Pornography and Cinema

“It is becoming clear to me that pornography and cinema are becoming irreversibly closer”-Philip Josse

 Beginning a post with a quote from oneself seems a little like the blog version of referring to yourself in the third person, but no matter. I reiterate my point, we have reached a fork in the road, in which as some films become more family friendly, and studio heads attempt to make every film a 12A, other, art house films are becoming darker, more serious and more sexual.

A prime example of this is Lars Von Trier's opus Nymphomaniac, a film about a sex addict discussing her past. The film is sexually highly graphic featuring copious amounts of unstimulated sex. The only actual difference between Nymphomaniac and a porn film, is that this film is not intended to be erotic or arousing, it is a film intended to be more intellectually stimulating than physically stimulating, however the content of the film is nonetheless highly graphic.

Last year also revealed a surprising amount of graphic gay content, Blue is the Warmest Colour, a lesbian drama was highly graphic and shocked audiences when it premiered at Cannes with it's graphic content. Stranger By the Lake also featured highly graphic content, and was an erotic thriller about a cruising site, situated on the shores of a lake in france.

The increased use of graphic content in film means perhaps that film audiences are losing their hypocritical puritan values, and are willing to see films with sexual content, even if in the past these films were banned or outlawed by the production code. I enjoyed many of these films, and a liberalization of the cinema industry is certainly called for.

Design in Sex And The City

I've done a few posts about design before, discussing the production design of films such as The Truman Show and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Although i intend for production design to be a part of this discussion, it seems restrictive to talk exclusively about this, and it seems implausible to talk about Sex and the City without even mentioning fashion, given that fashion and clothes were such an important part of the show.

Sex and the city exhibits four characters who are defined by their clothing, the way they dress is a huge revelation of their personalities. Our heroine, Carrie, is a woman who lives for fashion, a woman who bought Vogue instead of fashion and who spends more than she can afford on clothes. Carrie exhibits a certain freedom with fashion, she expresses herself through her clothing and she is unafraid of taking risks. Maintaining a wardrobe like Carrie's would be virtually impossible for anyone other than Anna Dello Russo, but the filmmakers give her real persoanlity through her clothes, how she dresses is tailored to whether she is in a relationship, and how happy she is. At times she dresses almost like a child, showing her naivete and her selfishness. Shoes are a huge part of Carrie's life, and she confesses to owning over a hundred pairs, Carrie's wardrobe seems to be highly unaffordable on a writers salary, but with an unashamed lack of realism the creators of the series unapologetically make sure that Carrie is always dressed in something fabulous, whatever the occasion.

The other characters are also defined by their clothing, possibly more stereotypically than Carrie is, Miranda is a lawyer, and her wardrobe is thus slightly serious, rarely seen without her briefcase and palm pilot, Miranda is slightly more body consious than the other girls, and so likes to keep covered up, particularly after she has Brady in season 4, she is also slightly less fashion conscious than the other girls, caring less for fashion than for comfort, wearing ugly shoes whilst pregnant because her feet are swollen. Like Miranda, Charlotte is also slightly uptight, a typical Park Avenue Polyanna, Charlotte keeps to a uniform of cardigans and pearls, reflecting her status as an upper middle class wasp, and her hailing from Connecticut. Like Carrie her style also reflects her relationships, wearing plaid after marrying her first Scottish husband and a Jewish veil when marrying her second. Samantha has the most brash style of the four women, she wears bright colours and bold prints, being unafraid to show off her body and reflecting her brash and confident personality, and her unashamed sexuality.

The girls apartments are also important in reflecting their personalities, the production design of this show is so good that even when the characters move, their personalities are still shown, Carries apartment, whilst being ludicrously large for a writer to afford is nonetheless very close to her character, it is cluttered and filled with clothes and books. Her desk takes center stage in front of the window, show how important her writing is to her, and her spotless kitchen shows how little she cooks. Her closet is also an important room in the apartment, showing her love of fashion and the bookcases show her love of reading and books. Miranda moves into a large apartment of her own halfway through the series, with this apartment being organized and controlled as she is, with it's size and laundry room showing her status as a partner in her law firm. Charlotte's second apartment, that she gets in her divorce settlement, is lavish and beige, reflecting her status as a park avenue polyanna, and her clearly educated upbringing. Samantha is the only woman who lives alone throughout the whole of the series, her first apartment is on the upper west side, and her second is in the meatpacking district, this shows her status as a high earner and her willingness to lead a lavish and independant lifestyle.

Sex and the City is a series in which costume design production design and set dressing are hugely important, are revelatory of character, the objects people surround themselves with and the clothes they wear tell us about who they are as people.

Heartbeats - By Xavier Dolan

Les Amours Imaginaires is a 2010 canadian-french drama film by Xavier Dolan. Les Amours Imaginaires is about a group of three friends, Francis, Marie and Nicolas, who meet at a dinner party, and who slowly start to fall in love. The film, much like Dolan’s first film “J’ai Tué Ma Mère”, deals with the theme of impossible love.

Two friends, Francis and Marie, meet Nicolas at a dinner party, and both pretend to be uninterested in him, soon they become close friends, and they often sleep in the same bed and go on holiday together. Both Francis and Marie become consumed with lust for Nicolas, Francis masturbates to the mere smell of Nicolas’ clothes, and Marie is openly disappointed  when Francis shows up during a dinner she is having with Nicolas. The tension between them culminates in a holiday to Nicolas’ mothers house in the country. While there, Marie becomes annoyed when Nicolas gives Francis a marshmallow, and tells him to eat it slowly, like a striptease. The next day Marie leaves, telling the boys that she has an important appointment in the city, Francis chases after her and they fight, meanwhile Nicolas just watches. The film’s title refers to the act of loving someone, and imagining that they might possibly love you back.

Nicolas is selfish, spoilt and entitled, and what is even more heinous about this situation is that he knows. He knows that Marie and Francis are both in love with him, and he enjoys it, as well as exploiting it for his benefit, this is first seen when Francis and Marie fight, and Nicolas just watches, enjoying seeing his friends fight over him. Nicolas feels no shame or pain at letting his friends down and telling them that he doesn’t love them, even asking Francis; “How could you think I was gay?”, despite having been openly flirtatious earlier in their relationship. Both Francis and Marie take part in damaging and dangerous behaviour, Marie writes Nicolas a love poem, sending it to him ‘by accident’, and Francis engages in numerous relationships with different, interchangeable men, which ultimately give him no joy or satisfaction.

The film is also fantastically acted, and Dolan himself gives a fantastic performance as Francis, a young man who is struggling with a love that is not forbidden or chaste, but a love which simply isn’t real, un amour imaginaire. Also fantastic is Monia Chokri, who plays Marie, a complex and at times unstable young woman who so desperately wants to be loved, that she molds her own personality to be what she thinks Nicolas wants her to be. Her performance is utterly naturalistic that she isn’t even really acting, she is just being, and it is entirely, utterly compelling to watch.

Much like ‘J’ai Tué Ma Mère’, Heartbeats as a film belongs very much to the genre of new queer cinema, yes, one of the characters in the film is gay, and the film itself is slightly campy, but this film is not gay-defined, this film would work just as well with a man and two women, and the film cannot be singularly defined as a ‘gay’ film. This film cements Xavier Dolan’s reputation as one of the most exciting and naturalistic gay filmmakers working today, and the fact that he was only 20 at the time is even more impressive, the film is nuanced, beautifully acted and filmed, and artistic, Heartbeats is absolutely an arthouse film and a film d’auteur, but Dolan allows his opus to not just be thought provoking and visually appealing, but also highly watchable and enjoyable, and Xavier Dolan has confirmed that he is one of the most appealing and exciting young gay filmmakers working in cinema today. Rating: A

Nicolas : Qui m’aime me suive.

NYMPH()MANIAC - Vol II

NYMPH()MANIAC Volume II is the conclusion to Lars Von Triers Depression Trilogy and the final part of his two part opus, NYMPH()MANIAC. The film stars Charlotte Gainsborough as Joe, a self diagnosed nymphomaniac who recounts her erotic history. The film also stars Stellan Skarsgard as Seligman, Shia LaBeouf as Jerome, Jamie Bell as K and Willem Dafoe as L. The film also introduces Mia Goth as P and Stacy Martin as the young Joe.

NYMPH()MANIAC is an opus which deserves to be seen in its entirety, and i found that it was only upon viewing the entire piece that i was truly able to understand it's themes and concepts, it is perhaps worth noting that the film was written and directed in one part, and was later edited and censored to its current length and form. Thus the film was never intended to be in two parts, and despite being split for commercial reasons, the film must be analyzed as a whole. I find that i am now able to understand Lars Von Triers intentions, and his ideas on female sexuality.

The film starts exactly where the previous volume left off, Joe is now in a relationship with Jerome, after meeting him in the park, and they now have a child, Joe finds herself with a voracious sexual appetite which Jerome is unable to keep up with, so he tells her to have sex with other++ men, and then becomes supremely jealous. Joe finds herself visiting K, a doctor like man who whips and punishes women at their request. Finally Joe becomes a debt collector, using her sexuality to torture and extort men.

The performances in this film are strong, and Charlotte Gainsborough is fantastic in this film, she shines as the fragile yet defiant Joe, a woman who takes charge of her own sexuality and who is unafraid to be judged. for the choices she has made. The film also features strong performances by Jamie Bell and Shia LaBeouf, each of whom manage to be neither overtly menacing nor entirely comforting, and who manage to act out well rounded character who seem to have neither pasts nor futures, and who don't even have names.

The film is significantly darker than volume one, the film deals with themes of depression, violence, pedophilia and sadomasochism. The theme of violence and sadomasochism is perhaps the most intriguing and well explored theme in the entire opus, Joes interest in punishment and torture often seems without payoff, and her motives are often bizarre for the audience to understand, the acts in which she partakes, suck as being slapped across the face with a glove full of coins, being whipped with a cat whip and being fisted, giving name to the subtitle, The Silent Duck. These actions often seem highly unsexual in nature, and K resists all advantages Joe makes, yet it is this relationship that brings Joe's sexuality back to life.

The film also addresses the hypocrisy between male and female sexuality, Seligman says to Joe that if she was a man, her actions would be seen as acceptable, even admirable, yet because she is a woman, she is despised and looked down on as a slut or a whore. Joe is a woman who loves her sexuality and loves who she it, although she is a nymphomaniac, and has had to deal with the outcome that her lifestyle has had on her body, she loves herself for it, and she has no apologies. Joe has started to believe what society says about her, and the way society has rejected her, and Seligman helps her to see past this external vision she has.

The other theme explored is choice. Throughout her past Joe has made choices, she wasn't abused, she wasn't raped, she made the choice to have sex and she made the choice to stop. At the end of the movie, Seligman attempts to rape Joe, assuming that she wouldn't mide, saying to her that she has been with hundreds of men, and can be with one more, Joe reacts badly to this. The film explores the idea that Joe's actions are excusable, because she made choices, and also didn't make a choice. Let me explain, when Joe is talking to Seligman about the pedophile she says that it must be impossible to live with a forbidden sexual desire, and that her nymphomania is something she was born with, and that she cannot control, it also says that she made a choice to sleep with the men, and that acting upon her sexuality was a choice she made, that society shouldn't judge her for.

I found Nymphomaniac in its entirety to be a deeply moving and powerful drama, which has some interesting things to say about female sexuality, and the relationship we have with our own sexuality. Nymphomaniac is perhaps Lars Von Trier's most intriguing and well formed film, in addition to having an original structure and format, and being a visually stunning, well acted opus. Volume II of this is perhaps significantly less thrilling and full than volume I, but nonetheless, it remains one of the most intriguing films i have seen for a very long time. Rating: B+

K: That's not how this goes. Most people don't scream until I hit them.

The To Do List

The To Do List is a 2013 comedy directed by Maggie Carey and produced by CBS Films. The film stars Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Recreation fame as Brandy Klark, a girl graduating high school and who attempts to get more sexual experience before going to college. Brandy Klark is organized, bright and socially awkward, in addition to being sexually inexperienced and overachieving. The film is set during the summer of 1993, incidentally three months before i was born.

Brandy decides that she needs to get more sexual experience before she leaves for college, true to form she makes a list of all the vaguely sexual acts she can find, attempts to define them, and attempts to achieve them all by the end of the summer. Brandy also works as a lifeguard at the public poo, and the subplot of the movie involves Brandy being hazed by the employees of the pool.

The To Do List is surprisingly funny, and there were many moments in which i laughed out loud, this overall is due to the films fun script and talented cast. I make no secret of my love of Aubrey Plaza, and i watch Parks and Recreation, in part for her performance, it is great to see her in another leading role, and this role strays far from her usual slacker roles. The rest of the cast is also bright and charismatic, and i am also a fan of Alia Shawkat, and it's great to see her outside of Arrested Development.

I also like the film's amorality, the characters have an open and liberal attitude to sex, and by the end of the film, neither their opinions nor their perspectives haven't really changed, and Brandy gets to the end realizing in fact that sex still really isn't that big of a deal - for her at least. Brandy ends the film with a no regrets perspective, regretting nothing and having enjoyed the experience. The only place that the film fails is that there is relatively little character development, and we get to the end knowing little more about Brandy than we did at the beginning, and there are various points in the film where it feels the need to resort to gross out humor that tends to cheapen the film.

Overall, despite not being a great film, The To Do List is a funny and poignant film, the kind of sexual freedom shown in the film is rare, and Brandy's character makes the straight up decision to have sex without the film needing to slut-shame her or regard her decisions with scorn or disdain. The To Do List is an entertaining way to spend a few hours, and raises some interesting points about female sexuality. Rating:B-

Fiona: Hello, welcome to big bun. Brandy: I’ve decided to lose my virginity to Rusty Waters. Fiona: Would you like fries with that?