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May 08, 2012
Schoolgirl Report #8: What Parents Should Never Know
Schulmadchen-Report 8: Was Eltern nie erfahren durfen
Ernst Hofbauer - 1974
Impulse Pictures Region 1 DVD
During the first half of 1973, I was living in Portland, Oregon, primarily doing unpaid work at the Northwest Film Study Center. My capacity as some kind of expert in film got me into a special advance screening of Deep Throat, that seminal film in the history of "Adult Cinema". I found out after the screening that most of the audience at that screening was composed of lawyers, presumably enlisted in case of possible legal action against film or the theater. While I appreciate the erotic in film, my interest in films made primarily for the raincoat brigade is casual at best.
I figured that as long as Impulse Pictures was going to send me Schoolgirl Report #8, the least I could do is take a look. This is best described as a soft core film, presented as a documentary, about some overly ripe high school girls on a field trip, telling stories about their sexual misadventures. There's a bit of bawdy humor, and some slapstick, mounds of pubic hair, the obligatory group shower scene, and a sanctimonious ending voiced by some male narrator in a feeble attempt to give the film some sense of greater signicance. Sometimes just watching plump and naked German girls, circa 1974, is its own justification. Maybe the best that can be said is that at the time this film came out, my idea of German cinema was catching up on work by Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, among others who were lumped as part of the "New German Cinema". What I wasn't watching was the kind of German movies that actually helped pay the bills.
Coming, as it were, when more graphic depictions of sex were on theater screens, Schoolgirl Report #8 seems almost innocent in comparison. The kind of coupling going on here is pretty basic, no gymnastics, and nothing that could be considered kinky by anyone other than those self-appointed guardians of morality. Regarding personal preferences, I can only depend on Pedro Almodovar, an openly gay filmmaker, to provide me with decent cinematic depictions of cunilingus. In this film, there's sex in bed, in a field, on a pool table, all hetero and vanilla and simulated.
I'm baffled by any contemporary interest in this kind of film. This movie appears to have been originally shot in 16mm, and no one will be fooled by the obviously post-dubbed dialogue. I can only assume that there is a firm cult for this kind of film to justify making it available on DVD. The actors and actresses are listed in the film as uncredited parents and students although here is where IMDb proves itself useful. The online trailer, in German without subtitles, provides a brief taste of the action. What may be this films best asset is that the actresses look like relatively attractive girls next door, and not a collection of wannabe models. And when too many women in front of the camera are filled with silicon and other artificial ingredients, there is some pleasure to see one voluptuous actress run blissfully naked, her breasts bouncing in the breeze.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at May 8, 2012 08:22 AM