Film Directors' Erotic Fantasies

Eight of the world's great film makers portray their sexual visions for playboy

Unfortunately, due to film censorship and other restrictions, many of the world's foremost directors rarely get the opportunity to express their own erotic fantasies on celluloid. So we approached some of the master film makers with the notion of shooting for us what they can't or simply haven't put on film. The directors involved supervised the shootings much as they would a film, and two--Gordon Parks and Jerry Schatzberg--did their own photography as well. As you'll see, the results are all fairly characteristic of each director's particular cinematic style.

Federico Fellini--La Dolce Vita, 8-1/2, Casanova: When asked to comment on his fantasy photo, Fellini quipped, "Why do you need a comment? The picture speaks for itself." But, in conversations with Playboy's film critic, Bruce Williamson, Fellini explained that he simply found amusing the idea of two little priests (played by Alvaro Vitali and Luigi Leone) flying a kite at the shore and discovering a voluptuous goddess (Renata Schmidt) at the other end of the line. Fellini added that he wasn't sure what it all meant.

Louis Malle--Murmur of the Heart, Lacombe, Lucien: "When Playboy requested a photo that would express my personal vision of eroticism, I sent a shot of my two-year-old daughter, Justine, naked. This led to the photos above, of Brooke Shields, whom I cast in the title role of my new film, Pretty Baby, in which she plays the daughter of a prostitute trained to follow her mother's path. Pretty Baby does not deal with hasty conclusions about the much-in-the-news topic of child prostitution. Rather, it is a look at the chaotic world of adults seen through the eyes of a young girl."

Michelangelo Antonioni--L'Avventura, Blow-Up: "When I was asked for an erotic fantasy, strangely, I kept mentally fondling the idea of mountains. I say strangely because nature is dramatic or pleasant or idyllic, not erotic. But I was thinking of a landscape in human form, mountains or dunes that might be erotic. I have put much love and rapture into shaping these images. It is difficult to imagine anything erotic that is somehow not related to the body of a woman. Yet even in this landscape, there is a touch of enigma."

Roger Vadim--And God Created Woman, Pretty Maids All in a Row: "When I was 11, I took lessons in classical ballet. At the time, I was in love with two sisters--one blonde, one dark. I had written for them the theme of a ballet that we'd rehearsed at home. One day, my dog tore off the tutu of the brunette, but she continued to dance, nevertheless. It was one of the first erotic emotions of my life."

Jerry Schatzberg--The Panic in Needle Park, Scarecrow: "I've worked with women all of my career--first as a fashion photographer, then as a film maker--and I've always fantasized that a woman is really more than one individual, that each woman is really a combination of different women. Fellini expressed this idea in 8-1/2 and I did to a certain extent in my first film."

Sam Peckinpah--The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs: "Ah, the Dragon Lady! I was a Marine at 17 in Canton, China, walking down a dim, dirty alley, when I passed a striking, exotic Oriental beauty dressed in Western clothes. Her perfume caressed me for 50 yards, blotting out the stink of the street. Later, I saw her enter the quarters of my colonel. Lying on my bunk, I dreamed she slipped into my room, undressed herself and me. Years later, the aroma is still fresh."

Gordon Parks--The Learning Tree, Shaft: "I was only ten then, but I remember the cyclone twisting violently over the Kansas plains. Big Mabel had found me in the fields, hurt and terrified. She carried me back to the safety of my father's slaughterhouse, calmed me, undressed me and tended my wounds. To warm me, she pulled me hard against her naked body and soon her warmth brought a hardness to my groin--a hardness I had never felt before. She felt it, too, rolled over on her back and pulled me on top of her. And though the storm blew on, it was not long before I completely forgot the blowing. This photo is a fantasy of that remembrance."

Richard Brooks--In Cold Blood, Looking for Mr. Goodbar: "Sex during a crisis heightens intellectual and tactile sexuality rarely experienced under normal conditions. The urgency of the situation motivates the need for immediate intimacy. The chemistry, without words, must say, 'Now!' My fantasy girl, in this situation, is always partially clothed. Her eyes are taunting--an air of mystery--we care not for names or personal history. Her desire stems from a necessity for selfish pleasure. This fantasy of mine arose while was working on the script of Key Largo, when a hurricane struck the Florida Keys."

© 1977 Maureen Lambray

© 1977 Maureen Lambray

© 1977 Maureen Lambray

© 1977 Maureen Lambray