Polissons et galipettes (2002)

English title: The Good Old Naughty Days.

Compilation of early pornography. The films which are shown - most of them, it seems, in their full length - are:

Coiffeuse, La (1905)
Devoirs de vacances (1920)
Mousquetaire au restaurant (1920)
Atelier faiminette, L' (1921)
Voyeuse, La (1924)
Abbé Bitt au couvent, L' (1925)
Agénor fait un levage (1925)
Fessée à l'école, La (1925)
Heure du thé, L' (1925)
Miss Butterfly (1925)
Eveready Harton in Buried Treasure (1929)
Massages (1930)

It goes without saying that all this is interesting, but the one thing that strikes modern viewers as especially remarkable is the depiction of male homosexuality, which is taboo in modern pornography, except of course in that kind which depicts only it. I have read some comments from amateurs and reviews from professionals, and they all seem to attribute this fact to a more liberal view of male homosexuality in those early times. I don't want to sound arrogant, but I tend to disagree with those comments, in the same way I disagree with the widespread notion that in ancient Greece homosexuality was considered normal. In my opinion, there was, at any period in history, a significant fraction of the population who disapproved of homosexuality. In the specific case of these movies, one has to bear in mind some important facts: they were not sold in stores, like the ones made today; they were shown in brothels only. This means that no great concern for the audience's preferences were necessary. While it must be true that among the makers of these films homosexuality was tolerated (and probably even enjoyed), this was probably less so among the viewers; and if it was enjoyed by some of them, remember that we are talking exclusively of people who went to brothels, some of them on a regular basis. The modern viewers of pornography are a much more varied population, impossible to define. Now, a word about female homosexuality. It is very common, both in old porn and in new. Why the difference? The answer is simple: female viewers are in a minority among viewers of pornography; what most heterosexual people don't want to see is their own gender's homosexuality.