Helmut by June is an HBO wankumentary shot by his wife and covering Newton behind the camera from his late eighties peak to his death at 75 in 2004. Though he never fully recovered from being daubed ‘the king of kink’ by Time magazine, a periodical which doesn’t know the difference between a hot lemon and a hot lunch, Helmut Newton did more to popularize softcore erotica and fetish than anyone in the last twenty years.
Even though getting people excited about nudes of Cindy Crawford wasn’t hard, Newton pushed far harder than many people know. This is a man who said:
“(models are) a commodity…paid to be made into what I want.”
Despite which deriding his work now marks you as a philistine, not a progressive hater of porn, regardless of the fact much of his work would only look out of place in Hustler thanks to its quality.
The Doc’s now showing all the time on HBO, don’t be put off by the presence of Brett Ratner, he really has almost nothing to do with it.