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Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent sexually
explicit Explicit refers to something that is specific, clear, or detailed. It can also mean: * Explicit knowledge, knowledge that can be readily articulated, codified and transmitted to others * Explicit (text), the final words of a text; contrast with inc ...
subject matter in order to
arouse AROUSE OSU is an Internet radio station run by students of Ohio State University, broadcasting exclusively online. AROUSE OSU is overseen by an executive board of Undergraduate students, and faculty from The Ohio State University's Department ...
, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer.
Pornographic Pornography (colloquially called porn or porno) is sexually suggestive material, such as a picture, video, text, or audio, intended for sexual arousal. Made for consumption by adults, pornographic depictions have evolved from cave paintings ...
films represent
sexual fantasies A sexual fantasy, or erotic fantasy, is an Autoeroticism, autoerotic mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's Human sexuality, sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual Fantasy (psychology), fantasy can be crea ...
and usually include erotically stimulating material such as
nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...
or fetishes (
softcore Soft core or Softcore may refer to: * Softcore microprocessor, microprocessor implemented using logic synthesis and perhaps other circuits * Soft core (synthesis), a digital circuit that can be wholly implemented using logic synthesis * Soft roc ...
) and
sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...
(
hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...
). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit
sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...
, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective. Pornographic films are produced and distributed on a variety of media, depending on the demand and technology available, including traditional film stock footage in various formats,
home video Home video is recorded media sold or Video rental shop, rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. ...
,
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
s, mobile devices, Internet pornography Internet download,
cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...
, in addition to other media. Pornography is often sold or rented on DVD; shown through Internet streaming, specialty channels and
pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...
on cable and satellite; and viewed in rapidly disappearing
adult theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patr ...
s. Often due to broadcast or print censorship commissions, general public opinion,
public decency The intersections of morality and religion involve the relationship between religious views and morals. It is common for religions to have value frameworks regarding personal behavior meant to guide adherents in determining between right and wron ...
laws, or religious pressure groups, overly sexualized content is generally not permitted in
mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large Mass media, mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Noam Chomsky, Choms ...
or on
free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscri ...
television. Films with
risqué Risqué may refer to: * Material deemed slightly indecent or liable to shock, especially sexual suggestiveness * ''Risqué'' (album), 1979 recording by American disco band Chic * Risque (comics), mutant character first appearing in Marvel Comic ...
content have been produced since the invention of motion pictures in the 1880s. Production of such films was profitable, and a number of producers specialized in their production. Various groups within society considered such depictions
immoral Immorality is the violation of moral laws, norms or standards. It refers to an agent doing or thinking something they know or believe to be wrong. Immorality is normally applied to people or actions, or in a broader sense, it can be applied to gr ...
, labeled them "pornographic", and attempted to have them suppressed under other
obscenity laws An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin , , "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Generally, the term can be used to indicate strong moral ...
, with varying degrees of success. Such films continued to be produced, and could only be distributed by underground channels. Because the viewing of such films carried a
social stigma Stigma, originally referring to the visible marking of people considered inferior, has evolved to mean a negative perception or sense of disapproval that a society places on a group or individual based on certain characteristics such as their ...
, they were viewed at
brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
s, adult movie theaters,
stag parties A bachelor party (in the United States), also known as a stag weekend, stag do or stag party (in the United Kingdom, Commonwealth countries, and Ireland), or a buck's night (in Australia and Canada), is a party held for or arranged by a man wh ...
, home, private clubs, and night cinemas. In the 1970s, during the
Golden Age of Porn The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American pornography, in which sexually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the genera ...
, pornographic films were semi-legitimized, to the point where actors not known for appearances in such productions would be cast members (though rarely participating in the explicit scenes); by the 1980s, pornography on home video achieved wider distribution. The rise of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s changed the way pornographic films were distributed, complicating
censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governmen ...
regimes around the world and legal prosecutions of "obscenity".


Classification

Pornographic films are typically categorized as either
softcore Soft core or Softcore may refer to: * Softcore microprocessor, microprocessor implemented using logic synthesis and perhaps other circuits * Soft core (synthesis), a digital circuit that can be wholly implemented using logic synthesis * Soft roc ...
or
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography or hardcore porn is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as sexual intercourse, vaginal, anal sex, anal, oral sex, oral, or Non-penetrative sex#Manual sex, manual intercourse; e ...
. In general, softcore pornography is pornography that does not depict explicit
sexual activity Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) t ...
,
sexual penetration Sexual penetration is the insertion of a body part or other object into a body orifice, such as the mouth, vagina or anus, as part of human sexual activity or sexual behavior in non-human animals. The term is most commonly used in statute la ...
or extreme
fetishism A fetish is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a human-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent non-material value, or powers, to an object. Talismans and amulet ...
. It generally contains
nudity Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. While estimates vary, for the first 90,000 years of pre-history, anatomically modern humans were naked, having lost their body hair, living in hospitable climates, and not ...
or partial nudity in sexually suggestive situations. Hardcore pornography is pornography that depicts penetration or extreme fetish acts, or both. It contains graphic sexual activity and visible penetration. A pornographic work is characterized as hardcore if it has any hardcore content. Pornographic films are generally classified into subgenres which describe the underlying theme or
sexual fantasy A sexual fantasy, or erotic fantasy, is an Autoeroticism, autoerotic mental image or pattern of thought that stirs a person's Human sexuality, sexuality and can create or enhance sexual arousal. A sexual Fantasy (psychology), fantasy can be crea ...
which the film and actors attempt to create. Subgenres can also be classified into the characteristics of the performers or the type of sexual activity on which it concentrates and not necessarily on the
market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...
to which each subgenre appeals. The subgenres usually conform to certain
conventions Convention may refer to: * Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct ** Treaty, an agreement in international law ** Convention (political norm), uncodified legal or political tradition * Convention (meeting) ...
, and each may appeal to a particular audience.


History


Early years: before 1920

Production of erotic films commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture. Two of the earliest pioneers were Frenchmen
Eugène Pirou Louis Eugène Pirou (26 September 1841 – 30 September 1909) was a French photographer and filmmaker, known primarily for his portraits of celebrities and scenes from the Paris Commune. He was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle ...
and
Albert Kirchner Albert Kirchner (1860–1902), better known under the pseudonym Léar, was a French photographer, manufacturer, exhibitor,Richard Abel''Encyclopedia of early cinema'' Taylor & Francis, 2005, , p.518 and filmmaker who is noted for producing severa ...
. Kirchner, under the name "Léar", directed the earliest surviving erotic film for Pirou. The 7-minute 1896 film had performing a bathroom
striptease A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner. The person who performs a striptease is commonly known as a "stripper", "exotic d ...
.Richard Abel
''Encyclopedia of early cinema''
, Taylor & Francis, 2005, , p.518
Other French filmmakers also considered that profits could be made from this type of risqué films, showing women disrobing. Also in 1896. was released as a short
nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
kinetoscope The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that woul ...
/film featuring a gyrating belly dancer named Fatima. Her gyrating and moving pelvis was censored, one of the earliest films to be censored. At the time, there were numerous risque films that featured exotic dancers. In the same year, '' The May Irwin Kiss'' contained the first kiss on film. It was a 47-second film loop, with a close-up of a nuzzling couple followed by a short peck on the lips ("the mysteries of the kiss revealed"). The kissing scene was denounced as shocking and obscene to early moviegoers and caused the Roman Catholic Church to call for censorship and moral reform, because kissing in public at the time could lead to prosecution. Perhaps in defiance and "to spice up a film", this was followed by many kiss imitators, including ''
The Kiss in the Tunnel ''The Kiss in the Tunnel'', also known as ''A Kiss in the Tunnel'', is a 1899 in film, 1899 UK, British Short subject, short silent film, silent, comedy film, produced and directed by George Albert Smith (inventor), George Albert Smith, showing ...
'' (1899) and ''The Kiss'' (1900). A
tableau vivant A (; often shortened to ; ; ) is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrically illuminated. It thus combines ...
style was used in short film ' (1901) featuring an unnamed long-haired young model wearing a flesh-colored
body stocking A bodystocking or body stocking is a one-piece skin-tight garment that covers the torso, legs and sometimes the arms of the wearer. It is a foundation garment or an article of lingerie usually made from a sheer fabric similar to that used for s ...
in a direct frontal pose that provides a provocative view of the female body. The pose is in the style of
Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...
's ''
The Birth of Venus ''The Birth of Venus'' ( ) is a painting by the Italian artist Sandro Botticelli, probably executed in the mid-1480s. It depicts the goddess Venus (mythology), Venus arriving at the shore after her birth, when she had emerged from the sea ful ...
''. In Austria, cinemas organised men-only nights (called ) at which adult films were shown.
Johann Schwarzer Johann Schwarzer (30 August 1880 – 10 October 1914) was an Austrian photographer and pioneer producer of adult films through his Saturn-Film (:de:Saturn-Film, de) company. Schwarzer was born in Javorník (Jeseník District), Javornik, then part ...
formed his Saturn-Film production company which between 1906 and 1911 produced 52 erotic productions, each of which contained young local women fully nude, to be shown at those screenings. Before Schwarzer's productions, erotic films were provided by the
Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...
brothers from French produced sources. In 1911, Saturn was dissolved by the censorship authorities which destroyed all the films they could find, though some have since resurfaced from private collections. There were a number of American films in the 1910s which featured female nudity. At the beginning of the 20th century, Argentina may have been the first center of pornographic film production in the world. It is considered that the porn film was born in France practically at the same time as the cinematographic medium, but it was in
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
where the clandestine production of these films, known as stag films or smokers, was capitalized. Around 1905,
Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...
and Gaumont moved the production of porn to Argentina to avoid censorship by the French government. These films were not intended for local or popular consumption, but were "sophisticated entertainment for the enjoyment of the well-to-do class of urope" Writing about the origins of underground cinema, Arthur Knight and Hollis Alpert explain that hardcore films were shipped by boat from Argentina to private buyers, mostly in France and England, but also in more distant places such as Russia and the Balkans. In '' Black and White and Blue'' (2008), one of the most scholarly attempts to document the origins of the clandestine 'stag film' trade, Dave Thompson recounts ample evidence that such an industry first had sprung up in the brothels of
Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...
and other South American cities by the turn of the 20th century, and then quickly spread through Central Europe over the following few years. In his biography of
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of Realism (theatre), realism, earlier associated with ...
, Louis Sheaffer recounts that the playwright traveled to Buenos Aires in the 1900s and was a frequent visitor to the pornographic cinemas in the Barracas neighborhood. The Argentine film '' El Sartorio'' (also known as ''El Satario'') is perhaps the oldest known pornographic film, a theory held by several authors. Filmed between 1907 and 1912 on the riverside of
Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...
or
Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...
, the film depicts six nude nymphs who are surprised by a satyr or faun, who captures one of them and then has sex in a variety of positions, including the 69. ''El Sartorio'' is held currently in the
Kinsey Institute The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction (often shortened to The Kinsey Institute) is a research institute at Indiana University. Established in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1947 as a nonprofit, the institute merged with In ...
's film archive, the largest collection of stag films in the world. Because Pirou is nearly unknown as a pornographic filmmaker, credit is often given to other films for being the first. According to Patrick Robertson's ''Film Facts'', "the earliest pornographic motion picture which can definitely be dated is " made in France in 1908. The plot depicts a weary soldier who has a tryst with a servant girl at an inn. He also notes that "the oldest surviving pornographic films are contained in America's Kinsey Collection. One film demonstrates how early pornographic conventions were established. The German film (1910) is a ten-minute film which begins with a woman masturbating alone in her bedroom, and progresses to scenes of her with a man in the
missionary position The missionary position or man-on-top position is a sex position in which, generally, a woman lies on her back and spreads her legs and a man lies on top of her while they face each other and engage in vaginal intercourse. The position may also ...
,
fellatio Fellatio (also known as fellation, and in slang as blowjob, BJ, giving head, or sucking off) is an oral sex act consisting of the stimulation of a human penis, penis by using the mouth. Oral stimulation of the scrotum may also be termed ''fellat ...
, and penile anal penetration."


1920s–1940s suppression

Pornographic movies were widespread in the
silent movie ''Silent Movie'' is a 1976 American satirical silent comedy film co-written, directed by and starring Mel Brooks, released by 20th Century Fox in summer 1976. The ensemble cast includes Dom DeLuise, Marty Feldman, Bernadette Peters, and S ...
era of the 1920s, and were often shown in
brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
s. Soon illegal, stag films, or blue films, as they were called, were produced underground by amateurs for many years starting in the 1940s. Processing the film took considerable time and resources, with people using their bathtubs to wash the film when processing facilities (often tied to organized crime) were unavailable. The films were then circulated privately or by traveling salesmen, but anyone caught viewing or possessing them risked a prison sentence.


1950s: home movies

The post-war era saw technological developments that further stimulated the growth of a mass market and amateur film-making, particularly the introduction of the 8 mm and
super-8 Super 8 mm film is a motion-picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format. The formal name for Super 8 is 8-mm Type S, distinguishing it from the ...
film gauges, popular for the home movie market. Entrepreneurs emerged to meet the demand. In Britain, in the 1950s, Harrison Marks produced films which were considered risqué, and which today would be described as "soft core". In 1958, as an offshoot of his magazines, Marks began making short films for the 8mm market of his models undressing and posing topless, popularly known as "glamour home movies". To Marks, the term "glamour" was a euphemism for nude modeling/photography.


1960s: Europe and United States

Starting in 1961, Lasse Braun was a pioneer in quality colour productions that were, in the early days, distributed by making use of his father's diplomatic privileges. Braun was able to accumulate funds for his lavish productions from the profit gained with so-called loops, ten-minute hardcore pornography, hardcore movies which he sold to Reuben Sturman, who distributed them to 60,000 American peep show booths. Braun was always on the move, and made his hardcore movies in a number of countries, including Spain, France, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands. In December 1960, American female director Doris Wishman began producing a series of eight pornographic films, or nudist films without sex scenes, including ''Hideout in the Sun'' (1960), ''Nude on the Moon'' (1961) and ''Diary of a Nudist'' (1961). She also produced a series of sexploitation films. In the 1960s, social and judicial attitudes towards the explicit depiction of sexuality began to change. For example, Swedish film ''I Am Curious (Yellow)'' (1967) included numerous frank nude scenes and simulated sexual intercourse. In one particularly controversial scene, Lena kisses her lover's flaccid penis. The film was exhibited in mainstream cinemas, but in 1969 it was banned in Massachusetts allegedly for being pornographic. The ban was challenged in the courts, with the Supreme Court of the United States ultimately declaring that the film was not obscene, paving the way for other sexually explicit films. Another Swedish film ''Language of Love'' (1969) was also sexually explicit, but was framed as a quasi-documentary sex educational film, which made its legal status uncertain though controversial. In 1969, Denmark became the first country to abolish all censorship laws, enabling pornography, including hardcore pornography. The example was followed by toleration in the Netherlands, also in 1969. There was an explosion of pornography commercially produced in those countries, including, at the very beginning, child pornography and bestiality porn. Now that being a pornographer was legal, there was no shortage of businessmen who invested in plant and equipment capable of turning out a mass-produced, cheap, but quality product. Vast amounts of this new pornography, both magazines and films, needed to be smuggled into other parts of Europe, where it was sold "under the counter" or (sometimes) shown in "members only" cinema clubs. In the United States, producers of pornographic films formed the Adult Film Association of America in 1969, after the release of ''Blue Movie'' by Andy Warhol, to fight against censorship, and to defend the industry against obscenity charges."10th Annual Erotic Awards," ''Adam Film World'', January 1987, p. 7


1970s: adult theaters and movie booths in the United States

In the 1970s, there was a more tolerant judicial attitude to non-mainstream films. Mainstream theatres did not usually screen even softcore films, leading to a rise of
adult theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patr ...
s in the United States and many other countries. There was also a proliferation of coin-operated "movie booths" in sex shops that displayed pornographic "loops" (so called because they projected a movie from film arranged in a continuous loop). Denmark started producing comparatively big-budget theatrical feature film sex comedies such as ''Bordellet'' (1972), the Bedside-films, ''Bedside''-films (1970–1976) and the Zodiac-films, ''Zodiac''-films (1973–1978), starring mainstream actors (a few of whom even performed their own sex scenes) and usually not thought of as "porno films" though all except the early ''Bedside''-films included hardcore pornographic scenes. Several of these films still rank among the most seen films in Danish film history and all remain favourites on home video. In 1969, ''Blue Movie'' by Andy Warhol was the first pornographic, adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States. The film was a seminal film in the
Golden Age of Porn The term "Golden Age of Porn", or "porno chic", refers to a 15-year period (1969–1984) in commercial American pornography, in which sexually explicit films experienced positive attention from mainstream cinemas, movie critics, and the genera ...
and, according to Warhol, a major influence in the making of ''Last Tango in Paris'', an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released a few years after ''Blue Movie'' was made. The first explicitly pornographic film with a plot that received a general theatrical release in the U.S. is generally considered to be ''Mona the Virgin Nymph'' (also known as ''Mona''), a 59-minute 1970 feature by Bill Osco, who created the relatively high-budget hardcore/softcore (depending on the release) 1974 cult film ''Flesh Gordon'' and later, in 1976, the X-rated musical-comedy film ''Alice in Wonderland (1976 film), Alice in Wonderland''. The 1971 film ''Boys in the Sand'' represented a number of pornographic firsts. As the first generally available Gay pornography, gay pornographic film, the film was the first to include on-screen credits for its cast and crew (albeit largely under pseudonyms), to parody the title of a mainstream film (in this case, ''The Boys in the Band (1970 film), The Boys in the Band''), and, after the 1969 film ''Blue Movie'', one of the first to be reviewed by ''The New York Times''. Other notable American hardcore feature films of the 1970s include ''Deep Throat (film), Deep Throat'' (1972), ''Behind the Green Door'' (1972), ''The Devil in Miss Jones'' (1973), Radley Metzger's ''The Opening of Misty Beethoven'' (1976) and ''Debbie Does Dallas'' (1978). These were shot on film and screened in mainstream movie theaters. In Britain, ''Deep Throat'' was not approved in its uncut form until 2000 and not shown publicly until June 2005. In the U.S. ''Miller v. California'' was an important court case in 1973. The case established that obscenity was not legally protected, but the case also established the Miller test, a three-pronged test to determine obscenity (which is not legal) as opposed to indecency (which may or may not be legal).


1980s: new technology and new legal cases

With the arrival of the home video cassette recorder in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the pornographic movie industry experienced massive growth and spawned adult stars like Traci Lords, Seka (actress), Seka, Christy Canyon, Ginger Lynn, Nina Hartley, and directors such as Gregory Dark. By 1982, most pornographic films were being shot on the cheaper and more convenient medium of videotape. Many film directors resisted this shift at first because videotape produced a different image quality. Those who did change soon were collecting most of the industry's profits, since consumers overwhelmingly preferred the new format. The technology change happened quickly and completely when directors realized that continuing to shoot on film was no longer a profitable option. This change moved the films out of the theaters and into people's homes. This marked the end of the age of big-budget productions, and the beginning of the mainstreaming of pornography. It soon went back to its earthy roots and expanded to cover nearly every fetish possible, since the production of pornography was now inexpensive. Instead of hundreds of pornographic films being made each year, thousands were being made, including compilations of just the sex scenes from various videos. One could now not only watch pornography in the comfort and privacy of one's own home, but also find more choices available to satisfy specific fantasies and fetishes. Similarly, the camcorder spurred changes in pornography in the 1980s, when people could make their own Amateur pornography, amateur sex movies, whether for private use, or for wider distribution. The ''de facto'' result of the 1987 legal case ''People v. Freeman'' effectively legalized
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography or hardcore porn is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as sexual intercourse, vaginal, anal sex, anal, oral sex, oral, or Non-penetrative sex#Manual sex, manual intercourse; e ...
in the U.S. The prosecution of Harold Freeman was initially planned as the first in a series of legal cases to effectively outlaw the production of such movies.


1990s: DVD and the Internet age

In the late 1990s, pornographic films were distributed on DVD. These offered better quality picture and sound than the previous video format (videotape) and allowed innovations such as "interactive" videos that let users choose such variables as multiple camera angles, multiple endings and computer-only DVD content. The introduction and widespread availability of the Internet further changed the way pornography was distributed. Previously, videos were ordered from an adult bookstore or through mail-order; with the Internet, people could watch pornographic movies on their computers, and instead of waiting weeks for an order to arrive, a movie could be downloaded within minutes (or, later, within a few seconds). Pornography can be distributed over the Internet in a number of ways, including paysites, video hosting services and peer-to-peer file sharing. While pornography had been traded electronically since the 1980s, the invention of the World Wide Web in 1991, as well as the opening of the Internet to the general public around the same time, led to an explosion in online pornography. Viv Thomas, Paul Thomas (pornographic actor), Paul Thomas, Andrew Blake (director), Andrew Blake, Antonio Adamo, and Rocco Siffredi were prominent directors of pornographic films in the 1990s. In 1998, the Denmark, Danish, Academy Award, Oscar-nominated film production company Zentropa became the world's first mainstream film company to openly produce hardcore pornography, hardcore pornographic films, starting with ''Constance (1998 film), Constance'' (1998). That same year, Zentropa also produced ''Idioterne'' (1998), directed by Lars von Trier, which won many international awards and was nominated for a Golden Palm in Cannes. The film includes a shower sequence with a male erection and an orgy scene with close-up penetration footage (the camera viewpoint is from the ankles of the participants, and the close-ups leave no doubt as to what is taking place). ''Idioterne'' started a wave of international mainstream arthouse films featuring explicit sexual images, such as Catherine Breillat's ''Romance (1999 film), Romance'', which starred porn star Rocco Siffredi. In 1999, the Danish TV channel Kanal København started broadcasting hardcore films at night, uncoded and freely available to any viewer in the Copenhagen area (as of 2009, this is still the case, courtesy of Innocent Pictures, a company started by Zentropa). Once people could watch adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, a new adult market developed that far exceeded the scope of its theater-centric predecessor. The Internet served as catalyst for creating a still-larger market for porn, a market that is even less traditionally theatrical. By the 2000s, there were hundreds of adult film companies, releasing tens of thousands of productions, recorded directly on video, with minimal sets. The market was further expanded by webcams and webcam recordings, in which thousands of pornographic actors work in front of the camera to satisfy pornography consumers' demand.


2000s to present: competition and contraction

By the 2000s, the fortunes of the pornography industry had changed. With reliably profitable DVD sales being largely supplanted by streaming media delivery over the Internet, competition from bootleg, amateur and low-cost professional content on the Internet had made the industry substantially less profitable, leading to it shrinking in size. At the same time this gave rise to video sharing platforms such as Pornhub, XVideos and xHamster.


Pornographic film industry


Economics

Globally, pornography is a large-scale business with revenues of nearly $100 billion, which includes the production of various media and associated Sex toy, products and sex work, services. The Sex industry, industry employs thousands of Pornographic film actor, performers along with support and production staff. It is also followed by dedicated :Business magazines, industry publications and Trade association, trade groups as well as the mainstream press, private organizations (watchdog groups), government agencies, and political organizations. According to a 2005 Reuters article, "The multi-billion-dollar industry releases about 11,000 titles on DVD each year." Pornographic films can be sold or rented out on DVD, shown through the Internet and special channels and
pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program ...
on cable and satellite, and screened in
adult theater An adult movie theater is a euphemistic term for a movie theater dedicated to the exhibition of pornographic films. Adult movie theaters show pornographic films primarily for either a respectively heterosexual or homosexual audience. For the patr ...
s. However, by 2012, widespread availability of illegally copied content and other low-cost competition on the Internet had shrunk the pornographic film industry and reduced profitability. The global pornographic film industry is dominated by the United States, with the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles being the heart of the industry. In 1975, the total retail value of all the
hardcore pornography Hardcore pornography or hardcore porn is pornography that features detailed depictions of sexual organs or sexual acts such as sexual intercourse, vaginal, anal sex, anal, oral sex, oral, or Non-penetrative sex#Manual sex, manual intercourse; e ...
in the United States was estimated at $5–10 million. The 1979 Revision of the Federal Criminal Code stated that "in Los Angeles alone, the porno business does $100 million a year in gross retain volume." According to the 1986 Attorney General's Commission on Pornography, American adult entertainment industry has grown considerably over the past thirty years by continually changing and expanding to appeal to new markets, though the production is considered to be low-profile and clandestine. the total current income of the country's adult entertainment is often estimated at $10–13 billion, of which $4–6 billion are legal. The figure is often credited to a study by Forrester Research and was lowered in 1998. In 2007 ''The Observer'' newspaper also gave a figure of $13 billion. Other sources, quoted by Forbes (Adams Media Research, Veronis Suhler Communications Industry Report, and IVD), even taking into consideration all possible means (video networks and pay-per-view movies on cable and satellite, websites, in-room hotel movies, phone sex, sex toys, and magazines) mention the $2.6–3.9 billion figure (without the cellphone component). ''USA Today'' claimed in 2003 that websites such as Danni's Hard Drive and Cybererotica.com generated $2 billion in revenue in that year, which was allegedly about 10% of the overall domestic porn market at the time. The adult movies income (from sale and rent) was once estimated by AVN (magazine), AVN Publications at $4.3 billion but the figure obtaining is unclear. According to the 2001 ''Forbes'' data, the annual income distribution is the following: ''The Online Journalism Review'', published by the USC Annenberg School for Communication, Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, weighed in with an analysis that favored ''Forbes number. The financial extent of adult films, distributed in hotels, is hard to estimate—hotels keep statistics to themselves or do not keep them at all. The world's largest adult movie studio Vivid Entertainment generates an estimated $100 million a year in revenue, distributing 60 films annually, and selling them in video stores, hotel rooms, on cable systems, and on the Internet. The Spanish-based studio Private Media Group was listed on the NASDAQ until November 2011. Video rentals soared from just under 80 million in 1985 to a half-billion by 1993. Some Subsidiary, subsidiaries of major corporations are the largest pornography sellers, like News Corporation (1980–2013), News Corporation's DirecTV. Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, once pulled in $50 million from adult programming. Revenues of companies such as ''Playboy'' and ''Hustler (magazine), Hustler'' were small by comparison.


Production

Pornographic films are produced and directed at a target audience, who buy and view the films. Traditionally, the audience of pornographic films have been straight males, the male actor typically acted as a proxy for the viewer. A typical pornographic film focuses on a female performer; her male partner traditionally had no distinctive features. However, there has been an increase in female viewers over time, and there have recently been efforts to increase the sexualization of male performers also. Such efforts include men with charming facial features and well-built bodies becoming predominant in pornographic films, and the emergence of feminist pornography. Over time a gay audience also developed, and the scenarios of the films adjust accordingly. Pornographic films attempt to present a sexual fantasy, and the actors selected for a particular role are primarily selected on their ability to create that fantasy. The physical features of the actors and their ability to create the sexual mood of the film is the main factor in who is cast in certain roles. Most actors specialize in certain genres. Within the average film targeted at a heterosexual male audience, the primary focus is on the sexually attractive appearance of female actress or actresses, while most male performers in heterosexual pornography are selected less for their looks and more for their sexual prowess. They are presented as being able to fulfill the proxy fantasy of the male watching audience.


Legal status

In the United States, the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court held in 1969 that State laws making mere private possession of obscene material a crime are invalid. Further attempts were made in the 1970s in the United States to close down the pornography industry, this time by prosecuting those in the industry on prostitution charges. The prosecution started in the courts in California in the case of ''People v. Freeman''. The California Supreme Court acquitted Freeman and distinguished between someone who takes part in a sexual relationship for money (prostitution) versus someone whose role is merely ''portraying'' a sexual relationship on-screen as part of their acting performance. The State did not appeal to the United States Supreme Court making the decision binding in California, where most pornographic films are made today. At present, no other state in the United States has either implemented or accepted this legal distinction between commercial pornography performers versus prostitutes as shown in the Florida case where sex film maker Clinton Raymond McCowen, a.k.a. "Ray Guhn", was indicted on charges of "soliciting and engaging in prostitution" for his creation of pornography films which included "McCowen and his associates recruited up to 100 local men and women to participate in group sex scenes, the affidavit says." The distinction that California has in its legal determination in the Freeman decision is usually denied in most states' local prostitution laws, which do not specifically exclude performers from such inclusion. In some cases, some states have ratified their local state laws for inclusion to prevent California's ''Freeman'' decision to be applied to actors who are paid a fee for sexual actions within their state borders. One example is the state of Texas whose prostitution law specifically states: :An offense is established under Subsection (a)(1) whether the actor is to receive or pay a fee. An offense is established under Subsection (a)(2) whether the actor solicits a person to hire him or offers to hire the person solicited. In the United States, federal law prohibits the sale, distribution or dissemination of obscene materials through the mail, over the broadcast airwaves, on cable or satellite TV, on the Internet, over the telephone or by any other means that cross state lines. Most states also have specific laws banning the sale or distribution of obscene pornography within state borders. The only protection for obscene material recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States is personal possession in the home (''Stanley v. Georgia''). The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed in ''Miller v. California'' that obscenity was not protected speech. Further, the court ruled that each community is responsible for setting its own standards about what is considered to be obscene material. If pornographic material is prosecuted and brought to trial, a jury can deem it obscene based on: # whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest # whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by applicable state law and # whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value. In many countries pornography is legal to distribute and to produce, but there are some restrictions. Pornography is also banned in some countries, in particular in the Muslim world and China, but can be accessed through the Internet in some of these nations.


Health issues

Sex acts in pornographic films have traditionally been performed without the use of condoms, with an accompanying risk of sexually transmitted disease among performers. In 1986, there was an outbreak of HIV infection which led to the deaths through AIDS of several actors and actresses. This led to the creation in 1998 of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation (AIM), which helped set up a monitoring system in the U.S. pornographic film industry, which required pornographic film actors to be tested for HIV every 30 days. , HIV infection of performers in the U.S. pornography industry has been rare, with only a few outbreaks being recorded over the subsequent three decades. The AIM closed its doors in May 2011 and filed for bankruptcy as a result of a court case arising from an inadvertent leak by it of confidential information on clients, including names and Sexually transmitted infection, STD results.


See also

* List of pornographic film awards * Cartoon pornography * Cum shot * Hentai * List of pornographic film studios * Pornography addiction * Porn groove * Porn parody * Pornography by region * Sex industry * STDs in the porn industry * Unsimulated sex


References


Bibliography

* Patrick Robertson: ''Film Facts'', 2001, Billboard Books,


External links

* * {{Authority control Pornographic works, Films Pornographic films, Film genres Articles containing video clips