The Good Old Naughty Days is an explicit compilation of restored French blue movies from the 20s, originally shown in the waiting rooms of brothels. These hardcore shorts served as a form of visual appetiser to prospective clients, and also provided inexperienced young male patrons with some rudimentary sexual education. The stars of these films remain unknown to this day, although their uninhibited work demonstrates that a porn industry was up and running in France long before the 'liberated' 60s.

What constitutes 'good' or 'bad' pornography is a deeply subjective affair, leaving aside the question of its exploitative potential. It's likely, however, that viewers of The Good Old Naughty Days will be surprised by the high production values of these efforts, and just how surprisingly frank they are in their sexual imagery.

"PALPABLE ENTHUSIASM"

The settings are diverse - classrooms, convents, gardens, massage parlours, workshops - and the 'characters' are drawn from across the social spectrum - abbots, nuns, musketeers, maids, gentlemen, call girls. The male and female performers throw themselves into the various couplings and shenanigans with palpable enthusiasm, their cheeky grins to the camera and the innuendoes in the intertitles adding to the fun.

Photographed by technicians who would borrow the sets and equipment (no pun intended) from mainstream productions during spare afternoons, these films cater to a wide variety of tastes and proclivities: the twosomes, threesomes, and even foursomes encompass gay, straight, and lesbian scenarios. Completing the package is a 12th, non-French short, titled Buried Treasure, a cartoon believed to be the work of American animators circa 1925. A lewdly funny affair, it stars the proto-Viz figure of Everready Harton.

In French with English subtitles.