Boogie Nights

It was probably chance that 1997 saw a number of movies about the US porn business go into production (including The People vs Larry Flynt, which garnered Milos Forman his European Achievement in World Cinema Award here last year). But the one that made everyone sit up was Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights — and not just for the scene in which star Mark Wahlberg reveals his (prosthetic) member, either. Boogie Nights begins as a relatively straightforward expose of the booming business in which newcomer Dirk Diggler (Wahlberg) makes his mark, thanks to the size of his equipment and the help of ruthless impresario Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds). But it ends as a moral fable covering the whole transitional period - 1977-1984 - in which it is set.