Early Marc Dorcel videos

[pudgym]

Hello, everybody.
I am Steve 'Pudgy' De Rose. I am beginning my sixth season of showing explicit porno movies and videos on VHS cassette at the Twisted Spoke tavern in Chicago, IL. [USA].
I write because this season, I am showing more European explicit movies & videos, and one which I shall show this Saturday is the early Video Marc Dorcel production "French Flesh" [1981] {a|k|a "Une Femme Honette"} Dir: Michel Berny.}
I have had this, and some other early VMD productions, duplicated in SLP mode with five other titles on the same VHS cassette, for about 15 years. It was sent to me as partial payment by a now-defunct video repackager, Kalbrus Video of New York City. I had no idea what it would send. I suspect it was looking to dispose of all its videos with scenes of non-consensual sex therein.
I have found the credits here at EGAFD. I inquire this:
These VMD videos are all under 60 minutes in length. They are shot on videotape.
Were these made for continental cable or satellite television channels?
And were these the first releases by VMD? Or if not, what were they?

I use the spellings of the names of the performers as from Patrick Riley's "The X-Rated Videotape Star Index II".
I do close by adding that many other French pornos are becoming available here in the USA, including many with Brigitte Lahaye. I shall be endeavoring to find and present more of them. Thank you very much.

[Walter Burns]

pudgym wrote:

> These VMD videos are all under 60 minutes in length. They are
> shot on videotape.
> Were these made for continental cable or satellite
> television channels?
> And were these the first releases by VMD? Or if not, what
> were they?

There were no cable or satellite channels in the early 80s to sell any porn to. The videos were shot for regular distribution.
They were among the first that VMD has released. IIRC, the very first VMD production, and the first European porn shot on video, was Jolies petites garces from 1979 (?). Before that, Marc Dorcel produced pornographic"photo-romans". This is very obvious in Jolies petites garces, which contains many photographs from the "book" publication.
I believe the length of the videos of around 60 minutes has something to do with early videotapes, being of that length, if not consumer VHS/Betamax/Video2000 tapes, but certainly professional U-Matic tapes.

[alec]

I have the DVD of Jolies petites garces and it comes with a small magazine - a reprint of the original photo roman. The date of 1979 is correct I think. The advertising for the DVD states that it was Marc Dorcel's very first video release.

I agree that the length was something to do with the video technology of the time. Many Italian video tapes of late 70s and early 80s films, 75 minutes long or longer, have obviously been transferred from these old tapes and somewhere in the middle they have 'fine prima parte' followed by 'seconda parte' (forgive me if I've got the spelling wrong as this is from memory), after which the film resumes.

I never owned a Video2000 machine, but I've got a vague memory that one of the early systems involved taking out the tape and turning it over, like a music cassette.

I also have the US DVD French Flesh (Une Femme honnete) and after the film ends there is an unacknowledged reprise of the highlights to pad it out.

[Walter Burns]

alec wrote:

> I never owned a Video2000 machine, but I've got a vague
> memory that one of the early systems involved taking out the
> tape and turning it over, like a music cassette.

Video2000 was a format developed by Philips. You could indeed turn the tape over, although I also remember that the tapes were longer than 60 minutes (on one side). I have read many times that it was technically superior to VHS, but that, as usual, Philips lacked the power and know-how to market the format properly.

[alec]

Thanks for confirming the vague memory.

The length of Dorcel videos was still probably to do with video technology though, or perhaps keeping costs down in relation to sales.

Maybe getting more tape into the cassette caused problems which were later solved. I know that with modern VCRs with very fast rewind, longer tapes are more likely to get stretched, adversely affecting the picture. Perhaps this problem cut in at an earlier stage in terms of tape length in the early days.

Some of the smaller producers in the UK, like Tamara, still market tapes that are just under one hour long. This is also probably to do with putting two programmes for the Adult Channel on one tape and maximising sales. A series of six episodes would make three tapes, theoretically 50% more sales than selling two 90-minute tapes - based on the false assumption that the customer will be satisfied of course.

[pudgym]

Thank you for your responses.
I shall continue through the film listings here at EGAFD. I shall very soon be adding this site to my adult-oriented bookmark page.
Steve "Pudgy" De Rose 3=D>

[Chris Morris]

hi
I actually acquired a copy of French Flesh from Cult Adult Horror in the US and believe it sas originally made in 1978. Yo might want to contact TJ French at cultadulthorror@juno.com for some more info - I have always found him very helpful. Tell him Chris from Perth Australia sent you
Good Hunting
Chris