Fleshpot is an indispensable guide to the outré realms of erotic cinema, a delirious sampling of the genres, personalities and trends that have set screens aflame since the dawn of motion pictures. From the pioneering “Nudies” and “Stags” to the American Pre-Code Talkies and the racy European imports of the Forties and Fifties — from soft-core to hard-core and beyond — fleshpot probes beneath the façade of art, exploitation and underground film genres to reveal… SLEAZE!

For ten years Jack Stevenson has been writing and collating materials on the history and lore of sex cinema. Fleshpot, a compendium of texts by an international group of experts and cult film personalities (including Kenneth Anger and George Kuchar), is the result. Illustrated throughout with rare — many previously unpublished — photographs, it is a fascinating and informative introduction to some of cinema’s most notable sexual myth makers and taboo breakers, the legends and the brigands, the deified and the damned.

Never before has the world of sex cinema been sampled in such compelling, breathless variety. Discover! Explore! Thrill!

Some of the contents include:

• SHU LEA CHEANG — SEX ART ABORIGINE by Johannes Schönherr. A profile of the Chinese-born radical artist, Shu Lea Cheang, with a focus on her futuristic Japanese Sci-Fi porn film, I.K.U., which has been accepted at edition 2000 of The Sundance film festival.
• THE OTHER FACE OF LOVE — UDO KIER IN THE EROTIC GENRE by Tons May. A two-part examination of the German actor, Udo Kier. Part one is an investigation into the erotic aspects of Udo Kier’s performances based on a select sampling of his films. Part two is an interview with Kier conducted by Ms. May in Los Angeles, January 2000.
• VIVIANE ROMANCE — A photo-laden tribute to Viviane Romance by the legendary underground film-maker, Kenneth Anger, who was deeply affected by her during his hauntings of the Cinematheque Francaise as a youth.
• WHEN THE LIGHTS GO DOWN (IN THE CLASSROOM) by Jack Stevenson. An examination of the Sex Education film genre, with a focus on unsung genius, Wetzel O, Whittaker, master of the Mormon melodrama.
• JOLLY HOCKEY STICKS! THE CONTROVERSIAL CAREER OF JOHN LINDSEY, BRITAIN’S “TABOO” FILMMAKER OF THE 1970s by David Kerekes. A profile of the notorious Lindsey, owner of London’s Taboo cinema club, who was busted and acquitted more than once for making hardcore feature films in Britain.
• FROM THE BEDROOM TO THE BIJOU — A SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICAN GAY SEX CINEMA by Jack Stevenson.
• A MISCELLANY OF CHEESECAKE PHOTOGRAPHY ‘Found’ amateur erotica from a bygone age.
• DEAD FAMOUS — THE LIFE AND MOVIES OF EROTIC CINEMA’S MOST EXPLOITED FIGURE, BODIL JOENSEN by Jack Stevenson. The touching and amazing story of Denmark’s porno “super-woman” who ruled the Seventies with her animal companions. (Expanded and updated text.)
• RUSS MEYER — THE MOVIE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING by Jack Stevenson. The story of a legendary king of American sex cinema.
• AND GOD CREATED EUROPE — HOW THE EUROPEAN SEXUAL MYTH WAS CREATED AND SOLD TO POST-WAR AMERICAN MOVIE AUDIENCES by Jack Stevenson. The history of how American art and exploitation cinema came to discover the holy land — Europe. Traces the evolution and development of America’s enduring fascination with all things European, and the hucksters who promoted continental art movies as smut.
• HARD-CORE CIRCUS — DEEP THROAT ON THIN ICE IN NORWAY by Jack Stevenson. A blow-by-blow account of Linda Lovelace’s scandalous and incendiary visit to the land of brown cheese and cross-country skiing in order to petition a screening of Deep Throat.
• And more!