Murielle Scherre – J’fais du porno et j’aime ça (2009)

If you’ve followed this blog for any time, you’ll have likely figured out that one of my primary fixations is how the alleged dichotomy between porn and art is total horse shit.

And I’m not imply that this is art–wherever it’s from, some thought went into making it (both the original scene and the subsequent gif loop).

But it raises an interesting point by implication or does so for me; namely: how depressingly formulaic depictions of sexuality tend to be in the cinema.

Its a nuanced, multi-valent consideration what with the dearth of any substantive male nudity to speak of. (Not looking at you, Tom Hardy. Keep up the excellent work, sir.)

But while we are getting more hanging dong, it’s mostly flaccid, incidental dick. Whereas you can bet that if a woman is naked in a film that she’s either just had sex with a man or is about to have sex with a man. It’s wearying.

And then there’s the chaste way that sex scenes are shot: the viewer is offered a view of the action including a full view of the woman with enough suggestive footage to make sure it’s clear what’s happening and then cut to post-coitus.

I guess that’s why I’ve always appreciate Lars von Trier. The way he shoots sex scenes is always slightly salacious but at the same time at least honest about human curiosity.

Ultimately, that’s what I like about this loop. It’s not subtle. You see a hard cock being fellated but the way it’s put together gives it a context, i.e. a couple in a movie theater.

I, for one, would love to start seeing sex scenes like this in R-rated films. Because yes, we do absolutely need to start creating a place for non-sexualized female nudity; but at the same time we need to balance out the historical tendency of editing out phalluses.