Born too big for his trousers, the fresh-faced and spunky Eddie Adams is discovered by pornographic producer Jack Horner at the club where Eddie works. Horner takes a look at what Eddie has to offer, signs him up in a trice and rechristens him Dirk Diggler, and Boogie Nights is the seventies-based story of his rise to porn superstardom, and the subsequent fall from grace.

PT Anderson's Boogie Nights is a ravishing love-letter to the 70s, to its success, its naivete, its fashion, its foolhardiness and, of course, its groove. And in between all this, just like Diggler realising the trappings of success via the expanded limits money offers you, the film dabbles in sex, drugs and porn -- without once being gratituous.

It's a bitterly sharp drama overflowing with wit, and it's a tale of disillusionment, and one that's bound to change your perceptions -- whatever they may be -- of the porn industry.

Mark Wahlberg shines as he hangs on to the role of a lifetime as Diggler, while Julianna Moore as porn-star Amber Waves and Burt Reynolds as Horner ground the film's outrageousness into a more relatable reality.

Yet Boogie Nights is a perfect motion picture because of its killer ensemble cast, and the stellar performers include Don Cheadle, John C Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

For a look at one of the most intense scenes ever filmed, check the actors out right here. Wow.

The film's opening shot, starting with the title in bright blue neon lights on a marquee, is a stunning piece of work that completely sets the mood.

Gleaming low-ride cars twinkle on the street as Luiz Guzman, playing Maurice Rodriguez in frighteningly orange garb, greets Jack Horner (Reynolds) and Amber Waves, ushering them exaggeratedtly into his club. They walk across the front of the stage, Rodriguez points them to a booth, and we follow the club-owner to the bar where he shouts out a drink order, and then spin around him the dancefloor, where he meets and appraises Buck Swope (Cheadle) and Reed Rothchild (Reilly) before flying back to the Booth and seeing Rollergirl, played by Heather Graham, skate up to Jack and Amber.

She glides through the disco towards the dancefloor when we see Wahlberg's diggler, an inconsequential busboy. It is here, after this symphony of rolling camera movements, that we cut to the table and we realise it was a steadicam single shot, almost three minutes long, right from marquee to Mark.

Watch it here and try not to swallow your tongue.

Because even the seamiest side of the Seventies had to have style, right?

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