Jean-Daniel Cadinot (Director)

Biography

Jean-Daniel Cadinot (February 10, 1944 – April 23, 2008) was a French director and producer of gay pornographic films.Contents [hide]
Cadinot was born during WWII, in German-occupied Paris, in the Montmartre hill area of the Batignoles Quarter. His parents were tailors who custom fit clothes. (Cadinot later remarked that while his parents had clothed men, he earned his reputation for undressing them.)
As a teenager Cadinot hoped to become a painter and, due to parental opposition, ran away from home at the age of 17.In the early 1960s, he studied at École des Arts et Métiers and at the National School of Photography. He then began his professional career at Valois Studios, where he directed mainstream films for French-speaking audiences.
He first pursued a career in photography, which took on a homosexual angle with his nude portrait of writer Yves Navarre and singer Patrick Juvet. His erotic photographs appeared in the first edition of Gai Pied. He began to sell nude photographs and finally moved to directing movies in 1978. By then, he had published 17 photo albums, with total sales of over 170,000 copies. Setting up his own production company, French Art, Cadinot made dozens of 16 mm films.
Characteristic of Cadinot's films was an emphasis on plot; much more so than in typical porn films. His plots were often based originally on incidents from his own life, but he was known for adjusting the plot during filming to incorporate experiences of his actors. He insisted on realism in his films, especially in sex scenes, saying that the actors "do not portray things that are imposed on them by me, but things they like to do themselves".
By 1998 he had directed 54 films, some under the pseudonym Tony Dark.

Death notice

Cadinot's grave on Montmartre Cemetery.
On April 23, 2008 Jean-Daniel Cadinot's Official Site posted the following notice:

Dear friends, critics and others,

If you're reading these words I will have put down my camera, switched off the lights, drawn the curtains and taken my final bow. May all the efforts and work of a whole life, the quest for the moment of pure truth in the sublime communion of two beings under the spell of the undefinable desire for the other, inspire those who inherit my heart.

The human being is made such that it only remembers the good and the beautiful, therefore I leave you with a free mind and a head overflowing with a myriad of young men, sometimes strong and vigorous, sometimes fragile and sensitive. All of them gave me these unforgettable moments of their most tender intimacy, moments that only a few really know but which I made into images to allow you to admire them over and over again.

Never were success or personal fortune my creed. You offered me gratitude and I thank you for that because I wanted nothing else. Cadinot salutes you. Remember a kindly fellow, an extreme observer given to rages and contradiction but who listened to others and was full of love.

"An erect phallus is a symbol of life, a cross a symbol of death."

Jean Daniel Cadinot, photographer and film-maker, passed away on the 23rd of April aged 64 following a heart attack.
After Cadinot's death, the company French Art is now being headed by François Orenn, a classically-trained pianist who started working for Jean-Daniel Cadinot as a score composer and who has managed the company from 2002. Two unfinished films by Cadinot, Subversion and Le Culte d'Eros, have since been released by him. Orenn has also begun directing films of his own in the typical Cadinot style (Anges et Démons and L'Avarice) and with Cadinot's technical crew.

All the films of Jean-Daniel Cadinot on gay-bi-trans.com:

Tendre Adolescents (1980, French Art)

Garsons de Plage / Beach Boys (1982, French Art)

Sacre College (1983, French Art)

Classe de Neige (1984, French Art, Videovision)

Les Minets Sauvages (1984, French Art)

Stop Surprise (1984, Videomo)

Harem (1984, Avalon, YMAC, French Art)

Le Jeu de Pistes / Scouts 2 (1984, French Art)

Le Jeu de Pistes / Scouts 2 / Hot on the Trail (1984, French Art)

Sous le signe de l'Etalon / Under the sign of The Stallion (1986, Videomo, YMAC, French Art)

Le Garçon près de la piscine / Touch of Magic (1986, French Art / Videomo)

L'Amour Jaloux / Getting Even (1986, Videomo)

Le Voyage A Venise / Carnival in Venice (1986, Videomo, Marksman Productions)

Chaleurs / Sex Oasis (1987, French Art, Videovision)

2Eme Sous-Sol (1987, French Art)

Séance Particulière (1988, French Art, Videovision)

Pension Complete / A Summer of Sex (1988, French Art)

In Tense Heat (1988, YMAC / French Art)

Le Desir en Ballade (1989, French Art)

La Main au Feu (1989, French Art)

Crash toujours (1989, Videomo)

Le Coursier (1990, French Art, Videovision)

Service Actif 2 (1990, French Art, Videovision)

Service Actif (1990, French Art)

The Best Cadinot (1991, French Art)

Gamins De Paris / Games Of Paris (1992, French Art)

La Maison Bleue (1992, French Art, Videomo)

Corps d'Elite (1993, French Art)

Tequila (1993, French Art, YMAC)

L' expérience inédite (1993, French Art)

Les Minets de l'Info (1994, French Art)

Paradisio Inferno (1994, French Art)

Musée Hom (1994, French Art)

Garçons d'étage: La Suite (1995, French Art, Videomo)

Coup de Soleil (1995, Gero Video)

Pressbook (1996, French Art)

Techno Boys (1997, French Art)

Insatiable (1997, French Art, Videovision)

Macadam / Street Boyz (1998, French Art)

Sortie De Secours (1998, French Art)

The Best Cadinot 2 (1998, French Art)

Squat (1999, French Art)

S.O.S. (1999, French Art)

Safari City (1999, French Art)

Double en Jeu (2000, French Art)

The Best Cadinot 3 (2000, French Art)

C'est La Vie (2000, French Art)

Sans Limite (2001, French Art)

Cours Prives (2002, French Art)

Mon Ami Mes Amants (2002, French Art)

Crescendo (2003, French Art)

The Best Cadinot 5 (2003, French Art)

Tentations de Sodome (2003, French Art)

Secrets De Famille (2004, French Art)

Hammam (2004, French Art)

The Best Cadinot 6 (2005, French Art)

Nomades: Bazaar Hotel (2005, French Art)

Nomades 2: Plaisirs d'Orient (2005, French Art, Videomo)

Nomades 3: Les Portes du Desir (2006, French Art)

Nomades 4: Princes Pervers (2006, French Art)

Nomades 5: Parfums Erotiques (2007, French Art, Videomo)

Nomades 6: Tresors Secrets (2007, French Art)

Duos De Choc (2008, French Art)

Subversion (2008, French Art)

Angels & Demons / Anges et démons (2009, French Art)

Le culte d’eros (2009, French Art, Videovision)

L'Avarice (2010, French Art)

L'Envie (2011, Cadinot)