Radley Butcher

Radley Metzger (born January 21, 1929 in New York City , † March 31, 2017 ) was an American film director , film producer , screenwriter , film editor and film distributor . Metzger was a representative of auteur film and porn chic . He worked regularly with the cameraman Hans Jura . Metzger repeatedly used the pseudonym Henry Paris for his work in the field of porn film .

Life

After becoming interested in the medium of film as a teenager, Metzger studied dramatic arts (acting and dramaturgy) at New York City College and graduated with a bachelor's degree. He then worked on a master's degree at Columbia College. He gave this up, however, when he had the opportunity to work in New York as an errand boy in the production of the film Guerrilla Girl, which was later distributed by 20th Century Fox , and thus for the first time in the film business. It was through this activity as an errand boy that Metzger found film editing . In the following years he made a living from shortening European films such as Bitter Rice and Rome, Open City so that they met the requirements of the Legion of Decency Rating . He also edited trailers and films by Ingmar Bergman , François Truffaut and Michelangelo Antonioni for the American market.

During the Korean War , Metzger served in a US Air Force film unit and was involved in the production of propaganda films. After his return he continued to work as an editor; Among other things, he was involved in the synchronization of And always lures the woman with Brigitte Bardot . His first self-produced film, Dark Odyssey, flopped.

In July 1960, Metzger and Ava Leighton founded their own film distribution company, which they named Audubon Films after the first cinema Metzger had ever visited . The distributor acquired the rights to European films, which he then distributed in the USA. Additional erotic scenes (inserts) were often filmed and cut into the films in order to make them more popular.

After this business model proved to be very successful, Metzger decided in 1964 to make another film of his own. He chose Europe as the location, partly because of the lower production costs. The film The Dirty Girls portrays the life of a street whore in Paris and a noble whore in Munich with a budget of approx. 35 to 40,000 US $ and was a commercial success. The production company's second film, The Alley Cats , was also shot in Munich, with Austrian cameraman Hans Jura once again involved.

In the mid-1970s, Radley Metzger, whose films had become increasingly erotic, finally entered the porn film market. At the same time, the collaboration with Hans Jura also ended. The Film Score (1973) also formally reflects this transition, as it is the first film made by Metzger that also includes hardcore scenes, but which were not included in almost all versions released at the time. The Opening of Misty Beethoven , loosely based on My Fair Lady or Pygmalion , is today - due to the (comparatively) good acting performances, the high production costs, the professional camera work and the ingenuity that runs through the entire film - as one of the undisputed classics of the porn film.

Metzger's films are often based on literary models, either classics such as Die Kamelliendame , Carmen or My Fair Lady , whose erotic component he intensified, or contemporary novels and plays such as Therese and Isabelle (by Violette Leduc ), Naked came the stranger (by Penelope Ashe ) or L'Image (by Catherine Robbe-Grillet ), who already put a strong emphasis on erotic elements.

In 1984 Metzger retired from the film business.

BDSM motifs

Metzger's films often contained pronounced BDSM elements in their original cut versions , starting with the soft erotic film Camille 2000 , but going much further in the hardcore productions of the 1970s. Due to the respective national censorship regulations, these have usually been completely removed from the sales versions, examples are The Opening of Misty Beethoven , The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann and Barbara Broadcast . While these measures were more extensive in the versions intended for the American market, the European versions are affected differently.
In 1976, based on the sadomasochistic classic L'Image by Catherine Robbe-Grillet from 1956, the film The Image (also known as The Punishment of Anne ) , which is also considered a classic today, was made . This was largely spared from cuts. Like Score, the film was released in two different "hard" versions in order to enable cinema operators to adapt the screening to their target group. Score is one of the first hardcore films to include gay scenes.

Filmography (selection)

• 1961: Dark Odyssey
• 1966: Girls Between Sex and Sin (The Alley Cats)
• 1967: Carmen Baby (Carmen, Baby)
• 1968: Therese and Isabell (Therese and Isabelle)
• 1969: Lady of the Camellias 2000 (Camille 2000)
• 1970: The lecherous Quartet (The Lickerish Quartet)
• 1973: Score
• 1973: They called her Little Mother
• 1975: Naked Came the Stranger (as Henry Paris)
• 1976: The Opening of Misty Beethoven (as Henry Paris)
• 1976: The Image (alternative title The Punishment of Anne )
• 1975: The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann) (as Henry Paris)
• 1977: Barbara Broadcast (as Henry Paris)
• 1978: The School of Love (Maraschino Cherry) (as Henry Paris)
• 1979: The Cat and the Canary (The Cat and the Canary)
• 1981: Hard Erections (The Tale of Tiffany Lust) (as Henry Paris)
• 1983: The Princess and the Call Girl

Awards

In 1976, The Opening of Misty Beethoven won the first Award of the Adult Film Association of America ( AVN Award ) in the categories Best Director (as Henry Paris), Best Film and Best Actor (Jamie Gillis). In 2002 the production received the award Best Classic Release on DVD .

literature

• Legs McNeil, Jennifer Osborne: The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry . Regan Books, 1st ed., 2006. ISBN 0-06-009660-8
• Leo Phelix, Rolf Thissen , Christa Bandmann (eds.): Pioneers and celebrities of the modern sex film. Goldmann, 1986, ISBN 3-442-10219-7
• Nathaniel Thompson: Dreams of desire - The Films of Radley Metzger , online at mondo-digital.com
• A Talk with Radley Metzger (Interview)
• Gary Morris: Thoughts on Radley Metzger - The master of Euro-erotica is starting to get his due in recent revivals , online at brightlightsfilm.com

Web links

• Radley Metzger in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The cinema of Radley Metzger (extensive reviews of many of his films)
• The sensual cinema of Radley Metzger (text on the retrospective at the Oldenburg Film Festival)
• The Legend of Henry Paris - Portrait and Interview in Playboy 2014 (English, accessed April 23, 2017).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Juliette Metzger, Caryl Feldman, Ashley West: Press Release: Radley Metzger, pioneering filmmaker, dies at 88. In: The Rialto Report. April 2, 2017, accessed April 2, 2017 .