Kennen Sie "Behind the Green Door" ? - Blow up - ARTE
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [music]
00:14 So, behind the green door.
00:18 At the beginning of the 70s there was a so-called "porno-chic" phase.
00:22 This had until now variations of author films.
00:25 Sex can be an equally honorable topic, like the proletarian revolution,
00:30 a play by Tchaikov or the "Flower of Saint Francis",
00:34 although the chic had its limits.
00:37 And since the whole thing was both chic and rare at the time,
00:41 the crossing of the border was of course welcome.
00:44 So the pretext was found to show interest.
00:47 However, the "porno-chic" alias author film did not last very long.
00:50 The art is still quite short-lived.
00:53 The death blow was sent to the chic by the videos,
00:56 and with the internet he then completely disappeared from the picture.
01:00 At the film festivals in Cannes, 1973,
01:03 a film by the mysterious Mitchell brothers was the big event.
01:07 "Behind the Green Door" was not to be seen in the official competition,
01:12 but in some memorable performances at a side show.
01:16 The film could not have even been in the official competition,
01:20 because the then jury chairman Ingrid Bergman
01:23 could not stand the big eating and the mama and the whore.
01:27 "Behind the Green Door" certainly not.
01:31 "But who are the Mitchell brothers?"
01:34 The question of who the brothers are is easy to answer.
01:38 Jim and Artie were the bosses of the O'Farrell Theater in San Francisco at the time.
01:43 There were striptease, live shows and permanent performances of porno films.
01:47 One day, the two decided to shoot a slightly more demanding 36mm film,
01:52 which should fit into the chic author's film ambience.
01:56 The template was a story from the 1940s,
01:59 which is sometimes arranged in all kinds of ways.
02:02 "Mama, there are elves floating in the garden," Clea shouted.
02:06 "I have discovered a small green door in the tree trunk, which leads to your kingdom."
02:10 "But that's not the questionable green door. Close the door."
02:13 At the beginning, you see two guys in a motorway rest stop telling a story,
02:17 of which you do not know whether it really happened.
02:20 A strange story of kidnapped girls, with whom a lot is done.
02:23 You do not know whether it really happened or was just invented.
02:27 In any case, it is the real Mitchell brothers who, as film kidnappers,
02:30 lead the false girl to a kind of secret ceremony.
02:33 A bit like in "Ice White Shud", only 25 years earlier and everything a little cheaper.
02:37 Because not everyone has as much money as Stanley Kubrick.
02:41 Stanley Kubrick once said to himself, "What's going on in the cinema? Scream and whisper.
02:46 That seems to be something else."
02:48 Admittedly, the title itself has something tempting in Swedish, doesn't it?
02:53 But then the scattered Stanley Kubrick went to the wrong cinema hall,
02:57 and there was "Behind the Green Door".
02:59 Kubrick thought to himself, "I'll just stay there," and was inspired by the events.
03:04 We do not know exactly whether the story with Kubrick and the wrong film really happened.
03:08 But it does not matter.
03:10 When "Behind the Green Door" came to the cinemas, it was called a kind of sex odyssey.
03:15 The circle closes there.
03:17 Whoever leaves the cinema too early is to blame.
03:21 Of course, the film is not very eventful in the first 20 minutes.
03:25 A bit like the British crime series "The Two".
03:28 But after the green door has opened, it closes nicely and does not stop.
03:33 But do not worry, dear viewers of arte.tv and dear YouTube moral apostles.
03:38 Of course, we do not show provocative images.
03:42 Even the acrobatic trapeze number, which, among other things,
03:46 has been used to create the reputation of "Behind the Green Door", must be omitted here.
03:50 Likewise, there is this swallowed up mix of people,
03:54 where you no longer know exactly where is actually up, down, front and back.
03:58 This does not really correspond to the flower of Saint Francis.
04:02 We are sorry that you can not see it, but that's the way it is.
04:06 In "Behind the Green Door" there were really some things to see,
04:09 which were very unusual at the time and thus cross-border.
04:12 The strip also contains elements that are more like the experimental film
04:17 or a light show by Jefferson Airplane.
04:19 After all, we are in San Francisco and LSD was not exactly expensive and good at the time
04:25 and the Mitchell brothers had a good lawyer.
04:28 The final sequence is set in a mountain man's ambience.
04:31 Or almost.
04:33 You see, the whole thing is coherent, in the sense of the author's film.
04:37 At the beginning of the video phase, the porn producer Marc Dorcel himself wanted to bring
04:46 artistic or even psychedelic videos to the market in France.
04:50 But he did not get far.
04:52 After all, there are a few special effects in the film "De femme pour Gourbanov".
04:56 This is because, although it is not a film of a Czech novel,
05:00 as the title suggests, there is a special figure,
05:03 namely an invisible man.
05:05 That's why you don't see much.
05:07 Of course, the cute bunnies don't help us here either.
05:10 We don't know if that's really regrettable.
05:13 In any case, Gourbanov, who was born in 1983 in film studios,
05:17 which no longer exist, has been forgotten a little.
05:20 The old bunnies don't even look down on the young ramblers with a smile.
05:24 There is a special effect to see.
05:29 But back to "Behind the Green Door".
05:32 The script is not exactly feminine-friendly.
05:35 But Marilyn Chambers, the lady walking through the green door,
05:39 has done a very good job.
05:41 She had made sure that the revenue was a percentage,
05:44 and since the revenue was millions, she had taken care of it.
05:48 Only a few months earlier, Procter & Gamble had chosen her as the ideal advertising mother,
05:57 namely for the detergent "Ivory Snow", with a purity of 99% and 44 hundredths.
06:05 Procter & Gamble was not exactly entranced by the film
06:08 and had all the pictures removed from the shelves.
06:11 They are now worth gold.
06:13 Of course, that was a huge ad for the film and caused even more viewers.
06:18 Everything went well.
06:20 Marilyn Chambers told that the Mitchells were like big brothers to her.
06:24 Everyone is happy, everyone is rich, everyone is butter.
06:27 The Mitchell brothers did what the rich do.
06:30 They bought Porsches, yachts and beautiful houses.
06:33 The O'Farrell Theater was enriched by the Green Door Room
06:37 next to the Ultra Room and the Copenhagen Lounge.
06:40 Don't ask us what is going on there, because we have no idea.
06:44 Well, actually, but we don't say it.
06:46 On top of that, the Mitchell brothers sold a lot of video tapes from "Behind the Green Door"
06:50 to the British press, even in the Betamax version.
06:55 In 1991, the whole thing did not end up pleasantly,
06:58 because Jim Mitchell no longer found his brother Artie,
07:01 who was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol, so nice
07:04 and brought him to the track with a rifle in short order.
07:07 A short personal comment at the end.
07:16 Most of our videos from the last four years were shot in a studio
07:21 near Paris in a room that is hidden behind this green door.
07:26 Behind our green door, we can assure you, it is much quieter.
07:35 At the moment we are working on a video about the flowers of Saint Francis.
07:43 Yes, Anna, my father.
07:46 I would like you to help me to form with these my little children a new time,
07:52 that this new time is similar to what lives on earth the humility of your son,
07:57 that men are in peace with men.
08:01 Thank you for watching.
08:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]