THERE'S MONEY IN NUDITY

We have published several articles in recent months drawing attention to the unscrupulous manner in which certain film-producers in England have been “cashing in” on nudity to the severe detriment of the movement. That this bad example is now spreading to other countries may be gathered from an article in the West German newspaper “Das Freie Wort” (“The Free World”) published at Bonn. We append a translation of the original printed in issue no. 24 dated the 27th of March 1963:

“It was not the competition offered by television which first made films aware of nudity and as long as it is portrayed on the screen there will be a minor but persistent state of hostilities between the producers and the censors. One fact that cannot be overlooked in this complex is, of course, that screen-nudity does not always reflect artistic intentions on the producer’s part: quite the contrary. More often than not the naked body “reveals” his really massive business interests.

Certain circles have recently turned screen-nudity into a new trade which they are eagerly pursuing. Cinemas in our large cities are screening films which promise “Friends of the Sun” glimpses of paradisial nakedness on naturist “Free Beaches”. Anyone who is not thoroughly scared off by the advertising-posters is certainly cured of all further desire to see “nudist films” after two hours of it in the cramped confines of a cinema-seat.

The reason is not far to seek: all these productions have certain features in common:
a) The colour is absolutely fifth-rate.
b) The plot (if we can use the word in this connection) is idiotic.
c) The nudity is strictly rationed: to comply with the censors’ demands only naked bottoms, side views or frontal pictures of the female breast may be shown.

The latest nudism film is about that now famous “Free beach” called Abyssinia on the Baltic island of Sylt. The feature is short enough, in all conscience, but even at that, nine-tenths has nothing whatever to do with the “Free Beach”. And the rest of the programme is taken up by prize specimens from the cultural “junk shop”.

The wonder is that our “voluntary censorship” releases such films at all, because by doing so they become jointly guilty of deceiving the public at large in ruthlessly cutting cinematic windbags and then allowing public exhibition of the over-exposed remains. Our voluntary censorship should not decide to release films whose lack of taste and inanity exceed certain limits.

Indeed, our Federal German “Morals” in puncto “film-nakedness” are really highly questionable. One can see this by comparing the “nudist films” exhibited publicly in commercial cinemas and the official films of the German FKK (naturist movement) shown publicly in local halls or university lecture-rooms. Anyone who wishes may go to see the latter and announcements about them appear regularly in the press and on the bill-boards.

These naturist films show human beings jumping around entirely naked and indulging their high spirits in the sunshine “warts and all”. No parts of the body are taboo here: nothing has fallen foul of a pedantic censor or his moral scissors. The colours are uniformly excellent and the plots, if slight, are not idiotic. A double moral standard is, obviously, being applied. The truncated and approved films released by the Voluntary Censorship have an embarrassing and ludicrous effect, while the official naturist films showing complete are not only natural but even elevating. There is nothing in the world offensive about nudity seen against proper backgrounds that is in the bounds of nature. This also applies to nakedness in films produced against such a background. But nudity does definitely become offensive when inane films are made and then butchered by the censor’s outstretched scissors. The Federal German Censorship Authorities should put on their thinking caps about this and other manifestations of false morality. They should ponder the fact their “Voluntary Film Controllers” have been swallowing the “double think”, hook, line and sinker. They might also with profit ponder on the “war”, “sweet life”, and “crime” films with which we are being deluged.

One gets the impression nowadays that the German cinema considers morality to be less an affair of avoiding things calculated to arouse base passions (especially in the young) than a mere question of how many inches of uncovered human flesh may be exhibited on the screen”.

Ewald Stroh

We feel sure that our readers will agree with the conclusions reached by this German newspaper.

FKK May 1963

(Source: Sun and Health, International Edition, Vol. 27, No. 11, November 1963)