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Schoolgirl Report Volume #1
[Impulse Pictures]
1970; color
Directed by Ernst Hofbauer
Starring: Gunther Kieslich, Wolf Harnisch, Helga Kruck, Friedrich Von Thun & Alexander Miller
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I've been curious about Schoolgirl Report ever since we were sent a copy of the awesome soundtrack CD, featuring the kooky, kitschy, Euro-lounge sounds of composer Gert Wilden, a few years back. While the soundtrack piqued my curiosity about the films, the first installment in this highly successful / popular series has left me even more interested in seeing the rest of them. According to what I've read, a dozen or so "Report" films were made between 1970 and '76 and, apparently, they get more wild (and one would assume less soft-core) as the series progresses. Story-wise it's a series of vignettes with a threadbare plot for wraparound purposes. It's clearly done on a much higher budget than most exploitation films of that time though so it comes across with a slightly more serious tone. Subtitled "What Parents Don't Think Is Possible," the plot involves a high school senior at an all-girls school getting caught screwing the bus driver on a field trip. Before the school can expel her however, the principal and the teacher who caught her have a meeting with the parent's council. While almost everyone is shocked and offended at first, a psychologist (who, as it turns out, is also a parent of a girl at the school) tries to convince everyone that she's just a normal, modern, sexually active teen. He tries to illustrate his point through recounting a series of incidents (i.e., the vignettes) involving girls between 15 and 18. We get the set-up, the "sex" (and sometimes the repercussions), and then, after each scene, a batch of field interviews with random women being asked questions about their sexuality and their opinions about various sexually related things. (Examples: At what age should a girl begin having sex? At what age did you first have sex? Do you have to be in love to have sex? Do you masturbate? How old were you when you started masturbating?) The interviewer is the doctor addressing the parents council, and the women he speaks to on the street seem to range in age from 15 to 24. Clearly they're supposed to represent the new thinking he wants to inform the parents of. As far as the sex scenes, we get the gamut from two girls seducing a pool attendant to some student-teacher action to a teen lesbian three way and more. Honestly, I was expecting a bit more than softcore but, then again, this was 1970. Aside from Times Square loop type hardcore, I guess there really wasn't much of a middle ground then. In the end, much to the consternation of the prudish teacher, the parents all agree to do nothing and just let the incident pass. Does this signal the ushering in of a new era of permissiveness? I'll let you know after Report #2… or maybe after #3 and #4.
—the Kommandant
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