Toronto, Canada- He is a large man. She is a teenaged boy’s comic-book fantasy, blond curls framing a face half-hidden by a camera angle that remains unique to this film genre. Gently, he touches her hair. “Hey,” he says, “let me see those eyes.” She lifts her gaze. From this angle, she looks disturbingly like Zippergate snitch Linda Tripp.

The scene, from a movie starring and directed by adult film star Brandy Alexandre (whose 57 feature film credits include Lawyers In Heat and Showdown At the Erogenous Zone), is the erotic equivalent of saltpetre. And that is surely the last thing one expects from the Fox Theatre, one of the few local adult-film cinemas left standing, and until 2003, reportedly the last one in North America to regularly show 35-mm porn movies.

This makes the Fox (on Main at 7th Avenue) both a curiosity and an anachronism. Over the years, however, video killed the porno star, at least on the big screen. As video-camera technology got better, fewer and fewer of the more expensive 35-mm prints were made. The old prints fell out of circulation and today, good copies are almost impossible to find. Now, surviving porn theatres simply project DVDs or videos onto their screens.

Although it has only been around since 1983, the Fox and the blast-from-the-past “Restricted” logo on its signage do lend a certain historic flair. A signed glossy of Ron (The Hedgehog) Jeremy, the hirsute adult-film star whose promotional chutzpah is almost as legendary as his on-screen “talent,” is displayed in the window. On the sidewalk, a sandwich board advertises rates and proclaims, “With one ticket, you see 3 adult movies” — a big draw, one assumes, for the bargain-conscious voyeur. Do I go in?

I follow a ponytailed guy, 30ish, dressed in a black T-shirt and black jeans, and pause in a tiny lobby decorated with old movies posters, notably of Debbie Does Dallas. Swinging doors lead to the theatre seating. Sitting down gingerly, I make sure to touch as little around me as possible.

Films like The People vs. Larry Flynt and Boogie Nights have made the porn industry seem almost glam, and names like Jenna Jameson resonate far beyond the Adult Video News awards crowd. But sitting here in the Fox, glam seems a long way off.

The second of today’s three films features big-haired Racquel Darrian, the quintessential eighties starlet. Unlike with so many of the overbuilt porn stars of today, Ms. Darrian’s figure seems almost quaint in comparison. As she reveals her charms, I fixate on the sounds coming from behind me which, though likely innocent, do seem suspicious. During the film, a door opens, letting in a blast of light. I quickly turn around. Nothing sinister. But it allows for a quick count: 12 heads here on a Saturday afternoon, all male, many balding or grey. Grandfathers?

After the doors close again, I turn my attention back to the screen but can’t help thinking of Paul Reubens, a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman, whose neon-bright comedic future was threatened after he was caught allegedly enjoying himself too much during a screening of Nurse Nancy at the South Trail Cinema in Sarasota, Fla. That cinema has fallen off the radar.

What might the future hold for the Fox?

At one point, an ironic resurgence seemed possible. In 2003, the first Return To Porno Chic night was held here. Featuring a double bill of Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door, it attracted a 300-seat capacity crowd of hipsters. The second RTPC evening drew a smaller but still respectable crowd. The last one, the cashier says, “drew about six.”

For the Fox, the writing is probably on the bathroom wall. Mount Pleasant has been gentrifying at a furious pace. Cutting-edge clothiers and inspired restaurants will continue to define the area in the years to come. And who wants to sit in a darkened theatre with a bunch of heavy-breathing strangers when you can rent a DVD, or download your kicks in the privacy of your own home?

Yet again, technology bumps aside tradition — of a sort.