While doing press for his excellent new film MATCHSTICK MEN, Ridley Scott made a comment in an interview with The Boston Globe that really made me appreciate the man as a filmmaker. "Sex is boring unless you're doing it, unless the passion is valid. They really did it well in The English Patient - that scene where they can't help themselves: the English are celebrating Christmas outside while they're inside. You never see sex with A-list directors because it's never justified."

Scott contradicts himself by pointing out a good example of justified movie sex, although I think when he says "never" he really means rarely. I wouldn't go so far as to say that showing sex is never appropriate, but nine times out of ten it's boring and pointless and the film would be better off if the sex were merely implied and not shown in detail. Off the top of my head, I can only think of a few examples where showing the act was essential to the plot (BASIC INSTINCT, BODY HEAT, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH), and many more where it was completely frivolous. I'm not talking about movies like WILD THINGS or 9 1/2 WEEKS, where the steamy love-making matches the genre and tone of each film and is therefore entirely justified.


Recent examples include the bordering-on-pornography ORIGINAL SIN, in which Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas do so much hip thrusting it's laughable, while the explicit scene with Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry going at it doggy-style in MONSTER'S BALL was merely to show us more of Berry's anatomy than to advance the story. Sure, you could argue it was an emotional climax for both characters -- and it was -- but did we really need two whole minutes of film to convey that point? UNFAITHFUL featured Diane Lane being serviced over and over again in a variety of ways, which is understandable seeing as the film is about infidelity, but some of the scenes went further than they needed to -- not that I'm complaining as a warm-blooded male (and perhaps that was the point).

I have no problem with nudity and I realize in some cases it can give a movie a substantial boost financially, what's disappointing is how the line between graphic sex and what is perceived as "sexy" continues to be blurred. Apparently romance has been put on the back-burner for a quick fuck. The irony is, the sexiest love scenes in recent memory have utilized the typical fade to black that used to be industry standard, only showing enough to imply sex and then leaving the rest to our imaginations. How about Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney in OUT OF SIGHT? They both strip down and tease the audience with a little skin, hop into bed together, and the scene ends with a classy fade out as soon as the passion steps up a notch. I think Stanley Kubrick made it pretty clear with EYES WIDE SHUT that lots of nudity and sex don't make a film sexy.


How the real-life fellatio in Vincent Gallo's THE BROWN BUNNY will fit into this picture is yet to be determined. I wasn't at Cannes nor Toronto so I haven't had the chance to see the much-talked-about moment, although my initial reaction is to suspect Gallo thought it would be nice to get a blowjob and somehow convinced his friend Chloë Sevigny to do it for "art's sake."

On the other hand, maybe there's something to that, considering two of the actresses in the films I've mentioned were nominated for Best Actress (Halle Berry and Diane Lane) and one of them even took home the award. Tasteful and genuinely romantic as it was, Gwyneth Paltrow didn't win an Oscar until she bared a little skin in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. Eva Mendes may not have won any awards, but after baring it all in TRAINING DAY her career suddenly took off (she appears in four different films this year alone). The same goes for Naomi Watts in MULHOLLAND DRIVE. It seems time and time again women are being rewarded for removing their clothes on screen, so perhaps this plays a role in the increasing frequency of graphic sex and nudity. Just ask Meg Ryan, who we'll see plenty of in the upcoming IN THE CUT by director Jane Campion.

Posted September 30, 2003 | link