Johann Schwarzer
In the early 1900s, Schwarzer resettled in Vienna and became a portrait and family photographer and chemist. To supplement his income, Schwarzer began making erotic photos which were used on naughty postcards common to the era.
In 1906, he became interested in the men's-only theatre nights organized in Austrian cinemas that showed adult films, so-called Herrenabende
("night shows for men"). Seeing that money could be made from these
types of films, Schwarzer organized the Saturn-Film company in 1906 to
produce such films, in his Viennese roof-top studio,
in competition to the French product then being exclusively shown.
Before Schwarzer's productions, erotic films in Austria were supplied by
the French Pathé
brothers. Saturn-Film was the first native film production company based in Austria.
Schwarzer produced and directed these erotic feature films, with basic
plots (artist and model, bath scene) which allowed for voyeurism and
female nudity but not, he insisted, pornography. Each film contained
young local women fully nude.
Unlike his predecessors, Schwarzer conducted his business as a public company, advertising in local newspapers, motion picture trade journals and adding a logo to his films like any other European producer. Saturn-Film also published a regular film catalog within its first couple years of existence. Despite this effort, Saturn-Films often appeared shorn of their logos and rendered anonymous, like other, similar subjects once they got further afield of Vienna,possibly due to piracy, as the Saturn-Film logo appears as part of the film set, in all frames of some extent films.
In 1911, Saturn-Film was raided and closed down by the police as a part of a crackdown on erotic materials in Vienna. The authorities destroyed the main film vault which at that time consisted of 52 productions.
Censorship prevented Saturn from rising again. Johann Schwarzer
tried to get a fresh start in film distribution, but without the ‘spicy’
films he had become famous for. After three months, he abandoned the
effort and left Vienna for Africa. He resurfaced in April 1914, when he
married the young Olga Emilie Jarosh-Stehlik. Schwarzer was an army reservist who was called up with the outbreak of WW1 on 28 July 1914. He was made a second lieutenant by the time he perished in battle at Wirballen , Poland on 10 October of that year.
Known Works
list is incomplete
- Aufregende Lektüre ( Stimulating Reading)
- Baden verboten (Bathing Forbidden)
- Beim Fotografen (At The photographers)
- Das eitle Stubenmädchen (The Vain Housemaid)
- Das Sandbad (The SandBath)
- Der Angler (The Fisherman)
- Der Hausarzt (The Family Doctor)
- Der Traum der Bildhauers (The sculptors Dream)
- Diana im Bade (Diana Bathing)
- Die Macht der Hypnose (The Power of Hypnosis)
- Die Zaubereien des Mandarins (The Magic of the Mandarins)
- Eine aufregende Jagd (An Exciting Hunt)
- Eine lustige Geschichte am Fenster (A funny Story At The Window)
- Eine modern Ehe (A Modern Marriage)
- Im Bade (In The Bath)
- Jugendspiele (Games Of Youth)
- Lebender Marmor (Living Marble)
- Schleiertanz (The Veil Dance)
- Sklavenmarkt
- Sklavenraub
- Vorbreitung auf das Rendez-vous (Preparing To Meet)
- Weibliche Assentierung (Female Conscript)
