From the L.A. production, 2004

In America the traditional nude scene in the play caused complications:

It was difficult for us in Los Angeles, especially because of the union, because they’re incredibly strict about what you can and can’t do. And if you use a saber like Kokoschka, you have to have supervisors present. They were at their most hysterical at the end of the play, when the maid Reserl offers herself undressed, very chastely but still naked, and that was very difficult in Los Angeles. At least three assistants had to stand around, as the scene takes place in the middle of the audience, because they were afraid that the actress would be harassed or groped. Of course, nothing ever happened, but their hysteria was enormous. Rehearsing a play there is also difficult because you have to take a ten-minute break every hour; it’s like school. Even if you’re in the middle of a scene and having a great rehearsal, an announcement comes on and the rehearsal has to be interrupted. There are rights that the actors have fought for that are completely counter-artistic, and that hasn’t made things easy.

Heidi Dalik played the role in Berlin in 2006

The woman playing Alma 2 (shown above choking the actor) is Wiebke Frost

Wiebke also played the role of Alma 2 in Vienna in 2002, shown here in an almost identical staging to the Berlin show:

More images from the play (and other detailed info). There are also some modest nudes from the 2002 Vienna performance.

This is an Italian historical pic, described thoroughly below:

Italy, 1980s-1990s. With his agency Diva Futura, Riccardo Schicchi revolutionizes mass culture by transforming the hippie utopia of free love into a new phenomenon: porn. Under his guidance, “girls next door” like Ilona Staller, Moana Pozzi, Eva Henger and many others suddenly become world-famous divas and enter Italian homes thanks to the boom in private television and VHS video recorders. The expression “pornstar”, coined at the time, marks the beginning of a new era. The media impact is so overwhelming that it leads to the election to Parliament of Ilona Staller, known as “Cicciolina”, the birth of the Partito dell’Amore and the candidacy of Moana Pozzi as mayor of Rome. The adventure of this big “family” – where jealousies, torments and contradictions explode, the effects of which generate an out-of-control situation in the pornography industry – is told through the eyes of Debora, a young secretary of the agency with a mortgage on her shoulders.

Videos

Italian dramedy. It was distributed in English-speaking markets as The Last Night, but the literal translation is The Last New Year’s Eve.

Italians celebrate New Year’s Eve different ways – getting high, cheat on a wife, revenge, spy on a cute naked neighbor, suicide attempt, hire a gigolo or call girl, have a party, crash one, etc.

Johnny Moronic’s film clips can be found here.

The entire film is on YouTube for free, but the quality is not impressive.

This is a high-concept French art film from Jean-Luc Godard, one of the pioneers of the French New Wave.

As always with Godard, it fluctuates unevenly through tones, covering everything from solemn art to zany hijinks; sometimes seeming to be a documentary, but always really fiction. The actors use their real names and play versions of themselves, often breaking the fourth wall in a film within the film.

On a movie set, in a factory, and at a hotel, Godard explores the nature of work, love and film making. While Solidarity takes on the Polish government, a Polish film director, Jerzy, is stuck in France making a film for TV. He’s over budget and uninspired; the film, called “Passion,” seems static and bloodless. Hanna owns the hotel where the film crew stays. She lives with Michel, who runs a factory where he’s fired Isabelle, a floor worker. Hanna and Isabelle are drawn to Jerzy, hotel maids quit to be movie extras, people ask Jerzy where the story is in his film, women disrobe, extras grope each other off camera, and Jerzy wonders why there must always be a story.

Godard’s films are always exquisitely photographed, which is especially nice in this one, which is filled with naked women.

Defoe’s film clips of those women and others

That’s what the headline says. The reality: 20 pics that remind you how we lost our collective minds for an entire decade.

She must be famous for something, because she shows up here constantly. Frankly, I don’t know what that something is.

This weird black comedy is one of Roman Polanski’s more obscure efforts, little remembered today, although it was released not long after after his acclaimed Repulsion.

A wounded criminal and his dying partner take refuge at a beachfront castle. The owners of the castle, a meek Englishman and his willful French wife, are initially the unwilling hosts to the criminals. Quickly, however, the relationships between the criminal, the wife, and the Englishman begin to shift in humorous and bizarre fashion.

Videos

When I was in high school or college, one of the local TV stations used to run theme movie programs in the wee hours of Friday and Saturday night. One of them was Chiller Theater, and the other was Super-Spy Theater (Bond-mania was an ubiquitous cultural phenomenon at the time). It was on the spy program that I first saw an entertaining, offbeat spoof called That Man From Rio, which made me a fan of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Françoise Dorléac. I couldn’t figure out what was going on in that film, but I don’t think I was supposed to. Either way, I enjoyed it immensely.

If you’re a film buff you probably know that Françoise was the older sister of the beautiful Catherine Deneuve (nee Dorléac), who became a major star, but didn’t have Françoise’s deft comic touch, so established a completely different screen presence – the aloof, unapproachable beauty. The Dorléac sisters made one movie together, a musical called The Young Girls of Rochefort (their singing was dubbed.)

There was no doubt in my mind that Françoise would become a huge star. Throughout her brief career, she was gorgeous and funny and sometimes naked, which are three of my favorite qualities in mammals.

So why was her career so brief?

She was just 25 when her rental car flipped and burned on a roadway in Nice, France.

Kim Novak was the box office queen of Hollywood in the mid- to late- fifties, but she retired from full-time acting in 1966.

Wikipedia picks up the story:

By the end of 1966, she was emotionally drained and no longer wanted to live the life of a Hollywood movie star, in the glare of the spotlight with the press scrutinizing her every move. When a mudslide took her Bel Air home and cost her entire life’s savings in bulldozer fees, she moved away from Hollywood to Big Sur. From then on, acting became a job and was no longer a career of choice. Novak preferred to concentrate on her first love, the visual arts, often writing poetry to accompany her paintings, and even writing some song lyrics.

You probably haven’t thought about Kim in years, and you may be surprised that she is still around. She’s 92 now, living in Oregon, and still painting. She tells her own story at kimnovakartist.com.

Video

Hungarian infuencer and reality TV star Melanie Csiszer in some of the best sex videos we have ever seen in reality shows from “Eden Hotel.” The videos are quite long and totally uncensored.