Ernst Hofbauer

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Ernst Hofbauer (b. 22 August 1925 Vienna, Austria - d. 24 February 1984 Munich, Germany at age 58) was an Austrian film director.

During the early 1970s, in Munich, Hofbauer teamed with Walter Boos, Wolf C. Hartwig, and Ludwig Spitaler to produce the original thirteen films under the banner Schulmadchen Report (or Schoolgirl Report); the stories were adapted from books written by Guenther Hunold, while Guenther Heller composed the film script, Klaus Werner did the camera work, and the music was handled by Gert Wilden & Orchestra. Hofbauer and Boos were referred to as the 'Titans of Tenn Libido'. The films were classified as 'sexploitation', and were extremely popular, seen by more than 30 million people all over the world.

In the United States, the films were released in grindhouses and drive-ins, and the names of the films were changed to conform to American standards. Because the films focused on young girls who may have been under legal age in this country, the Schoolgirl Report series was eventually suppressed (everyone remembers what an uproar Traci Lords caused when it was revealed that she was an underage porn queen, during the mid 1980s).

The Schoolgirl Report series was very interesting because the films portrayed many unknown teenagers and actresses who were vibrant, beautiful, naive, innocent, and unabashed. Most of the films related a series of vignettes to tell an interesting story. Hidden pedophile lust, co-ed skinnydipping, situations involving first-time sexual experiences, and encounters with teachers were all shown in the episodes. Interracial love affairs, male and female masturbation sequences, forced prostitution, rape, voyeurism, harmless erotic games, seduction, and erotic touching are also portrayed in the vignettes. Well-known German sex kitten Ingrid Steeger and the ever-horny Italian comic Rinaldo Talamonti play key roles in many of the vignettes. Friedrich von Thon conducted street interviews to discuss the plots in the vignettes, and many of the situations were followed up with a courtroom setting (the male actors were charged with statutory rape). The Schoolgirl Report films were classified as 'soft-core' eroticism, which is similar to the David Hamilton genre.

Ernst Hofbauer directed many erotic films in addition to the original thirteen Schulmadchen Report classics. Sex sells, and Hofbauer exploited consumer demand for R-rated movies involving young actors and actresses. He had a unique style that combined youth, eroticism, wit, and anecdote. His exploitation films of the 1970s appealed to moviegoers from all walks of life.