Pornification

The life of Karin Schubert

Pornification is about a wasted life. A biographic novel that is both realistic and fictional, this book tells the story of Karin Schubert, an actress who started out a great international career in the 1960’s, with the best directors in Germany, France and Italy (she was the queen in Gérard Oury’s famous comic adaptation from Hugo’s Ruy Blas called La Folie des grandeurs) before sinking into the abyss of erotic films and then pure porn.

Far from any voyeuristic approach, Jean-Luc Marret has written a novel full of benevolent empathy and moving subtlety. Karin Schubert’s life is a novel in itself but Jean-Luc Marret’s arresting narrative feels like a writing attempt at slowing down a falling star, drawing the grand portrait of a bright and tragic figure of cinema. This is also the portrait of an era where the film industry, the world of fashion, nightlife and lifestyle magazines were radically changed. The figures of Shah of Iran, actors Ugo Tognazzi, Richard Burton, Yves Montand and Jean Louis Trintignant hover in the background. Pornification is the flamboyant novel of an era that consumed more than one star.

Reviews

“Karin Schubert is a reflection of our gradually sinking world that submits to the laws of demand and offer, yielding to that terrible conceptual couple and setting aside any reluctance, any objection to that obedience. Pornification is the mental, moral and industrial process at work in Karin Schubert’s life but it touches the whole western world.” Culturalgangbang.com

“Under the guise of a novel, this tells the story of Karin Schubert’s glory and decay, of the era that invented counter-culture and sexual revolution in the aftermath of the 1968 uprising, then invented soft porn cinema after the first Emmanuelle film.” Hypathie.blogspot.fr

“An essential read as sex and binge drinking provide the youth with delusions that are compounded by the economic threats of contemporary society.” Blog des Arts

“His book is carried by a charming, steady writing—sometimes verging on a weird, acrimonious, sharp style. The numerous passages about post-war Germany, the unforgiving world of cinema or the evolution of contemporary society are historically and sociologically fascinating.” Si on mettait les livres sur orbite