Schoolgirl Report

The first of the West German Schulmadchen-Report films, framed as a pseudo-documentary survey of teenage sexuality, complete with fake man-on-the-street interviews and a concerned narrator, all wrapped around softcore vignettes. It was a colossal commercial success and ran to thirteen entries through the 1970s.

The documentary framing is a transparent fig leaf, the direct descendant of the classical-exploitation square-up, giving the audience permission to watch what it came for. As sociology it is worthless and as a record of the European sexploitation machine it is essential.