‘Picnic at hanging rock’ is a good example of this.
Also ‘Las grinchoom ta runkin’
yeah saw it today haha
If you’re looking for male repressed sexuality I can reccomend “A Short Film About Love” right off the top of my head.
just watched repulsion tonight and forgot how magnificent the film is and especially the performance of catherine deneuve. fantastic film and brilliant b/w photography by gil taylor.
Well, its not that I’m looking for male examples. I just want to understand what the whole basis for the “repressed sexuality” is. I don’t agree with the concept. I think it might take someone who wants something specifically and can’t get it, hence repression, and that would end up in sociopathic tendencies i would think. But seeing these virgins on the screen who are disturbed, apparently because they haven’t expressed themselves sexually… it just doesn’t make sense to me.
It does to me. This particular subject is a very familiar one to me. I used to feel this all the time
could you elaborate a bit? you don’t need to enter into personal details… but whats it all about?
SHFWOOM
Well… for me it was more a social thing. I felt that if I had sex or something, then I’d be cool, and i’d be accepted. That’s what I thought. It ain’t true though. It’s a feeling, but not a sensible one.
Welp, bedtime…
Many many films and actions we perform in life are based on repressed sexuality. Erm.. my advice: enroll in a single sex school.
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“But seeing these virgins on the screen who are disturbed, apparently because they haven’t expressed themselves sexually… it just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Interesting…I always presumed that Deneuve’s character was suffering not because of being a virgin but due to a history of sexual molestation or trauma.
^ That may also be a factor, Ben, but it’s pretty well established (perhaps confirmed by Polanski, I’m not sure) that her major problem was repressed sexuality.
I’d say films such as Psycho, Confessions in a Golden Eye (I think), and 1984 are a few I can think of off-hand. Perhaps Polanski’s The Tenant has an underlying aspect of that. Maybe Dead Ringers? I always felt Cronenberg’s twin characters had some kind of sexual repression which perverted their “regular” sex life.
Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud (Claude Sautet -1995). An old man represses his desire for a much younger woman (E. Beart).
Luchino Visconti’s “Death in Venice” is one good example of a male’s repressed sexuality. Actually, Thomas Mann’s book, upon which the movie is based, is the best example I can think of. The main character is just not willing to accept his homosexuality, trying to persuade himself until he can’t help but to succumb to a man’s charm.
Then again, if what you mean is a man’s feelings for another woman, you could take Tod Williams’ “The door in the floor”. The teenage character wants to be with his boss’s wife, but he can’t. I think it’s quite obvious why…
see, now there’s an example of repressed sexuality. the fear of accepting ones homosexuality, or not understanding it, would be a good reason to call it such. but what Im referring to is how people are portrayed in movies, disturbed somehow because they haven’t had sex. It doesn’t make much sense.
Why doesn’t it make sense? Is it not natural for humans, at some point in their life, to desire another? In fact that’s practically written into every living being’s code. With animals it’s merely procreation and humans have that subconscious drive as well, on top of it the aspect of lust, etc. Is there anything more natural?
Sexual repression isn’t some imaginary problem, it’s documented it’s clinical. Just take a look at 95% of the serial killers out there and see if you can find a common trait. But in a way you’re right because just simply not having had sex doesn’t mean someone’s disturbed, but it’s a problem if it’s ever-present in their mind and yet they cannot follow through for one reason or another. No one’s saying that virginity is disturbing necessarily, but sexual repression (or perhaps any repression I would think) does not help an already unstable person, in fact it can fuel their dilemma.
So, to clarify, sexual repression can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people (for instance, never somehow land on the subject with a baptist), but I believe the most common usage of it is not the fact that the person just has not had sex, it’s that they obsess over it and yet cannot (for religious or whatever reason) manifest that obsession in reality.
^ i take sexual repression to mean the latter in that last paragraph. to modify it a bit, i believe sexual repression to indicate when a person hides their sexuality due to a fear of some kind.
like Kevin Spacey’s daughter (Thora Birch) in American Beauty. she hides he womanly figure under loose-fitting, put-off clothes, which is what her mother insensitively remarks on when she says, “are you TRYING to look ugly. congratulations, you’ve succeeded admirably..” To push that example further, she sees her friend (Mena Suvari) brag about her sexual exploits and is perhaps afraid to become like her, so she hides her own body to destroy her chances of being noticed by a man. Deep down though she desires sex and thanks to the help of the new kid on the block (Wes Bentley), she finds a way through her sexual repression problem and ends up feeling wholly loved.
You’re thinking of “Relfections in a Golden Eye” (1967) Deckard. Good movie.
I have always thought, with no clinical evidence, that the girl in Repulsion had for too long repressed the abuses suffered by her at the hands of some of the family members in black and white photograph.
heh, you’re right Dave… reflections
Heh, that is a pretty broad theme. I think you’ll find hundreds of films dealing with that topic. However some that come to mind:
Taxi Driver – Martin Scorsese
Splendor in the Grass – Elias Kazan
In the Mood for Love – Wong-Kar Wai
The Exorcist – William Friedkin
Far From Heaven – Todd Haynes
That Obscure Object of Desire – Luis Bunuel
Through a Glass Darkly – Ingmar Bergman
Dogville – Lars von Trier (the character of Tom)
Royal Tennenbaums – Wes Anderson (character of Richie)
The Shining – Stanley Kubrick (it’s subtle, but seems to be there. try this website http://www.collativelearning.com/the%20shining%20-%20chap%2016.html)
Lolita – Stanley Kubrick (yes haha, the character of Humbert!)
And here’s some films with unrestrained sexuality:
Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom – Pier Paulo Passolini
Blue Velvet – David Lynch
A Clockwork Orange – Stanley Kubrick
L’Age D’Or – Luis Bunuel
Belle de Jour – Luis Bunuel
Let’s not forget “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” Brick’s feelings for his old buddy……and Maggie trying everything to confront Brick sexually. Newman on crutches…..Tennesee Williams evidently hated the way Hollywood toned down the story, so much that he was telling people not to see the film.
Deckard, i agree with what you say. definitely its something real and pretty serious. what doesn’t make sense to me is how i see it portrayed in most movies. repulsion, for example, never gives an explanation to the origin of her repression. that’s why some people believe its from abuse and others think its virginity. it would make a whole lot more sense if there was any childhood abuse, but it is never even implied. it also bothers me that every time there’s a virgin in a movie, it’s referred to as “sexually repressed” Elston mentioned many movies which i don’t agree to be examples of SEXUAL repression. Travis Bickle of Taxi Driver, while definitely disturbed, seeks Becky for affection, not lust. He goes to a porno flick because he doesn’t understand what it means. yes, he is naive, it doesn’t make him repressed.
i think people get from the term “repressed” an absence instead of a need. like virgins would be repressed because they lack the experience, but maybe they don’t need it and give it much thought.
i also want to say to Kelvane, that I believe in American Beauty, Suvari’s character is the one who is sexually repressed. She is a virgin and she’s extremely ashamed of it. she lies to everyone to hide her insecurities.
I pretty much agree with you Learn2Swim, although I don’t feel like it’s ever very clear where Love and Sexual Desire separate. It’s just easier, and perhaps more hiply Freudian, to say SEXUAL repression. Though it certainly short-changes people.
I think Anthony Perkins in Psycho (as mentioned above by Deckard) defines this most perfectly. Has there ever been a more powerful performance of sexual frustration on film? The scenes with Janet Leigh are perfect. Of course, this is what happens to a mama’s boy!
elston, i agree.
haha the oedipus complex is so complicated that maybe it doesn’t even count as sexual repression. but that i wouldn’t know really.
Learn2Swim, do we really need to be given an explanation for Deneuve’s actions in Repulsion? There are subtle hints dropped that her fear of men is rooted in some childhood event, but Polanski was clearly not trying to create a typical, accurate portrait of the sexually repressed woman. Taking into account the final shot (zoom in on Deneuve’s family photo as a young girl), I think Polanski is intentionally leaving the explanation for her actions open, hinting that some trauma happened in her childhood and leaving us with that image. I don’t know how it could “not make sense” when the context has clearly been removed.
As to the virgin thing, sexual repression literally means not having sex, so I would think all sexually repressed individuals in movies are virgins (rape and sexual trauma excluded). I don’t know the numbers of sexually repressed vs. sexually healthy virgins on film, but I think the problem here is that “virgin” has become a dirty word, with all sorts of stigma attached. Even you, after complaining about all virgins being portrayed as sexually repressed, used “virgin” as a criterion for Mena Suvari’s character’s sexual repression in American Beauty. The idea of sexual repression was founded on the assumption that all virgins are sexually repressed. Freud refused to believe that anyone would be genuinely disinterested in sex, and concluded that they were simply repressing their desire.
Learn2Swim
Lately I’ve seen a couple of films that touch on repressed sexuality, like Repulsion and Halloween. While I think Repulsion is a brilliant film, I can’t help but wonder why would a woman as beautiful as her would be repressed sexually of all things. Also, what exactly does that mean? Is it implying that any virgins out there are starving and craving to express their sexuality? It makes me think that sex is thought of as a rule instead of a natural instinct. Plus, its always women who are portrayed this way in movies, or at least I can’t think of a male example.
Any thoughts about the subject appreciated.