Where Has the Sex Gone?
Growing up, my parents had a clear policy on movies: the sex was no big deal, but I wasn’t allowed to see violent films. These days, the reverse seems to be the de facto policy. Though there’s more sheets of blood and gunplay than ever, there seems to be less sex than ever before in Hollywood movies. Maybe my perception of sexual content has changed, but it seems to me that the Eighties and ealy Nineties were chock-full of randy films like Basic Instinct or Damage. In these Republican, conservative times, the most trouser-raising we can get from Hollywood is the occasional implied hummer or naked flank.
Once again, one has to look abroad for quality sexual content. Y tu mama tambien, for example, is a clever, sexy coming-of-age film. I haven’t seen it, but Baise Moi was controversially full of sex, violence and violent sex.
I know there was plenty of talk about sex at the Toronto Film Festival, but that’s hardly Hollywood, is it?
