Just found out the sad news that the classic erotic film-maker and artist Jean-Daniel Cadinot died suddenly at the end of April aged 64.
Heaven knows where I, and a couple of generations of gay men, would be without the sublimely artistic back catalogue of Cadinot's films to make our fantasies come true!
From Scouts in the early 80s, through Chaleurs (a treasured early video I had hidden under my bed), Minets Sauvages, Charmant Cousins, Service Actif, Expérience Inédite, Gamins de Paris and the rest, to the Hammam series of the 2000s - all were beautifully cast, filmed and directed to get the best from every scene. It was rare back then, and it is still is rare today to find a gay cinematographer with such a singular "way" with making p*rn that really works.
On his website was posted a message evidently prepared by Cadinot to be published in the event of his death:
"Dear friends, critics and others,R.I.P.
"If you're reading these words I will have put down my camera, switched off the lights, drawn the curtains and taken my final bow. May all the efforts and work of a whole life, the quest for the moment of pure truth in the sublime communion of two beings under the spell of the undefinable desire for the other, inspire those who inherit my heart.
"The human being is made such that it only remembers the good and the beautiful, therefore I leave you with a free mind and a head overflowing with a myriad of young men, sometimes strong and vigorous, sometimes fragile and sensitive. All of them gave me these unforgettable moments of their most tender intimacy, moments that only a few really know but which I made in to images to allow you to admire them over and over again.
"Never were success or personal fortune my creed. You offered me gratitude, and I thank you for that because I wanted nothing else. Cadinot salutes you. Remember a kindly fellow, an extreme observer given to rages and contradiction but who listened to others and was full of love.
"An erect phallus is a symbol of life, a cross a symbol of death."
