Sensational Janine

When porn came to cinemas in the 1970s, it faced the challenge of how to entice viewers to watch feature-length films on the big screen. One of the logical ways to do that was to use and enhance existing genres of erotic and sexploitation films. In the case of German production, this meant that porn became the logical culmination of the popular titillating comedies of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which comprised lascivious and deliberately subversive variations on the conservative Heimatfilme of the 1950s. This lineage is apparent precisely in the most famous title of the golden era of German porn, Billian’s Sensational Janine. The narrative about the title character’s sexual awakening thoroughly copies the motifs and style of the Heimatfilme, with the exception of the fact that the carefree youth, the wisdom of the traditional authorities and the cohesiveness of the family take a significantly smuttier and more explicit form. Stylistically, the film is akin to the costume-drama and historical Heimatfilme, which delighted in the false idyll of the nineteenth century and depicted the life of the nobility and bourgeoisie of the time (another direction was represented by films celebrating the simple life in the German and Austrian countryside, especially in the Alps, which was caricatured by racy comedies, particularly Three Swedes in Upper Bavaria, and porn variations such as Bienenstich im Liebesnest). Adherence to the acting style of the Heimatfilme and, in particular, the period language serve as the basis for a large part of the humour in Sensational Janine, which remains completely lost in translation. Humour is also a key aspect of the sex scenes, in which much more attention is paid to the exposition and its development into a complete scene (see the brilliant sequences with the photographer and the priest) than to the individual simple exercises. Sensational Janine is surprising in its concept of sex, which goes beyond not only the obsessive performance of today's mainstream porn production, but also the delightful debauchery of the golden era. Sex here is not an expression of desire or lust, but simply fun. It does not matter at all with whom or where the deed is done; the only measure is the amount of pleasure it brings. The film thus stands above the usual gender formulas even though the exposition of a number of the scenes may give the impression that the women are treated merely as objects and commodities. On the contrary, however, the likable female protagonist remains a completely autonomous and headstrong person in every situation, as she is only concerned with whether she will have an orgasm and she is completely indifferent with respect to the circumstances in which she has it. It is also worth mentioning the film’s playful meta-humour, which is apparent in the its opening and closing passages, where scenes originally framed as diegesis suddenly break the fourth wall when the protagonist begins to directly address the audience while enjoying physical pleasures. Though the success of Billian’s first Janine led to a number of sequels, none of them feature the amazingly natural and distinctively down-to-earth Patricia Rhomberg in the title role, nor do they reach the heights of fun, playfulness and sophisticated debauchery of Sensational Janine, which deserves its status as cult classic. (05/10/2015) (less) (more)