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Jean-Marc Prouveur (born 17 December 1956, Saint-Quentin, France) is a French artist and filmmaker. His work is owned by the Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London and collections including those of Rodolf Nureyev and Robert Mapplethorpe.
On arriving in London in 1976, Prouveur became involved in the circle of Derek Jarman, and subsequently, in the making of the 1977 film Jubilee . [1] He also became involved with David Hockney and Rudolf Nureyev.
For much of the 1980s Prouveur worked independently in the photographic medium, creating artworks characterized by the "outlaw sexuality" of the male nude, punctuated by religious iconography, showing in London, Paris, New York City, Amsterdam, Rome and many other cities worldwide. He acknowledges artistic precedents in F. Holland Day and Wilhelm von Gloeden, and to a shared artistic preoccupation with contemporaries Robert Mapplethorpe and Gilbert and George. [2]
In 1991 the Terrence Higgins Trust commissioned Prouveur a series of printed flyers entitled 'Tales of Gay Sex' with information on HIV transmission, photo stories depicting scenarios between gay men and a helpline for the Terrence Higgins Trust.
In the early 1990s, Prouveur moved into film, launching his Liquid London studio. His early short films, Dance Macabre and the Georges Bataille-inspired Solar Anus, were elegies to AIDS; later in the decade he moved closer to pornography.
Prouveur has a natural affection for the male body, and his photographic talents aided him in transforming that love to photography and video. Liquid London started making art house films then softcore releases, but when laws in the United Kingdom changed in 1999, the studio entered the hardcore realm. And with the release of Heat & Lust — Postcards to a Pornographer, Liquid London found a new North American attention.
Prouveur believes that adult films are no different from any other genre, and therefore ought to have a comprehensive storyline to carry the viewer along within its erotic universe. "The films in general are either based on real-life characters, such as in Gamins d'Auvergne - where Jean-Marc has sought inspiration from Wilhelm von Gloeden, the 19th-century gay photographer - or on fictitious stories such as Rascals or Lust & Betrayal."
Prouveur's work is influenced by a wide variety of film from classic mainstream cinema on an international scale. "Many films stand out, starting with Pink Narcissus, which he saw in 1975, together with Jean Genet's Un Chant d'Amour and most of Jean Cocteau's 'films, without forgetting the avant-garde in France from the '70s: Godard, Truffaut. Or the experimental films from the States with Warhol, Morrissey, Curt McDowell and Russ Meyer."
The Italian "new wave" from the 1960s – which included directors Bernardo Bertolucci and Federico Fellini - also had an influence, followed by the exciting new generation of filmmakers from Spain (like Pedro Almodovar) and Britain (Danny Boyle).
"So many films stand out for their sheer magic and their power to transport you into a world you could not have imagined. Guillermo del Toro is another filmmaker that stands out for Jean-Marc because of his astonishing magical tales. As for his own films, he is very proud of Gamins D' Auvergne, The Prisoner's Song, The Manor, Beast and both Legionnaires, without forgetting Polish Pleasures or Spanish Obsessions and his very first 'hardcore' movie, though he had already made over 30 erotic films prior to Lust & Betrayal. For the very same reason, he admires so-called mainstream films, with their abilities to mesmerize you and offer you a peep into someone else's universe.
He attended L'Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Cambrai from 1973 to 1976.
Prouveur now divides his time between London and Auvergne, France. He continues to experiment in photography and film whilst researching an essay on the history of pornography and its place in art.
Erotica is literature or art that deals substantively with subject matter that is erotic, sexually stimulating or sexually arousing. Some critics regard pornography as a type of erotica, but many consider it to be different. Erotic art may use any artistic form to depict erotic content, including painting, sculpture, drama, film or music. Erotic literature and erotic photography have become genres in their own right. Erotica also exists in a number of subgenres including gay, lesbian, women's, bondage, monster and tentacle erotica.
Wilhelm Iwan Friederich August von Gloeden, commonly known as Baron von Gloeden, was a German photographer who worked mainly in Italy. He is mostly known for his pastoral nude studies of Sicilian boys, which usually featured props such as wreaths or amphoras, suggesting a setting in the Greece or Italy of antiquity. From a modern standpoint, his work is commendable due to his controlled use of lighting as well as the often elegant poses of his models. His innovations include the use of photographic filters and special body makeup to disguise skin blemishes. His work, both landscapes and nudes, drew wealthy tourists to Sicily, particularly gay men uncomfortable in northern Europe, and changed the history of Taormina.
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, 18+ films, or also known as blue movie or blue film are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse, fascinate, or satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotically stimulating material such as nudity (softcore) and sexual intercourse (hardcore). A distinction is sometimes made between "erotic" and "pornographic" films on the basis that the latter category contains more explicit sexuality, and focuses more on arousal than storytelling; the distinction is highly subjective.
Robert Michael Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female nudes, self-portraits, and still-life images. His most controversial works documented and examined the gay male BDSM subculture of New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A 1989 exhibition of Mapplethorpe's work, titled Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, sparked a debate in the United States concerning both use of public funds for "obscene" artwork and the Constitutional limits of free speech in the United States.
Un chant d'amour is French writer Jean Genet's only film, which he directed in 1950. Because of its explicit homosexual content, the 26-minute movie was long banned.
Bruce LaBruce is a Canadian artist, writer, filmmaker, photographer, and underground director based in Toronto.
Lesbian erotica deals with depictions in the visual arts of lesbianism, which is the expression of female-on-female sexuality. Lesbianism has been a theme in erotic art since at least the time of ancient Rome, and many regard depictions of lesbianism to be erotic.
Kristen Bjorn is a British director and producer of gay pornographic films and a former gay porn film actor.
Marc Stevens was an American erotic performer. He is sometimes credited as Mark '10½' Stevens or Mark Stevens.
Larry David Paciotti is an American director of pornographic films. He appears as the drag-diva persona Chi Chi LaRue, and has been credited as director under the names "Lawrence David" and "Taylor Hudson".
Johnny Rahm was the stage name of Barry "J.T." Rogers, an American former gay pornographic film actor and magazine model.
Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen-Huene is a German-American photographer, artist, filmmaker, clothing designer/sewer, and model best known by his stage name Peter Berlin. In the early to mid-1970s.
Toby Ross is an American film director who made straight and gay pornographic films in the 1970s and 1980s and later on went to produce non sexual and cult films with a strong sense of comedic flare. Many film aficionados consider Ross the only missing link between Adult films and commercial independent films, as Ross calls it The Antarctica of the film business. He was born in Landsberg am Lech, Germany, to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. At the age of eight, his mother having remarried an Austrian Jew, he moved with his mother and stepfather to Israel. He served two years in the Israeli army. After studies in Los Angeles, attracted by stories of the freedom in San Francisco, he moved there in the 1970s.
Le Ménage moderne du Madame Butterfly is a bisexual, hardcore pornographic film from France. It is notable for being the earliest known adult film to incorporate bisexual and homosexual intercourse.
Erika Lust is a Swedish erotic film director, screenwriter and producer. Since the debut of her first indie erotic film The Good Girl in 2004, Lust has been cited as one of the current leading participants in the feminist pornography movement, asserting that an ethical production process sets her company apart from mainstream pornography sites. Lust has stated that she finds no issue in calling her films porn, since she expects viewers to be sexually aroused, unlike other directors of erotic films who make a distinction between their work and porn even when both types contain sexually explicit scenes. In addition to directing and producing a number of award-winning films, she has written several books.
Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; which at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornography directed toward heterosexual female, homosexual male and bisexual audiences of any gender.
Sex in film, the presentation of aspects of sexuality in film, specially human sexuality, has been controversial since the development of the medium. Films which display or suggest sexual behavior have been criticized by religious groups or have been banned or censored by governments, although attitudes have changed much along the years and a more permissive social environment has developed in certain parts of the world, notably in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. In countries with a film rating system, films which contain explicit sex scenes typically receive a restricted classification. Nudity in film may be regarded as sexual or as non-sexual.
Rick Cassidy was an American pornographic actor, model and bodybuilder. He appeared in both straight and gay porn films, using the name Jim Cassidy for the latter, during the early 1970s.
