Apr 2017
2nd in an ongoing series of what I hope will be very irregular posts. I'll try and give notice to some of the overlooked passings of figures deserving of trash recognition.
This time I'm here to note the passing of the sexploitation pioneer, Radley Metzger. I've enjoyed all of his films - his artier ones he did under his own name as well as the porn he directed under the nom de plume, Henry Paris (Henree Paree - dig it!). Metzger approached all his films with an artistic eye, a willingness to let the eroticism unfold slowly then building to mutiple climaxes, and a great sense of humour. He dabbled with some risqué subjects such as bi males, S/M, and bondage. If you've never seen one of his films you should check them out. There's one for just about every taste and all the ones I've seen are fun as well as erotic. He deserves to be remembered.
"When I was coming of age, eroticism was always in films, but eroticism was punished. The promiscuous girl never got the leading man, the woman who sold her charms, always had a bad fate. The “good girl” always achieved ends the bad girl never did. As a reaction to that, I tried to do the opposite. You could have a free attitude and behave in a free way and not be punished. A parallel to that is that it could also be light. It didn’t have to be tragedy. You could look at [sex] in a fun way. That was a personal thing, to work against the clichés in cinema when I was growing up."
- from a January 8, 2014 interview with Metzger in Cinedelphia.
R.I.P. Radley Metzger (January 21, 1929 - March 31, 2017)
This time I'm here to note the passing of the sexploitation pioneer, Radley Metzger. I've enjoyed all of his films - his artier ones he did under his own name as well as the porn he directed under the nom de plume, Henry Paris (Henree Paree - dig it!). Metzger approached all his films with an artistic eye, a willingness to let the eroticism unfold slowly then building to mutiple climaxes, and a great sense of humour. He dabbled with some risqué subjects such as bi males, S/M, and bondage. If you've never seen one of his films you should check them out. There's one for just about every taste and all the ones I've seen are fun as well as erotic. He deserves to be remembered.
"When I was coming of age, eroticism was always in films, but eroticism was punished. The promiscuous girl never got the leading man, the woman who sold her charms, always had a bad fate. The “good girl” always achieved ends the bad girl never did. As a reaction to that, I tried to do the opposite. You could have a free attitude and behave in a free way and not be punished. A parallel to that is that it could also be light. It didn’t have to be tragedy. You could look at [sex] in a fun way. That was a personal thing, to work against the clichés in cinema when I was growing up."
- from a January 8, 2014 interview with Metzger in Cinedelphia.
R.I.P. Radley Metzger (January 21, 1929 - March 31, 2017)
