Obscene: A Documentary

What do the celebrated novels Lady Chatterley's Lover, Tropic Of Cancer, and Naked Lunch all have in common? Just fifty years ago in the United States, you could actually be arrested and sent to prison for owning them. That is, until a maverick publisher named Barney Rosset, the owner of Grove Press and founder of the famous literary magazine The Evergreen Review, waged a landmark legal battle for the right to publish them in their original, uncensored versions. He also waged a legal battle to distribute the famous 1967 Swedish film I Am Curious (Yellow), written and directed by Vilgot Sjöman, which also ran afoul of obscenity laws.

Barney Rosset's amazing life story is the subject of Obscene, a new documentary film directed by Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor. The documentary features interviews with and appearances by John Waters, Ray Manzarek, Gore Vidal, James Carroll, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Erica Jong, John Sayles, Ed Sanders, and other famous names in film and literature. You'll get to see William S. Burroughs read from his novel Naked Lunch, and Allen Ginsberg read from his famous poem, Howl. Rosset himself is the main interview subject, and though in his mid-80s now, he's still sharp as a razor, displaying the intellect and wit that endeared him to so many.

The film begins with Rosset's early life, including his friendship with high school classmate and football teammate Haskell Wexler, who would go on to become one of Hollywood's all-time great cinematographers. During World War 2, Rosset served as an officer in the Army Signal Corps. After the war, he would marry the abstract expressionist painter Joan Mitchell. The film really kicks into gear when Rosset becomes the owner of Grove Press.

Rosset's first major accomplishment as publisher came in 1954, when Grove Press published an English language version of playwright Samuel Beckett's avant garde masterpiece, Waiting For Godot, for the first time in the U.S. In 1959, when Grove published D.H. Lawrence's famous 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover in an uncensored edition for the first time, (the novel was previously published in a bowdlerized version by Knopf) the United States Post Office confiscated copies of the book sent through the mails. Bookstore owners faced arrest and prosecution for selling it.

Rosset took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, where the uncensored version of Lady Chatterley's Lover was ruled to be not legally obscene. This was a major victory for Barney Rosset, as the Chatterley case was actually a test case for the future publication of Henry Miller's celebrated 1934 novel, Tropic Of Cancer. Grove did publish Miller's novel, and, after fighting obscenity charges again, William S. Burroughs' landmark novel, Naked Lunch.

From there, Rosset published more controversial books, including The Autobiography Of Malcom X and Che Guevara's Back on the Road: A Journey Through Latin America. Publishing these titles resulted in the CIA beginning a covert surveillance operation on Grove Press. After Grove published Guevara, their office was bombed by a right wing anti-Castro group.

In the late 1960s, Grove Press got into the film distribution business. Barney Rosset was an amateur filmmaker, and possessed a love of cinema equal to his love of literature. He decided to distribute Swedish director Vilgot Sjöman's two-part film, I Am Curious. The film intertwines a documentary about social change and political turmoil in 1960s Sweden with a fictional story about the crumbling relationship between Vilgot Sjöman and his leading lady, Lena Nyman, who play themselves. The first part, I Am Curious (Yellow), ran afoul of censorship laws because of its sexual content, which while not pornographic, was explicit for its time, the most controversial part being a scene where Nyman kisses her boyfriend's penis in a playful, non-sexual manner.

U.S. Customs officials decided the film was obscene and brought it to trial. A jury agreed with them and found I Am Curious (Yellow) to be legally obscene. Rosset appealed and the verdict was overturned. However, Customs decided not to appeal the case to the Supreme Court, lest a precedent be set. The case did reach the Supreme Court when Maryland's film censorship board banned I Am Curious (Yellow). Unfortunately for Rosset, by then, more conservative justices had been appointed by then-President Richard Nixon. Justice William O. Douglas, a prominent free speech advocate, had to disqualify himself from the case because Rosset had previously reprinted excerpts from his book, Points Of Rebellion. The remaining justices split 4-4 on the case, leaving Maryland's ban on I Am Curious (Yellow) intact.

The film's future was uncertain. Some states banned it, but others did not. I Am Curious (Yellow) became a huge cause celibre in Hollywood, with many prominent actors, writers, directors, and producers coming out in support of the film and decrying censorship. Barney Rosset became a much admired crusader for freedom of speech. But the monetary cost of defending himself and the novels and films he believed in proved to be too great. Nearly bankrupt, Rosset was forced to sell controlling interest in Grove Press and was soon removed from the company he brought to prominence and fought so hard to defend.

Obscene is an excellent documentary about one of the great heroes of free speech, a maverick publisher and film distributor. Barney Rosset didn't care about exploiting controversy to make a buck. He simply wanted to introduce people to challenging books and films that he himself loved. He firmly believed in the First Amendment - the right of authors and filmmakers to express themselves and the right of all Americans to read their books and watch their movies.

Barney Rosset is one of my heroes, and after you watch Obscene, he'll be one of yours as well. Obscene is now available on DVD. Click the picture above, and you'll be taken to Amazon's listing of the DVD.