The second feature in Kino Lobors/Something Weirds ‘Nudist’/’Forbidden Fruits’ boxset is a little more sincere in its efforts than the first film ‘Nudist Life’ But even while moving in the right direction, it still kind of failed to muster much enthusiasm.

This was made in the early to mid 50’s and feels less like a sensationalist piece aiming for an excuse to show svelte aphrodite women playing bouncy sports, and more an attempt to actually educate the viewer (in a somewhat midguided way) about nudism and its various iterations around the world.

As such, this kind of feels like 3 different movies stitched together, with a third of the film showcasing how Germany handles Nudism…a third showing France’s efforts and a third showing how New York does it.

With this being the early to mid 50s the censorship laws at this point are still a little iffy…Which means large swathes of the film have the nudists wearing what can only be described as napkins or nappies to skirt any issues with showing full frontal…Which was a bit odd honestly, but ultimately a welcome addition.

Like many nudist films, this one largely focusses around the day to day activities of the nudists in their home countries and the variations in socialising. This means a warm and friendly narrator talking us through in patronizing detail the activities we’re seeing on screen, while tentatively encouraging the audience to go out and explore nudism themselves.

Having just come from ‘Nudist life’ (1961) I realized immediately that that film stole a LOT of footage from THIS film to help pad the runtime…But then, at the same time, I noticed THIS film steals a lot of footage from OTHER nudist “documentary” films from the 30s and 40s. So…at this point im wondering whether only 6 nudist films were EVER shot, and the following 30-40 years of their popularity was just recutting those six over and over again.

What this film DOES have the edge over ‘Nudist Life’ with, is its cine and direction. Theres some genuinely rather lovely and quite artistic shots feautred in this film, the one that caught my eye was a woman spinning in front of a sunset, perfectly sillouhetted, but positively glowing in the evening suns rays. small moments like that just about managed to take the edge of this thing for me, making it altogether a bit more palettable.

That being said, it’s good nature towards its subject (making it feel a bit less letchy) and some decent cine cant save this film from the unavoidable issue that its in REALLY rough shape, and even after being thouroughly scrubbed up by Kino and Something weird. Its still a fairly mangled, grainy and at times difficult to watch picture. Which really made it difficult to get into this one.

Ultimatley; this ones a bit more engaging, has nicer cine and direction and feels a bit more sincere in its efforts. If you have the patience to make it through a seriously mangled film, and are curious about nudist films…this ones pretty generic. but will give you an idea of how the genre works.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/10-days-in-a-nudist-camp/