All the Sins of Sodom

Joseph Sarno – 1968 – USA

One of nine films Sarno made in 1968 alone, All the Sins of Sodom profiles a moody photographer struggling to bring his artistic vision to life with a small group of female models, all of whom he gets to pose nude and goes to bed with. As much as Swedish films like I Am Curious, Sarno emulated Antonioni’s arthouse hit Blow Up too, even to the point (I’m assuming) of naming his predatory photographer character ‘Henning’ after the star of Blow Up, David Hemmings. While it never seemed to occur to Sarno to reproduce the quality acting he saw in foreign films - (this one has some of the worst acting ever), at least he tried to replicate their beautiful chiaroscuro photography. Many scenes take place with two actors talking in front of a completely blank background, either a while wall, a photographer's backdrop, or the black void of a dark room at night. This visual aesthetic turns out to be what makes these films most worthwhile after all these years, rather than the nudity and pretend sex scenes common in these pre-porn-era skin flicks.