The Pornographer Movie Review

An old adult filmmaker is out of money, so he comes out of retirement to shoot a couple more porno films. But in the '00s, he finds things aren't the same as they were back in his heyday. Stories and symbolism -- a love story!? -- are all out the window. Now it's all about the explicit sex, and the dirtier the better. Although Jacques (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is the director in name, he finds the younger crew around him controlling the set. He finishes the film depressed.

Bertrand Bonello's film isn't just a study of how porn has degenerated from adult-oriented love stories to rank perversion, it's also a film about how the movies themselves have changed, especially French cinema. No longer thoughtful spectacles, even Gallic films have succumbed to the need to shock and awe.

Made with a real French porn star named Ovidie (that's her on the cover, with the nose ring), The Pornographer is true to its name and, at least for the first hour, frightfully interesting as it detachedly chronicles the making of a modern adult film. The final act crumbles under some severe pretentiousness, but The Pornographer is still worth checking out for its insights into just how far the industry -- both legit and adult -- has fallen over the last generation.

Aka Le Pornographe.