As Nature Intended

28-08-2023

Put it on the table - as nature intended!

This will be a massive theme week, with 20 films already on Cultpix and nine films and four compilations uploaded during the week!

From the 1930s through today, filmmakers have exploited, documented, and argued for nudism.

The nudist film genre is associated with the 1950s and 1960s, although it has roots dating back to the 1930s.

Because of censorship laws, the only legal way of showing some skin was naturist quasi-documentary films. They generally claimed to depict the lifestyles of members of the nudism movement - but were mainly a vehicle for the exhibition and commercial exploitation of female nudity.

Censorship was severe at the time, but a number of naturist documentaries were produced during the 1930’s. The films didn’t play in ordinary cinemas, but were reserved for private clubs, “roadshow” screenings and distribution in less prudish European countries.

During the 1950’s, the nudist film really exploded onto the screen. The breakthrough came in 1953, when the American film Garden of Eden was passed by the BBFC in the UK. The same film was the subject of a 1957 court case in America, where it was established that nudity per se was not obscene. Suddenly, the floodgates were open.

The plots were pretty similar – shy girls visit a nudist colony, cast off their clothes and become sun worshippers. To keep with the documentary feel, most films had a narrator. The characters did everyday stuff, strolling around with handbags, beachballs or newspapers held in front of their groins, because genitalia were still forbidden on the silver screen.

No nudity was allowed outside of the actual naturist area – and no kissing, fondling or groping could be contemplated. This was much in line with the nudist organizations, who always denied that there could be any sexual element to strutting around in the nude. The naturist filmmakers wanted to maintain an air of respectability to the films. A popular trick was to gain the approval of a bona fide naturist group.

In America, Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F Friedman started their careers making nudies. Doris Wishman was America’s most prolific nudist filmmaker. When the market for straight-forward nudist camp films began to decline, she injected new life into the genre with Nude on the Moon.

The arrival of storylines in the films heralded the move away from straight-forward naturist films and the birth of the nudie cutie genre. These films were the forerunners of the soft-core sexploitation films that emerged during the mid Sixties, and gave cinemagoers the opportunity to finally see bare breasts and a plotline in the same film.

Soon, the naturist film was in terminal decline. Now nudity was available elsewhere. By the middle of the decade, naturist films were all but dead.

The appeal today isn’t erotic at all – but the nudist film deserves to be remembered as both pioneering and very much of its time. And they were seen as quite subversive, as they rejected a lot of the morals of the time.

Nudist themed films already on Cultpix:

ALL OF ME

AS NATURE INTENDED

BELL BARE AND BEAUTIFUL

BLAZE STARR GOES NUDIST

B-O-I-N-N-G!

DAUGHTER OF THE SUN

DIARY OF A NUDIST

GARDEN OF EDEN

GENTLEMEN PREFER NATURE GIRLS

GIRLS COME TOO

GOLDILOCKS & THE THREE BARES