What is it about that book? . One of the last films that was directed by Johan Schwarzer is the creator of Austrian cinema and popularizer of the erotic genre. By 1910, many films of different genres, plots and some author's styles had already accumulated, but Schwarzer's films lacked the most typical and expected plot - the one that reflects the title of the film.
Now we have a lot of candid content on the Internet, but in 1910, not even magazines of the appropriate direction appeared. But literature with sensual content arose in the Renaissance. One of these books, apparently, was at the disposal of a rich lady, who helps undress a maid. By the way, in the candid films of 1897-1910, the theme of class inequality is often raised. Handmaids, who in most cases are funny or ugly, serve their mistresses, who are both better dressed and look like models for ancient sculptors. The XIX century was a whole era, the ideology of which ended only with the beginning of the First World War.
In previous films, Schwarzer limited himself to the fact that the heroines simply undressed, but here he still went further, showing how the reader receives sensual pleasure from self-satisfaction after a cursory reading. Despite the appearance of the actress, who is far from today’s standards of beauty, the film is perceived quite exciting. Now we do not have accurate data, but it is assumed that at the same time in Argentina and other countries already filmed tapes and more frankly, so it is unlikely that “exciting reading” was any breakthrough in “educational” terms. But aesthetically, like other works of Schwarzer.
More than a hundred years have passed since the director’s films were shown in private. The world has changed, but our nature still pushes us to the topic of sex, which is still not removed all taboos.
7 out of 10