Family porn - the zodiac film: Popular comedy with hard-core sex

This article addresses the highly popular Danish Zodiac films, a series of six films made between 1973 and 1978. What was extraordinary about the films was their combination of traditional popular comedy and hard-core porn. Analysing the films� combination of comedy and pornography from a historical perspective, the article demonstrates how the series evolved through the six instalments. Two developments are identified: first, the disappearance of the anti-authoritarian, open-minded view of sex that characterized the earlier films; and second, the degeneration of narrative coherence, which was weak even initially. The Zodiac films are seen in the context of the historical period, when pornography became fashionable, and also with regard to the overall development of Danish comedy.