Jim Mitchell, maker of
Behind the Green Door passed away last month. This movie helped nudge porn just that much closer to the mainstream and is a favorite of mine for a couple of reasons.
- The plot of the film includes a night club kind of audience that is made up of the most diverse people I have ever seen in a porn - past or present. Fat, skinny, old, young, black, white, harry, shaved, feminine, androgynous. Everyone is here and everyone is having fun. It's revolutionary and I wish more people could see it.
- Technicolor slow-motion cum shots. I'm not kidding. I'm generally not an enormous fan of cum shots but slowed down, in silhouette with flashing lights behind them, I'll watch any day. At first I thought that this technique was glorifying and elevating the cum shot. Then, I started to think that these men somehow anticipated the emphasis that cum shots would come to have in the porn community and decided to poke a bit of fun at it.
I also learned some things about this film I hadn't known before from the
New York Times obituary and a
Guardian Article:
- Behind the Green Door was made for $60k and grossed over $25million
- It screened at Cannes
- Marylin Chambers appeared in an Ivory Soap Commercial right before the movie came out
- The real green door, made famous in a song by Jim Lowe in the 1950's was one of the first lesbian bars in London
If you haven't seen it yet - I highly recommend
Behind the Green Door.
