Knight at the Movies ARCHIVES
Porn and Jazz:
Inside Deep Throat, Nina Simone: Love Sorceress
2-9-05 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
When mainstream Hollywood producer Brian Grazer came looking for someone to tackle his pet subculture project
on the making of the porn film Deep Throat, who better than the creators of a six part mini-series titled
Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization? Documentary queer filmmakers and life partners Randy Barbato
and Fenton Bailey had that and a lot more provocative stuff on their joint resume (past subjects have focused on
calls boys, gay Republicans, Hitler’s purported gay sexuality, club kids, Monica Lewinsky, and Tammy Faye for
openers).
But with Inside Deep Throat, their new film, the duo may have made their own documentary equivalent of
Citizen Kane, so perfectly does the subject matter match up with the particular gifts of this talented duo. This
movie about how America’s covert dual passion and repulsion for pornography temporarily broke into the
mainstream and ignited a culture war via the extraordinary success of the first “legitimate” adult film is thoroughly
unsettling, thought provoking, funny, and immensely entertaining.
The film arrives with an NC-17 rating because it includes the infamous scene of Linda Lovelace performing fellatio
on Harry Reems. But how could Barbato and Bailey not include it? Indeed, in view of Those Of Whom We Do Not
Speak’s determination to swing the country back toward ultra conservatism (SpongeBob is a threat to kids?), the
inclusion of 15 seconds of grainy fellatio from 30 years ago seems like an act of sexual terrorism – and not just for
gay people either. What a lucky break for these filmmakers! Act up! Fight Back! Suck Dick! I say God bless ‘em
for not only keeping it in the movie but for showing it in slow motion. The intake of air from everyone in the
screening audience, followed by audacious laughter immediately after the scene, had the effect of energizing the
audience for the rest of the picture.
Barbato and Bailey’s knack for presenting their tantalizing subjects with non-judgmental detachment has been a
hallmark of their work and is evident here. They’ve managed to track down the majority of the survivors who
participated in the making of Deep Throat, found a handful of those who dared to show it and those who wanted it
stopped and everyone involved in creating it punished. The duo also include cultural observations from Gore Vidal,
John Waters, Erica Jong, and others on the forefront of sexual liberation (Hugh Hefner, of course, is included)
while Dennis Hopper narrates. No matter how bizarre or sleazy the setting, however, Barbato and Bailey always
seem to find their share of hilarious characters and situations that allows them to lighten the mood.
Also, because it’s a Barbato-Bailey doc, in addition to the heavy doses of humor (is it prejudicial of me to point out
their unerring gay sensibility in this area?) the film has a soundtrack that’s ramped up to underscore narrative
points often made through musical montages. The movie’s use of 70s pop and disco songs like Melanie’s “Brand
New Key” is distinctly reminiscent of the fictional Boogie Nights. Unlike the ironic, mixed message of that terrific
film’s oddly affecting theme of creating family where you find it, however, Inside Deep Throat instead traces how
the movie’s huge financial success simultaneously kick started both the moral backlash and the adult film industry
into high gear and left no one unsullied along the way. Both ends of the spectrum cut a very wide swath.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A boyfriend once gave me a Nina Simone cassette but when he asked to hear it a week later I made an excuse
about the machine eating the tape. “That’s okay,” he said, “You don’t have to pretend. You either get Nina or you
don’t. You’re just not ready.” He was right but about five years later I happened to hear her quintessential
version of “I Loves You Porgy” and suddenly I got Nina Simone fever in a big way. Even if you ignore her amazing
array of gifts – that distinctive, one of a kind, angry yet sensuous voice, the killer pianist skills equally adept at
classical and jazz improvisation, the unfaltering sense of rhythm and timing, the poetic compositions and ear for
material – nothing, based on the evidence in Nina Simone, Love Sorceress, a 1998 documentary of a European
concert she gave in 1976 – could be more mesmerizing than Nina Simone live.
This is a riveting, transcendent film that makes me wish I’d made more of an effort to see such a great artist while
I had the chance (Simone died in 2003 at the age of 70). Her concert selections in the film – when she finally
deigns to perform them for an audience that she seems to alternately covet and be contemptuous of – are sublime
beginning with a rapturous blending of “Good King Wenceslas” and “Little Girl Blue” and continuing with “Backlash
Blues,” and Simone’s take on Janis Ian’s “Stars.” This musical cliffhanger (you really do wonder what she will do
next), regal and haughty one moment, kittenish and forlorn the next, actually gets some feeling into the dreadful
pop song “Feelings” and taunts with the intro of “Sinner Man” but delivers some African dance instead. Is it
possible that Simone simply had too much talent and couldn’t figure how to let it out? Love Sorceress seems to say
yes. Highly recommended.
Inside Deep Throat, Nina Simone: Love Sorceress
2-9-05 Knight at the Movies column
By Richard Knight, Jr.
When mainstream Hollywood producer Brian Grazer came looking for someone to tackle his pet subculture project
on the making of the porn film Deep Throat, who better than the creators of a six part mini-series titled
Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization? Documentary queer filmmakers and life partners Randy Barbato
and Fenton Bailey had that and a lot more provocative stuff on their joint resume (past subjects have focused on
calls boys, gay Republicans, Hitler’s purported gay sexuality, club kids, Monica Lewinsky, and Tammy Faye for
openers).
But with Inside Deep Throat, their new film, the duo may have made their own documentary equivalent of
Citizen Kane, so perfectly does the subject matter match up with the particular gifts of this talented duo. This
movie about how America’s covert dual passion and repulsion for pornography temporarily broke into the
mainstream and ignited a culture war via the extraordinary success of the first “legitimate” adult film is thoroughly
unsettling, thought provoking, funny, and immensely entertaining.
The film arrives with an NC-17 rating because it includes the infamous scene of Linda Lovelace performing fellatio
on Harry Reems. But how could Barbato and Bailey not include it? Indeed, in view of Those Of Whom We Do Not
Speak’s determination to swing the country back toward ultra conservatism (SpongeBob is a threat to kids?), the
inclusion of 15 seconds of grainy fellatio from 30 years ago seems like an act of sexual terrorism – and not just for
gay people either. What a lucky break for these filmmakers! Act up! Fight Back! Suck Dick! I say God bless ‘em
for not only keeping it in the movie but for showing it in slow motion. The intake of air from everyone in the
screening audience, followed by audacious laughter immediately after the scene, had the effect of energizing the
audience for the rest of the picture.
Barbato and Bailey’s knack for presenting their tantalizing subjects with non-judgmental detachment has been a
hallmark of their work and is evident here. They’ve managed to track down the majority of the survivors who
participated in the making of Deep Throat, found a handful of those who dared to show it and those who wanted it
stopped and everyone involved in creating it punished. The duo also include cultural observations from Gore Vidal,
John Waters, Erica Jong, and others on the forefront of sexual liberation (Hugh Hefner, of course, is included)
while Dennis Hopper narrates. No matter how bizarre or sleazy the setting, however, Barbato and Bailey always
seem to find their share of hilarious characters and situations that allows them to lighten the mood.
Also, because it’s a Barbato-Bailey doc, in addition to the heavy doses of humor (is it prejudicial of me to point out
their unerring gay sensibility in this area?) the film has a soundtrack that’s ramped up to underscore narrative
points often made through musical montages. The movie’s use of 70s pop and disco songs like Melanie’s “Brand
New Key” is distinctly reminiscent of the fictional Boogie Nights. Unlike the ironic, mixed message of that terrific
film’s oddly affecting theme of creating family where you find it, however, Inside Deep Throat instead traces how
the movie’s huge financial success simultaneously kick started both the moral backlash and the adult film industry
into high gear and left no one unsullied along the way. Both ends of the spectrum cut a very wide swath.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A boyfriend once gave me a Nina Simone cassette but when he asked to hear it a week later I made an excuse
about the machine eating the tape. “That’s okay,” he said, “You don’t have to pretend. You either get Nina or you
don’t. You’re just not ready.” He was right but about five years later I happened to hear her quintessential
version of “I Loves You Porgy” and suddenly I got Nina Simone fever in a big way. Even if you ignore her amazing
array of gifts – that distinctive, one of a kind, angry yet sensuous voice, the killer pianist skills equally adept at
classical and jazz improvisation, the unfaltering sense of rhythm and timing, the poetic compositions and ear for
material – nothing, based on the evidence in Nina Simone, Love Sorceress, a 1998 documentary of a European
concert she gave in 1976 – could be more mesmerizing than Nina Simone live.
This is a riveting, transcendent film that makes me wish I’d made more of an effort to see such a great artist while
I had the chance (Simone died in 2003 at the age of 70). Her concert selections in the film – when she finally
deigns to perform them for an audience that she seems to alternately covet and be contemptuous of – are sublime
beginning with a rapturous blending of “Good King Wenceslas” and “Little Girl Blue” and continuing with “Backlash
Blues,” and Simone’s take on Janis Ian’s “Stars.” This musical cliffhanger (you really do wonder what she will do
next), regal and haughty one moment, kittenish and forlorn the next, actually gets some feeling into the dreadful
pop song “Feelings” and taunts with the intro of “Sinner Man” but delivers some African dance instead. Is it
possible that Simone simply had too much talent and couldn’t figure how to let it out? Love Sorceress seems to say
yes. Highly recommended.
The power of porn and a mesmerizing jazz diva deigns to perform
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |