Pornorama (4½ Stars)

The film takes place at the end of the 1960's in Munich. Germany is being shaken by terrorism, and students are protesting in all large cities. Bennie (Tom Schilling) is a 20-year-old boy who wants to become a film director. His only way to get started is to join the police force and work as a cameraman filming demonstrations. The film then tells two separate but interwoven stories.

In the first story, Bennie's older brother Freddie (Benno Fürmann) suggests an easy way to make millions. Bennie should direct a "sex education film" like the ones just becoming popular in Germany. (An example is the series of Schoolgirl Report films that I've frequently reviewed in this blog). A friend who owns a pizzeria will fund the film, as long as his friend Gina can have the main role. The film will show how women get sexually aroused by using the pedals of a sewing machine. It seems easy, until Bennie finds out that Gina doesn't speak a word of German. It gets worse when Gina refuses to get undressed for the sex scenes.

The second story is a love affair between Bennie and a student he meets while filming a demonstration, Luzie (Karoline Herfurth). It's a difficult relationship; he's a policeman, she's a Communist, he's a virgin, she's sexually experienced. Bennie persuades Luzie to star in the film, but he doesn't let her know it's a sex film. He presents it to her as a protest film against bourgeois morality.

The film is a comedy, but it still captures the essence of the soft porn films of the 1970's. The truth is sometimes funnier than fiction.

I realise that I've watched three films starring Karoline Herfurth in one day. It wasn't originally planned that way, but after watching two I thought I might as well add a third. Why not? She's a brilliant actress, and she's beautiful too!