Derrière la porte verte

No history of film can evade porn. Some of it contains some clever ideas and every once in a while it actually influenced something. That's the case with this.

Schrader has explicitly said that this influenced his "Taxi Driver" in the notion of someone driving around and creating a whole imagined sexual narrative. Kubrick has admitted no such thing with his "Eyes Wide Shut," but one is tempted to make a dual connection: the private sex club with masked men and the imaginary narrative. ("Eyes" is about a dialog between two dreams.)

Here's the story: A guy drives a long time, giving us the impression that this defines his character. He enters a diner and meets a friend. The two spin a tale which constitutes the remainder of the movie.

But that isn't a simple tale. It has another nesting: the same two guys engaged in inane conversation on a restaurant terrace, while a plain girl (the only other being present) occupies a nearby table. Then we have an improbable story which could be the fabrication of the two in the diner, or the one (the driver) imagines in looking at the girl on the terrace. (Or all could be something imagined by the driver while driving. We get a hint at the end that the latter is more probable.)

That tale is that she is abducted and placed on a stage in a private sex club so they/we can watch an innocent be ravished. Now begins the porn section which I suppose is tame by today's standard. It includes a racial stereotype that Spike Lee should have put in "Bamboozled" (except he exploits that one himself).

Within that stage scene is a bizarrely psychedelic cinematic celebration of the ejaculation. Like everything in this project, the quality is laughable. But the idea is that we have four nestings.

Then the first framing is closed and we are back at the diner. The cook asks what happened next. The driver leaves and drives a very long time, during which he imagines the girl again (and we have another porn sequence).

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Behind The Green Door is an historic adult movie relic from 1972 that was among the trilogy of films that were considered "Porno Chic" the other two being Deep Throat and The Devil In Miss Jones. Behind The Green Door is the least erotic of the 3 but maybe the most important film artistic wise. Marilyn Chambers performance has no dialogue , but it was her wholesome pure girl next door good looks that made this the centerpiece..not plain jane looking like Georgina Spelvin and Linda Lovelace , and not as whorish and sleazy looking as the various other performers in the early years..Chambers represented the pretty girl who's looks werent so beautiful she was threatening or plastic. However the film itself suffers from it's heavy emphasis on artsy film making techniques ..such as the final "money shot" scenes running in multicolors and freeze frames and slow motion...kinda ruins the feel. Also the scene between Johnny Keyes and Chambers missed any penetration angles giving the scene a simulated sex feel. Plotwise Chambers is kidnapped and forced to perform sexual acts on stage in front of an audience of vouyers , the trapeze oral sex scene and the group orgy are it's standouts. View this in the mind that it's a look at the adult industry in it's classic years before it all went down the toilet because of it's low video standards

9/10

One of the first porno chic crossovers, this 1972 film helped bring XXX movies to a mainstream audience. Anonymous young woman (Marilyn Chambers) is "abducted" to kinky sex theater where she performs on stage with a variety of other people for the delectation of an audience of voyeurs, who eventually perform among themselves. There are some fair SFX, though hardly on an ILM scale, and the story content is inherently slanted against any real involvement other than arousal by the viewer.

Despite its B.O. and reputation, this is a fairly primitive picture. Every print I have seen is both overly dark and dupelike grainy. Chambers is stunning here, and though it is now nothing odd, at the time it was a real shock to see anyone so wholesomely attractive in the centerpiece role of a porn film. (The Ivory Snow publicity did not hurt ticket sales a bit.) Chambers later demonstrated (in the superior RESURRECTION OF EVE and in David Cronenberg's R-rated horror film RABID) acting talent not particularly visible in DOOR, but even now, 30 years later, she remains the BGD girl to an entire generation.

Film remains of much historical interest, though it has long since ceased to be a beacon for the seeker of cheap thrills. Look for lovely San Francisco porn actress Candy Johnson in the supporting ranks and pro footballer Ben Davidson in a non-sex role.

Unlike most of todays porn pictures, Behind the Green door is a well made film, pretty good camera work for a movie in this genre. It takes its time until it becomes explicit, but I did not feel inclined to push the fast forward button, since the film works pretty well as a movie and not only as a way to arouse the viewer erotically, though it still is an amazingly sexy piece of work.

As a horror buff I came across Marilyn Chambers in the flick Rabid (1977) knowing she normally was an actress coming out of the porn genre. I know the classics from back then but she appeared in Behind The Green Door which created controversy and also became a cult classic.

The controversy laid in the fact that Marilyn had a pretty face and was used in commercials like Ivory Snow. A very popular washing product in the days made by Procter and Gamble. Her face vanished shortly from all commercials once this flick became successful.

It isn't a common porn because Marilyn doesn't say a word in it doesn't really has a story. In the heydays of porn those flicks really had a story to tell but here it's rather simple, two guys telling at a diner what happened behind a certain green door. From there on, the movie slowly turns into a gangbang. Normal for the days back then but in editing they made the ejaculation clocking in at 7 minutes mixed with psychedelic effects. And it is that part that made it a cult classic. Shot for only 60k it made 25 million dollar profit. When it came out it was shown in normal theatres, another thing that gave it some controversy. But it was also the moment that porn started to conquer the world and became the next big thing

Gore 0/5 Nudity 5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5