When Silent Films Had Adult Themes: Melies, Edison, Lois Weber Part 1
The early days of silent films often had adult themes and nudity, in Europe this continued.
After the Ball (Après le bal)
A maid assists her servant get undressed and take a bath. To make more of a visual impact, colored sand was substituted for water so that it would translate better on film.
Jeanne d'Alcy wore a body stocking to simulate nudity. She married Melies in 1925.
Le coucher de la mariée or Bedtime for the Bride or The Bridegroom's Dilemma is a French erotic short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made. The film was first screened in Paris in November 1896, within a year of the first public screening of a projected motion picture. The film was produced by Eugène Pirou and directed by Albert Kirchner under the pseudonym "Léar". Plot: A newlywed couple in front of their wedding-bed after their wedding. The husband goes into raptures in front of his new wife, who simpers. She asks him to withdraw while she undresses and he puts a folding screen between them. She removes one by one the many layers of clothes she wears — a jacket, a dress, underskirts, sub-underskirts, a blouse. The husband does not stay in place, sometimes mopping his front, sometimes reading a newspaper, sometimes having lecherous looks above the folding screen. The actors send numerous glances towards the camera.
Edison's Early Films (1895-1897)
Hard to believe that people were shocked by seeing two people kiss!
Hypocrites, also known as The Hypocrites and The Naked Truth, is a 1915 silent drama film written and directed by woman director and studio head Lois Weber (1879–1939). The film contains several full nude scenes and is said to include the first appearance of full-frontal nudity in a non-pornographic film by an American actress (Margaret Edwards). The film is regarded as anticlerical, and the nudity was justified by its religious context.
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