DVD: A Life in Dirty Movies

STUDIO: Film Movement | DIRECTOR: Wiktor Ericsson
RELEASE DATE: 11/25/14 | PRICE: DVD $24.95
BONUSES: interview clips
SPECS: NR | 80 min. | Documentary | 16:9 | 5.1 Surround sound

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie  | Audio  | Video  | Overall 

Although it may seem that all of the filmmakers deserving cult worship have already been discovered by film historians and rabid movie buffs, there are still a few individuals who have deserved a “closer appreciation.” The heartfelt documentary A Life in Dirty Movies does just that for softcore moviemaker Joseph W. Sarno, whose work and close relationship with his wife Peggy are celebrated in depth.

Nowhere as famous and lauded as his contemporaries Russ Meyer and Radley Metzger, Joe Sarno (who died in 2010) created as they did a number of distinctive and stylish features in the Sixties and Seventies. Sarno’s movies were made with microscopic budgets in comparison to the two RMs, but he had an equally identifiable visual style and his scripts (which he usually wrote or cowrote) are more downbeat and haunting chronicles of swinging, “free love,” family troubles and guilt over sex.

Joe Sarno and wife and longtime collaborator Peggy Steffans as seen in A Life in Dirty Movies

Sarno’s vision was his own, but his most valuable crew member was actress Peggy Steffans, who appeared in a few of his features and then, as the two became a couple, moved to offscreen duties as costumer, set decorator, makeup artist and assistant director. Shot in the last year of Sarno’s life, the documentary devotes a good deal of time to Peggy’s role as Joe’s “support system,” both artistically and on a personal level. One of the film’s most moving sequences has her informing documentarian Wiktor Ericsson that she’s been hiding financial troubles from Joe, who is undergoing medical troubles and trying to plan a new softcore feature (his “comeback” feature, Suburban Secrets, had its moments but was largely unnoticed upon its release in 2004).

Ericsson thus deftly splits the film between being a “101” on Sarno’s work and showcasing Peggy, who clearly comes off as the film’s most memorable character — a smoky-voiced, no-nonsense woman who defied her well-off family in marrying an older “pornographer” who turned out to be the love of her life.

The rest of Dirty Movies holds true to its title, as Sarno’s colleagues, film historians and fans, including John Waters and Annie Sprinkle, discuss the tenets of his work. [Full disclosure: This reviewer is one of the talking heads in the film.] The care that Sarno took with his softcore features was virtually unheard of in the U.S. — his films not only contained artful compositions and lighting, but there was also a Bergman-esque sense of despair in his work that was utterly unique. (His characters freely indulged in sex and frequently felt tortured afterward.)

The film is supplemented by outtakes and extra interview segments. In one, the link between Bergman and Sarno is reinforced by crew member Katinka Farago, who notes that she went from working on Cries and Whispers to Sarno’s Every Afternoon (aka Swedish Wildcats).

Other interesting deleted segments focus on two of his best-known Swedish features. In another one-of-a-kind discussion, Sprinkle reminiscences in an outtake from her interview about a masturbation scene in one of her most celebrated porn features, Deep Inside Annie Sprinkle (credited to her but co-directed by Sarno, who never wanted to take credit for the hardcore features he did as works for hire). Sprinkle proudly notes that she and Joe were responsible for having shot the first female ejaculation scene on film.

Most definitely not your average day at the office.

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