A creative and unique gay porn auteur of the 1970s–1990s in France. Cadinot first gained notice in the mid-1970s as a photographer of artsy male homoerotica, which he published in glossy one-off albums in a numbered series dubbed “Masculin.” Cadinot moved into directing high-style gay porn films in 1981, when legal tolerance for such materials increased with the election of socialist President François Mitterand.

Initially Cadinot used the pseudonym Tony Darck (or Tony Dark) for his film work. Historian Michael Sibalis notes that unlike much American gay porn of the era, “Cadinot’s films are intensely personal: ‘I never try to know what the public will like. I don’t do market studies.... I make the films that I want to see.’”