So lately I’ve been noticing that there’s more and more of a trend in movies—mostly European—to feature realistic sex. First it was ‘Angels and Insects’, where it seems one of the actors got an erection unexpectedly, but they did leave it in the movie. Then there was Sex and Lucia, which featured erections but not actual sex. Supposedly there was a genuine blowjob in Vincent Gallo’s ‘Brown Bunny’ but now that’s up for debate. I also remember a French film from a couple of years ago, which did feature real sex. There’s other films as well, but it’s not necessary to list them all.
First off, is this a good thing, a bad thing, or what? I have to say, as a woman, I kind of like this, but I don’t know whether that’s relevent at all. Secondly, what does this to the concept of acting? Isn’t acting supposed to be about, well, faking it? And third, just for the hell of it—why are these films so damned depressing? If they made a movie with actual sex in it, plus romance, and a kick-ass plot, they’d make a billion bucks. Every one of these films seemed to be pretty dark—does the concept only work with serious subject matter, or would it be sort of startling to see somebody like Brad Pitty with a hard on in a romantic comedy?
Well, the most recent Catherine Breillat film **Sex Is Comedy** goes into graphic detail about the challenges of dealing with erection prosthetics when making a movie (and not a porno, either, but an arthousey drama), so sometimes they are “faking it”, though it certainly looks real enough.
Oh, and Mark Rylance, star of the excellent Angels & Insects, gets his own, uh, onscreen BJ from Kerry Fox (star of the excellent An Angel at My Table) in Intimacy (unseen by me).
Which does bring up the competition issue, doesn’t it? However, it’s been my experience that a flaccid penis isn’t necessarily a good indicator of—Oh, God, the puns are just gong to be awful in this topic, aren’t they?
And Brad Pitt isn’t a good example, really. I used him because he’s such a household name. But Alan Rickman…Oops, having a puberty flashback.
The thing that sort of dismays me about all this is the fact that once I started seeing this kind of thing in the flicks, I prompty forgot about exploitation and all that. Exploit away! Unless it’s Harvey Keitel.
I don’t see a big move toward showing erections or actual sex in American mainstream movies any time soon. Big stars already negotiate exactly what skin can be shown as part of their contracts for appearing in movies now. Lesser-known or unknown actors (male or female) may be more willing to show skin than more established stars but there doesn’t seem to be that much of a market interest in it. If there were I think we’d already see it since Hollywood isn’t exactly bashful about exploiting trends.
You won’t see it anytime soon in Hollywood-type movies, because an erection or actual sex pretty much guarantees an NC-17 rating, which is a kiss of death for commercial success.
In the Realm of the Senses showed a blow-job up close, in addition to other realistic sex. And, like the OP indicated, this was a pretty dark film.
Would something light and humorous (American Pie?) be as funny with erections? Probably. But then I would want to see a lot of muff to go with it. Oops–we’ve just entered NC-17 territory. And would lose 99% of actors/actresses wanting to make a serious run at Hollywood.
Who would star in such movies? Porno rejects? With that mental image, all of a sudden this doesn’t seem like such a good idea.
I’m not that interested in explicit sex most of the time. However, I think a scene with a full-blown woody could be funny or poignant.
Wouldn’t it be heartbreaking to see a movie in which a man whose wife has recently died cannot bring himself to masturbate, despite having an erection? If you couldn’t actually see his erection, you couldn’t be sure that his body, but not his heart, was willing.
The movie you were thinking of is Romance, a mainstream art film that played at Cannes and elsewhere, which featured real, graphic sex including intercourse and oral sex. It even had Rocco Siffredi, who is apparently a fairly famous porn star in Europe.
A number of years ago there was another mainstream film called Devil In The Flesh, in which the star of the film (and a critically respected actress) pulled out the erect penis of her co-star and performed fellatio on him. I was quite surprised by that when they showed it on the “Showcase” channel here in Canada. Showcase is an art film channel which features foreign films.
Tangental story: Mark Rylance is an acclaimed Shakespearean actor, and the artistic director at London’s New Globe Theatre. I believe he’s fairly well known in the British theatrical world, but I had never heard of him until I saw him as Olivia in the Globe’s production of Twelfth Night last year. He was incredible. I said to my companions that I hoped he had been in some movies, because I’d like to see more of him.
Those were my exact words. “I’d like to see more of him.”
Only later did I learn that his two major film roles were in Angels & Insects and Intimacy, and that he was nude in both movies!
I did end up seeing Angels & Insects, since the library had it and I’d read the book before and was curious to see how it translated to film. I don’t remember seeing Rylance’s honeymoon equipment, erect or otherwise, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with the film so I may not have been paying attention at the time.
Actually, it was Rylance who was sporting the erection. It came about during a love scene between the actress who played his wife, and another actor. The director/producer stated that they hadn’t planned for that, but that it fit perfectly in the film, and they left it in.
As someone who’s suffered through many a rom/com where there was no chemistry between characters who were supposed to be in love, I have to wonder if the explicit stuff is just a substitute for better casting. I can only think of a few instances of really good chemistry, and I think it actually works better. However, if somebody managed to combine the two, I’d be impressed.
I haven’t seen “Intimacy”, but I have seen everything else here, and like I said, they were all depressing. There seems to be a correlation between the explicty nudity in the film, and the amount of darkness in the story. Is that a punishment? I mean, sex is a pretty happy experience in real life life. I don’t necessarily think it’s because they’re European, either, although that may be part of it. But I’ve yet to see a movie which involved romance and sex, and didn’t depress the hell out of me.
Is that, in fact, a sign of the sophistocation of European attitudes toward sex? Or are they afraid, somehow, that…what? I really don’t know. I think there might be a difference between serious and depressing that they’re over shooting. Or at least I hope so.
Mark Rylance has another nude scene in Prospero’s Books, Peter Greenaway’s fantasia on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. There’s a mind-boggling amount of nudity in that film, including 86-year-old John Gielgud! :eek:
Bragging hijack: Rylance was a friend of several friends of mine, and showed up at a New Year’s Eve party at my home in 1979.
This thread title reminds me of a story I heard a few years ago. Don’t know if it’s true.
An actor and actress (Both well known, but I don’t remember their names) were preparing to do an under-the-sheets love scene. He tells her he wants to apologize to her ahead of time in case he gets an erection during the scene. He then thinks for a second and says maybe he should apologize in case he doesn’t.
I’m glad you said that! WHen I saw the photo, my first thought was is that all?! But I mean, I didn’t feel like it was appropriate to poll the public to see if they shared my opinion…
Hmmm, and I doubt that was an appropriate hijack. ANywho, carry on.
I can only speak for American society, but in American society, we exploit breasts, while zealously guarding and protecting the penis, as if a man will be utterly robbed of his dignity if he shows d!ck. Not that I want to see d!ck so badly, but it’s ridiculous sometimes. Showgirls, for instance. Boobs all over the place, women spreading their legs and getting cozy with each other, even, but when the male lead gets naked, we only see him from behind. Come on!
I have to agree with the way te penis gets guarded from view.Sometimes the contortions are just ridiculous. I remember some scene where the actress was casually bare, obviously comfortable, but the guy had one leg coyly propped up like some showgirl showing off her gams.
And I never saw Kyle MacLachlan’s penis in Showgirls. I thought I’d better add ‘in showgirls’ because otherwise it sounds like the thing went missing or something.
