From mediations on explicit imagery and profiles of prominent performers to discussions of national nudities and the titillating thrills of new technologies, cine-erotica has become a significant and subversive category of contemporary film, media, and cultural studies.

Expanding on recent work in gender, cultural, and audience-based studies, Peep Shows: Cult Film and the Cine-Erotic examines the global traditions of cult erotica, explaining key patterns, paradigms, and performers from the world of cult celluloid sexuality. Peep Shows includes profiles of porn performers and icons such as Ron Jeremy, Betty Page, Catherine Breillat, and Joe D'Amato. Essays also provides case studies of contemporary porn parodies, lesbian erotica, Japanese Pink porn cinema, Café Flesh, the Seduction cinema label, the dominatrix in erotic cinema, female porn viewers, burlesque cinema programming, and porno chic soundtracks. The volume features exclusive interviews with erotic performers Seka, Buck Angel, Misty Mundae, Christina 'Thriller' Lindberg, and the prolific porn producer, Michael L. Raso.

* Cover image from VIVA © 2007 by Anna Biller

Xavier Mendik is director of the Cine-Excess Film Festival and convenor of the M.A. in cult film and television at Brunel University. He is the author, editor, and coeditor of several significant volumes on cult film, including The Cult Film Reader, Alternative Europe, Shocking Cinema of the Seventies, Underground USA, and Unruly Pleasures.

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Foreword: Pleasure, Responsibility and Reflection..., by Veronica Hart Introduction: Pervasive Peeping: New Ways to Survey the Cine-Erotic, by Xavier Mendik 01. Pages Of Sin: Bettie Page-from 'Cheesecake' Tease to Bondage Queen, by Bill Osgerby 02. Sound and Performance in Stephen Sayadian's Night Dreams and Café Flesh, by Jacob Smith 03. Catherine Breillat: Anatomy of a Hard-Core Agitator, by Eleri Butler 04. Disco Sucks! Pornography and Disco in the 1970s, by Garry Needham 05. Blonde Fire: An Interview with Seka, by Stefan Nylén (with Christian Hallman and Magnus Paulsson) 06. That's L'amorte: Joe D'amato and the Sadean Art of Love, by Xavier Mendik 07. When Spiderman Became Spiderbabe: Pornographic Appropriation and the Political Economy of the 'Soft-Core Spoof' Genre, by Iain Robert Smith 08. The Erotic Adventures of Misty Mundae: An Interview with Actress Erin Brown, by Iain Robert Smith 09. A Clockwork Orgy: A User's Guide, by I. Q. Hunter 10. King of the Porn Spoofs: an Interview with Michael L. Raso, by Iain Robert Smith 11. A Star Is Porn: Corpulence, Comedy and the Homosocial Cult of Adult Film Star Ron Jeremy, by Emily Shelton 12. 'I Guess They Got Past Their Fear of Porn': Women Viewing Porn Films, by Clarissa Smith 13. 'If You Ache Beneath Your Intestines or Scream Silently in the Cavities of Your Chest, Then This Picture Is for You': Curt Mcdowell's Thundercrack!, by Kevin Heffernan 14. 'Let's Do Something You Won't Enjoy': Dominatrix Porn, Performance and Subjectivity, by Jenny Barrett 15. Neo-Liberal Avant-Garde Sexploitation in Japan: The Interplay of Collaboration and Revolution in the Pink Film, by Alexander Zahlten 16. 'How Far Will a Girl Go to Satisfy Her Needs?': From Dykesploitation to Lesbian Hard-Core, by Claire Hines 17. Flesh (Fur) and Fury: An Interview with Christina Lindberg, by Xavier Mendik 18. Black & White Frills/Silent Thrills: A Case Study in Programming and Exhibition from 'The Smoking Cabinet: A Festival of Burlesque and Cabaret Cinema 1895-1933', by Simone Pyne 19. The Adventures of Buck Naked: The Thrill of the Transgendered Peep Show, by Marcelle Perks 20. Punishing the Peep Show: Carnality and the Dangerous Images Act, by Julian Petley 21. Semblance and the Sexual Revolution: A Critical Review of Viva, by Beth Johnson Notes Index