If you are turned off by sex scenes in movies just watch Mulholland Dr. and that should fix the problem…Or A History of Violence (at least the films first sex scene).
the human body is beautiful. sex is beautiful. without it none of us would be here. sure it can be unncessary in a film, but it is very rarely " disturbing" and unless that was the directors intent. catherine breillat makes disturbing sex films and the sex is totaly necessary.
“I think that the sex in Nicolas Roeg’s early films is great. Even if the sex is a major part in the story (as in Bad timing) or if it’s not, (like in Don’t look now) Roeg treats it with sensibility and respect.”
couldn’t agree more, Stephan.
Here’s a sorta ridiculous speech I made in class last week on the subject. It pushed some folks in the right direction.
Michael Andrés Ordoñez
Persuasive Speech Outline
Specific Subject: Sex in American Film
Purpose: To educate the audience on the absence of serious sex culture in American movies and how it is better for society than violence.
Introduction:
Attention Getter: When is the last time a man has been truly romantic or when is the last time a poem carried by a sexy look captured a girl’s heart? Last time you saw a movie with a risqué scene was it right after a big, explosive action sequence?
Background Information: American film culture has lost it’s sense of romance. Our culture is so skewed that what our country has come to understand as a socially acceptable truth is glorified violence. We have guns, explosions, harlots and killers in theaters everywhere and our only introduction to romance is in teen comedies and porn.
Thesis Statement: When our most treasured national art form has an absence of mature sexual understanding then we lose the sensibility as well.
Overview of Main Points: To open your eyes about this I’ll point out the harmful influences of pornography first, then I’ll talk about how films across Europe address sexuality in a more open way, and finally we’ll see how smart and sexy films will do us a lot more good than violence.
Transition: Let’s start off with a talk about XXX.
First Main Point: It’s the same label they put on rat poison and moonshine and it’s also a style of moviemaking that boils down sex to a violent sofa sport.
Supporting: Since our romantic influences in media are narrow and porn is widely available it targets a largely male demographic of young men and leaves a lot of women in the dark about sexual concerns.
Supporting: According to Blaserman’s Journal on Media Effects, a scene with something as simple and hugging and kissing can “emphasize the value of consent and affection in sexual contacts.” Whereas sexual violence in pornography “influences laboratory aggression against women” which only leaves something left to be desired romantically. What that says is that, yes, it’s true, media influences our perceptions. So if you grow up on “Girls Gone Wild” and “that series of Bus movies” you are being conditioned to understand sex as a big joke and authentic romance as alienating and plain weird. This has been dumbing down love to one big, dumb hobby.
Transition: Let’s move on to the “old guys”, Europe. They sure are risky with their movies.
Second Main Point: The Europeans have kept a reliable tradition of breaking tradition with sexy films that confront the tough stuff in life while we hush it away in Hollywood pictures in fear. Even their commercials, videos, and TV has a high level of sexual sophistication.
Supporting: Take Germany for example, according to my good friend Oliver, they have stricter codes on violence than anything else. It’s something Blaserman would support as he’s said and everybody’s said that “violence influences violent behaviour.” Less importance directed towards violence can influence less contemplation about hate towards others.
Supporting: According to Pennington’s book on Sex in American Film which covers a whole lot about Hollywood censorship and a bit about European film, “the sexual freedom in 60s European pictures proposed the idea of sex as being something real and important.” See, after the sexual revolution that took hold of the world at the time Europe was the first to confront if in its mainstream cinema. Placing sex as a hot topic it influenced thinking that challenged social norms, economic status, and philosophies on life and death.
Supporting: For those that are shaking their heads thinking that they’ve seen plenty of risky, sexy movies made in America. You’re right, we do have films that challenge norms through sexuality. The problem is they can hardly be made or released since the FCC suppresses them with their tsunami size waves of cultural conservatism.
Transition: Imagine a Hollywood unafraid to talk about sex and romance like it really is.
Third Main Point: As John Cameron Mitchell, the director of the film Shortbus has said, “Sex isn’t all that shocking, it’s just another brush stroke in the canvas of life.” Books, paintings, and other art forms in America seem to get a wise comment like that and they have for years. They do today. Yet, let’s face it, what we like to do is watch movies.
Supporting: If sex with all it’s idiosyncrasies and complexity is taken at face value in our movies then it won’t be quite so taboo a subject. If these things keep getting brushed under the rug then it leaves sex as a vague subject that keeps us vulnerable to bad decision making in relationships.
Supporting: It also encourages us to have educated questions about sex and life and love and our relationship with one another.
Transition: To conclude.
Conclusion:
Summary: Gather it all in your head piece by piece, Then I summarize the topics.
Restatement of Central Idea: Us young blooded Americans should have as good a sexual understanding as any European. We need to show we aren’t afraid of sex in our movies!
Concluding Remarks: Our movies influence our fashion, our ideas and our youth. Of course we can think for ourselves but we seek art for questions a lot of the time so that we can find the answers later. If films are a conversation with society then let’s make them as fearless as books and let them talk about what’s always on our minds.
Some films need it some films don’t it depends on the context in which we are talking about. I think it is too broad of a subject to even answer.
i hate sex scenes in movies. i hate porn, too.
there’s one exception… david cronenberg movies. because they’re necessary and totally different. hate david lynch sex scenes
I have always hated sex scenes in movies.
As a child, I jumped to attention, raced to the VCR, ACTUALLY PRESSED STOP TO TURN OFF my family’s screening of MANNEQUIN (!?!?!?) because of the confusion it caused me. Granted, in hindsight, I recognize that my 8-year-old reaction to its necrophiliac undertones was justified. Sex in Hollywood is fucking fucked. That’s that. (That’s the larger discussion here, right?)
That said:
I am so pleased to see folks mention Roe since I’ve actually been meaning to write something about Roeg’s untouched handling of sex for some time:
DON’T LOOK NOW is, somehow, given the UBIQUITY of sex scenes out there treated as profanity (even if in secret, coded ways), the only fucking movie on the fucking MARKET to depict sex in any way even APPROXIMATING what it is actually like. MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH has some lovely stuff to, though tempered as well with some nasty stuff. Dude kept shit honest.
Sex in film usually does little but prey on the lasciviousness of the audience. Not that that’s necessarily a criticism, but it can serve no narrative purpose in a film: It doesn’t work because the audience knows it is fake, and it breaks the illusion. Unless it is the specificities of the act that are in question (e.g. Cronenberg’s Crash ), to quote Carl Theodor Dreyer, “two people rolling around in bed has nothing to do with [the] movie”.
ewwwwwww. gross.
Unless the movie is about sex, or relationships and intimacy, then there is really no need to have a sex scene in the film.
if i was hanging out with two friends that were in a relationship, and they started fucking, i wouldn’t just hang around and watch
@Johnny: Yeah, but I’m sure you wouldn’t stick around either if they started fighting or shooting at each other or having a secret conversation about stolen microfilm documents, etc, etc, etc: all the stuff we love movies for (okay, examples sound even more ridiculous than I even intended them too, but….you get the point).
I think there are roughly too kinds of directors, maybe corresponding with two essential types of people. For the first type, sex is a problem. Godard, Hitchcock and Lynch fit into this category: sex is nasty and dangerous, but love is idealized. They are the romantics. For the second type, love is the problem and sex is no big deal. Fassbinder, Bunuel and maybe Ozon fit into this category: they are unromantic and they view love as the corrupting, impure element. Perhaps many of us fit along a sort of sliding scale between the two types, depending on whether we’ve just broken up with someone or not.
This is a world I would like to leave behind and possibly return to destroy.
I really hope Jesus returns soon because I only believe in brotherly love.
Also, I believe the film industry exploits this kind of love.
Why can’t that Mario and Peach thing be accepted?
“Love is the blackest of all plagues”.
Did Mr. Bergman mean that?
Here’s another one, Eggman -
“Love is colder than death.” And yes, I’m pretty sure Herr Fassbinder meant that.
But beware that christ complex, lol!
Sex is as basic to humans as eating, sleeping, and breathing. Since I do not have a problem with sleeping or eating in a movie, I do not have a problem with sex in a movie.
I like to see Paris Hilton home movie and watch it many times, also Japanese film that is Empire of Senses which is huge scandal. But no problem if you like sex, there are good film Pinku in Japan.
There is nothing wrong with sexuality in film; Last Tango, Don’t Look Now, Shampoo, The Unbearable Lightness of Being used sexuality to great advantage.
Sex does not carry over into films much these days unless it is a teenager getting hacked or some American Pie type titty shots. It has been over 20 Years since “Being” was released, Hollywood will not touch sex in an mature mainstream manner anymore.
Not offensive but usually boring. Very few good sex scenes. Porn is the worse, they look bored.
But not with similar films if it should find boreing!
All movies concern human subjects (okay sometimes subjects of animals, plants, aliens…. but mostly it relates to humans). And sex is one of these subjects. And for the non religious among us, sex is entertainment too… so why don’t show it, or comment it, what ever… I agree sex can be really boring in movies… I consider porn movies boring, (I have seen a few which have turned me on)I think in “Cinema” the best sex is the sex you don’t see. The best sex is in the imagination and showing it ruins the thought… as a filmmaker you have to take the audience in to the illusion of sex… that, I think, turns on.
All movies concern human subjects okay sometimes subjects of animals, plants, aliens…. but mostly it relates to humans. And sex is one of these subjects. And for the non religious among us, sex is entertainment too… so why don’t show it, or comment it, what ever… I agree sex can be really boring in movies… I consider porn movies boring, -I have seen a few which have turned me on I think in “Cinema” the best sex is the sex you don’t see. The best sex is in the imagination and showing it ruins the thought… as a filmmaker you have to take the audience in to the illusion of sex… that, I think, turns on.
All movies concern human subjects okay sometimes subjects of animals, plants, aliens…. but mostly it relates to humans. And sex is one of these subjects. And for the non religious among us, sex is entertainment too… so why don’t show it, or comment it, what ever… I agree sex can be really boring in movies… I consider porn movies boring, -I have seen a few which have turned me on I think in “Cinema” the best sex is the sex you don’t see. The best sex is in the imagination and showing it ruins the thought… as a filmmaker you have to take the audience in to the illusion of sex… that, I think, turns on.
All movies concern human subjects okay sometimes subjects of animals, plants, aliens…. but mostly it relates to humans. And sex is one of these subjects. And for the non religious among us, sex is entertainment too… so why don’t show it, or comment it, what ever… I agree sex can be really boring in movies… I consider porn movies boring, -I have seen a few which have turned me on I think in “Cinema” the best sex is the sex you don’t see. The best sex is in the imagination and showing it ruins the thought… as a filmmaker you have to take the audience in to the illusion of sex… that, I think, turns on.
All movies concern human subjects okay sometimes subjects of animals, plants, aliens…. but mostly it relates to humans. And sex is one of these subjects. And for the non religious among us, sex is entertainment too… so why don’t show it, or comment it, what ever… I agree sex can be really boring in movies… I consider porn movies boring, -I have seen a few which have turned me on I think in “Cinema” the best sex is the sex you don’t see. The best sex is in the imagination and showing it ruins the thought… as a filmmaker you have to take the audience in to the illusion of sex… that, I think, turns on.
KGKGKG brought up Japanese “pink” films, which have always fascinated me. I’ve yet to see one, but where do they fit in? They blur the lines between pornographic materials and a plain old movie. Plus there’s artistic merit to many of Japan’s pink films, and some of the country’s great directors have come out of the “pink” tradition.
I wouldn’t say that sex in the movies is disturbing. Disturbing is far too strong of a world. I think watching a sex scene can be uncomfortable depending on what sort of group you’re viewing the film with (i.e. parents, or uncomfortable friends), but largely, sex is sex, just like violence is violence. Sex is part of human life, and if art imitates life, then sex is going to be in film.
“You can only be uncomfortable about sex in the movies if you are already uncomfortable about it in your life.”
nice words indeed
@ Jonathan Wing who said: “But what if it’s porn? Is it unnecessary then?”
If your story involves sex then the sex depicted on screen should be pornographic. The very definition of the word demands that any filmmaker of merit should be able to handle the scene unabashedly. If you can’t, if sex on screen “disturbs” you then, quite frankly, you’re one fucked up individual.
This makes me think of the “porn-lite” that plays on HBO or whatnot late at night. The kind where you never actually see anything going on and if you watch it too closely then you start to notice the physical impossibilities of what is supposedly being depicted, as though there are so many women that enjoy getting fucked in the tailbone or having their knees licked or whatnot. That’s truly sick shit. What kind of culture happily provides torture porn as “mainstream” entertainment but is too scared to watch actual sex happen to the point where there’s a sub-industry of naked people pretending to have sex with each other.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating for nothing but close-up money-shot’s, but the state of sex scenes in American films is fucking pathetic (pun intended). Whenever I’m watching a film and the naked women (or man) climbs out of bed and takes the sheet with them I can’t help but cringe. Have you ever known anyone that’s climbed out of bed naked and taken your sheet with them? I would probably ask them if they were going to do my laundry, and if not then where the fuck are you going with my sheets?
Anyhow, I think anyone that can’t handle watching sex happen has got serious emotional problems and needs to grow up, have more sex, or see a shrink.
This really depends on what movies you’re talking about here. In some movies sex is left at an unrealistic minimum, in others, it’s exploited. America loves to exploit sexuality, especially in women. Sex doesn’t disturb me, but the way it is treated in the U.S., both within film and without, disturbs me. I’m guessing that wasn’t exactly what the OP meant, but yes it is disturbing.
mr. sweetums
BACK TO PETER’S MAIN QUESTION: i don’t quite understand what you’re asking, but i’ll try to respond to the best of my abilities, after close interpretation of the repetitive use of double negatives in your opening statement:
if we’re truly looking into the human form, there are several factors that stimulate emotions raw enough to lead to sex. I believe a well made film will show us sex because we, as the audience, almost need to know that two (or more) particular characters have crossed the dimension of morality in their relationship(s). Yes i agree that it’s not always necessary. I think porn is a completely different sport, and i don’t even know why it was brought up in the first place. there’s a reason sex is one of the top thoughts running through a person’s brain throughout the day. it’s generally a form of anti-stress, pleasure, and a display of passionate or intimate feelings for another person; this is why i believe its presence in modern cinema is so huge. On another note, mediums of advertisement don’t help to suppress the thought of sex in a person’s brain— anywhere you go (not just america), you’ll find innuendos, imagery, audio, and implications of sex or something relating to it. In today’s world of cinema, studios and the general cesspool realm of Hollywood expect sex. I’m glad you’re not disturbed by it, peter, nor am i. And as i previously stated, i agree with the notion that it can and usually might be completely unnecessary. But it’s “essential”. Because it fills seats in a theatre. Because it fattens the wallets and the bellies of the beasts that run the box offices.
because sex, peter, sells.