Weak and pedantic, starting by the soundtrack that immediately “imposes” drama, making impossible an impartial view.

Are nudity and “explicit” sex scenes still considered something transgressive and controversial?

“Shame” brings up an uncomfortable theme, yes, but not uncomfortable to the point of causing shock as I´ve been reading everywhere. “Love Sick”, for example, that clearly addresses incest, would be more disturbing since the characters do not show guilt and do not seem to have reasons for such a behavior (Sissy Sullivan: We’re not bad people. We just come from a bad place). Not mentioning Louis Malle´s “Le souffle au coeur” and Bertolucci´s “La luna”, just to keep into the incest subject. When a director abuses of sex scenes and / or violence – no matter how realistic the mise en scnène is supposed to be* – immediately comes to my mind “Lilya 4-Ever,” one of the most disturbing films I’ve ever seen and that does not show almost anything.

Abstractionism, sometimes, works better than tangibility, and erotism is definitely better than graphic nudity, even when the story is about a sex addict. The erotism, unfortunately, has disappeared; the erotism that is “the very antithesis of this easy, expeditious and promiscuous sex in which paradoxically has been led to the freedom gained by the new generations”.**

*It doesn´t apply to films like “Kill Bill”, for example, where the graphic violence is a satire.

• “La civilización del espectáculo”, Mario Vargas Llosa.