{"id":3444,"date":"2012-06-28T16:23:17","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T22:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3444"},"modified":"2012-06-28T16:23:17","modified_gmt":"2012-06-28T22:23:17","slug":"sexual-chronicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3444","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Chronicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Taboo-busting\u2019 is a phrase that is often heard in connection with Film Festivals; I have seen several films at the Festival over the years that have tried to resolve the problem of \u2018real\u2019 sex in movies, usually to spectacular dull or unpleasant effect (the aptly-titled \u201cAnatomy of Hell\u201d springs to mind). The only film I\u2019ve seen that features real sex that actually works as a movie is \u201cShortbus,\u201d which had the good sense to include some humour and drop all the navel-gazing.<\/p>\n

In most European countries films get higher certificates for violence than sex, and isn\u2019t that fairly reasonable? That several of these movies are French may not be surprising, nor that the country that sees an orgasm as a \u2018little death\u2019 would make such glum movies. Perhaps they were so determined not to be pornographic they made sure the audience had a grim time, a trend continued by Michael Winterbottom in \u201cNine Songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

There seems to be debate online about whether the onscreen humping in Sexual Chronicles of a French Family is simulated or not; I am pretty sure some of it, at least, is, but the scenes aren\u2019t shot or acted like the tedious, carefully lit and entirely artificial sex scenes that occasionally punctuate Hollywood fare. They are refreshingly frank, which is the point: the film is about a woman who wants to be more frank with her family about everyone\u2019s sexuality, because she feels everyone is essentially left on their own and in the dark about it. It is not \u2013 despite being French and having that title \u2013 about incest, nor is it pornographic, although that doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t sexy. The film, directed by Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr, is sexy, funny and sweet as well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hardly a perfect film \u2013 by the end it feels slightly overstretched \u2013 but the reviews I\u2019ve seen have been baffling. Slant Magazine says it offers little \u2018beyond basic titillation\u2019 \u2013 which, it suggests, you can find online. True, but I can also laugh at videos of cats on Youtube, and I still want to laugh at a comedy (besides, the film offers more than titillation). The AV Club says it is \u2018untroubled by any of the dramatic issues it raises,\u2019 but the short-circuiting of the obvious dramatic outcomes was one of my favourite things about the movie. A character enjoys being filmed during sex \u2013 why? Because it just turns her on. It doesn\u2019t lead to a scene where her boyfriend thinks she isn\u2019t intimate enough. The husband and wife do not have big arguments when they admit they are attracted to other people. When we discover a particularly good-looking and popular character is engaged in male-male-female threesomes, it\u2019s not because of repressed homosexuality; he is quite happily bisexual. I\u2019m sure some of the critics at the screening I saw it with will say they found it boring (they must live more exciting lives than I give them credit for), but, well, nobody left the cinema.<\/p>\n

The Unspeakable Act has a certain superficial similarity to \u201cSexual Chronicles of a French Movie\u201d (and is dedicated to Eric Rohmer), but it\u2019s like that film turned inside out. \u201cThe Unspeakable Act\u201d of the title does this time refer to incest \u2013 \u2018the \u201ci\u201d word,\u2019 as the protagonist calls it. She is a smart, introverted girl called Jackie who adores her brother Matthew, in a way that borders on the unhealthy. She is sexually active but not interested in other boys, in part because she doesn\u2019t know them well enough, and she doesn\u2019t know anyone as well as she knows Matthew. Jackie is played by a young actress called Tallie Medel, and she is the main reason to see the film; she is memorable and engaging in a potentially difficult role.<\/p>\n

I was less crazy about the film taking place around her. While it\u2019s in some ways a more intelligent movie than \u201cSexual Chronicles,\u201d it\u2019s also oppressively arch \u2013 we seem to have reached a point in indie cinema where lack of emotion is equated with truth (thanks, Wes Anderson). The emotional detachment of the characters at times felt lazy, particularly in relation to the mother, and the camerawork is frustratingly static (I spotted the camera moving twice); furthermore almost all of the important information about the character and her relationships is imparted via voice-over, which felt like cheating to me. A static camera, incidentally, isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing, but as Scorsese has said, a static camera is objective and a moving camera is subjective; here is a story that desperately needed a more subjective view-point.<\/p>\n

I followed \u201cThe Unspeakable Act\u201d with Brake, in which Stephen Dorff plays a Secret Service Agent who wakes up in some kind of Plexiglas coffin in the trunk of a car. He has a radio on which he can communicate with his captor and, apparently, another government worker in the same situation. The camera almost never leaves Dorff, who is told he will be released if he reveals secret information about the President\u2019s bunker.<\/p>\n

Jean-Luc Godard said the way to criticise a movie is to make another movie; the critique of \u201cBrake\u201d has already been made, and in case you can\u2019t guess, it\u2019s called \u201cBuried.\u201d The two films aren\u2019t identical, but they\u2019re too similar for this one to work if you\u2019ve seen \u201cBuried,\u201d and if you haven\u2019t you may be frustrated both by the lack of tension and claustrophobia here (Dorff\u2019s character is more of a hero here than Ryan Reynold\u2019s character in \u201cBuried,\u201d and therefore less sympathetic). You will probably also be irritated by the frankly idiotic ending, which I anticipated from about ten minutes in. Had \u201cBuried\u201d not been made this would be an interesting enough B-movie. But the differences between it and \u201cBuried\u201d make it weaker, and the similarities make it pointless.<\/p>\n

Dragon, one of the more entertaining films I\u2019ve seen at this year\u2019s Festival, is a Chinese martial arts movie combined with a detective story and\u2026 well, frankly, \u201cA History of Violence.\u201d The set-up for the story is so similar, indeed, to that great Cronenberg movie that the film almost feels like an unofficial \u2018re-imagining.\u2019 It concerns a quiet family man living in a village in 1917 who attacks and kills a pair of thugs trying to rob the local shop. A detective investigates the man, convinced he must be one of the \u201972 Demons,\u2019 a notorious gang of killers.<\/p>\n

Although the storyline is at times too similar to the Cronenberg film, the film is engaging enough in its own right; it has excellent photography, for a start, and has fun both with the well-choreographed fight sequences and with visualising the physiological impact of the punches and kicks. As in an episode of \u201cHouse,\u201d the camera penetrates the human body and CGI shows us what is happening to the nerves, muscles and blood-flow. It has none of the depth of \u201cA History of Violence,\u201d but it\u2019s aimed more at the level of shallow entertainment, which it more than fulfils.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow is my last day of screenings: I eagerly look forward to Brave, the new Disney-Pixar which will close the Festival on Saturday night. I am also keen to see The Imposter, a documentary that I\u2019ve heard a lot of good buzz about, but it starts at the Cameo cinema a minute before \u201cBrave\u201d is due to end at the Cineworld; I am hoping the typically lengthy Pixar closing credits will give me time to make a Mark Renton-esque sprint from one cinema to the other. Tonight sees the return of the Surprise Movie, after a three year absence; I have, obviously, no idea what it will be (my own experiences with the Surprise Movie have included Tim Burton\u2019s \u201cPlanet of the Apes\u201d the day before it went on general release), but I imagine it will be introduced by the new artistic director, Chris Fujiwara. Unusually for artistic directors, I\u2019ve noticed Fujiwara at a lot of the press and industry screenings, and he seems to be very enthusiastic and hands-on. While I do not think the Festival is quite what it was a decade ago, I do think Chris Fujiwara may have the right attitude to revive its potential.<\/p>\n