The 70s really were the best decade for cinema, even the porn movies were high quality.

Radley Metzger´s “The Opening of Misty Beethoven” is considered a highlight of the porno chic era, and I can see why. I mean, it was shot ON LOCATION in New York, Paris, and Rome and features great cinematography, masterful editing, a stylized, pretty mise-en-scène, a catchy, inspired score, lots of funky 70s vibes, and even decent enough acting.

I love how this film basically is the porn version of “My Fair Lady”, just much shorter, funnier, and with graphic sex scenes instead of musical numbers. The humor is certainly a highlight of the film. It´s genuinely funny and has some wordplays and sight gags that could come from “Airplane” or similar comedies. One of my favorite scenes is a sex training montage. And then there is the deadpan, lighthearted absurdity of this joyous, sex-positive world where blowjobs are as common as handshakes and where when you book a plane ticket, you´re asked “sex or no sex?”. I would even say that the film pokes fun at its source material, since putting the story in this context clearly exposes its sexist, classist premise. It´s quite telling that the porn version has a more “feminist” ending than the Oscar winner, since here the professor (who like in every version of the story is a paternalistic prick) ends up in a submissive role at the end while Misty ends up running the show.

Well, since this is a porn movie, I also have to talk about the naughty parts. I take a wild guess and say that Radley Metzger is a fan of oral sex, fellatio and cunnilingus, since this is by far the most featured sexual act in the film. That being said, there also are other sex acts, the kinkiest one being a pegging scene (if you see that as a recommendation or a warning is up to you). All in all, I found the movie sufficiently sexy although I would say there is a bigger focus on the humor. Once again, I´m impressed by Metzger´s talent to make his films feel not as sleazy as they objectively are. Personally, I enjoyed “The Opening of Misty Beethoven” as a fun, playful, and surprisingly well-crafted hardcore sex comedy.

I guess the more movies like this I will see the more I will understand the characters in “Boogie Nights” and why they take so much pride in their work. “The Opening of Misty Beethoven” still is what it is….porn….but I appreciate the immense effort to make it seem like more than that. This ambition is something modern porn directors have clearly lost. I mean, how did we go from this to “Help me, stepbrother, I´m stuck”?