Stav Sherez – a man to whom attention must be paid – on Sex and Film in the Catholic Herald
Sex and Film by Barry Forshaw (Palgrave, £19.99). Despite the title, this is a sober, academic and fascinating look at cinema’s tug-of-war with the erotic on one hand and the censors on the other. Forshaw knows his stuff and presents an intriguing history of film, from the puritanical 1930s to the Hays Code and the transgression of boundaries in post-war European arthouse film. Taking in Mary Whitehouse and Russ Meyer and tracing a line that reflects society’s changing views on sexuality, this is a thorough look at exploitation, politics and gender.
