Grumpy Old Men?
Time’s Richard Corliss
Whatever Happened to Movie Sex?
“Contrast today with the early ’70s, when movies like “Straw Dogs,” “The Devils,” “Last Tango in Paris” and Nichols’ own “Carnal Knowledge” promised a future of truly adult depictions of sex. At the same time, the first wave of porno chic lured the curious to the burgeoning genre of hardcore. It seemed as if these two types of films might meet — that cinema might learn to depict the ordinary, universal and melodramatic collision of two bodies, two souls, in bed.”
AVN’s Colt Spencer
Porn-Again Fundamentaliasm: Is Adult Entertainment Dying a Slow Death?
[In a theater watching Inside Deep Throat]Yet, for all my nostalgic pride, I couldn’t help feeling a bit sad as well, because, as my beloved grandma might say, “They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.” I’m not trying to bite the hand that feeds me, mind you, but it must be said that - for every one above-average entry in the adult canon that treats its audience with some modicum of respect, there are at least 10 or more sub-par clunkers that treat us like we are intellectually barren zombies drooling over the television screen with one hand down our pants and the other on the fast-forward button. And personally, both me and my dick are getting a little sick of being patronized.
Mr. Corliss and Mr. Spencer couldn’t come from more different professional persectives on the subject of sex in the cinema, yet here they are, sounding remarkably alike, and remarkably like yours truly. Are Mr. Corliss and Mr. Spencer just grumpy old men? Am I just grumpy and old before my time?
-T.C.
May 12th, 2005 at 1:10 am
I don’t know the answer to that question, but I can tell you that I feel the same way. I think its good to be dissatisfied with the adult industry. That discontent is best when it’s productive:
“I don’t want to jerk off to this stuff, so I will make smut I want to jerk off to” as opposed to “This is vile! Porn is doomed!”
But sometimes its difficult not to feel the latter.
May 12th, 2005 at 1:56 am
Nah, Tony, you’re not a grumpy old man, or if you are, I am too (and looking in the mirror at my petite, eternally youthful, very feminine, and ever-smilling self, I say “Mon Dieu! How can that be!?! ;-))
Honestly though, I think porn took some sort of a detour when it went from film (which, since it required money, also required thought, care, and planning) to video. Less and less and less became more-more dollars, more movies, more copies. The goal became to appeal to the individual vcr viewer just looking to get off rather than the discriminating filmgoer pursuing an all-around sensual experience.
When I buy an erotic film now it’s either a classic from the 70s or early 80s (and I avidly seek these out), a lushly operatic opus from Tinto Brass, or one of your lovely “pornomentarys”. Having sampled a variety of currently fashionable fare via rental, I’ve decided that I just don’t have any desire to own them and, yeah, they make me grumpy too-but what’s worse, they leave me unaroused, frustrated, and just generally sort of disgusted with humankind (or at least the sort of humans who make and star in these videos.)
I think though that this discontent with the state of porn is evidence that there really is an intelligent, sensitive, searching, and sizeable public out there just waiting for you and filmmakers like you to fill the need they feel for an explicit and genuinely adult erotic cinema.
MT (otherwise known as Little Mary Sunshine/Pollyanna today)
May 13th, 2005 at 6:14 am
Colt closing comments…
“If it was done once before, it can certainly be done again. Of course, it would take something extremely original, innovative, and incendiary to ignite that kind of flame in the social consciousness again, but just think about what might happen if it did. ”
It could be something quiet, alternative, subversive, clever, endearing with a gentle humour — that sets the world on fire.
Cheers,
Ell