Lasse Braun
Encyclopedia
Lasse Braun is an Italian pornographer, film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and researcher.
composed by Klaus Schulze
) were shown at the Cannes film festival
. Braun accumulated the funds for these lavish productions from the profit gained with so-called loops, ten-minute hardcore
movies sold to Reuben Sturman
, who distributed them to 60,000 American peep show
booths.
Having withdrawn from the world of pornography out of disappointment with the purely commercial approach of American distributors and the resulting inferiority of video
productions, Braun has dedicated himself to writing scientific works on sexology
(L'impeto di Venere, dealing with the G-spot
) and on anthropology
, erotic historical novels such as Lady Caligula
(both in English
and his native tongue, Italian
), erotic thrillers, a study of prostitution
, and his autobiography
.
, following in his father's footsteps. Having passed all of his Law
exams at the State University of Milan
(1956–63), he prepared the defense of his doctoral dissertation
entitled Judiciary Censorship in the Western World, but its contents and underlying radical ideas provoked so much controversy that it was promptly dismissed. An MP
from Denmark
translated it into Danish
however, thus laying the foundation for the legalisation of pornography in Denmark on 4 June 1969.
Braun places himself firmly in the tradition of 18th century pornographers such as Restif de la Bretonne, who was the first author to coin the word "pornography" in his plea for the institutionalisation of brothel
s in Le Pornographe (1769) and to describe a comprehensive range of sexual variations in L'Anti-Justine ou les Délices de l'Amour (1798).
Another source of inspiration consists of the Priapistic
rituals and orgiastic festivals of the Dionysus
cult, as well as ceremonies in veneration of Aphrodite
Πὀρνὴ (Porne), the goddess
of Lust and patroness of courtesans. According to Braun, censorship
itself is obscene, and the suppression of sexual desire by the political and religious establishment over the centuries has only led to psychological damage and frustration.
In his 740-page novel Lady Caligula, Braun goes against the grain by portraying Caligula as a brilliant character, instead of the deranged emperor
described in Edward Gibbon
's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and in I, Claudius
.
's Spain
and Pompidou
's France
. He continually changed his nationality, used various aliases (Stuart Falcon, Alberto Ferro, Charles de Rossi, Miguel Dospassos, Al Harvey, among others) and moved from residence to residence to avoid being arrested. He used his father's Corps Diplomatique numberplates to smuggle his pornographic materials in the shape of movies, magazines and novels from country to country. After immersing himself in the technical side of cinematography
in Sweden
for a year, Braun set up his own studio in Copenhagen
.
Two years later, he moved to the Dutch town of Breda
, where he bought an old meat factory, to be renovated as his headquarters. Using photogenic women he had become acquainted with in European bars and discothèques, the polyglot
Braun produced his longer movies starring the German-American Brigitte Maier, the voluptuous Frenchwoman Nathalie Morin, and Catherine Ringer
.
Braun's movies differ markedly from the traditional so-called stag films made from 1916 onwards; storylines featuring Viking
invasions, James Bond
spoofs, and exotic locales such as Caribbean
islands, the Dutch castle
of Groeneveld and an Amsterdam
art gallery
, not to mention props such as chocolate cake, champagne and bananas contribute to a more playful and relaxed atmosphere than commonly seen in this inherently limited genre.
After his French Blue had been shown at the Amsterdam cinema of City 2 from June until December 1977, Braun was offered a five-year contract to extend its run along with Sensations, but the Catholic
Minister of Justice Dries van Agt terminated the public showing of pornographic movies by reintroducing an 1880 Law concerning fire hazard at public theatres that happened to contain more than fifty seats. Disillusioned, Braun decamped to Italy, where he made a number of softporn movies. Facing several lawsuits on charges of obscenity, Braun countered by arguing that recording the licit act of consensual sex on film could not be condemned as illicit. His only known son, Axel Braun
, continued the family trade in America, after obtaining a doctorate in Psychology.
In 1980, Lasse Braun's former wife burnt the entire photo and movie archive out of fear for an impending police raid, but Braun has managed to retrieve three major movies and thirty short films with the help of collectors, and re-mastered the collection on DVD
. He appeared in the television
series Pornography: A Secret History of Civilisation (1999) and in a documentary about himself, I, the King of Porn ... the Adventurous Life of Lasse Braun (2001).
interspersed with 30 short films from 1961-77 (2008)
Introduction
Two of Braun's films, Sensations and Body Love, (featuring a soundtrackSoundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
composed by Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.-1970s:In...
) were shown at the Cannes film festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. Braun accumulated the funds for these lavish productions from the profit gained with so-called loops, ten-minute hardcore
Hardcore pornography
Hardcore pornography is a form of pornography that features explicit sexual acts. The term was coined in the second half of the 20th century to distinguish it from softcore pornography. It usually takes the form of photographs, often displayed in magazines or on the Internet, or films. It can also...
movies sold to Reuben Sturman
Reuben Sturman
Reuben Sturman was an American pornographer and businessman from Ohio. He was featured as a subject in Eric Schlosser's 2003 book on underground economies Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market....
, who distributed them to 60,000 American peep show
Peep show
A peep show or peepshow is an exhibition of pictures, objects or people viewed through a small hole or magnifying glass. Though historically a peep show was a form of entertainment provided by wandering showmen, nowadays it more commonly refers a presentation of a sex show or pornographic film...
booths.
Having withdrawn from the world of pornography out of disappointment with the purely commercial approach of American distributors and the resulting inferiority of video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
productions, Braun has dedicated himself to writing scientific works on sexology
Sexology
Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behavior, and function. The term does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sex, such as political analysis or social criticism....
(L'impeto di Venere, dealing with the G-spot
G-spot
The Gräfenberg Spot, often called the G-Spot, is a bean-shaped area of the vagina. Many women report that it is an erogenous zone which, when stimulated, can lead to strong sexual arousal, powerful orgasms and female ejaculation...
) and on anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
, erotic historical novels such as Lady Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
(both in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and his native tongue, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
), erotic thrillers, a study of prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, and his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
.
Historical background
Born into a wealthy, aristocratic Italian family, Braun was destined to become a diplomatDiplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
, following in his father's footsteps. Having passed all of his Law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
exams at the State University of Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
(1956–63), he prepared the defense of his doctoral dissertation
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
entitled Judiciary Censorship in the Western World, but its contents and underlying radical ideas provoked so much controversy that it was promptly dismissed. An MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
from Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
translated it into Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
however, thus laying the foundation for the legalisation of pornography in Denmark on 4 June 1969.
Braun places himself firmly in the tradition of 18th century pornographers such as Restif de la Bretonne, who was the first author to coin the word "pornography" in his plea for the institutionalisation of brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
s in Le Pornographe (1769) and to describe a comprehensive range of sexual variations in L'Anti-Justine ou les Délices de l'Amour (1798).
Another source of inspiration consists of the Priapistic
Priapus
In Greek mythology, Priapus or Priapos , was a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his absurdly oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term priapism...
rituals and orgiastic festivals of the Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
cult, as well as ceremonies in veneration of Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....
Πὀρνὴ (Porne), the goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
of Lust and patroness of courtesans. According to Braun, censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
itself is obscene, and the suppression of sexual desire by the political and religious establishment over the centuries has only led to psychological damage and frustration.
In his 740-page novel Lady Caligula, Braun goes against the grain by portraying Caligula as a brilliant character, instead of the deranged emperor
Emperor
An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...
described in Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon was an English historian and Member of Parliament...
's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and in I, Claudius
I, Claudius
I, Claudius is a novel by English writer Robert Graves, written in the form of an autobiography of the Roman Emperor Claudius. As such, it includes history of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty and Roman Empire, from Julius Caesar's assassination in 44 BC to Caligula's assassination in AD 41...
.
Movie career
From 1961 onwards, Braun took considerable personal risks by producing hardcore movies in FrancoFrancisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
's Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Pompidou
Georges Pompidou
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...
's France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He continually changed his nationality, used various aliases (Stuart Falcon, Alberto Ferro, Charles de Rossi, Miguel Dospassos, Al Harvey, among others) and moved from residence to residence to avoid being arrested. He used his father's Corps Diplomatique numberplates to smuggle his pornographic materials in the shape of movies, magazines and novels from country to country. After immersing himself in the technical side of cinematography
Cinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
for a year, Braun set up his own studio in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
.
Two years later, he moved to the Dutch town of Breda
Breda
Breda is a municipality and a city in the southern part of the Netherlands. The name Breda derived from brede Aa and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. As a fortified city, the city was of strategic military and political significance...
, where he bought an old meat factory, to be renovated as his headquarters. Using photogenic women he had become acquainted with in European bars and discothèques, the polyglot
Polyglot (person)
A polyglot is someone with a high degree of proficiency in several languages. A bilingual person can speak two languages fluently, whereas a trilingual three; above that the term multilingual may be used.-Hyperpolyglot:...
Braun produced his longer movies starring the German-American Brigitte Maier, the voluptuous Frenchwoman Nathalie Morin, and Catherine Ringer
Catherine Ringer
Catherine Ringer is a French singer, musician, songwriter, dancer, choreographer, and actress.Ringer started her professional career on stage in the late 1970s in productions with Michael Lonsdale's Théâtre de Recherche Musicale as well as musical and dance productions...
.
Braun's movies differ markedly from the traditional so-called stag films made from 1916 onwards; storylines featuring Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
invasions, James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
spoofs, and exotic locales such as Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
islands, the Dutch castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
of Groeneveld and an Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
art gallery
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
, not to mention props such as chocolate cake, champagne and bananas contribute to a more playful and relaxed atmosphere than commonly seen in this inherently limited genre.
After his French Blue had been shown at the Amsterdam cinema of City 2 from June until December 1977, Braun was offered a five-year contract to extend its run along with Sensations, but the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
Minister of Justice Dries van Agt terminated the public showing of pornographic movies by reintroducing an 1880 Law concerning fire hazard at public theatres that happened to contain more than fifty seats. Disillusioned, Braun decamped to Italy, where he made a number of softporn movies. Facing several lawsuits on charges of obscenity, Braun countered by arguing that recording the licit act of consensual sex on film could not be condemned as illicit. His only known son, Axel Braun
Axel Braun
Axel Braun is an Italian adult film producer and director. He is the son of Lasse Braun, who was among the first to successfully campaign for the legalization of pornography in Europe. He has directed over 400 movies since 1990 Braun's movie Batman XXX: A Porn Parody was the best-selling and...
, continued the family trade in America, after obtaining a doctorate in Psychology.
In 1980, Lasse Braun's former wife burnt the entire photo and movie archive out of fear for an impending police raid, but Braun has managed to retrieve three major movies and thirty short films with the help of collectors, and re-mastered the collection on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. He appeared in the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series Pornography: A Secret History of Civilisation (1999) and in a documentary about himself, I, the King of Porn ... the Adventurous Life of Lasse Braun (2001).
Trivia
- Lasse Braun is the first European movie director to have been inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame by Adult Video News.
- His son, Axel BraunAxel BraunAxel Braun is an Italian adult film producer and director. He is the son of Lasse Braun, who was among the first to successfully campaign for the legalization of pornography in Europe. He has directed over 400 movies since 1990 Braun's movie Batman XXX: A Porn Parody was the best-selling and...
, followed in his footsteps becoming the only other European movie director to have been inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame by Adult Video News in 2011.
Partial filmography
- French Blue/Sensations/Body Love
interspersed with 30 short films from 1961-77 (2008)
- Night and Day
- Possession
- Intrique (1999)
- Diamonds Are for Pleasure (1996)
- Tender Blue Eyes (1992)
- Zozzerie di una moglie in calore (1989)
- American Desire (1981)
- Sex Maniacs (1977)
- Body Love (1977)
- Love Inferno (1977)
- Satin Party (1977)
- Sensations (1975)
- French Blue (1974)
- Close-Up (1973)
- Cake Orgy (1972)
Quotations
- "I believe pornography is at the center of the biggest cultural revolution of our century."
- " I make porn movies for two reasons: first of all because I'm fond of sex and secondly because it is forbidden."