cadinot promo

That English voiceover scared the shit out of me when it landed in my left ear, I almost jumped onto the floor. I had convinced myself it was just an older clip in French with inferior sound, then suddenly it became an international affair. Quelle surprise!

You did list the five films from the preview tape correctly and in order. Of the ones I’ve found to review (three of the above plus a few others by Cadinot) they are typically just in French with no dubbing or subtitles. I do remember renting some of his movies in the 80s that had English subtitles, for the dialogue parts and not so much for the ahh! uhh! ooooooohhh! sounds. These must have been distributed by Marksman, YMAC or some other company and would probably have been when the audio or titles were added.

Some of Cadinot’s still photography is excellent, he really had an eye for finding the right light and distinctive settings for his models. It’s too over simplified to compare Cadinot with William Higgins but there are similarities, beyond just the focus on younger, 20-25 year old guys for the most part. Both used a situational approach to how they set up their films and the scenes within them that worked, and created a cohesive world for the guys to inhabit.

I read that Cadinot was fairly coy about his own sex life but that he drew from either experiences he had, or things that he fantasized about from his younger days, as inspiration for his films. As with everybody else by the 90s he was still making good films but everything started looking similar, it’s in his 80s films where I think what he should best be remembered for shone through.

J’adore Aime Comme Minet, that main actor who you’ve got the pic of up top (Pierre Buisson) was fairly troubled irl and appeared in a few gay and straight flicks before dying of an overdose in 1987. But it’s like some mainstream film where the ingenue is just so stunningly beautiful and sexual, and the camera captures that to great effect, maybe like a Brigitte Bardot or someone like that? Except Pierre had a much, much bigger dick. The three sex scenes are divided up by the photographer (not actually Cadinot but implied to be him) and his shoot with Pierre, who just radiates this heat that I feel from watching those scenes, it’s breathtaking to me.

And Age Tendre is fun too, there are a few songs that are like soundalikes to hits of that time as the dancers rehearse. One sounds like the intro drums to I Know There’s Something Going On that had Frida’s song stuck in my head while watching it, and another with the riff from a Doobie Brothers song. It’s not really stolen music though, just ‘inspired by’ or like a karaoke night.

And his films do typically include at least one or two 30+ guys getting it on with the younguns, when they take a break from doing each other with all their uncut cocks. Renting or watching Cadinot’s movies in the porn theatres were welcome sidecars to the American porn in the 80s I always thought, whether I could understand everything the guys were saying or not.