Thursday, October 12, 2006

Random DVD round-up 7 - INSIDE DEEP THROAT *****

INSIDE DEEP THROAT is an insightful and entertaining documentary about the making of, content and social and political reverberations of the infamous porno. The original 1972 movie came about because the producer discovered that aLinda Lovelace, had a particular talent: she could take a guy's complete penis into her mouth. So he set up a porno to showcase this talent, with Lovelace playing a woman whose clitoris is deep in her throat. She goes to the doctor - Harry Reems, who proceeds to administer relief. It's a really rather funny movie as well as containing a sex act that was seen as subversive and "new" at the time. The movie took off and Lovelace saw precious little of the dollar receipts. It raised questions about sexuality - as Erica Jong put it: "It was based on the idea that all a man had to do was put his penis down a woman's throat and thrust and the woman was as satisfied as the man. Well, guess what?!"

The atmosphere turned nasty when Lovelace discovered feminism and claimed that she had been co-erced into starring into the movie by her husband - and that those of us who watch it and watching her being raped. Harry Reems was also subject to prosecution for obscenity and fell into drug addiction before getting his life back on track. The documentary dutifully trawls through archive footage and interviews key players and cultural commentators. It's really interesting and really rather sad.

INSIDE DEEP THROAT played Sundance 2005 and was released in the UK that summer. It is available on Region 1 and 2 DVD.

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