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Man of Taste: The Erotic Cinema of Radley Metzger
Radley Metzger was one of the foremost directors of adult film in America, with credits including softcore titles like The Lickerish Quartet and the hardcore classic The Opening of Misty Beethoven. After getting his start making arthouse trailers for Janus Films, Metzger would go on to become among the most feted directors of the “porno chic” era of the 1970s, working under the pseudonym Henry Paris. In the process, he produced a body of work that exposed the porous boundaries separating art cinema from adult film, softcore from hardcore, and good taste from bad.
Rob King uses Metzger’s work to explore what taste means and how it works, tracing the evolution of the adult film industry and the changing frontiers of cultural acceptability. Man of Taste spans Metzger’s entire his early years in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, his attempt to bring arthouse aesthetics to adult film in the 1960s, his turn to pseudonymously directed hardcore movies in the 1970s, and his final years, which included making videos on homeopathic medicine. Metzger’s career, King argues, sheds light on how the distinction between the erotic and the pornographic is drawn, and it offers an uncanny reflection of the ways American film culture transformed during these decades.
Lavishly illustrated with rare photos and publicity images, this book paints a vivid picture of a filmmaker who channeled his artistic aspirations into some of the most disreputable movie genres of his day.
Rob King uses Metzger’s work to explore what taste means and how it works, tracing the evolution of the adult film industry and the changing frontiers of cultural acceptability. Man of Taste spans Metzger’s entire his early years in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood, his attempt to bring arthouse aesthetics to adult film in the 1960s, his turn to pseudonymously directed hardcore movies in the 1970s, and his final years, which included making videos on homeopathic medicine. Metzger’s career, King argues, sheds light on how the distinction between the erotic and the pornographic is drawn, and it offers an uncanny reflection of the ways American film culture transformed during these decades.
Lavishly illustrated with rare photos and publicity images, this book paints a vivid picture of a filmmaker who channeled his artistic aspirations into some of the most disreputable movie genres of his day.
251 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 2, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 10, 2025
A little known factoid: I wrote a master's thesis about the regulation of pornography in Ireland. So I have some background in the legal history associated with the battles that were fought over adult films (and other materials).
I found this book fascinating. I'm not particularly familiar with the Metzger films, though I had seen one of the more famous ones when a group of teenagers discovered a stash of dirty videos belonging to one of the parents.
Make no mistake, though. This is an academic book positing theories about the intersection between this director's work and art films and interrogating the definitions of pornography versus erotica. The book will be of most interest to industry and academic professionals who are well versed in film critique.
I would likely never have come across this book were it not for Netgalley offering me a review copy, so I thank them for that.
I found this book fascinating. I'm not particularly familiar with the Metzger films, though I had seen one of the more famous ones when a group of teenagers discovered a stash of dirty videos belonging to one of the parents.
Make no mistake, though. This is an academic book positing theories about the intersection between this director's work and art films and interrogating the definitions of pornography versus erotica. The book will be of most interest to industry and academic professionals who are well versed in film critique.
I would likely never have come across this book were it not for Netgalley offering me a review copy, so I thank them for that.
April 6, 2025
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.
An in depth and scholarly look at the career and works of director Radley Metzger. Metzger is an interesting subject since he probably is the best director to ever work in hardcore. His movie The opening of Misty Beethoven is often said to be the best work to come out of the porno chic era of the seventies.
Metzger is also interesting in the way that his career spans a large part of the sexploitation era. He started with putting explicit scenes into european imports and went on to make his own art house/erotic films before moving into hardcore.
The book is well written and researched though it leans a little too much into the theoretical for a more casual reader.
It did make me want to revisit some of the Metzger films and it will definitely make me see them with a more in depth understanding.
An in depth and scholarly look at the career and works of director Radley Metzger. Metzger is an interesting subject since he probably is the best director to ever work in hardcore. His movie The opening of Misty Beethoven is often said to be the best work to come out of the porno chic era of the seventies.
Metzger is also interesting in the way that his career spans a large part of the sexploitation era. He started with putting explicit scenes into european imports and went on to make his own art house/erotic films before moving into hardcore.
The book is well written and researched though it leans a little too much into the theoretical for a more casual reader.
It did make me want to revisit some of the Metzger films and it will definitely make me see them with a more in depth understanding.
April 29, 2025
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rob King's study of the films of Radley Metzger, pioneering filmmaker of the 60s and 70s, who brought Euro-style lavishness, literary influences, and possibly even an auteur's approach to the sex film. The book meditates on the problematic relationship between filmed hardcore sex and cinema's place as the emergent art form of the 20th century. Coming at it from all angles, Hill takes us through questions of authorship, self-authorship, queer theory, and all the way back to foundational questions about cinema's artistic basis. Engrossing, considered and informed, shining a light on and treating with unusual respect a hugely popular but largely disavowed area of cinema.
Rob King's study of the films of Radley Metzger, pioneering filmmaker of the 60s and 70s, who brought Euro-style lavishness, literary influences, and possibly even an auteur's approach to the sex film. The book meditates on the problematic relationship between filmed hardcore sex and cinema's place as the emergent art form of the 20th century. Coming at it from all angles, Hill takes us through questions of authorship, self-authorship, queer theory, and all the way back to foundational questions about cinema's artistic basis. Engrossing, considered and informed, shining a light on and treating with unusual respect a hugely popular but largely disavowed area of cinema.
January 18, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for an advance copy of this new book of film history covering the work of man whose work has become forgotten by many, but introduced a new kind of film genre that changed laws, American history and more.
Art is in the eye of the beholder, and I know it when I see it. One of these quotes is how something can be seen as art by one person, a bunch of smears on canvas to another. The other is how a judge stated how he knew what was obscene. Art and the obscene are what each person judges it to be. Once a glimpse of stocking was sometimes shocking, now pretty much anything goes. Radley Metzger might have a lot to do with the fact that American movies and television could show married couples sharing a bed, where as before they had separate twin beds in the master bedroom. Metzger saw there was a burgeoning interest and a way to make money, first in foreign films, later in his own works, and changed the way that Americans looked at sex in movies. Man of Taste: The Erotic Cinema of Radley Metzger by film historian and educator Rob King is a study of the man, his influences and influence on the erotic movie, from soft to hard core, and why his works are being appreciated more now, in a world that seems to becoming even more puritan.
Radley Metzger had a taste for the movies from a young age. Though we went to anything that was playing at his local movie theater, Metzger also had the snobbery of a young cinephile, keeping track of his viewing of classic movies, but absorbing everything he saw, seeing what worked in plot, dialogue, staging and editing. Metzger received a degree in theater arts, and learned movie techniques from a variety of different directors. A job at Janus Films creating trailers for American debuts of great foreign directors, including Ingmar Bergman, opened his eyes to what people want, what foreign directors were working, and what could sell. The army taught him film editing, and upon getting out of the military found his calling, in films, starting small on real independent films, until he came to a realization. Metzger could get foreign films, with their reputation for being spicer than American films, cut, edit and re-edit, and add some scenes, and make money. Which he did, starting his own company. From there he began to direct his own works, movies that would be called erotic films, including the The Lickerish Quartet and Thérèse et Isabelle. This made money, and received some acclaim, but soon the market for movies that were arty, softly lite, began to dry up. Metzger began a second career working in hardcore movies, that also made money, a bit of controversy, and were again acclaimed for their stories and technique. However again change in the industry soon made Metzger a forgotten figure, though a new market in DVD's and film appreciation kept his work alive.
A book that is a biography, a history of a period of time in film, and a look at the techniques of a complex but talented man. I have seen only his erotic movies, but could not get over the sets, the design, and how the story asked much of the watcher, and delivered even more. The erotic was almost secondary to the tricks, the lighting and the glass. Lots of glass. I knew little about Metzger, and learned a lot, some I could have lived without, but I like the style and the fact that he kept striving for more. Why not have a music and publishing company releasing soundtracks, and scripts and the speeches of Spiro Agnew. King is a very good writer, able to talk about hard core movies, film philosophy, New York history and more. An enjoyable book on quite a few levels.
People who enjoy film will enjoy this, as well as people who like these kind of films. I liked the discussions of technique, and why shots were designed and set-up the way they were. A interesting book about a fascinating man, and the times he worked in.
Art is in the eye of the beholder, and I know it when I see it. One of these quotes is how something can be seen as art by one person, a bunch of smears on canvas to another. The other is how a judge stated how he knew what was obscene. Art and the obscene are what each person judges it to be. Once a glimpse of stocking was sometimes shocking, now pretty much anything goes. Radley Metzger might have a lot to do with the fact that American movies and television could show married couples sharing a bed, where as before they had separate twin beds in the master bedroom. Metzger saw there was a burgeoning interest and a way to make money, first in foreign films, later in his own works, and changed the way that Americans looked at sex in movies. Man of Taste: The Erotic Cinema of Radley Metzger by film historian and educator Rob King is a study of the man, his influences and influence on the erotic movie, from soft to hard core, and why his works are being appreciated more now, in a world that seems to becoming even more puritan.
Radley Metzger had a taste for the movies from a young age. Though we went to anything that was playing at his local movie theater, Metzger also had the snobbery of a young cinephile, keeping track of his viewing of classic movies, but absorbing everything he saw, seeing what worked in plot, dialogue, staging and editing. Metzger received a degree in theater arts, and learned movie techniques from a variety of different directors. A job at Janus Films creating trailers for American debuts of great foreign directors, including Ingmar Bergman, opened his eyes to what people want, what foreign directors were working, and what could sell. The army taught him film editing, and upon getting out of the military found his calling, in films, starting small on real independent films, until he came to a realization. Metzger could get foreign films, with their reputation for being spicer than American films, cut, edit and re-edit, and add some scenes, and make money. Which he did, starting his own company. From there he began to direct his own works, movies that would be called erotic films, including the The Lickerish Quartet and Thérèse et Isabelle. This made money, and received some acclaim, but soon the market for movies that were arty, softly lite, began to dry up. Metzger began a second career working in hardcore movies, that also made money, a bit of controversy, and were again acclaimed for their stories and technique. However again change in the industry soon made Metzger a forgotten figure, though a new market in DVD's and film appreciation kept his work alive.
A book that is a biography, a history of a period of time in film, and a look at the techniques of a complex but talented man. I have seen only his erotic movies, but could not get over the sets, the design, and how the story asked much of the watcher, and delivered even more. The erotic was almost secondary to the tricks, the lighting and the glass. Lots of glass. I knew little about Metzger, and learned a lot, some I could have lived without, but I like the style and the fact that he kept striving for more. Why not have a music and publishing company releasing soundtracks, and scripts and the speeches of Spiro Agnew. King is a very good writer, able to talk about hard core movies, film philosophy, New York history and more. An enjoyable book on quite a few levels.
People who enjoy film will enjoy this, as well as people who like these kind of films. I liked the discussions of technique, and why shots were designed and set-up the way they were. A interesting book about a fascinating man, and the times he worked in.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews