Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-246) and index.
Contents:
1. Maitresse: Pornography, Ritual and the Question of the Animal / Barbara Creed -- 2. What is and is not Porn: Sex, Narrative, and Baise-moi / Jacob M. Held -- 3. Perverse Passions: Catherine Breillat's Une vieille maitresse / Deborah Walker-Morrison -- 4. Horrible Sex: The Sexual Relationship in New Extremism / Lisa Coulthard and Chelsea Birks -- 5. Shortbus: Smart Cinema and Sexual Utopia / Linda Ruth Williams -- 6. Becoming Animal in Lust, Caution / Sean Redmond -- 7. Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll: Analysing Aesthetics, Performance and Pleasure in 9 Songs / Beth Johnson -- 8. Tragedy of Hands: Rape in Gaspar Noe's Irreversible / David Andrews -- 9. Antichrist, Explicit Sex, Anxiety, and Care / Torben Grodal -- 10. Explicit Teen Sex and Utopian Problem-solving in Ken Park / Claire Hines -- 11. Witness to the Pain: How Explicit Sex Scenes in Michael Rowe's Leap Year Demonstrate Vision Beyond Visibility / Taine Duncan.
Summary:
With full-frontal genitalia, erections, even actual sex featuring increasingly in films, this explicitness in presentation has caused critical consternation and accusations that such film narratives are pornographic. This book explores how, rather than being pornographic, explicit sex can be an essential element of cinematic storytelling today. Offering detailed analysis of how choices are made in the presentation of explicit sex in often very controversial films, such as 'Shame', 'Baise-Moi', 'Antichrist', 'Dogtooth' and 'Lust, Caution', the expert contributors - including Barbara Creed, Jacob Held and Linda Ruth Williams - show how sexual content can aid characterisation, highlight themes, and provide events that serve to develop plot. The impact of explicit sex as an element of a film's narrative is also revealed to be assisted by effective, nuanced performances and the incisive deployment of directorial technique.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.