Baden verboten - 1906
ABOUT THE FILM : Baden verboten
A forthright playlet. Arm in arm, three damsels splash about. The police officer from the vice squad loses his whistle at the scene.
This little film comes from the “natural” series of the Saturn catalog titled « Natur-Szenen ». The heroines stroll about in their birthday suit. A sledgehammer selling proposition for amateurs all over Europe.
Nationality: Austrian
Length: 1' 8"
Genre: erotic
Sound: silent with soundtrack
Original elements: tinted
Producer: Saturn Films
Composer: Aljoscha Zimmermann
Original language: German
A BRIEF HISTORY : Baden verboten




This very short film is one of the barest of the Saturn collection. Saturn Films, the very first Austrian firm, devotes itself exclusively to the production of saucy films between 1906 and 1907.
Its founder, Johann Schwarzer, brings up to date the "Viennese scenes" as a response to the "saucy scenes" of Pathé. A small sized inconspicuous catalog (11 by 14,5 cm) is used for mail order selling.
In this catalog, Schwarzer warns his clientele not to show these films to either children or women. From 1907 on, Schwarzer places systematically a cardboard star on his film sets. This pictogram becomes the symbol of Saturn productions. It is not only a means of protection to differentiate his films from counterfeits, but also serves as a guarantee of quality.
Schwarzer warns in the catalog's preface: "We wish to inform you that our films are artistic creations. The worst would be to ruin this aesthetic balance by lack of taste, for our films are high quality."
The order is done by telegram. A single word is enough to avoid having the vice squad confound the distributor and the buyer. This little film can be identified by the simple word "Verboten".
The majority of Saturn films come from collector Albert Fidelius, the son of a German distributor, who began collecting primitive films in 1933. The collection was then purchased in the 1950s by German film director Gerhard Lamprecht, who founded the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek several years later.
In the 1990s, original nitrate-based films (mainly negatives) were entrusted to the Filmarchiv Austria, where they were duly restored.


Filmarchiv Austria








