Jean-Daniel Cadinot
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Jean-Daniel Cadinot (February 10, 1944 – April 23, 2008) was a French director and producer of gay pornographic films.
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[edit] Biography
Cadinot was born during WWII, in German-occupied Paris, in the Montmartre hill area of the Batignoles Quarter. His parents were tailors who custom fit clothes. (Cadinot later remarked that while his parents had clothed men, he earned his reputation for undressing them.)
As a teenager Cadinot hoped to become a painter and, due to parental opposition, ran away from home at the age of 17.[1] In the early 1960s, he studied at École des Arts et Métiers and at the National School of Photography. He then began his professional career at Valois Studios, where he directed mainstream films for French-speaking audiences.[2]
He first pursued a career in photography, which took on a homosexual angle with his nude portrait of writer Yves Navarre and singer Patrick Juvet. His erotic photographs appeared in the first edition of Gai Pied.[3] He began to sell nude photographs and finally moved to directing movies in 1978. By then, he had published 17 photo albums, with total sales of over 170,000 copies.
Setting up his own production company, French Art, Cadinot made dozens of 16 mm films since then, usually with specific settings or themes, such as an excursion of French Boy Scouts, life in a boarding school or a journey to Venice, greatly contributing to the erotic appeal of the works through the specific situations depicted. Often these themes were somewhat derived from Cadinot's life experiences, especially from his youth.
By 1998 he had directed 54 films, some under the pseudonym Tony Dark.[1]
Cadinot's early films are often basically regular movies with occasional hardcore gay sex scenes interspersed. Rather than just portraying a string of sexual encounters with minimal dialogue, they showcase Cadinot's fascination with characterization, lighting, and his often slightly jocular approach to gay sexuality.
Characteristic of Cadinot's films was an emphasis on plot; much more so than in typical porn films. His plots were often based originally on incidents from his own life, but he was known for adjusting the plot during filming to incorporate experiences of his actors. He insisted on realism in his films, especially in sex scenes, saying that the actors "do not portray things that are imposed on them by me, but things they like to do themselves". Part of the popularity of his films is credited to the realistic emotions shown in them, compared to the robot-like performances in other films.
[edit] Death notice
On April 23rd, 2008 Jean-Daniel Cadinot's Official Site posted the following notice:
Dear friends, critics and others,
If you're reading these words I will have put down my camera, switched off the lights, drawn the curtains and taken my final bow. May all the efforts and work of a whole life, the quest for the moment of pure truth in the sublime communion of two beings under the spell of the undefinable desire for the other, inspire those who inherit my heart.
The human being is made such that it only remembers the good and the beautiful, therefore I leave you with a free mind and a head overflowing with a myriad of young men, sometimes strong and vigorous, sometimes fragile and sensitive. All of them gave me these unforgettable moments of their most tender intimacy, moments that only a few really know but which I made into images to allow you to admire them over and over again.
Never were success or personal fortune my creed. You offered me gratitude and I thank you for that because I wanted nothing else. Cadinot salutes you. Remember a kindly fellow, an extreme observer given to rages and contradiction but who listened to others and was full of love.
"An erect phallus is a symbol of life, a cross a symbol of death."
Jean Daniel Cadinot, photographer and film-maker, passed away on the 23rd of April aged 64 following a heart attack.[4]
[edit] Trademark elements of his films
- Often plot- and character-driven (though considerably less so in recent years)
- Actors are young (Twinks) and inexperienced, non-professional.
- Humoristic characters and situations, for example the cameo appearance of Cadinot's Mother as a cleaner in Escalier de Service.
- Outdoor locations in the French countryside
- Occasionally, scenes of nonconsensual sex (i.e., rape).
- Several films had North African Arab themes, locations and players
- Cadinot directs his characters to often stay partially clothed during sex, and there is a fetishistic focus on swollen genitals admired in white underwear.
[edit] Filmography
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[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- Aldrich, Robert & Wotherspoon, Garry (2001), Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II, Routledge, pp. 69-70, ISBN 041522974X
- Martel, Frederic (2000), The Pink and the Black: Homosexuals in France Since 1968, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0804732744
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Official site
- GLBTQ: Article about J.-D. Cadinot
- IMDB Index of Cadinot's works
| GayVN Awards Hall of Fame 2001 |
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Chi Chi LaRue as Taylor Hudson for The Rise |
AVN Awards for Best Director-Gay Video for The Traveling Journeymen (Le Désir en Ballade) 1992 |
Succeeded by Chi Chi LaRue for Songs in the Key of Sex |
