I’m not above smut and unfavorably regard almost anyone who thinks (s)he is, yet it still bothers me to think that’s the only thing I could competantly do with a camera (even though that’s a very real possibility). So…
I’m asking if it’s possible to make a truly artistic pornographic film. Something that examines not just what the kinks are, but how one comes to embrace them and eventually seek them out.
We already examine sex clinically (taking into account upbringing, socioeconomic status, genetic influences) and elsewhere exploit it cinematically (taking into account tit clamps, butt plugs, and gangbangs). I’m just wondering if somehow a bridge could connect the two. Something that would allow you to whack off and simultaneously realize just what a twisted fuck you’ve become over the years.
The short answer is no, in my opinion. However, I do think that it is an interesting question. The somewhat obscure author Terry Southern (co-wrote “Dr. Strangelove”) was interested in this very question. See Southern’s book Blue Movie The fact that the book was dedicated to Stanley Kubrick leads me to believe that Southern was the inspiration to make “Eyes Wide Shut” even though the movie was based on a novella by Arthur Shintzler.
Admittedly it won’t be artistic to people who don’t think naked people and sex are beautiful, but for the rest of us who are okay with sex and think it is beautiful, why not?
I’m pretty sure it can be done in writing. (Okay, I yield, I’m pretty sure I’ve done it in writing.) I see no reason why it couldn’t be beautiful on film. I don’t even see why it couldn’t have a decent plot.
Not that it wouldn’t take work, but I think that naked people and sex are beautiful delightful fun things. They should be able to come off that way onscreen.
I that the way they come off on screen is the biggest problem with the porn aesthetic. Why the fountain routine? As one GF of mine observed, “I believe he came, o.k?”
Check out some of the recommended selections form Good Vibrations, a co-op in San Francisco that is more women oriented (check out http://www.goodvibes.com). They have a good amount of movies that have internal cum shots (and people obviously having fun). A good one is Love’s Passion - a so called “couple film.”
Thanks for the responses, all, and for not making me feel like a twisted fuck.
But really, I was not interested in making regular porn, just with a soft focus. I want to explore the twisted side to porn, the more perverted things that not all people embrace. This is not so much because I care for this stuff (some of it I do, some I don’t), but because those seem to be the more pressing questions. Threesomes…“Ooh, aah.” Who cares? Everyone can understand the desire for that, so why bother exploring it? But other things - you all know what I’m talking about - are not so easily explainable. Some shit you look at and say, “How the fuck can anyone be turned on by that?” That’s my subject matter.
I guess the narrative I’m looking for would chronicle the journey (or journeys, as there’s always more than one route) from shame to timidity to tameness to “normalcy” (whatever that is) to open-mindedness to complete sexual freedom. Then, it might be nice (if time allots) to see sexual freedom become something more dangerous, which results in an act which would propel at least one character right back into shame. (Not saying, of course, that this is what happens with sexual freedom. I just like exploring the possibilities and showing the potential dangers of either extreme.)
[Snooty Theatre critic]
Ah, yes, and SPOOFE brings up, of course, as example one of the highest expressions of dramatic artistry in the genre – quite possibly the “Apocalypse Now” of Hentai…
[/Snooty Theatre critic]
Naughty, naughty SPOOFE…[sub]For the uninitiated: it’s porno as done by H. P. Lovecraft. Great plot. Bizarre sex[/sub]
but from what [sub]madcowmccoy** writes later, I’d say he should definitely check out the Cool Devices series, and maybe also the Countdown series (with the latter’s comic-book version, too).
