After spending three decades in the wilderness, cash-strapped porn director Jacques Laurent (Jean-Pierre Léaud) climbs back into the ring, only to find the rules of the game have changed. In one of the most humiliating wake-up calls of recent years, Laurent arrives on the set of his comeback film to discover his art and romance ideals no longer hold sway; a theme that could have resulted in a compelling feature.
Sadly, Le Pornographe gets bogged down by mundane social/political concerns and a sidebar examining the generational war betwixt father and son hardly helps. Bonello's introduction of a persistent journalist who bags an interview with Laurent would undoubtedly have acted as a decent framing device; indeed, their few snippets of conversation start to get inside the director's head, examining motivations and expectations amidst thirty years of baggage.
Had this occured some 90 minutes earlier, we could well have been hailing the French 'Boogie Nights'. As it stands, the main talking point will be an extremely graphic oral sex scene involving French porn actress Ovidie.
Apart from intermittent bursts of industry humour (and the novelty of seeing Léaud - the kid from Truffaut's 400 Blows -still working), that's your lot!
