1981: danielle, dorothy lemay and jacqueline lorians in “nightdreams”

title: nightdreams, scene 2

performers: danielle, dorothy lemay, jacqueline lorians
production credits: f.x. pope (dir.)
studio: caribbean films | running time: 10:55
release date: 1981 | purchase

dorothy lemay, danielle, jacqueline lorians

the filmic ambition of x-rated cinema reached something of a peak in the early 1980s, as theatrical exhibition competed with early home video, each energizing the other. nightdreams was a groundbreaking porn film made by mainstream hollywood producers interested in the aesthetic potential of hardcore. like a sleazy version of altered states or a premonition of the nightmare on elm street series, its plot centers on scientists monitoring the unconscious fantasies of dorothy lemay, playing a sexually repressed psychiatric patient who tumbles into phantasmagorical sexual scenario after phantasmagorical sexual scenario. the second of these scenarios is girl/girl, with fresh-faced new starlets danielle and jacqueline lorians (credited as "monique") as cowgirls in a stylized nighttime desert setting being approached by a swaggering dorothy and her holstered dildos.

danielle and jacqueline intone bizarre come-ons in monotone unison (like the creepy twins from the shining), and by the flicker of campfire light the three of them engage in heavily stylized sex, as wall of voodoo's doomy cover of johnny cash's "ring of fire" floods the soundtrack, something that no porn release could get away with today, because porn is no longer considered a legitimate part of entertainment and is limited to either royalty-free music or the exceedingly rare original composition. thanks to the song's driving power, the sequence ends up feeling as much like a music video as it does a porn scene. the sex is never believable, but it's not supposed to be: the strikingness of the imagery, the sonic landscape, and the building crescendos of the music are far more erotic than even the most faithful simulation of lesbian sex in 1981 could be.

because the early 80s was also a time when girl/girl scenes became much more frequent than they had been in the 1970s, and so were also much less believable. the average porn producer, performer and consumer still conceived of sexual activity on a spectrum from softcore to hardcore in which girl/girl was only slightly more sex than a female masturbation scene was, and sex wasn't really real until a cock got involved. the female orgasm, due to its inherently non-visual nature, was less important than the male, and nobody expected female performers to actually have orgasms on set, least of all their fellow female performers, who very infrequently attempted to do anything that might lead to one. the industry-wide habit of gingerly licking at the general pubic area from an inch or more away is explained by the requirement of keeping the genitals visible to the camera (especially when every inch of film represented a material cost to production), but the bizarre insistence on "lesbian kissing" meaning hoveringly licking tongues without ever approaching lip to lip remains inexplicable to me except as representative of the pervasive homophobia of performers.

so in the absence of more "authentic" girl/girl sex, filmic ambition, stylized production, interesting visuals, and compelling narratives will have to do. and nothing in 1981 was more ambitious, stylized, visually arresting, or weirdly compelling than nightdreams. the shadowy firelight flicker ends up covering up a lot of the less believeable action, so that it's easier to enter into the fantasy of starkly posed, phantasmagorical sex. the set doesn't look like a real place; why should the sex feel real either? so long as the right movements and sounds are made, nothing else matters.

you can feel the videotape era right around the corner.

1981 runners up:

candida royalle and veronica hart in delicious, scene 5

praexis productions (dir. philip drexler jr.), 9:25

candida, veronica

i'm glad to finally note veronica hart in one of these runners up: quite possibly the most charismatic actor in the industry during the late 70s and early 80s, her screwball performances and unembarrassed flights of fancy are some of the most attractive things about the theatrical era of porn. in delicious, she plays a mary poppins parody as a maid to a household of wealthy adults, teaching everyone how to enjoy sex without hurting each other in the process, with a spoonful of magic to help the sexual medicine go down. here, as lady of the house candida royalle attempts to fire her, they instead shrink down so that they can fuck on a notepad as a crayola box looms over them. a gorgeously (and expensively) comedic film, delicious is the kind of thing that would hardly ever be budgeted in porn again.

lauren hart and tina jordan in naughty network, scene 2

gail film (dir. linus gator), 18:29

lauren, tina

another pop-culture spoof, the premise of naughty network is a pitch meeting at an x-rated television channel, as various miserably wooden nonsex actors guffaw at each other about their big ideas for new shows, which are a relief to cut away from for the relatively more naturalistic performances from porn stars. the girl/girl sequence, nominally a parody of disney's animal kingdom, is in reality a video version of the "spider and the fly" pictorial that appeared in penthouse in october 1976, with the penthouse pets who posed for it reprising their roles. the stunning art direction is the real star of the scene: the sex is essentially softcore, although the voiceovers provided by the performers are imaginative and oddly tender given the dickishly offensive tone of the nonsex sequences.

lisa de leeuw and sharon mitchell in trashi, scene 2

caballero (dir. harry lewis, louis lewis), 15:34

sharon, lisa

a third comedy-forward pop culture spoof, this time of the frankenstein myth. lisa de leeuw is the titular bride-of-frankenstein construct built by mad scientist michael morrison, with kevin james as a peeping igor masturbating over her magnificent proportions, joey silvera as a befuddled investigator, and sharon mitchell as a dykey maidservant who sneaks off to awaken trashi's sexual appetite. the padded-cell set where their tryst is held is striking, and sharon, who will have an extended career in the videotape era, is already demonstrating the girl/girl proficiency she'll maintain for the next decade. but lisa de leeuw is another revelation: many porn fans loathe her, but i'm a big fan of her striking, lucille ball-style beauty.

eva muller and france lomay in sonia et l'amour des femmes, scene 2

dorcel (dir. michel barny), 9:03

eva, france

finally, i wanted to point out the earliest all-girl feature i know about. france lomay (credited as sonia rodin) stars as a woman going about her day with lesbian tryst after lesbian tryst. in the second scene, she rescues eva muller from an attempted rape at the hands of dominique aveline (a frequent male performer in the french industry of the period), then inducts her into girl/girl love in her car. perhaps because of the akwardness of the setting, the sex is slightly more believable than elsewhere in the movie where the participants have the room to show how vastly uninterested in each other's genitals they are. in this case, the earliest does not mean the best.

also noteworthy:

scenes

• lisa de leeuw and loni sanders in 8 to 4, scene 4 | caballero (louis lewis)
• annie sprinkle, minu menage and vanessa del rio in bizarre styles, scene 1 | avon (carter stevens)
• samantha fox and tara aire in dallas school girls, scene 7 | new york (john christopher)
• annie sprinkle, barbara miller, heather young, judy bilodeau, diana may, lisa b. and sheisha jones in deep inside annie sprinkle, scene 6 | evart (joe sarno)
• loni sanders and magnificent margo in dream lovers, scene 2 | vidco (kim christy)
• jesie st. james and veronica hart in indecent exposure, scene 4 | blue (robert mccallum)
• marie-claude moreau and mika barthel in jeux de corps pour petites filles curieuses, scene 4 | conseil (jim douglas)
• christie ford and erica boyer in manhattan mistress, scene 8 | cine vogue (joe davian)
• annette haven and jesie st. james in sound of love, scene 5 | caballero (alan vydra)
• dominique saint clair and veronica hart in the tale of tiffany lust, scene 3 | audubon (gérard kikoïne, henry paris)
• hare krane and laura may in vacances sexuelles, scene 3 | balcázar (gérard loubeau)