THE GOOD OLD NAUGHTY DAYS
aka POLISSONS ET GALIPETTES

Year: 2002
UK: Tartan Films
Director: Michel Reilhac
Country: France
Language: French (English subtitles)
UK: 71 mins
UK Certificate: R-18
UK Release Date: 23 April 2004


Synopsis

This collection of French blue movies from the silent era was selected from a collection of 300 one-reelers discovered in the attic of a "very respectable family". This compilation features a dozen hard-core shorts made between 1905 and 1930. It reveals production standards far in advance of comparable films being made elsewhere at the time, as well as an inventive and often humorous array of diverse couplings.

Film List

The Hairdresser 1905
Faiminette Workshop 1921
Abott Bitt at the Convent 1925
School Spanking 1925
The Musketeer's Dinner 1920
The Voyeur 1924
Miss Butterfly 1925
Agenor is Picking Up 1925
Homework 1920
Tea Time 1925
Massages 1930
Buried Treasures 1925

Background

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 sexual footage.

These films were fabricated in a haphazard fashion in an afternoon with friends and local prostitutes lending a hand for a few cents. All of them requested to remain anonymous, which makes it impossible 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 naïve these films look in comparison with today's X-rated film productions.

Considering the age of these films, it is miraculous that they have been rediscovered and restored. These films are a part of our heritage 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.

These films have been restored by the Archives of the Centre National de la Cinematographie. (The National Centre for Cinematography in France).