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I first came to know of Radley Metzger through his posters, which bears out what the 85-year-old erstwhile king of high-class erotica told me recently, that “my respect for poster design came from my realization that more people would see my posters—for a longer period—than would see my films.” That should be rectified somewhat next week when the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York embarks on a week-long, 8-film retrospective of Metzger’s legendary, ground-breaking “Art Cinema Erotica.”

The poster that first caught my eye was for a 1975 film directed by one Henry Paris. The film was the arrestingly titled The Opening of Misty Beethoven and I was struck by its combination of the austere and the voluptuous: its clean, monochrome simplicity, its beautifully balanced composition, and its nice use of the blocky serif typeface Clarendon, a favorite of mine. That juxtaposed with the lead-off quote...

Today guys and girls we are going for something a little sophisticated and rather different from the usual smut out there. Today we are looking at what many consider to be the greatest adult films of all time. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you 1974′s fantastic The Private Afternoons Of Pamela Mann from the legendary Henry Paris a.k.a Radley Metzger (The Cat and The Canary, The Alley Cats) starring an all star cast such as Barbara Bourbon (Mondo Weirdo, A Dirty Western) in the starring role as Pamela Mann, Eric Edwards (Laura’s Toys, Great Sexpectations), Alan Marlow (Afternoon Delights, Rollerbabies), the fantastic Jamie Gillis (New Wave Hookers, Beverly Hills Cox), Marc Stevens (Devil In Miss Jones, Deep Throat II) and Georgina Spelvin (Bad Blood, Devil In Miss Jones) to name a few.

The film in a nutshell follows Eric Edwards playing as a private eye… a...

Westwood - The master of sensual European cinema golden years have a tint of blue. UCLA just hosted retrospective of Radley Metzger’s films. His most important films are being released on Blu-ray. He’s about to take the director’s chair as he approaches 83.

His masterwork Camille 2000 was just released Blu-ray with an extended version from Cult Epics. The 1969 update of Dumas’ The Lady of the Camellias takes place in an esoteric Italy. The restored high definition transfer gives a detailed look at that magical time. The Party Favors had a chance to chat with Radley Metzger about the release.

Trailer provided by Video Detective

Radley is a true independent filmmaker. He owns the rights to his films instead of selling them off to distributor. He’s not at the mercy of an indifferent studio executive to keep his cinematic legacy available. The first question had to be...