Anxiety and desire in France’s gay pornographic film boom 1974-1983
Abstract
This article explores the growth in French pornographic film depicting hardcore gay sex from the lifting of censorship in 1974 to the onset of AIDS in 1983. Pornography has previously taken a minor role in the analysis of the process of gay liberation, particularly in France where the narrative is dominated by the discourse and achievements of political groups and suspicion is often cast on 'ghettoizing' commercial activity. This is an omission as the production, distribution and content of pornography produced in the late 1970s provides us with a window into both the emergent process of gay liberation and the precarious position in which French society found itself in the wake of the events of May '68 and the end of thirty years of unprecedented economic growth. This article will first trace France's changing political and legal context that made possible the birth of an industry, before looking at the production, distribution and content of gay pornography, and closing with a look at the work of Jean-Daniel Cadinot, the most famous pornographic director and businessman to appear in the period. This article seeks to demonstrate not only the usefulness of pornography as a historical source, but also the ways in which it functioned as a sophisticated reflection of comtemporary fears and desires and the entanglement of commerce, sex and politics during the 'sexual liberation' of the 1970s.
References
Bibliography
Cahiers du cinéma
L’Express
Gai Pied
Incognito Magazine
La lettre du vidéo-gay (Archives Michel Chomarat, Bibliothèque Municipal de Lyon)
Paris Match
Samouraï International
Soft men’s
Spartacus international gay guide, (Amsterdam: Spartacus,1982)
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Tout!
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Bier, Christophe, (ed), Dictionnaire des films français pornographiques et érotiques de long métrages en 16 et 35mm, (Paris: Serious Publishing, 2011).
Bier, Christophe, Censure-moi, l’histoire du classement X en France, (Paris: L’Esprit Frappeur, 2000).
Boyer, Martine, L’Ecran de l’amour: Cinéma, érotisme et pornographie 1960-1980, (Paris: Plon, 1990).
Broqua, Christophe, Agir pour ne pas mourir: Act Up, les homosexuels et le SIDA, (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2006).
Cadinot, Jean-Daniel, Franchement Masculin, (Paris: Fharon, 1975).
Cervulle, Maxime, ‘French Homonormativity and the commodification of the Arab body’, Radical History review, 100, (Winter 2008): 171-9.
Chassaigne, Philippe, Les années 1970: Fin d’un monde et origine de notre modernité, (Paris: Armand Colin, 2008).
Di Folco, Philippe (ed.), Dictionnaire de la pornographie, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2005).
Dyer, Richard, Now you see it: Studies on lesbian and gay film, 2nd ed., (Routledge: London, 2003).
Dyer, Richard, ‘Idol thoughts: orgasm and self-reflexivity in gay pornography’, Critical quarterly, 36, no. 1, (March 1994): 49-62.
Escoffier, Jeffrey ‘Pornography, Perversity and the Sexual Revolution’ in Hekma, Gert and Giami, Alan (eds.), Sexual Revolutions, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
Fourastié, Jean, Les Trente Glorieuses ou la révolution invisible, (Paris: Fayard, 1979).
Garsi, Jean-François, Cinémas homosexuels, (Paris: Papyrus, 1981).
Guattari, Félix, La Révolution moléculaire, (Fontenay-sous-bois: Editions recherches, 1977).
Hocquenghem, Guy, Le Gay voyage, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1980).
Jackson, Julian, Living in Arcadia: Homosexuality, politics, and morality in France from the liberation to AIDS, (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009).
Jouffa, François and Crawley, Tony, Entre Deux censures: Le cinéma érotique de 1973 à 1976, (Paris: Editions Ramsay 1989).
Kooijman, Jaap, ‘Pleasures of the orient: Cadinot’s Maghreb as Gay Male Pornotopia’, in Indiscretions, no. 22, (2011): 97-111.
Leraton, René-Paul, Gay Porn. Le film porno gay: histoire, réprésentation et construction d’une sexualité, (Paris: H&O Editions, 2002).
Martel, Frédéric, The pink and the black: Homosexuals in France since 1968, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).
Miller, D.A., Bringing out Roland Barthes, (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1992).
Ousselin, Edward, ‘Entre deux régimes de censure: Le cinéma pornographique en France, 1974-1975’, Cincinnati Romance Review, 32 (Fall 2011): pp.146-159.
Sirinelli, Jean-François, Les Vingt décisives 1965-1985: Le passé proche de notre avenir, (Paris: Fayard, 2007).
Trachman, Mathieu, Le travail pornographique, (Paris: Editions de la découverte, 2013).
Verdrager, Pierre, L’Enfant interdit: comment la pédophilie est devenue scandaleuse, (Paris: Armand Colin, 2013).
Waugh, Thomas, Hard to imagine: gay male eroticism in photography and film from their beginnings to Stonewall, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
Zimmer, Jacques, Histoires du cinéma X, (Paris: Nouveau Monde, 2011).
Cahiers du cinéma
L’Express
Gai Pied
Incognito Magazine
La lettre du vidéo-gay (Archives Michel Chomarat, Bibliothèque Municipal de Lyon)
Paris Match
Samouraï International
Soft men’s
Spartacus international gay guide, (Amsterdam: Spartacus,1982)
Spécial Man: Dossier l’homosexualité au cinéma (1979).
Tout!
Aldrich, Robert and Wotherspoon, Gary (eds.), Who’s who in contemporary gay and lesbian history, (London: Routeledge, 2001).
Barthes, Roland, Incidents, (London: Seagull, 2010).
Bier, Christophe, (ed), Dictionnaire des films français pornographiques et érotiques de long métrages en 16 et 35mm, (Paris: Serious Publishing, 2011).
Bier, Christophe, Censure-moi, l’histoire du classement X en France, (Paris: L’Esprit Frappeur, 2000).
Boyer, Martine, L’Ecran de l’amour: Cinéma, érotisme et pornographie 1960-1980, (Paris: Plon, 1990).
Broqua, Christophe, Agir pour ne pas mourir: Act Up, les homosexuels et le SIDA, (Paris: Presses de Sciences Po, 2006).
Cadinot, Jean-Daniel, Franchement Masculin, (Paris: Fharon, 1975).
Cervulle, Maxime, ‘French Homonormativity and the commodification of the Arab body’, Radical History review, 100, (Winter 2008): 171-9.
Chassaigne, Philippe, Les années 1970: Fin d’un monde et origine de notre modernité, (Paris: Armand Colin, 2008).
Di Folco, Philippe (ed.), Dictionnaire de la pornographie, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2005).
Dyer, Richard, Now you see it: Studies on lesbian and gay film, 2nd ed., (Routledge: London, 2003).
Dyer, Richard, ‘Idol thoughts: orgasm and self-reflexivity in gay pornography’, Critical quarterly, 36, no. 1, (March 1994): 49-62.
Escoffier, Jeffrey ‘Pornography, Perversity and the Sexual Revolution’ in Hekma, Gert and Giami, Alan (eds.), Sexual Revolutions, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).
Fourastié, Jean, Les Trente Glorieuses ou la révolution invisible, (Paris: Fayard, 1979).
Garsi, Jean-François, Cinémas homosexuels, (Paris: Papyrus, 1981).
Guattari, Félix, La Révolution moléculaire, (Fontenay-sous-bois: Editions recherches, 1977).
Hocquenghem, Guy, Le Gay voyage, (Paris: Albin Michel, 1980).
Jackson, Julian, Living in Arcadia: Homosexuality, politics, and morality in France from the liberation to AIDS, (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2009).
Jouffa, François and Crawley, Tony, Entre Deux censures: Le cinéma érotique de 1973 à 1976, (Paris: Editions Ramsay 1989).
Kooijman, Jaap, ‘Pleasures of the orient: Cadinot’s Maghreb as Gay Male Pornotopia’, in Indiscretions, no. 22, (2011): 97-111.
Leraton, René-Paul, Gay Porn. Le film porno gay: histoire, réprésentation et construction d’une sexualité, (Paris: H&O Editions, 2002).
Martel, Frédéric, The pink and the black: Homosexuals in France since 1968, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).
Miller, D.A., Bringing out Roland Barthes, (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1992).
Ousselin, Edward, ‘Entre deux régimes de censure: Le cinéma pornographique en France, 1974-1975’, Cincinnati Romance Review, 32 (Fall 2011): pp.146-159.
Sirinelli, Jean-François, Les Vingt décisives 1965-1985: Le passé proche de notre avenir, (Paris: Fayard, 2007).
Trachman, Mathieu, Le travail pornographique, (Paris: Editions de la découverte, 2013).
Verdrager, Pierre, L’Enfant interdit: comment la pédophilie est devenue scandaleuse, (Paris: Armand Colin, 2013).
Waugh, Thomas, Hard to imagine: gay male eroticism in photography and film from their beginnings to Stonewall, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
Zimmer, Jacques, Histoires du cinéma X, (Paris: Nouveau Monde, 2011).
