Offscreen Guest of honor: 

The pornographic film industry of today, presenting a sterilized parade of mechanical pounding, has completely lost touch with eroticism. And yet erotic cinema once lived its moment of glory, to which Radley Metzger’s contributions were undeniably decisive. A pioneer in independent filmmaking, Metzger’s career began in the 60s as a trailer editor for international films by heavyweights such as Bergman and Antonioni. Their influence is palpable in many Metzger’s early films: his psycho-sexual dramas are steeped in European sensibilities and endowed with elegant shots and lavish sets, making him one the spearheads of erotic arthouse cinema. Two of his best-known films, The Lickerish Quartet and Camille 2000, manage to capture the wildly progressive mood of the swinging sixties. From the 70s onwards, the sexual revolution began to radicalize pornographic content: with Score, Metzger explored the boundaries between soft and hardcore while shuffling from comedy to transgression before turning to explicit pornography under the pseudonym Henry Paris. His tasteful mise-en-scène and original dialogues made him stand out from his peers, most notably through the power play at hand in The Image and the flippancy of The Opening of Misty Beethoven.

Radley Metzger is this year’s guest of honor and will personally present his films.