1963
Directed by Jack Smith
Well, it isn't the first time The Book has forced me to watch porn and unfortunately, it probably won't be the last.
Now, I know the majority of the population would not consider forty five minutes of porn a punishment; some might even consider it a reward. But hey, I am a young woman and the closest I ever get is Buffy fan fiction. All right, maybe this is getting to an uncomfortable place. I will move on.
My point is that calling this art is just giving validation to some creep who gets off on filming women pretending to get raped. I don't even want to delve into the psychology of that one. And it also provides him an easy out: if someone doesn't like it, they either don't get it or are prissy prudes.
Okay, so let's just ignore the content of the film for a second. The shoddy filmmaking (again people might plead artistic choice here) is just terrible. I could barely hear what was being said and I think someone forgot to adjust the iris (see picture above).
Yes, Jack Smith shocked his audience with this one. But it is so easy to shock people (I could take off all my clothes and make bird calls in a grocery store and achieve the same effect) but it is not so easy to make a good film. Next.
RATING: -----
Interesting Facts:
Determined by the NY Criminal Court to be obscene.
Banned in 22 states and 4 countries.
