SEX AND THE SINGLE SWEDE

To Bibi or not to Bibi? That's a rhetorical question.


Remember way back when we talked about the Marie Forså sexploitation flick Bibi? Probably not. It was years ago. In any case we found a collection of promo images from the film and we’re not going to pass up an excuse to revisit it because, though the film is not great, Forså and women like her are historical treasures, artifacts of a type of cinema that has all but disappeared. Some say that’s a good thing. We don’t. To have sex is biologically hardwired into us, and it’s constantly on our minds, therefore exploring its possibilities in media—whether visual, written, musical, or merely spoken—is about as normal a compulsion as we can imagine. Bibi is a helluva piece of media. It was made in Sweden but these promos are West German, and show Forså and co-stars Anke Syring, Birgit Zamulo, et al., in a colorful light. Bibi, aka Girl Meets Girl, aka Confessions of a Sex Kitten, premiered in West Germany today in 1974.
You know, after all we’ve shared I feel strange just dumping him in a salad.

Vila på sex, starring Marie Forså, was one of those mid-seventies softcore films that was also released in a fully x-rated version. Add to that the international releases and you get a film with many retitlings, among them Baby Love, Girl Meets Girl, and Confessions of a Sex Kitten. But basically, outside its native Sweden it was mostly known as Bibi, which is the title it retained for its Japanese premiere, today in 1974.

Sixteen year-old Bibi is an innocent girl who leaves her home in the sticks for her aunt’s boarding school and immediately starts going at it hot and heavy with the resident lesbians—and one zucchini. Bibi decides she likes sex, whether animal or vegetable, and begins seducing her way around town. She sleeps with her aunt’s friend, the local stud, and a female swimming club, and in the process spends a large percentage of the second half of the movie naked. All good fun at first, but because there’s no such thing as consequence-free sex in cinema—even in the unfettered seventies—troubles soon result.

But under Joe Sarno’s sedate direction Bibi never gets too heavy—in the end some tears are shed, confessions made, and lessons learned. Perhaps only the zucchini was truly harmed. As a side note, we aren’t sure yet, but we think much of Bibi’s footage was recycled for another sexploitation film called Flossie, released the same year by the same director and utilizing the same cast. We’ll check on that. In the meantime, we have a little slide show below.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1961—Soviets Launch Venus Probe

The U.S.S.R. launches the spacecraft Venera 1, equipped with scientific instruments to measure solar wind, micrometeorites, and cosmic radiation, towards planet Venus. The craft is the first modern planetary probe. Among its many achievements, it confirms the presence of solar wind in deep space, but overheats due to the failure of a sensor before its Venus mission is completed.

1994—Thieves Steal Munch Masterpiece

In Oslo, Norway, a pair of art thieves steal one of the world’s best-known paintings, Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” from a gallery in the Norwegian capital. The two men take less than a minute to climb a ladder, smash through a window of the National Art Museum, and remove the painting from the wall with wire cutters. After a ransom demand the museum refuses to pay, police manage to locate the painting in May, and the two thieves, as well as two accomplices, are arrested.

1938—BBC Airs First Sci-Fi Program

BBC Television produces the first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s dark play R.U.R., aka, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The robots in the play are not robots in the modern sense of machines, but rather are biological entities that can be mistaken for humans. Nevertheless, R.U.R. featured the first known usage of the term “robot”.

1962—Powers Is Traded for Abel

Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960 while flying a U-2 high-altitude jet, is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been arrested in New York City in 1957.

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,800 stars.

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.

Another uncredited artist produces another beautiful digest cover. This time it's for Norman Bligh's Waterfront Hotel, from Quarter Books.
Above is more artwork from the prolific Alain Gourdon, better known as Aslan, for the 1955 Paul S. Nouvel novel Macadam Sérénade.
Uncredited art for Merle Miller's 1949 political drama The Sure Thing.

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