Alex de Renzy (1935 - 2001)
Related: American cinema - pornographic film
Biography
Alex de Renzy, (born 1935, in San Francisco , California , USA , died June 8, 2001 ) is an American porn director. He is sometimes credited as Rex Borski , Rex Borsky , Alex DeRenzy , Alex Derenzy or Alexander E. de Renzy. Alex de Renzy is member of the AVN Hall of Fame . --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_de_Renzy [Oct 2005]Profile
I broke into porn director Alex deRenzy's home in 1974.
Actually, it wasn't a breaking-and-entering
affair. I snuck into his house. I was only 13 years old—yet, by all
standards, a little shit. My folks lived in the ever-dull city of San Rafael;
so, to bust up the monotony, my pal Derek and I would do 'amusing'
things—like pissing into the liquid-soap dispensers of posh banks. Or
going to the top of the tallest building in town and throwing day-old donuts
down at pedestrians.
And there was the little prank we pulled
on deRenzy. A mini terrorist act was more like it.
The infamous porn director—who died this
past June—lived in a secluded mansion on the hill just behind my parents'
modest home. Not bad, eh? Lots of adventurous possibilities for a
restless—and horny!—13-year-old.
By 1974, of course, deRenzy hadn't yet made the X-rated classics like Pretty Peaches, Femmes deSade, and Baby Face for which he'd become best known. But he had made a name for himself, as a local S.F. pornographer and the director of a well-publicized documentary (Time magazine did an article on the movie) entitled Pornography in Denmark. Yet while I lived close by deRenzy, I'd never actually seen the very private director. Consequently, I craved a taste, a mere glimpse of this pornographer's supposedly unorthodox lifestyle. -- Anthony Petkovich via http://www.spectator.net/1194/pages/1194_derenzy.html [Mar 2005]
Trivia
His visit to Sex-69, the first annual trade sex-fair in Copenhagen, Denmark, after the legalization of adult pornography, resulted in a few films turned there, and connections for future projects in the US. --http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0211108/ [Mar 2005]Pretty Peaches (1978) - Alex deRenzy
lobby card for Pretty Peaches (1978) - Alex deRenzy
image sourced here.
A saucy little peach of a film
Pretty Peaches is difficult if not impossible to find in a British video shop. New video censorship legislation in the mid-80s saw to that. It goes further than most adult films of the period in pushing out the boundaries. After 1984 it was beyond the boundary.
You don't often hear of a film featuring explicit treatment of enemas. Pretty Peaches did. Every other scene in the film, mandatory orgy included, fades from the memory long before that particular episode dims. The plot is of course secondary to the main action, but the story of the girl who suffers amnesia following a road accident is novel and also helps to make this a cut above the ordinary. See it if you get the chance. --Koli via http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078112/combined [Mar 2005]
Femmes de Sade (1976) - Alex deRenzy
poster for Femmes de Sade (1976) - Alex deRenzy
image sourced here.
Sick, sick, sick.... I love it!
Alex De Renzy was one of only a handful of porn directors that were gifted enough to have their own visual style, something that sadly, dissapeared in his later work once hardcore features began to be shot on video. Femmes de Sade, in it's uncut form (Tough to find) is one of my favorite 70's XXX films. It's just so messed up and vile! A huge deranged pervert gets out of jail and bums a ride with a fellow inmate who has also been released, and has been picked up by his girlfriend. Needless to say, it does not end up nicely for her. I don't want to give up too much about the film in case you actually ever get to see it, but the scene where the gigantic sex-freak sucks his own wang, and then tries to force an unwilling female to give herself oral sex is one of the most unnerving scenes in adult film history. Alex De Renzy, you will be missed. --Robin Bougie via http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074523/combined [Mar 2005]
France 1975
In April 1975, a leftist government took hold in France and abolished censorship. This momentous occasion was celebrated by a showing of American Alex De Renzy's History of the Blue Movie [1970], which broke French boxoffice records by selling a quarter million tickets. Seeing there was money to be made, France then began making its own hardcore films in earnest, paralleling the rise of porno chic in the United States. --http://www.alphabluearchives.com/euro.html [Jun 2004]
Denmark
Denmark legalized pornography in the late sixties, celebrating the event with sex expos as documented by Renzy's Sexual Freedom (1969) in Denmark. --http://www.alphabluearchives.com/euro.html [Jun 2004]
see also: Denmark
A History of the Blue Movie (1970) - Alex de Renzy [...]
(Alex de Renzie, USA, 1971) (F)Perhaps the most startling this about this film -- prototype of a genre -- is its legal and widespread presentation to packed student audiences at American colleges. An excellent compilation of old and new hardcore "stag" films (with an intelligent narration stressing historical aspects), its production was probably inevitable the moment it was realized that no one held a copyright of these illegal, anonymous works.
Here we see one of the earliest stag films, the 1915 A Free Ride; an unexpected item, or it somehow still remains surprising to see our forefathers (now dead) actually engaged in the same activities as we are. There are also interesting divergences from the later, more standardized stag films: here both male and female urinate, for laughs, on camera; during sex, the man only drops his pants, looking very real, very ludicrous in his passionate entanglement; and the girls seem literally exhausted at the end.
There are other classics in this anthology: the notorious Smart Aleck, in which the then unknown Candy Barr introduces unintended "cinema verite" into a porno film by angrily refusing to perform fellatio, only later passionately to "insert" herself into an oral sex act between her partner and another girl; and the equally famous The None Story, whose star, at beginning and end, appears in a nun's attire (these sequences omitted from a later version retitled "College Co-Ed".)
A 3rd notable episode shows a nude model discussing her sexual preferences with an unseen interviewer in sensitive, arousing detail, the camera focusing mostly on her face in an example of verbal eroticism reminiscent of Godard's Weekend. As her talk turns more passionate and fantasy-ridden, she becomes involved in on-screen masturbation; and both she and the interviewer fall silent until her climax.
The film ends with an erotic 1970 sequence, in which a young couple go to De Renzie's studio to act in one of his films and then see themselves on the screen in a highly charged, professionally directed sex episode which (delightfully) includes laughter, hugs, and warmth; a portent of things to come when serious filmmakers, free of censorship or contempt for the genre, supplant the mechanical pornographers by introducing erotic realism. SC -- Film As a Subversive Art (1974) - Amos Vogel
A History of the Blue Movie (1970) - Alex de Renzy
A documentary showing clips of stag films dating from 1915 to 1970. --http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178574/combined [Mar 2005]
Great early stag movie compilation attempt
This movie came out, of course, pre-video, and while there are many, many video companies out now who specialize in early stag movies, this was one of the first attempts to put a compilation of some of the oldest blue movies out for the theatre audience. Included are scenes from "Grass Sandwich", one of the earliest stag films known, made in 1915, highly contraversial early loops like "The Nun" and the Candy Barr film "Smart Aleck", to flesh this movie out, as it were, more modern (1960s and 1970) loops are shown as well. Some of the prints shown were of very high quality for their ages, which often surpasses the multi-generation prints we often see in modern video early stag compilations.
If early smoker and blue movies are of interest to you, this is one video worth seeking out. --Schlockmeister via http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178574
Pornography in Denmark (1970)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218522/Dansk sexualitet (1969) - Alex de Renzy, M.C. von Hellen
Insightful, an eye opener, other points of view everyone should be exposed to!, 21
This movie is about the morality, education, and responsibilties pertaining to sexual freedom. Not only that, it has the most amazing child birth sequence that could and should be used as a training tool and viewed by anyone that is interested in the miracle of child birth. This very insightful movie should be shown in school sex education programs internationally along with material already being presented in that forum, and is and all around must see for anyone deemed mature enough. It is a great introduction to various pertinent aspects in the sexual arena. It's delightful! --medicalimager via http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178315/combined#comment [Mar 2005]
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