize the star of it in the nearby town? But is it her? And what exactly do they want from her? They're so many interesting tricks going on here, combined with lush, hip settings and some genuinely lusty stuff.

See that? That's the floor of the library in the castle. Don't you want one in your own Italian getaway? I know I do.