La coiffeuse

What I love about this is that there's no director credited. We can maybe assume it's a man since then as today most people turning on the camera and cranking the wheels were men (there's no editor for this since it's one shot, though if it were I'd suspect a woman would've been editor, but I digress).

You can infer with it whatever gaze you'd like, though it's likely a male one. It's easier to analyze this more as a painting than a film that moves, since the woman is poised like a woman would be getting set up to be drawn or painted from on a canvas. In that sense it's no less offensive than Kate Winslet in Titanic, and if there's anything wrong with that then I don't know what to do for you.

If you watch this, either online or at a museum or what have you, I'd think it would be difficult to exactly be "turned on" by this aside from a more emotional place of simply seeing a beautiful woman (and yes, there are nipples, albeit mostly they're washed out by the lights). It's really just a simple, graceful slice of 40 seconds of film (which times out to about 960 frames total - quite a good deal of sensual paintings!)

This was something of a surprise - a piece of French pornography from way back in 1905. Porn is almost as old as the cinema and, like all genres, it has changed considerably since its early days. Porn, I suppose, is one of those that has deteriorated without a doubt. Now I don't hold myself out to be an expert on cinema porn but, like most males, I've seen the occasional porn flick. Today, they are apparently little more than a camera showing a couple engaging in sex without even a pretence of plot. Back when I was a youth the films had a story of sorts, but the quality of the films were inferior in all respects and quickly grew boring.

This little film is really quite charming. It shows a fetching young lady, surely no older than her early twenties, playing with her hair in a mirror. She stands in front of the camera - presumably she is supposed to be in her boudoir - with a garment of some description hung low on her hips. The topless young lady smiles sweetly at the camera for a moment before picking up a hand mirror and moving this way and that as she admires herself in the mirror. That's about it, really. It's quite a pleasant film that even most ladies today wouldn't find offensive, but one can imagine it being shown in the smoky confines of some stuffy room for the pleasure of a group of wealthy but ageing gentlemen back in 1905.

'La coiffeuse (1905)' has been offered as one of the earliest surviving "adult films," and was featured in Michel Reilhac's 'Polissons et galipettes (2002),' a documentary compilation of early pornographic cinema. This description is a little misleading, I think, at least by my modern understanding of what constitutes pornography. Certainly, 'La coiffeuse' was most likely filmed for the enjoyment of wealthy brothel patrons, perhaps as an appetiser before the main event. However, there's nothing at all lewd or vulgar about this 40-second, one-shot film. A pretty, young woman sits in her boudoir, naked from the waist up, carefully combing and arranging her hair, while smilingly shooting glances in the direction of the camera. The set-up and execution is all rather dignified and artful, as though the woman is simply a model posing for the brush of a famous nineteenth-century painter. The garment hanging for the woman's hips makes her seem rather like Venus de Milo. It's a pity that more isn't known about this film and its nameless star.