French porn director Jean-Daniel Cadinot once said that while his parents, both tailors, were in the business of clothing men, he earned his reputation undressing them.

Cadinot died of a heart attack on April 23, at the age of 64, and with 66 films to his name. He would have continued to create more beautiful pornography if he'd lived longer, says Cadinot's representative James Coates, who also says that Cadinot was working on a screenplay about a gay Indiana Jones in Tunisia's Roman ruins when he died.

"Daniel was always unsatisfied with his work and, like many artists, always had his doubts," reveals Coates, in a burst of typically French-style analysis. The period after a significant boyfriend's tragic death in 1986, for instance, left Cadinot unhappy with his films. Yet many scenes were autobiographic, says Coates. "L'Amour Jaloux revealed parts of his personal love stories," he says, adding that after the death of his lover, filmmaking became Cadinot's best friend. 

Each Cadinot film featured an army of gorgeous French and North African men, although none of them were ever 'porn stars', nor did they go on to attain such status. While his website still has a casting call for models aged 18 to 28 years, most of the actors he used - and he used a different set for each film - approached him seeking a role. "We put ads in one or two magazines but most of the time they saw a film and contacted us directly," says Coates. Unlike many others involved in the industry, Cadinot would rarely have sex with an actor - unless, of course, they were particularly interested in him.

Coates thinks that Cadinot's technique can be seen in gay productions today: "George Duroy told him he (got his style from Cadinot) when they met for the first time in Paris last year," he says. "We've also seen many other films that reminded us of Cadinot films: Russel T. Davies cited Service Actif 1 and 2 as must-sees for eroticism in the original (and best) Queer as Folk."

Cadinot's camerawork was considered to be obsessively voyeuristic, and he upset critics when he filmed a rape scene in in Les Minets Sauvages, in which actor Didier Hamel played a painfully shy loner who gets gang-raped at a boys' school. But fantasies cannot be explained, insists Coates: "Some people love it, others hate it. The point is that in some countries some Cadinot films could not be sold officially because of non-consensual sex and Daniel always refused to cut even a second to comply with the censors. He always wanted to show human nature just the way it is - without compromise."

Cadinot never particulary enjoyed citing a personal favourite from his 66-strong film collection, but Coates is nostalgic about the fresh late-teen appearance of the early films. "Today's boys look more mature," he says. "Sexuality and gayness have evolved tremendously over the years, and the boys look less shy and candid than they did before. Dialogue and gesture have become more crude and to try and make models behave just as they did in the '80s would be ridiculous or anachronistic. I have fond memories of Crescendo and Secrets de Famille. With these two films, we had the chance to bring together all the cast in one location. We all lived together for three weeks for each film. There was a lot of fun and friendliness, and some extra scenes off-camera which I will always remember."

Like Pauline Hanson, who recorded an "If you are watching this, I am dead" video at the height of her unpopularity, Cadinot wrote a letter entitled "My Final Bow" to post on his website when he died. In the letter he writes: "I leave you with a free mind and a head overflowing with a myriad of young men, sometimes strong and vigorous, sometimes fragile and sensitive. All of them gave me these unforgettable moments of their most tender intimacy, moments that only a few really know but which I made into images to allow you to admire them over and over again." He goes on to describe himself as "an extreme observer" who was "full of love".

He was full of love but his heart was weak, says Coates: "He had already suffered several heart attacts, the last being last year. He was too energetic and nervous - and this must have killed him," he says.

by DANNY CORVINI

Images courtesy French Art
(c) Jean Daniel Cadinot
www.cadinot.fr