Radley Metzger

Radley Metzger (also known as Radley Henry Metzger^[1][2] and by the pseudonyms, "Henry Paris"^[3][4] and "Jake Barnes"^[3][4] – born January 21, 1929) is an American filmmaker^[5][6] and film distributor most noted for popular adult erotic films,^[7][8][9] including I, a Woman (1966),^[10] Camille 2000 (1969), The Lickerish Quartet (1970), The Image (1975) and The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976).^[11][12] According to one film reviewer, Metzger's films, including those made during the Golden Age of Porn, are noted for their "lavish design, witty screenplays, and a penchant for the unusual camera angle".^[9] Another reviewer noted that his films were "highly artistic – and often cerebral ... and often featured gorgeous cinematography".^[11] Film and audio works by Metzger have been added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.^[13][14][15]

Early life

Radley Henry Metzger was born in 1929 on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, New York City, and he was the second son of Jewish parents.^[1] He claimed he found relief from his allergies in movie theaters while growing up.^[16] Later, Metzger received a B.A. in Dramatic Arts from City College of New York,^[9] where he studied with filmmakers Hans Richter and Leo Seltzer. He also studied acting privately with director Harold Clurman. During the Korean War, Metzger served in the U. S. Air Force with the 1350th Photographic Group, which interrupted his graduate studies at Columbia University.^[9] His older brother, now deceased, had become a physician. Metzger later married and had a daughter.^[1]

Career

Early in his career, in the 1950s, Metzger worked primarily as a film editor^[17][18] and was a member of Local 771 of the IATSE.^[9] He was employed in editing trailers for Janus Films, a major distributor of foreign art films, especially those of Michelangelo Antonioni,^[9] Ingmar Bergman,^[7] Frederico Fellini,^[16] and Jean-Luc Godard.^[16] In 1953, Metzger was credited as assistant director to William Kyriakis on the film Guerilla Girl.^[16] Later, in 1956, he worked on the dubbing of And God Created Woman, starring Brigitte Bardot.^[1] His directorial film debut, Dark Odyssey (1958) (co-directed with Kyriakis), was a drama concerning the experiences of a Greek immigrant arriving in New York. The film was favorably reviewed by The New York Times.^[18] In 1959, he edited the film The Gangster Story, starring Walter Matthau.^[16]

Later, in 1961, along with film distributor Ava Leighton, Metzger founded Audubon Films, a distribution company that specialized in importing international features, some of which were marketed into the gradually expanding adult erotic film genre. Metzger's skills as an editor were employed in re-cutting and augmenting many of the features Audubon handled, including The Twilight Girls (FR,1957), I Spit on Your Grave (FR,1959), and their first runaway success, Mac Ahlberg's I, a Woman (DN/SW,1965).^[10]

Metzger's second directorial effort, The Dirty Girls (shot in 1963 and released in 1965), marked his emergence as a major auteur in the adult erotic film genre. His subsequent films were often shot in Europe^[18] and adapted from novels or other literary sources, including Carmen, La Dame aux Camellias, L'image (by Catherine Robbe-Grillet), Naked Came the Stranger, Pygmalion (by George Bernard Shaw), Six Characters in Search of an Author (by Luigi Pirandello),^[16] The Cat and the Canary,^[18] and Thérèse et Isabelle (by Violette Leduc). He cites John Farrow, Claude Lelouch,^[8] Michael Powell, Alain Resnais^[6] and Orson Welles as influencing his work.^[18] Metzger worked with the French film director Jean Renoir, as well as the American actor Hal Linden.^[9] Andy Warhol, who helped begin the Golden Age of Porn with his 1969 film Blue Movie, was a fan of Metzger's film work^[9] and commented that Metzger's film, The Lickerish Quartet, was “an outrageously kinky masterpiece”.^[19] In 1972, Metzger directed the film Score,^[5] based on an erotic off-Broadway play that included Sylvester Stallone.^[10][16] Films directed by Metzger included musical scores composed by Georges Auric, Stelvio Cipriani, Georges Delerue, and Piero Piccioni.^[18]

Under the pseudonym "Henry Paris," Metzger also directed several explicit adult erotic features during the mid- to late-1970s. These films are typified by high production values, especially The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976) and The Private Afternoons of Pamela Mann (1975), and are generally critically celebrated.^[20] Some historians assess The Opening of Misty Beethoven, based on the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (and its derivative, My Fair Lady), as attaining a mainstream level in storyline and sets^[21] and is considered, by award-winning author Toni Bentley, the "crown jewel" of the Golden Age of Porn.^[1][2]

Some of the adult erotic "Henry Paris" films, including Score (1974), were also released in softcore versions.^[8][18] Many of these films, including The Image (1975) and Barbara Broadcast (1977), as well as Metzger's earlier softcore films, Camille 2000 (1969) and The Lickerish Quartet (1970), are available in Blu-ray versions.^[22][23]

With his 1978 feature The Cat and the Canary,^[6] Metzger distinguished himself as one of the few adult film auteurs to direct a dramatic feature outside of the adult erotic film genre. The film starred Honor Blackman, Carol Lynley, and Dame Wendy Hiller.

In the 1990s, as a result of the passing of his long-time partner, Ava, due to cancer, Metzger produced several videos on alternative health care, including one on cancer treatment and a five-part video series on homeopathy with Dr. Andre Weil. According to Metzger: "I felt that in the 1990s, people needed more information on an intelligent approach to health and disease–that they needed to know about alleviating guilt. That was my emphasis."^[9]

Film and audio works by Metzger have been added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.^[13][14][15]

Awards (selected)

In 1977, Metzger's film The Opening of Misty Beethoven was the recipient of the first Adult Film Association of America awards for Best Direction (as Henry Paris), Best Film, and Best Actor (Jamie Gillis)^[24][25][26] and, as well, won the X-Caliber award for Best Direction (as Henry Paris).^[4]

In 2001, Metzger's film work was the subject of a retrospective in Boston, MA.^[16]

In 2002, Metzger's film The Opening of Misty Beethoven won Best Classic Release on DVD by the Adult Film Association of America.^[27]

In 2010, Metzger was also the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oldenburg International Film Festival, where he served as a judge in 2011.^[28]

In 2011, Metzger's film work was the subject of a retrospective at the UCLA Film and Television Archive.^[29][30][31]

In 2014, Metzger's film work was the subject of a retrospective at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.^[7]

Partial filmography (director)

See also

The following listing includes directors also known for adult art films:

References

Further reading

• Cook, David A. (2002). History of the American cinema. 9. University of California Press. pp. 274–275. ISBN 0-520-23265-8. 
• Heffernan, Kevin, "A social poetics of pornography", Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Volume 15, Issue 3, December 1994, pp. 77–83. doi:10.1080/10509209409361441.
• Lehman, Peter, Pornography: film and culture, Rutgers depth of field series, Rutgers University Press, 2006, ISBN 0-8135-3871-8.
• Williams, Linda, Hard core: power, pleasure, and the "frenzy of the visible", University of California Press, 1999, ISBN 0-520-21943-0.

External links

• Radley Metzger at the Internet Movie Database
• Henry Paris at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Henry Paris at the AFDB
• Radley Metzger – The Films by Nathaniel Thompson (2007)
• Radley Metzger – Thoughts by Gary Morris (1998)
• Radley Metzger – Biography (German)
• Radley Metzger – Interview (2010) (Podcast; 20:06)
• Radley Metzger – Selected Film Trailers:

Barbara Broadcast (04:09); Camille 2000 (02:23);
Lickerish Quartet (02:45); Misty Beethoven (03:01);
Pamela Mann (02:55); Score (03:38); The Image (11:07)