Kär-lek, så gör vi: Brev till Inge och Sten

Pioneer pornographer Torgny Wickman followed his successful white coaters (including LANGUAGE OF LOVE) with this variation on the theme: more closely resembling "reality" programs like "An American Family". It's well done, even the fake parts.

My bias is a bit different, since I consider all the recent Reality TV shows as fake. But back in the early days of feature-length porn there was never any question about ersatz, since porn performers were the talent pool.

That's the case with LOVE-PLAY, with an obvious segment starring the team of Jack Frank and Kim Frank. They were popular explicit sex performers who made several XXX films for director Mac Ahlberg, and their explicit scene here is more of the same.

The bulk of LOVE-PLAY is well-lensed (by future Bergman cinematographer Tony Forsberg) and concerns a family of four, viewed vérité style going about their normal life. They are presented as healthy, not nudists but often nude, and basically well-adjusted. It helps present sex in an open-minded context.

There is a segment about lesbianism, but generally the film is not sensational-minded. Of course, the inevitable visit to a live-sex show provides the usual sexploitation/mondo content, but even then the mixed audience reaction does not seem as smutty as the typical presentation (of dirty-old men types) one gets in American or British movies.

Wickman is best known nowadays for his Christina Lindberg starrer ANITA: Swedish NYMPHET and his trail-blazing combo porn/horror opus FEAR HAS 1000 EYES. I like his final film PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, and these early fake-docus are also worth a look.