Third Eye Film Society ~ View topic

Author

Message

< Third Eye Film Forums ~ Current Film Talk

lshap

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:41 pm

Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4248 Location: Montreal

There Will Be Blood - yes, that's the name of the Daniel Day Lewis film I wanted to see! The previews look great, and having Day-Lewis in front of the camera with P.T. Anderson in back of it could be a recipe for greatness.

Amazing year, but violent as hell. Lotsa' blood, lotsa' killing an' dyin'. But at least they're not showing 'em having sex or gettin' naked.

Rod

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 9:50 pm

Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia

Based on an Upton Sinclair novel, too. Not that that's actually a recommendation.

_________________
A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space.

jeremy

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:06 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

Quote:

Amazing year, but violent as hell. Lotsa' blood, lotsa' killing an' dyin'. But at least they're not showing 'em having sex or gettin' naked.

I can sorta understand that. Sex, as opposed to a well-turned ankle, a glimpse of stocking top or Ikea Knightley in a sodden chemise, is a complex, personal and generally private thing. We may be a prudish or immature society, but an audience is made up of individuals, each with their own preferences, limits, hang ups and taboos, are rarely comfortable having a common sexual experience. And sexual triggers and fetishes tend to be very individual, what works for one person won't work for another.

Violence on the other hand is less personal, witness the self-feeding frenzy of the mob. It lends itself to being enjoyed as a group. We don't feel 'what a dick' when someone winces at the violence being shown on screen, but we might if they let out a groan during a sex scene. Audience communicate during violent episodes, as they do in horror films and comedies, but not in sex scenes.

_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it.

Rod

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:18 pm

Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia

jeremy wrote:

Ikea Knightley

Joke worn thin.

_________________
A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space.

jeremy

Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 11:02 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

No pun intended.

mo_flixx

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:49 am

Joined: 30 May 2004 Posts: 12533

lshap wrote:

Amazing year, but violent as hell. Lotsa' blood, lotsa' killing an' dyin'. But at least they're not showing 'em having sex or gettin' naked.

LUST, CAUTION provides both violence and sex.

tirebiter

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 7:59 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away

Perhaps-- but cautiously.

marantzo

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:11 am

Guest

I'm pretty much in agreement with Jeremy about the sex in cinema thing. In the vast majority of cases I really hate explicit sex in a movie (almost all of my current movie watching is in theatres). It is usually, to use a well worn word, gratuitous, and badly done to the point of being squirm inducing. There are some examples when it is done very well and is justified and doesn't make you uncomfortable watching it in a darkened theatre surrounded by people who are strangers to you. A couple of examples I can think of were the woman/woman scene in Mulholland Dr. which was so well done that it was jaw dropping and when it segued into the performance of the Spanish singer, it became mystical in the truest sense of the word. The other that impressed me was the second husband/wife sex scene on the stairs in a History of Violence. Another sex scene that I was impressed with, but seems to be loathed by many, was the scene in Monster's Ball.

bart

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:40 am

Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 2381 Location: Lincoln NE

It's true that the socially okay repertoire of responses to sex scenes is limited, as Jeremy noted....I've seen how audiences just become quiet and rather intent, as if everyone is storing the moment for later review and processing.
I think men do this more, being more visual about sex. And, because of the male infatuation with the erotic image, I think less is more, in a movie, or it can be distracting as it leads away from following the characters and towards titillation. The scene in Monster's Ball, though I didn't "loath" it, was too much, a red hot coal dropped in the lap, compressing too much pain and desire for me to process, so I kind of pulled back.

_________________
Former 3rd Eye Member

lshap

Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 10:19 pm

Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4248 Location: Montreal

I think audiences respond well to expressions of sexuality onscreen. Everyone identifies with lust; it's a terrifically successful genre, a driving force in art as much as it is in real life, and there've been innumerable films that tease and titillate en masse. We're good with the classic "Boy wants girl" storyline, as long as we stick to the hormonal basics.

But yeah, once we dive down to the level of fetishes the target market begins to narrow - in film as it is in real life.

Considering sex has been around a lot longer than religion it's a bit weird that it took until a few decades ago for the subject to be shown so freely. Does that make us immature for our squeamishness over something so familiar? Probably, yes. Or else we're still suffering from the leftover delusion that equates more sex with less morality, as if having the former detracts from the latter.

jeremy

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:04 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

Don't be such hippie. I find the implication that it is largely the church and other patriarchal insititutions or their lingering malign influence that is standing between us and a world of free love to be dubious. The realtionship between morality, man-made and hard-wired, and sex is fiercely complex. Right or wrong, societies, parents, siblings, would be partners all have an interest in who sleeps with who and what the penalties are for transgression. That today we can largely separate sex from procreation doesn't negate the behavioural impulses surrounding it.

ehle64

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:05 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A

lshap wrote:

We're good with the classic "Boy wants girl" storyline, as long as we stick to the hormonal basics.

Well, some of us do.

_________________
It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is.

marantzo

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:55 am

Guest

In art often less is more. And the imagination can most times be more effective than explicit depictions. This applies to filom more than any other art form. And this probably applies to explicit depictions of sexual acts more than any other example of the artist having the touch of a sledge hammer. Good director don't include explicit sex unless it actually achieves something besides some tittilation for some voyeurs. Porn films have a similar problem. Far too many cater to knuckle dragging sexual louts and 15 year old boys. More often than not they jump into the sex scenes with no lead up whatsoever. And when they do have a lead in and some character development it can be so badly acted and so hokey that people with a "normal" sex drive are not amused. Very good porno films are quite a rarity considering the volume of product. Quick and many bucks is of course what motivates this lack of quality. A well done porno film is just as much an achievement as a well made mainstream film. So I am calling on all those producers in the porn industry to start catering to the audience that wants to find the characters and plot line interesting enough to give the sexuality some real punch. And it will get many more women watching also.

Lorne, do you have any influence? It is exhausting navigating those hacked porn sites and searching for something that doesn't elicit a "feh!" from me.

carrobin

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 12:13 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

When I worked for the film class, we had one semester where every film seemed to be a "coming of age" flick. Australian girls, Brooklyn boys, all manner of countries and mixtures, but all the same basic theme. I got so sick of adolescent angst that I've avoided the genre ever since.

For a while, our professor included a porn movie in each semester, which was often skipped by some students but not many. I found them rather interesting, especially one that featured Gilbert & Sullivan songs. (I had invited along a friend who was into operetta, and she could never get through "Titwillow" again without giggling.)

bart

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 1:15 pm

Joined: 05 Dec 2005 Posts: 2381 Location: Lincoln NE

"...especially one that featured Gilbert & Sullivan songs."

That is so wrong.

Razz

(certainly could put a different spin on "He's going to marry Yum-Yum")

_________________
Former 3rd Eye Member

All times are GMT - 5 Hours

View next topic View previous topic Page 1669 of 3197 Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3 ... 1668, 1669, 1670 ... 3195, 3196, 3197 Next Third Eye Film Society Forum Index ~ Third Eye Film Forums

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum