On Zalman King, Softcore and Film

by Jason Sibert

Sexuality in film has become very open in this day and age. For years, the production code kept filmmakers from dealing with the subject of sex in an open fashion.

Since the code fell in 1968, the use of graphic sexuality in film has brought mixed results. There have been triumphs such as Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (1973) and Stephen Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape, (1989) but there has also been tons of celluloid dreck. The multi-billion dollar a year hardcore porn industry churns out tons of movies that never aim any higher than two inches above the crotch.

Although hardcore seems to grab the most media attention in the erotic filmmaking realm, what's known as "softcore erotica" or "soft porn" has an audience despite the existence of a more graphic alternative.

To be introduced to the world of softcore films, all one has to do is watch cable TV late at night or go to a local video store. Softcore often has beautiful performers, cheesy music and silly plots. But there is a market for these sorts of films. A certain percentage of the film audience doesn't like the graphic content that the hardcore spectrum offers and many young men can watch these films with their wives or girlfriends; something that can't always be done with a hardcore film.

Although he says he doesn't like the term "soft porn" or "softcore erotica," Zalman King is often associated with this type of filmmaking.

"I don't like the term arty pornographer," King said when asked about the criticism that has been leveled at some of his films. "My films aren't about sex, they're about people." (Photo © Trimark Entertainment)

An actor that surged into directing and producing in the 80's, King became associated with the softcore genre when he co-wrote and co-produced 9 ½ Weeks (1986), a film about two yuppies who engage in a torrid affair.

I have seen King's forays into softcore and I always wondered why one made these sorts of films.

I managed to track down King in his Los Angles office and get an interview with him. I did a phone interview from my suburban St. Louis apartment and I approached the project with certain goals in mind. I figured that little old me would be able to question the man that "Rolling Stone" magazine calls "the high priest of erotica" and get all the answers I wanted on all of the movies that he has ever made.

"I don't like the term arty pornographer," King said when asked about the criticism that has been leveled at some of his films. "My films aren't about sex, they're about people."

My gosh, King took away some of the interview ammunition I thought that I had. Sex is a subject that fascinates humankind as a whole, and I figured I could get solid answers out of him on the deep hidden meaning of his work.

Following 9 ½ Weeks, which featured Kim Bassinger and Mickey Rourke, King continued to write, direct and produce similar themed films like: Siesta (1987), Wildfire (1988), Two Moon Junction (1988), Wild Orchid (1990), which also featured Mickey Rourke, Wild Orchid II (1991), Red Shoe Diaries (1992), which later became a successful cable TV series, Lake Consequence (1993), Delta of Venus (1994), Female Perversions (1997), In God's Hands (1998), Shame, Shame, Shame (1998), A Place Called Truth (1999) and Women of the Night (2000).

That's an awful lot of films that deal with the subject of carnal desire, some might call In God's Hands, a surfing film, a departure, but King would disagree.

"I've always had an interest in extreme sports," King said. "I think the film is about people, like all of the rest of my films."

Many of the talked about films appeal to women and King says that that's because he writes from a woman's point of view and gives women of courage credit.

As I continued to talk to King, I asked him about efforts like Two Moon Junction, a steamy romance set in the south and Red Shoe Diaries, the original made for cable movie about a hunky construction worker's affair with an attached professional woman.

He felt making such films was a good experience but he didn't give me the esoteric knowledge on the world of erotic filmmaking that I wanted.

The original Red Shoe Diaries cable TV film featured David Duchovny in the role of Jake. Duchovny would continue to host the program even after he became a major film and television star.

"David and I are good friends," King said when asked about the relationship between him and the former X-Files star. "He's a good man"

Some of Kings films have literary sources. 9 ½ Weeks was based on a diary, Siesta was based on a novel, and Delta of Venus was based on the lives of acclaimed author Henry Miller and fellow writer Anais Nin. Henry and June (1990), a film by director Phillip Kaufman, won critical praise for dealing with the life of Miller and Nin.

"I didn't really care that much for his take on the subject," King said on Kaufman's Henry and June.

King says he prefers Delta because it looks the Nin/Miller relationship from Nin's viewpoint.

Kaufman also directed the erotically charged The Unbearable Likeness of Being (1988) and a film based on the life of the Marquis de Sade titled Quills (2000).

King says he does admire Bertolucci's Last Tango but he doesn't have the same nice words for Sex, Lies and Videotape.

"I think the whole picture had a weak premises," King said on Soderbergh's indie classic.

As the interview went on, I kept trying to get the stunning secret that would reveal the meaning of these films but King had little to say; aside from the fact that he had enjoyed doing the films.

How do you get one to act in softcore films? King says it takes a great deal of courage and that's the reason why many don't want to act in them. Does King have a unique business structure? He says he works with a group of investors that fund his films; films that don't usually have real big stars.

No matter what angle I took, all of his answers seemed so typical. As I continued to talk with Zalman King, I found out that he rarely talked with reporters. Toward the end of the interview, I understood why.

Maybe King just deals with certain themes, sex being the prominent one, and allows the audience to think for themselves. This would also explain his disdain for the critics that have often trashed his work.

"I think they're a bunch of idiots," King said on film critics.

Film critics nearly always take a journalistic approach to writing on film. Critics want to find out the "true meaning" of films and let the audience "in" on their "insights."

One filmmaker who took a similar approach to film would be John Cassavettes, the director of A Woman Under the Influence (1974) and Faces (1968).

"I really loved John's (Cassavettes) work and there is a similarity between his and mine," King said. "But stylistically we're very different."

Cassavettes, like many documentary filmmakers, felt that a film should take a look at various aspects of life but not tell us how to feel about all that is being presented on screen. Some feel that his films are hard to comprehend because they don't tell us through camerawork, acting and lighting how to feel about what we are seeing. Hollywood films are exactly the opposite.

I found out through my interview with Zalman King that film can't always be torn apart and examined. Film can get us to think about various aspects of our lives, even sex.

But film, like any other media, can't provide all of the answers to all of life's questions.

King's films are just an experience that may affect people in different ways. They deal with the subject of carnal desire, something that is often considered to be the horseradish of filmmaking.

But seeing that humans spend a great deal of time thinking about their erotic lives, maybe this man and likeminded filmmakers should be commended for their efforts.

Will there be other quality films about sex in the future? I'm sure there will be. And I think these films might combine the approach of a Cassavetes with the willingness of a Zalman King to deal with sex on film.