The Look of Love explores the career of British porn entrepreneur Paul Raymond
The Look of Love is as much a study of post-war Britain as it is a portrait of porn baron Paul Raymond, writes James Mottram
not a name familiar to many people outside Britain. But there was a time when this self-made man was an ever-present fixture in the British tabloids. The so-called King of Soho dominated London's famous red-light district in the 1970s and '80s - his iconic Raymond Revuebar, with its fully nude cabaret, was a landmark in the area.
Factor in the success of his soft-core pornographic magazine and it formed the basis for a property and publishing empire that, by 1992, saw dub him "the richest man in Britain".
Still, the UK-centric nature of the subject means it is something of a risk for director Michael Winterbottom and actor-comedian Steve Coogan to make the erotica entrepreneur the subject of a film, . "Obviously, it is an English film about someone who is well known in English culture," the director says. "But we hope people can understand it, wherever they are."
Sex sells in any language, of course, but is about more than just titillation. It's equally a portrait of post-war Britain and its shifting sexual mores, for which Raymond was partially responsible.
"He's an interesting character because, in some ways, he's very British, and in other ways he's a thorn in the side of the establishment," says Coogan. "But this didn't happen because he consciously pursued maverick status; he was a businessman, who tapped into a hunger for some sort of visceral, exciting, overtly sexual entertainment. When you look at things culturally, any kind of display of sexuality [in Britain] was seen as hedonistic and undesirable, as if it had to be rationed along with fresh vegetables and chicken. The British have always had a peculiar attitude to sex."
A former cabaret entertainer and ventriloquist, Raymond established his Raymond Revuebar in 1958, just at the moment that, as Coogan puts it, "Britain seemed to go from black and white to a world of colour". Raymond's magazine, launched in 1971, became a sensation when he pushed for increasingly explicit images.
