This article was originally published on VICE France
Film director Gérard Kikoïne is considered to be one of the architects of French porn. Between 1974 and 1984, Kikoïne shot dozens of movies capturing the wild side of a generation that had just been liberated by the anti-establishment revolution of May 1968, emancipated by the contraceptive pill, and not yet wrecked by AIDS.
Late last year, Kikoïne published a photo book featuring hundreds of unreleased behind the scenes photographs from his movie sets—Le Kikobook. I talked to him about that golden age of French porn.
VICE: Hi Gérard. So were the 1970s the giant, 24-hour gangbang our generation imagines it was?
Gérard Kikoïne: Ah, the giant gangbang myth! No, not at all. When you arrive on set at nine in the morning, believe me, you are only there to work. And I never abused my position as director and producer. Many people in the business—and mostly in the traditional cinema industry—would sleep with the young actresses, but I didn't. We behaved better than the "real" cinema guys did.
What was the work like?
Well, the rolls of film were very expensive. And we had to shoot two versions for each movie—a softer one that would pass censorship and a hardcore one that would be shown in specific theaters. So we were far, very far from the giant gang bang fantasy. In fact, everything was well organized and well prepared. Even the hardcore scenes were almost never improvised, unless the actors felt very comfortable. Each set was carefully put together and the castings were coherent. The gas station attendant looked like a gas station attendant. The architect looked like an architect.
So it was all professional.
Everything was square. The art director was very strict on the lights or the accessories. I didn't budge when it came to details either. Especially because there was quite a lot of dialogue in my films. It might have something to do with my passion for German expressionism. I admired the openings of Mike Nichols, the lights of Stanley Kubrick or the subversion of Lindsay Anderson. Everyone I worked with loved cinema.
Who were your haters?
Well the MLF never came to stop one of our shoots, but that was hardly a surprise. My films glorified women. My actresses were at the center of my plots. There was something very liberating for the women in it all. And no woman was forced to do a movie—nobody came on set with a pimp.
What were the actors you worked with like?
I worked with a generation of post-1968 hedonists. They liked having fun and exposing themselves, and they loved sex. Brigitte Lahaie had enough family money; she was just in it for a laugh. Most of my muses acted in my movies because they wanted to, not because they needed to make ends meet. In the evenings, those who wanted could have a gang bang, but during the day we all worked.
Whether it likes it or not, French cinema tastes a bit like my dick. —Alban Ceray
Did a lot of people see your movies?
Yes! Between 1977 and 1982, my movies sold more than 4 million tickets. They did very well and were distributed in about 30 countries. We were everywhere. One day said: "Whether it likes it or not, French cinema tastes a bit like my dick."
Well put.
And a percentage of ticket sales went to the CNC . Our money was very welcome. Porn money!
What did the traditional French cinema think of you?
I think the industry really had the worst opinion of us. When I stopped making porn, I was blacklisted. The Americans wanted me but nobody in France wanted to work with me.
How do you feel about porn being everywhere these days?
Porn has always progressed through ruptures and shocks. I directed porn for movie theaters—you'd go to a theater and see a full screen penis on a 13-foot wide screen. After that, you could see porn on VHS and TV. The first TV broadcast of a porn movie in France was in 1985. That was a shock, even for me. A couple of years earlier it had been completely unthinkable for TV to broadcast porn. The fact that porn has become so accessible through giant platforms like YouPorn definitely exposed a larger audience to the genre.
Today, people come to shake my hand when I go out to eat. That would never have happened 15 or 20 years ago. We're at a point where porn culture inspires the creative industry. But the complete accessibility of all pornographic content—the worst and the best—makes the individual works forgettable. Our movies will last, because we made them with laughter, vitality, and love and respect for women.
Le Kikobook was published with Les Éditions de l'Œil.
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