PARIS — Following its debut screening in Vancouver — after 40 years of collecting dust — the hardcore cult-classic “Sexcula” film made its away across the pond to Paris, France for a screening yesterday at the Cinema d'Art et d'Essai Le Nouveau Latina.
Porn stars from France's Le Tag Parfait were present at the show to lend their voices for a “live dubbing,” organizers of the Parisian event said.
Made on an $80,000 budget, the 1974 erotic horror flick frames 18th century sexual shenanigans as a flashback, set off when an old manuscript is found in an abandoned house. Most of the hardcore action is contained in a 20 minute film-within-a-film digression.
"There’s a girl who does an interpretive dance with a gorilla," said self-described “porn archeologist” Dimitrios Otis, who has been promoting the Return to Porno Chic! event series . "It’s got someone in a gorilla costume, so that tells you a lot right there.”
The film has received media attention for its strange origin as a tax write-off under a now-defunct Canadian Tax Credit System. By manipulating the system, the filmmakers were able to use tax payers’ money to fund the production of the film, but not its distribution. In fact, it could not be legally screened in Canada at the time and only graced the silver screen once since its advent, at Vancouver’s former Paramount Studios.
Notorious for the intrigue of its past, “Sexcula” has garnered a following that the Parisian organizers have compared to that of “The Rocky Horror picture Show.”
Since its unveiling, “Sexcula” has been shown in theaters in Toronto and Edmonton, in addition to Vancouver and Paris.
For more information about the screening in Paris, click here.
