User Reviews

A chambermaid is dusting when she discovers a statue of a reclining nude. In order to ascertain.... well, in order to produce a film that will play in a fin de siecle Viennese smoker, she takes off her clothes. In walks the master, who orders her out of the room, whereupon he follows her.

Johann Schwarzer made a bunch of these 'arty' films and about twenty are known of. Several survive in the Viennese film archive. Just as the porn sites were the first profitable sites on the Internet, so these short 'art' films which features naked women were popular products of the infant film industry in Mitteleurope. In one form or another, they remained popular.... and still show up, which, I am sure, will surprise no one.

Another Schwarzer's adventure in trying to explore sexuality through film. This is the most complex in construction of the 3 i've seen.

Start with a studio, a place where a sculptor works. We have, central to that set, a 'statue', which in fact is a real woman performing a statue. This is interesting. Than we have a housemaid, who comes to clean the studio; she sees the 'statue' and mimics it. Since it is a nude statue, she starts to compare her body with that of the statue, which means she explores her body. Now, the way she does this is really erotic, and i imagine it probably had a huge impact on those days audiences. First, she acknowledges the breasts in the statue, she even touches one of them (!!) and she shows one of her own. And them she strips, little by little, until complete nudity. Though her character is alone in that room, she understands the presence of the camera, and does it for it. She does it relatively slowly, to the pace of these short films, allowing us to only see parts of the body until she's over. The moment when she feels the statue's body is made also with an apparent unawareness of the character, but clearly aims at provoking the audience. So it's a level forward regarding the previous films i had seen from this director (Das Sandbad, Bad verboten)

Like in Bad verboten, the man exists as an anti-climax, with moral issues and who kills the erotic environment. In this case, he gives the woman's clothes back so she can get dressed. Nevertheless, he stares at her naked body...

My opinion: 4/5 nicely structured

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Saucy Chambermaid, The (1908)

**** (out of 4)

Another erotic film from Australian studio Saturn Films and director/owner Johann Schwarzer. This time a chambermaid walks into the studio of a sculptor where she notices a statue of a nude woman (being played by a real woman). The chambermaid is interested in who has the better body so she strips off all of her clothes only to be shocked when the sculptor comes back and catches her naked. From what I've read, many fans consider this to be the best work from the studio but it was also one of their most controversial because soon after its release the Catholic Church began efforts to get the studio shut down. This is certainly one of the most delightful and funniest silent films I've seen and it certainly stands out among other "adult" features as it also contains a very well written story. The movie was obviously made to show off female nudity but the added bonus of a screenplay, or at least a story, makes this really stand out from the rest. Original title: Das Eitle Stubenmadchen.