- The films of Jean-Daniel Cadinot
One of gay adult erotica's greatest masters is gone. Jean-Daniel Cadinot passed away on April 23, 2008 of an apparent heart attack. We were always ardent admirers of his work - some of which ranks in the all-time top echelon of gay adult filmmaking. After the advent of DVD, very few of his films became available for the U.S. market. He never really got his due here (in our opinion) and preferred to only release his films - including his new ones - solely for the European market. We were very proud to work along with him and his original U.S. distributor in launching two of his classics - Sex Bazaar and The Traveling Journeymen, as well as two later ones, Safari City and Double en Jeu. While no others were released for nearly five years, fans seem to be in luck: In September 2010 a new company stepped in and will be bringing more of his films to the U.S. market. We offer this tribute to a man who forever changed the face of gay erotica, and left a mark none of us will soon forget.
© Keeneye Reeves, TLA Entertainment Group
From the Director's Biography, courtesy of Cadinot's personal website:
He was once a "Gamin de Paris" called Daniel, born on 10th February 1944 in Paris' XVII arrondissement. His mother and father were tailors in Batignolles at the bottom of Montmartre. In short, they clothed men... and he would undress them.
Dulled and stymied by his studies but an enormous curiosity, aged 12 he discovered pleasures with boys. A practicing Catholic, Daniel went to confession until the day an over-curious priest made him lose his faith and made religion an enemy.
Aged 16 he discovered photography thanks to Richard Avedon and took evening courses at the Ecole National de Photo. To pay for them, he took millions of little jobs - courier, mail sorting for La Poste, assistant at Studio Valois, photo specialist for the stars of the sixties, DJ in a nightclub, decorator's help at Chez Mapple, shoe seller - that would later feature in his films.
At 20, Daniel established himself as a revolutionary photographer. He created 24x36 portraits. Did they look amateur? Who cares! His dexterity and spontaneity paid him back. He captured rare expressions that a classical photographer couldn't have obtained. His clients: Young soon-to-be well known actors such as Nathalie Baye and the dancer, Zizi Jeanmaire. It was because of a photo of Zizi that the US revue After Dark noticed him. He was their Paris correspondant and it was then that Daniel became Jean-Daniel Cadinot definitively. One is never a prophet in one's own country and France sulked whilst Germany helped him out. Du & Ich and Him were happy to publish his photographs of his passion: stripped young men.
In 1975 the gay world became liberated. Jean-Daniel had the opportunity to edit the first photo-books of male nudes in France. Under the generic title Masculin, 25 albums were published with their own particular ambience, a scenario in 64 pages: Les Anges Pervers, dedicated to Jean Genet, for example. With a run of 250,000 copies, the road was open for cinema.
In 1985, VHS hit the shops. Jean-Daniel made his first films on 16mm film. Today he has nearly a hundred to his name.
A furious perfectionist, his goal to sublimate the beauty of man, exalting in all that is remarkable about him and to make his latent eroticism explode forth in photograph or in action. He has no need for Dr. Freud; analysis and steam-releases are all present in his films. His balance and intellectual pleasures are all there. Despite his provocative airs, Jean-Daniel adored humanity, and men in particular. Cadinot passed away on the 23rd of April, 2008 aged 64 following a heart attack.
Text and photographs © Cadinot/French Art
