Café Flesh
Austrian premiere of the newly restored version
A nuclear calamity splits humanity in two: those who get sick from having sex (99%) and those who can fornicate away unharmed (1%). A live-sex performance culture crystallizes in which the few perform for the many all the way to the bittersweet money shot. But what happens when you constantly watch people fuck? Can pornography have a healing effect? A financial disaster as smut fare, this movie became a cult phenomenon that put asses in the seats of arthouse cinemas for late-night screenings. Café Flesh made Stephen Sayadian the father of new-wave erotica, while Penthouse Pet of the Month for July 1981 and future scream queen Michelle Bauer can be seen in one of her rare pornographic starring roles. A truly historic work! (Olaf Möller)
Stephen Sayadian (b. 1953, aka Rinse Dream) is a multimedia artist. Originally from Austria, he moved to the U.S. in 1970, where he first worked as a creative director for Larry Flynt Publications and designed film-poster imagery and VHS box covers, including for Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill. Sayadian is best known for his three unusual amalgamations of porn, surrealism, and experimental soundscapes, Nightdreams (1981), Café Flesh (1982), and Dr Caligari (1989), which all became cult midnight movies. He continued to make alt-porn films until the early 1990s.
Screenings
