Inserts (1975)
Inserts (1975), written and directed by John Byrum.
A Boy Wonder film director has not made the transition to sound. Now he is a broken-down "rummy" who never leaves his house. He makes silent porn films with two actors and a troublesome producer, but he still tries to put a little extra genius into it, maybe bestir his own limp spirits.
It's filmed like a stage play in one room, in real time, with only five actors. The dialogue and acting are also theatrical, intentionally so I'm sure.
I had never heard of this before it appeared on Blu-ray. It had an X-rating and probably received little distribution.
It would still be NC-17 today. The full nudity and raw sexual content would ensure that. This is bold filmmaking.
I cannot praise Veronica Cartwright enough. She had more acting experience than anyone else in the cast and gives it her "all". I remember her as a child actor, as in The Birds (1963) and as a scream queen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and Alien (1979), but I had no idea that in this in-between period, at age 26, she would do full nudity and vigorous porn scenes as a junkie actress. You seldom see such bravery in acting.
The little film they are making looks like rape, but the characters are actually acting, if with out-of-control exuberance. The bed acrobatics have to be seen to be believed. They call her co-star "Rex the Wonder Dog", who I was relieved to find was a human male.
The rest of the cast:
Richard Dreyfuss, age 28. This is the same year as Jaws (1975) and he is recognizable as having the same maturity. In earlier work he always seemed much younger.
Bob Hoskins, age 33, is the Money. I don't think I've seen him in anything earlier than this.
Jessica Harper, age 26, last seen in Suspiria (1977). She's the maybe-fiancée of the Money and has a curiously intense interest in pornographic filmmaking. She has her boobs out for the entire second half of the film, also pretty bold, and looks rather anorexic: you can see her ribs both front and back.
Stephen Davies, age unknown, is the porn actor and comedy relief. His first film role.
Pornographic filmmaking is still part of the cinema arts and still partakes of the fantasy-reality confusion that other films do. In this case:
Q: What is men's porn for? A: Men require a certain magical trick with their anatomy, without which they become despondent. The film fantasy is the spell enabling actual reality for the viewer.
We have a version of the plot device that many backstage stories use: Dreyfuss and Harper have an encounter which at first isn't real, then it is, then it isn't again.
What is it with porn stars and drugs?
On Blu-ray from Twilight Time. No commentary track; I wonder why?
