Where did the magic go?

[DavidS]

I have been watching hardcore since the mid 1970's. I have a strong preference for German films. Up until the late 1990's the German industry were still producing quite good porn but now they seem to have totally lost the plot. I am currently upgrading my collection to dvd and I order from a handful of reputable European distributors via the Internet. I am begining to find that even films that look good on the distributors web page often, too often, turn out to be disappointing in reality. This is not the fault of the distributor, they merely post details of the box on their site. It is not realistic I suppose to expect producers to make the expensive films of the late 1970's which were aimed at the sex cinemas but, equally, I would expect a somewhat better standard than what is on offer now. Often I find, particularly with regard to better productions, that although marketed as new, they are in fact about ten years or more old. Hardly anything of merit seems genuinely new. The reason seems to me to be because the producers are loking at two distinct markets, the niche market e.g. pissing, old women, pregnant, etc, etc, or they have one eye to the European adult tv satellite market, which seems to require bland films. The niche market, at least the less extreme end of it, used to be catered for in mainstream porn by perhaps having a more mature woman in the cast or perhaps a pregnant one. Do the majority of punters want these niche films which just show a successsion of elderly or pregnant women being fucked. I think not but others may differ!

[ben3]

Hi David,

I think you raise a lot of good questions. Here are a few things I have had in mind about some of them; please correct where I am wrong.

About German porn: around 2004, the production of new feature movies seems to have slowed. Would like to know why. Some studios might have gone out of business, some directors might have retired?

The big problem I have with German studios is that they do not ID actresses. They may miss a lot by doing that. Take the US market, 99% of the releases have a cover with most actresses names on it. Difficult to imagine a movie with Tera Patrick without her name on the front cover and still, that's what a lot of German studios do.

About the markets: my problem with satellite-aimed movies is that they are almost soft porns. Two examples: some Vivid DVDs in the US in the late 90s and some of Marc Dorcel releases in France.

Thanks for bringing up this subject.

[DavidS]

Thank you Ben. Your views mirror my own. The point about most German actresses not being named is a good one. I noticed on a web distributor's page the other day which had a list of actresses' names, that although about 90% of the dvds were German, about 90% of the names were American! The satelitlite aimed films are bland and tending towards soft core. I think you are right about most good German directors being retired, however it is odd that few new ones of note have moved in to fill the vacuum.

[hardware]

Seeing as I'm in the USA and don't have an 'adult ID,' I don't have access to the German market. However, judging by those European web-based porn retailers that I do visit, my guess is that the German producers are being squeezed by all the American product coming into the market. Some sites seem to get about 10 new American releases for every European release.

[DavidS]

Hi hardware. What you say is absolutely correct. Incidentally if you are interested in German or other European dvds, try Austrian or Swiss sites which do not require adult ID.

[egal]

In comparison to ten years ago much more
films are flooding the market. German producers
are still very busy but they seem to
be focused on cheap mass production.

America's porn business has much more 'Hollywood
glamour' and the girls even look better than the mainstream starlets.
They rule the market though American society still seems to be prudish.
I think production values cannot be compared to ours.

A lot of girls here just do one or two films but there are
plenty of Americans who make more than 100 films in a year.

Maybe a lot of european actrices don't like to be credited
because a porno career might be of doubtful fame.

[DavidS]

You are right, a porn career does give an actress doubtful fame but I would have thought this was more so in the USA than in mainland Europe. Certainly in the early days of European hardcore appearing in an explicit film did not seem to be a career impediment at all. On a really serious note, if I was appearing in US hardcore and had a high profile, I would be becoming increasingly worried. Extreme christian zealots in the US are becoming more and more radical in their attitudes to those they believe to be immoral. Can it be long before they turn their attention to the porn industry? And if they did would the right wing US government be too concerned? I think not.

[egal]

Of course,

but what about Jenna Jameson ? Isn't she engaged in a lot of non-porn projects and widely accepted by society? She seems to be quite popular.

[DavidS]

There are exceptions to every rule and several US porn stars have crossed over to the legitimate market. Nevertheless you had a totally valid point about, generally, top German stars being mainly anonymous. To me, although I am no expert on US society, there seems probably less reason to shy publicity in Europe than in the USA.

[ben3]

Here are a few cases of public post-porn careers: in Germany, Gina Wild has played in several series and movies. In Italy, Selen, Eva Henger and Brigitta Bulgari are often invited to TV shows. In France, Catherine Ringer founded a famous pop group under Rita Mitsouko in the 80s. Others have run their own movie studio (Dolly Buster, Jill Kelly) or model agency (Julia Dobler).