Polissons et galipettes

Silent libertine film from the early 20th Century The Good Old Naughty Days “Right from the very first days of silent movies the camera seems to have been the perfect voyeuristic tool to film people making love. An underground production system started taking shape very early on, allowing private collectors to satisfy their own secret passion for transgressive sex footage. These little blue movies were regularly screened in the waiting lounges of the best brothels in Europe. These films were fabricated in a haphazard fashion during just one afternoon with friends and local prostitutes lending a hand for a few cents. All of them requested to remain anonymous of course which makes it impossible today to identify who really acted or directed them. For this reason it is rather delightful to watch these  » actors  » often having to readjust their wigs and fake moustaches in the middle of their scenes so as not to be recognized unmasked . It is nevertheless touching to see how fresh and naive these films look in comparison with today x-rated film production. Some of these movies, often using the camera, set, and costumes from a legitimate production on their day off, were made with the director himself, even some of the most talented and recognized among them . One just needs to watch how well the light or frame stands out in some of them to understand that a real filmmaker is behind this oddly edited and more than roughly narrated little movie. Their signature can also be recognized in the fact that the actors, in these few well shot films, avoid looking at the camera or even talking to it as most of their amateur colleagues do in the majority of their productions. These underground blue movies have managed to reach us miraculously. They are now a part of our history and certainly a part of the secret history of cinema. In their own amusing way these images involve us in a very direct, physical and intimate relationship with the good old days. They show us how human nature really operates, has continuously remained the same and will certainly never change.” Michel Reilhac