Retro Porn Review - The Violation of Claudia

A significantly less aggressive story than its name would suggest, The Violation of Claudia was William Lustig’s (here under the pseudonym Billy Bagg) first film. The then-21-year-old, who would go on to direct horror and thriller classics like Maniac and Vigilante, started — like other film enthusiasts that came out of the 70s — as a tech and crew member in porn shoots. It was an entry-level gig that allowed him to learn on the job, and it was within the adult industry that he found the funding to venture into a film of his own.

The Violation of Claudia is loosely based on Luis Buñuel’s classic Belle de Jour, in which a bored and neglected young housewife decides to become an afternoon prostitute for the thrills.

The movie stars a young Sharon Mitchell in one of the first roles of her extensively prolific career, as the title character. Feeling neglected by her over-working older husband, the frustrated Claudia often fantasized about sex. So when Kip, her slick tennis instructor/pimp moonlighter, played by (who else, really?) Jamie Gillis, seduces her into the idea of working for him as a daytime prostitute at his apartment/brothel, Claudia manages to keep her afternoons busy and her sexual curiosity sparked.

In her odd first trick, Claudia receives a senator with a sweet-tooth fetish, as he displays her on a dining table while he covers her in whipped cream and hot fudge to eat off her. Curiously enough, the senator was the first role on camera by — already bald and middle-aged — character actor David Lipman, a very unlikely porn performer who can be seen as a judge in many episodes of Law & Order, and as a lawyer in the Coen brothers’ adaptation of True Grit.

Most acting performances are solid. The music — just like the film itself — is an eclectic mix of vaguely romantic, spacey analog weirdness and excitedly funky interludes.

Even though it was Lustig’s directorial debut, at a fairly young age and with little money, the film is very well shot and paced. It’s barely over an hour long, which makes for a short but effective story. Lustig grew up in New York City as an avid film buff, consuming many exploitation classics on the 42nd Street theaters, which undoubtedly informed his work.

Still, in spite of having free reign with sex scenes (with it being an X-rated movie and all that), The Violation of Claudia fails to use the broad BDSM fantasy range of Buñuel’s surrealistic masterpiece. Granted, that’s an unfairly high standard comparison for a limited budget porno, but there was room in that story for a lot more sexual exploration.

Having said all that, this is a quality porn movie. Creatively shot, with a (mostly) believable plot and good performances. As a bonus, it features perhaps one of the most unexpected endings I’ve ever seen in an adult feature film.

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