You just can’t beat 70’s soft-core porn for elegance, am I right?
But seriously, folks… I love the simplicity and elegance of this image. With bare (no pun intended) black-and-white and the use of “negative space” to imply the rest of this, uhm…obedient woman, it creates a much more indelible and, yes, sexier image than if it were rendered in color and with more skin.
It tricks you into thinking you are seeing more than you are.
Check out the one small line that gives us the shape of her hips and bottom. The swell of her breast. Her collarbone and elongated neck – which, like her arm and feet tucked under her, tell us she is at full attention and looking up at somebody. And is it my imagination or can we actually see goosebumps on her upper thigh? It could just be my dirty mind, but I don’t think so. You can almost feel her breathing.
It’s beautifully done.
The movie, by the way, although dated and deliberately ridiculous, is actually the best erotica from that Golden Era or arty raincoat films. It’s much better (read: hotter) than the better-known Emmanuelle. Which also has a classic poster…but I’ll save that for another time. This is a fucking family blog.
Here’s the “B”-style poster I didn’t know about until Google showed it to me…
Yeah, a little more on show there…
And see, not quite as effective, right? Good, but a little obvious.
Not to mention, it introduces a possible new Sherlock Holmes case: “The Mystery Of The Missing Nipples”.
Ahhh, but that chin. That saves it.
Uhm…where was I? Oh yeah, Elmore Leonard died.