Aided by the slow opening of Censorship, foreign porn films – produced in droves in Europe and the United States since the 70s – were finally able to be shown in our cinemas. Inspired by the success achieved by these productions, Raffaele Rossi and Laerte Callichio shot “Erotic Things” in 1981, officially the first national porn film. Even though it was rubbish, this first example of smut filmed and spoken in Portuguese was new to the public. For this reason, 4,5 million spectators filled the theaters to see “Coisas eróticas”, making the directors' fortunes and placing this film among the 15 highest grossing films in Brazilian cinema.
From then on, the cycle of mass production of films with explicit sex began, marking the end of the so-called Boca do Lixo in São Paulo, which in the 60s and 70s was responsible for making dozens of films, of all genres, from western to horror – and not just pornochanchadas – without the aid of incentive laws and bringing excellent box office results.
Encouraged by the low production cost and shorter filming time, several directors and producers of so-called serious films joined the wave in order to survive and began to shoot pornographic tapes. That's what happened to José Mojica Marins, best known for his character Zé do Caixão.
In 1983, Zé decided to film a script written by Mário Lima, a long-time partner, associated with four other people, including two stallholders. The story was an erotic drama about two medical students who have sex with several women, accidentally killing two of them. In the opening scenes, one can see the passion between the two, shown in a veiled way, similar to the tormented friends and partners in crime in Alfred Hitchcock's Diabolical Feast (1948).
Initially the film would not have explicit scenes, but at the distributor's request, Mojica decided to include 20 minutes of explicit sex in the final cut, making The Fifth Dimension of Sex his first foray into the world of pornography, but with a curious detail: the film it was essentially aimed at the gay public. This was at a time when the acronym GLS was not even dreamed of and few people would dare create entertainment for this segment. “The ribbon was a tribute to them. I have a gay audience that likes my films. I also wanted to pay homage to Roque Palácio [TV presenter and film co-producer with Mojica], who was homosexual”, recalls Mojica.
The plot of the porn feature was curious: tired of being ridiculed by their college friends, who thought that they were not only impotent but also gay, Paulo and Norberto decided to create an aphrodisiac formula that drives women crazy. Excited, they kidnap and abuse two girls. One of them, after managing to escape from her depraved kidnappers, is killed by a snake, while they laugh and fry an omelet. Another really enjoys sex and dies… of pleasure the next morning. In the end, the confused boys realize that this blessed formula only serves to cause problems and that they really like each other. But it's too late: the girls' deaths put the police on their trail. Pursued, the car they are in accidentally falls off a cliff and the couple dies.
Considering that it was a film aimed at a gay audience, why didn't Mojica include explicit scenes between men? “I preferred to show just the kiss and leave the rest in suspense”, recalls Mojica. A good idea, because if Censorship involved a kiss, imagine two men having sex.
In any case, the film was a box office failure and did not even pay for production costs, remaining in theaters for less than a month. At the time it was released, “A Quinta Dimensão” did not succeed when trying to compete with “Oh Rebuceteio”, by Cláudio Cunha, a porn elevated to cult status. The success of Cunha's film ended up taking the place of “The Fifth Dimension” at Cine Dom José, one of the favorites among gays. “Transferred” to Cine Windsor, the film suffered another stroke of bad luck: fifteen days before its premiere, the cinema management prohibited gays from having sex inside the screening room. Result: the bugger boycotted “The Fifth Dimension” and preferred to go make out with Dom José himself. Despite this fiasco, the film paid tribute to Mojica. “I received a trophy, The gay cat from a nightclub, and a book of poetry. Gays from all over the country supported the film”, says Mojica.
After so long, Mojica still remembers one last interesting story about the filming of the film. “I needed to record a close-up of an actress's ass being 'sandwiched' by Márcio and João Francisco”. When it was time to record, however, the actress disappeared from the set. What to do? One of the extras, who had an enviable backside, agreed to replace her. The problem is that the actors, let's say, got too excited (read: their dicks were hard), making it difficult to perform the scene. Irritated, José Mojica Marins became Zé do Caixão and threatened, raising a machete: “Let's try to record this scene soon, because today I feel like eating breaded dick!” After such subtle stimulation, the actors calmed down and the explicit buttocks scene could finally be recorded.
