Paul Raymond's Erotica (1981) User Reviews

Document of an era

[clark-43 · 19 January 2003]

"Paul Raymond's Erotica" mainly documents nude-dancing routines at Raymond's London cabarets in the early '80s; which took the shticks of Paris's Crazy Horse club and turned up the gloss and the explicitness. The women strip out of fancy costumes and perform energetic, athletic moves on stage, some of which seem to be inspired by the disco-aerobics fad. The women dance alone, in groups, and sometimes with nude men. These numbers are interspersed with the story of Brigitte Lahaie as a French reporter learning to become a Raymond dancer-model, and having softcore sex scenes with almost everybody she meets (except Mr. Raymond). One of these scenes, in a sauna, features what might be the first on-screen erection in British film history.