On 3/20/06 12:13 PM, "Richard Armstrong" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> And wasn't there a Russian film a few years back about the early porn
> industry?
> Best,
> Richard
Richard,
Do you mean "Of Freaks and Men"? ("Pro urodov i lyudey")
What a gorgeous treat that was. The actual plot escapes me, but someone
was making birching porn (is there some more technical word in that
industry?) to be shown in a kind of parlor setting. That was sexy, but the
real beauty was the sepia images evoking St. Petersberg at the turn of the
twentieth century.
It offered some of the same kicks that "Shadow of the Vampire" did --
pseudo-nostalgia for a period we didn't live through, triggered by authentic
looking moving pictures.
"Of Freaks" prompted long discussions of "What is exploitation?", in the
anti-social sense of tricking people into rendering one some benefit which
costs the tricked something they might not give if they knew all the details
of the trade-off.
If you watch it, see if it doesn't make you, you fellow filmmakers,
question your relationship to your actors or documentary subjects. Making
images of people can be a heady kind of power, a buffer against unmediated
relationships, but it's useful to think of the social costs.
Mind you, I'm not saying donšt make pictures of people, just give a
thought to the ramose effects.
Meanwhile, I recommend seeing a few minutes of this film, including
interiors and exteriors.
Cordially,
Dv
Doug vanderHoof
Producer/Owner
Modern Media
Bucktown, Chicago
(773)394-0029
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