Nudity in Film - Early Films: The Silent Era

Early Films: The Silent Era

The first films containing nudity were the early erotic films. Production of such films commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture. Two of the earliest pioneers were Frenchmen Eugène Pirou and Albert Kirchner. Kirchner (under the name "Léar") directed such films for Pirou. The 7-minute 1899 film Le Coucher de la Mariee had Louise Willy performing a bathroom striptease. Other French filmmakers also considered that profits could be made from this type of risqué films, showing women disrobing.

In Austria, Johann Schwarzer formed his Saturn-Film production company which between 1906 and 1911 produced 52 erotic productions, each of which contained young local women fully nude, to be shown at men-only theatre nights (called Herrenabende). Before Schwarzer's productions, erotic films were provided by the Pathé brothers from French produced sources. These films were promoted as erotic and artistic, rather than pornographic, but in 1911, Saturn was dissolved by the censorship authorities and its films destroyed. However, copies of at least a half of the films have been found in private hands. Filmarchiv Austria has included four of Schwarzer's works on the Europa Film Treasures site: Das Sandbad (1906), Baden Verboten (1906), Das Eitle Stubenmädchen (1908) and Beim Fotografen (1908).

Inspiration, a silent film released in 1915, is believed to be the first American motion picture with a leading actor in a nude scene. The context of the nudity in the film was that of an artist's model, played by Audrey Munson, at work. Munson appeared nude again in a similar role in the 1916 film Purity. A feature of these films was that Munson was a tableau vivant, not being required to move, and only her backside was in view. Annette Kellerman, the famous Australian swimming star, appeared fully nude in an active role in Fox's A Daughter of the Gods in 1916. Though shot from the front, most of Kellerman's torso is covered by her long hair. Kellerman had appeared in several lost films prior to 1912, but whether she did nude scenes in them is unknown. A couple of her films from 1910, thought to have been lost, have been rediscovered in Australia.

Several early films of the silent era and early sound era include women in nude scenes, presented in a historical or religious context. One such film was the anticlerical Hypocrites (1915), directed by Lois Weber, which contained several sequences with a nude Margaret Edwards appearing (uncredited) as a ghostly apparition representing Truth. Her scenes were created using innovative (for 1915) traveling double exposure sequences which made her appear as a semi-transparent spirit. In 1917, Fox produced the lavish Cleopatra in which Theda Bara wore a number of risqué outfits. Nell Shipman appeared nude in the Canadian film Back to God's Country (1919). Fox produced The Queen of Sheba in 1921 starring Betty Blythe, who displayed ample nudity even when wearing 28 different diaphanous costumes

Years later, when the Hays Code came into force, these films were considered too obscene to be reshown. Most of these films are now lost.

In France, in the 1920s a topless Josephine Baker was filmed performing exotic dance routines for French cinema. The 1922 Swedish/Danish silent horror film Häxan contained nude scenes, torture and sexual perversion. The film was banned in the U.S and had to be edited before it was shown in other countries. The 1929 Russian film Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov featured nudity within the context of naturism.