Penetration

Penetration

The very first full length feature film from Lasse Braun, it was one of the first hard sex films ever shown at Cannes Film Festival and it has an interesting tale of how it came to be.

In 1973, distribution of sexually explicit 35mm movies in European theaters was still limited to a few small theaters in Denmark who had legalized pornography in 1969. With limited distribution, film budgets were kept small. Lasse Braun had built a European porn empire during the 1960s making loops. He had some unique priveleges afforded to him by his father's job as a diplomat, but his father had now retired and he was living life underground. Lasse had met Brigitte Maier earlier that year in Stockholm and decided she had the qualities he wanted for his first full-length feature film. His idea was to film Bridgitte receiving double anal penetration. In order to save money, Lasse decided to shot 30 minutes of the film as a documentary of him shooting the double penetration scene and he interspersed five of his most humoristic loops to add another 40 minutes.(There was also a 4 minute cartoon that is not included in this version.) The intention was to give the film the feeling of a "spoof" film in order to fool the French censors into showing the film.

Lasse was able to convince a large movie house in France to show the film, but he had to bribe some French customs officials to smuggle the film into the country. That being the case, he could not advertise the screening of the film. Lasse has to rely solely on word of mouth spread by friends and fans. He himself was not allowed to enter the country. The first screening was heralded as a triumph for the sexual revolution and the film went on to become the highest grossing movie ever made by a Dutch production company. It was released in America under the name "FRENCH BLUE."