The raunchy sci-fi Quentin Tarantino called “one of my favourite sexploitation movies”
For someone who doesn’t like the idea of shooting sex scenes and hasn’t found the need to incorporate any notable acts of hanky panky into his movies, Quentin Tarantino sure has an odd fascination with the sexploitation subgenre.
Unless you’re into feet, and we’re not here to judge, the two-time Academy Award winner’s filmography has never been what anyone would call titillating, despite his career-long insistence that ample screentime must be dedicated to at least one extended shot of a female character’s bare toes.
Despite that, he’s always had a soft, or hard, spot for one of cinema’s kinkiest subgenres. Tarantino was genuinely devastated as a youth to discover that the ‘Golden Age of Porn’ and the campy, sleazy flicks that became Russ Meyer’s trademark were only a short-term fad, and not the ushering in of a new era.
As much as any reasonable person would prefer not to think about a fresh-faced Tarantino sitting by himself in a theatre watching films with voluminous amounts of copulation and heavy petting, hopefully keeping those hands where the usher could see them, some left a more lasting impression than others.
His name may not be well-known in cinephile circles, but Derek Ford was a key figure in the rise of the raunchy British comedy in the 1960s. Knowing his audience, he’d shoot two different versions of his pictures; one that could make it past the stiff upper lips, and other body parts, of the British censors, and a more uninhibited version that would be played on the more liberal European circuit.
The term ‘magnum opus’ probably doesn’t apply, but as far as sci-fi sexploitation goes, Tarantino can’t see past Ford’s 1975 caper, The Girl from Starship Venus, as the pinnacle. It was released in the UK as the more on-the-nose The Sexplorer, and re-released as the equally self-explanatory Diary of a Space Virgin, but the Reservoir Dogs creator only knows it by its American moniker.
Upon launching the Grindhouse Fest, a celebration of all things cult cinema to tie in with the release of his career’s most ignominious failure, the auteur held special praise for Ford’s farce, declaring that “one of my favourite sexploitation movies is by the British director, Derek Ford, The Girl from Starship Venus.”
Where did he find a print of a 1975 sex comedy that finds an alien from Venus making its maiden visit to planet Earth and discovering the pleasures of sex in all of its various forms? It was from his personal collection, of course. Not only that, but Tarantino said he “can’t even believe he is lucky enough” to own a copy of his very own.
He’s allowed to like what he likes, but even for a self-proclaimed cinephile who seems to have seen almost everything under the sun, a mid-70s British sexploitation sci-fi is a deep cut.
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