Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

An Exercise In Nonsense

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

In The Pornographers, 1966, Shôhei Imamura manages to juggle intelligently with universal taboos (pornography, prostitution, incest, fetishism, orgies) challenging the viewer to think than just to consume the visual product by using minimum of nudity; the provocative situations are discretely suggested and not viscerally exposed, and it works because it is impossible to accuse of cheapness or exploitation such an interesting smart cinematographic approach on the subject of sex in a Japanese society full of contrasts, caught in-between the conservative ways of the past and the effervescence of the corrupt morals of the modern era; sex and money are the spinning wheels of the human convoy routing and sinking it into moral and physical decay; the film abounds in visual oddities, bizarre shooting angles providing its aesthetic a brisk geometry, intriguing spontaneous flashbacks, inspired touches of black comedy, and finds an equilibrate formula to wisely highlight subjects considered dirty and shameful in a very clean, frank, witty and somehow cheerful manner

A surrogate father and dedicated family man supports himself by selling blue movies, but don't be misled by the blunt title: all the unsavory details of the skin trade are left (almost) entirely to the viewer's imagination. Likewise the film itself unfolds with indirect subtlety, using dramatic wide-screen compositions, strong black and white photography, and more than one oblique narrative trick (flashbacks, startling jump cuts) to suggest the fragile disposition of its protagonist: a decent man struggling to reconcile his almost puritan morality with an overactive libido (to disastrous effect). Under the typically intelligent direction of Shohei Imamura the story becomes intense, unusual, and occasionally powerful, moving gracefully from humor to horror and back again, by way of some striking fantasy dream sequences. The final shot, in particular, goes straight to the core of the hapless title character, last seen adrift and oblivious in his unmoored houseboat, floating away over the distant horizon.

THE PORNOGRAPHERS is a paradox unto itself. You try and take the plot in, something about a group of underground porn filmmakers trying to make a buck and support crazy family members, pay off yakuza extortionists, cater to the specific requirements of a kinky clientele, and you discover that it's not really getting anywhere. The same points are repeated again and again - men are sleazeballs, women are greedy, teenagers are selfish and unstable. A dysfunctional society in all its demented glory revelling in the most base human instincts. The story feels sprawling and disjointed, too many characters vie for attention each with his particular brand of peculiarities, the eliptical storytelling taking us from one place to the next in a syncopated manner that makes every scene a bit of a struggle for orientation.And then out of nowhere Imamura pulls an amazing shot, an unexpected moment of technical bravado, the movie suddenly becomes creepy and absurd and darkly hilarious, and you can feel sparks flying. Despite what the title might suggest, the focus here is not on the underground porn rings of the 60's. It certainly has nothing on BOOGIE NIGHTS in terms of sleaze or affinity for that kind of culture. Pornography here is used as just another facet of a recurring motif: voyeurism. Indeed, Imamura's camera peers at the characters through half-closed curtains, door openings, windows. Like the pornographers viewing the footage they shot on their 8mm Bolex camera, we're called to take an intimate look at the characters' lives through a keyhole.Not so much about actual pornography then, but the domestic trials and tribulations of Mr. Ogata, leader of this bunch of guerilla hedonists. The halfcrazy widowed mother he has an affair with tries to pimp her 15 year old daughter to him. The older son steals his money and runs off. He's in and out of prison. The widow goes completely crazy. Near the end he has an epiphany - to build a machine girl. No more worries, fast and cheap sex for everyone who wants it. And then we have the whole film within a film idea that makes for a great ending. The thing with the pornographers is that, no matter how confusing or meandering the story can be, it's so ahead of its time in almost every aspect (especially compared to American cinema of the time), not in the flamboyant manner of CITIZEN KANE in '42 but in a way that still feels fresh and modern 30 years later, that you simply can't ignore it. Bold and audacious, it commands attention simply because of the talent involved in the making of it. To go back to the pornography angle, if PT Anderson had to ape Robert Altman's style to make Boogie Nights, Imamura was an original voice.

Here's a modern idea. The movie starts with someone sitting down to watch a porn film. Then those same folks end up in the film. The bridge between the two, the film and the film within, is the eye of a carp, what we would call a large goldfish.It is here, I think, that Kusturica got his observing goldfish that drives this film with Depp: "Arizona Dream."That film within is about a filmmaker and his various troubles, including with his adopted family. This inner film has yet another inner film, twinned, about a man having sex with his daughter.Then it ends with the film within ending and the watchers remarking on it.Its of interest because it is the earliest Japanese film I know that has this overtly folded construction. But I will recommend a far more engaging, slightly later film: "Hatsukoi: Jigoku- hen." It has a more subtle construction and far more engaging emotional content. It matters, this doesn't.Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.