Sexuality and Cinema

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction: ‘A Pirate's Life For Me’‘No, Mate. I'm Free Forever. Free to Sail the Seas Beyond the Edges of the Map…’: Queering the Fantasy Blockbuster‘Guidelines, rather than Actual Rules’: Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Heterosexual Matrix‘The Captain does seem to be Acting a bit Strange … er’: Queering Stardom and PerformanceConclusion: ‘We shall have a Magnificent Garden Party and You're not Invited’?ReferencesIntroduction: ‘A Pirate's Life For Me’‘No, Mate. I'm Free Forever. Free to Sail the Seas Beyond the Edges of the Map…’: Queering the Fantasy Blockbuster‘Guidelines, rather than Actual Rules’: Pirates of the Caribbean and the Curse of the Heterosexual Matrix‘The Captain does seem to be Acting a bit Strange … er’: Queering Stardom and PerformanceConclusion: ‘We shall have a Magnificent Garden Party and You're not Invited’?References

This dissertation reconciles two interpretations of F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) by linking the film’s anti-Semitic qualities with its transgressive sexual impulses. In doing so, I assert that Jewishness pervades in the body of the vampire Count Orlok while additional readings of the film are enacted. The methodological framework employed is far-reaching, as an expanded definition of allegory is required to attach both racial and sexual stereotypes to Count Orlok’s uncanny form. 
I found strong evidence for my application of allegory in the writings of critical theorists and philosophers such as Homi K. Bhabha and Sander L. Gilman, whose work on stereotypes accounts for the multiplicity of significances that converge on the vampire body. Scholars of Jewish history and gender in Germany provide background for the Jew’s sexual ambiguity, while psychoanalysis elucidates the amplification of transgressive sexual desire in Weimar. I also consulted the literature on Nosferatu and on the genres of horror and the fantastic, though there is more in these sources on the film’s sexual subtext than its racial undertones.
The dissertation commences with an examination of anti-Semitic iconography that fused femaleness and Jewishness, thus symbolically rendering the Jewish male both impotent and virile. I then analyse the acceleration of sadomasochistic and homoerotic impulses among German men in the Weimar Republic, and demonstrate how the Jew’s multivalent body was adapted to suit their fantasies. Finally, I reconstruct four spectatorial patterns in Nosferatu available to male viewers, each of which is charged with sadistic or masochistic impulses directed at a heterosexual or queer love-object. Within each pattern I identify Count Orlok as a different manifestation of the sexualised Jew, thereby confirming the compatibility of the film’s racial and sexual subtexts.

Published in "Offscreen", n. 9, vol. 19, Montréal, September 2015. ISSN: 1712-9559
http://offscreen.com/view/the-skin-i-live-in-pedro-almodovar


-------------- ABSTRACT ENGLISH: The Skin I Live In is a 2011 thriller from renowned Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar.
Transgender characters are not unusual in the cinema of Almodóvar, but for the first time, with this film, the process of the sexual change is not the result of an epiphanic process that comes after the liberation from the character's arbitrary gender. A new imposed sexual identity turns into a cage for the main character, resulting in unpredictable reactions.
The research developed in this paper is based on the main character of the film and a comparison with similar ones that appear in other films by the director. This research is also connected with the idea of gender captivity and the results of releasing sexual identity through the act of a sex change.

Le désir et la sexualité ont trouvé des représentations poétiques dans l’œuvre de certaines femmes, notamment à travers la danse pour Maya Deren, « mère » de l’avant-garde américaine, ou par l’intermédiaire de voix féminines et intemporelles dans le cinéma de Marguerite Duras, voix qui rappellent son univers littéraire dans lequel «c’est par le manque qu’on dit la chose»36. D’autres optent pour la mise en scène d’une sexualité explicite et débordante, à l’exemple de Catherine Breillat (entre autres Une vraie jeune  lle, Romance et Anatomie de l’enfer). Elle se fait aussi violente et trash pour Virginie Despentes et sa collaboratrice Coralie Trinh Thi, qui ont réalisé le très controversé Baise- moi (2000). Ce  film marque par ailleurs un point tournant non seulement pour le cinéma des femmes, mais pour tout un pan de la cinématographie contemporaine française associé au « cinéma extrême », aussi connu sous l’appellation « cinéma du corps » selon les recherches menées par Tim Palmer. Je m’intéresserai à ces représentations du désir et de la sexualité dans le cinéma des femmes réalisé en France au tournant du xxe siècle, plus précisément à des représentations qui, mettant de l’avant une prise de position politique affirmée, voire radicale, sont vigoureusement engagées sur la voie féministe. Pour plusieurs réalisatrices, cette prise de position s’enracine dans ce geste, libérateur, qui consiste à prendre la caméra pour regarder/ lmer, geste fondamental servant l’appropriation du regard/pouvoir féminin dans une industrie où les femmes accèdent encore trop dif cilement à la réalisation.

Féminismes, sexualités, libertés
Sous la direction de Lori Saint-Martin, Thérèse St-Gelais et Caroline Désy, Cahiers de l'IREF, collection Agora, no 8, 2017, 69 pages.

Agora No8
De l’ensemble des textes réunis ici, où sont convoqués tour à tour le politique, les médias, la fiction, le théâtre et le cinéma, ressortent deux principaux fils conducteurs. D’une part, les questions de privilèges hétérosexuels, de « race » ou de classe, inséparables d’enjeux de pouvoir et de violence qui traversent presque toutes les études. D’autre part, les écueils, les défis et l’immense part de créativité liés à un désir de renouveler les représentations dominantes en montrant le plaisir et le désir au féminin pour un public lui aussi féminin (ou encore, mais les textes publiés ici l’envisagent relativement peu, relevant d’une minorité de genre). Les nombreuses controverses, contradictions et ambiguïtés relevées au fil des textes illustrent autant l’emprise des pratiques et représentations patriarcales que le riche potentiel de résistance des pratiques militantes et artistiques féministes, à condition de combattre sans cesse les nouvelles exclusions et réductions au silence.

Avec des textes de : Wendy Delorme, Isabelle Boisclair, Nicole Côté, Marie-Claude Garneau, Polly Galis, Julie Beaulieu et Élisabeth Mercier. Précédés d’une présentation de Lori Saint-Martin, Caroline Désy et Thérèse St-Gelais.

Cette publication est disponible en libre accès.

This thesis was submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Film Studies at UNSW. ABSTRACT: The increased acceptance of the LGBT+ community has seen a proliferation of queer media in the 21st century. But as the LGBT+ has entered the mainstream, many of these representations are confined to normalised "acceptable" or "positive" depictions that fail to accurately portray the diversity of queer experiences. While the horror genre has historically been a site that both encourages representations of "counter-cultural drives" while ultimately punishing the Other, this thesis seeks to examine how the horror genre has recently been renegotiated by queer narratives by critically positing Julia Ducournau's debut film Raw (2016) as radically redefining queer representation.

Nell’ultimo decennio, lo studio del cinema popolare nell’Italia del periodo che va dalla fase post-neorealista fino alla fine degli anni Settanta, passando per il momento cruciale rappresentato dal boom economico, ha avuto un notevole impulso a livello sia nazionale che internazionale, in particolare grazie alla crescente importanza del paradigma culturologico. È in quest’ambito che lo studio del cinema popolare – da intendersi nella doppia accezione di prodotto caratterizzato da un successo di massa e di opera destinata al consumo da parte del pubblico cosiddetto “di profondità” – si è progressivamente concentrato su questioni relative alla sfera sessuale. Questo numero di «Schermi», che prende le mosse dal progetto PRIN Comizi d’amore. Il cinema e la questione sessuale in Italia (1948-1978), si pone l'obiettivo di rilanciare ulteriormente la riflessione sulle modalità di articolazione dei discorsi intorno al cinema popolare in un arco temporale costantemente punteggiato da momenti di svolta nella disciplina della morale
sessuale italiana: dalla Legge Merlin (1958) a quella sul divorzio (1970), fino alla diffusione della pornografia cinematografica (1978).

Description du cours, objectifs et approche pédagogique :
Ce cours a pour objectif l’étude des représentations du genre et de la sexualité dans le cinéma de fiction selon une variété d’approches critiques, dont les théories féministes et post-féministes, la critique gaie et lesbienne et les théories queer. Le travail de réflexion se fera à partir de films réalisés tant par des hommes que des femmes et portera sur différents genres cinématographiques, à l’exemple du film noir, du western, du road movie, du film érotique ou pornographique, et de certaines tendances du cinéma actuel. Les concepts et problématiques issus du croisement entre les études de genre (gender studies), les études culturelles (cultural studies) et les études cinématographiques seront mis à profit chaque semaine (ex. l’image de la femme, la représentation de l’homosexualité, les stéréotypes sexuels, etc.).

"Documentary Disclosures" is about the emergence of queer-identified filmmaking in In dia against the dramatic backdrop of a rapidly transforming mediascape in the last decade of the twentieth century. The restructuring of India's urban mediascape in the 1990s-through processes of economic globalization, an open-sky policy, and the rise of the Hindu right-witnessed wide-ranging cultural transformations, including an unprece dented efflorescence of cinematic and televisual speech on issues of sex and sexuality. Against this backdrop, the works of three independent filmmakers-Pratibha Parmar, Riyad Wadia, and Nishit Saran-rendered queer subjects and communities visible while raising formalist concerns about documentary's ability to "disclose." This chapter discuss es the work of these filmmakers as both intercultural texts and confessionals that shaped a new generation of queer interlocutors.

SERIES SYNOPSIS --- 2018 will be the 50th year anniversary of one of the most turbulent and influential years of the twentieth century. 1968 saw the Prague Spring and the Soviet invasion in Czechoslovakia, massive student demonstrations in Paris, anti-war protests in Chicago, the “Tet Offensive” and the Mi-Lay massacre in Vietnam, a student mass kill- ing in Mexico City, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy and countless other events which shook cities across the globe. This year was also marked by turning points in the Civil Rights and Feminist movements and the rise of a diverse “Counter Culture” which rattled the very core of the mainstream. The unique three-part series 1968mm, tells the story of that epic year in a fresh new way: through the stories and home-movies of those who were there.Decades after this climactic year, we are seeing a recurrence of worldwide upheaval. The revolu- tions of the Arab Spring and the “Occupy” move- ments in North America and Europe carry an echo of 1968. However, unlike today, where move- ments are extensively recorded and instantly communicated around the world through endless streams of personal digital videos, photos, and tweets, 1968 was a time without video, internet, or cell phones. 50 years away, let’s discover 1968 from a new point of view, not through the events that made it into history books, but the unknown stories of people that, just like today with smart- phones, filmed history with their 8mm and S8mm cameras.

Invited to guest-edit an issue of Parallax, we focused on the contours of body theory developed in installation art, dance, and cinema that both theorizes a certain body and ‘installs’ that body as central to the artistic practice. Our contributors comprise of a diverse range of geographic locales, disciplines, and stylistic modes. All articles are original, including contributions from Beatriz Preciado, Steven Shaviro, Erin Manning, Gabriele Brandstetter, and Susan Stryker.

Resumo: Buscamos, neste artigo, problematizar a categoria masculinidade por meio do filme Praia do Futuro. Para isso, nos baseamos em autores/as localizados/as nos estudos pós-estruturalistas, como Jacques Derrida e Judith Butler, pelas teorizações da performatividade da linguagem e performatividade de gênero, em diálogo com a metodologia etnografia de tela, para discutir sentidos do masculino que, as personagens centrais, repetem/deslocam na trama. Consideramos que Praia do Futuroé um filme que traz questões importantes nas discussões contemporâneas sobre a masculinidade, e, ainda que os sentidos do masculino estivessem mais próximos ao enquadramento à norma, buscamos tecer olhares mais minuciosos sobre as cenas, enfatizando que na tentativa de manutenção da norma, ressignificações-de maiores e menores relevâncias-produziam efeitos sobre as performatizações de masculinidade das personagens.
Palavras-chave: Masculinidade. Performatividade. Diferença. Etnografia de Tela. Cinema.

Abstract: We seek in this article discusses the category masculinity on the film Praia do Futuro. For do this, we rely on authors located in post-structural studies such as Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, theorizations on performativity of language and gender and screen ethnography methodology to discuss the masculine senses that the main characters repeat/move in the movie's plot. We believe that Praia do Futuro was a movie that contributed important questions to the contemporary discussions on the masculinity and, although the masculine senses were closer to the standard, we seek to obtain looks more thorough on the scenes, emphasizing that in the attempt to stay in the standard, the resignations-of greater and lesser relevance-produced effects on the masculinity performativity of the characters.
Keywords: Masculinity. Performativity.Difference. Screen Ethnography. Cinematography.

Melodrama is generally debated by academics as a powerful cinematographic mechanism capable to deal with forbidden themes by Hays Code in Fifties. The aim of the paper is to discuss how films which derive from theatrical plays like "Tea and Sympathy" and "Suddenly Last Summer" cope with homosexuality in a revolutionary perspective.

Cet article est consacré à l'étude du film panjabi "Waris Shah - Ishq daa waaris" (Waris Shah - héritier de l'amour), biographie cinématographique romancée de Vāris Śāh, plus grand poète de langue panjabie et auteur de la version magistrale de "Hīr", qissah évoquant les amours illicites de Hīr et de Rāṁjhā. Vāris Śāh étant un personnage historique dont on ne sait quasiment rien, on s'intéressera à la manière dont est inventé, réinventé et refaçonné l'héritage culturel, deux interrogations principales orientant cette analyse: quelle image du poète et de son oeuvre est donnée et quel message est transmis à travers celle-ci? En quoi peut on dire que "Waris Shah - Ishq daa waaris" procède à une valorisation du soufisme ciśtī ?

In this presentation, I assess Fifty Shades of Grey’s paratexts to better recognize the promotion and proliferation of rape culture in Hollywood filmmaking and in its reception. By assessing Fifty Shades’s posters and trailers and their deployments of genres and cycles, we can better understand what producers believe to be relevant genres and themes for their presumed audience. Further, evaluating film critics’ responses to Fifty Shades will show which genres are conceptually and experientially familiar for these audiences.
First, this presentation provides an overview of the Fifty Shades of Grey reviews published in the popular press at the time of the film’s release on Valentine’s Day Weekend 2015. In my reading of the Fifty Shades criticism, given that the film was neither art, nor porn, nor schlock, the only low genre left for critics to assess it was the “woman’s film.” The woman’s film designation allowed critics to denigrate the film and provide disparaging commentary about it to thereby prop up their authority and demonstrate their good taste. The designation of woman’s film does little to account for both the men in the audience as well as the character namesake of the film. To more convincingly comprehend and condemn the film’s problematic depictions of psychological and sexual abuse, instead of attacking its misrepresentations of BDSM practices, I evaluate the film within the context of what I coin as the upper-class white male fragility cycle in contemporary Hollywood. I read this cycle through two film posters and two trailers. I situate the film within an existing regime of signs whose meaning is comprehensible and appealing to a wide audience. It is producers’ and critics’ knowledge and perpetuation of this regime of signs that make Fifty Shades so culturally troubling.

A travers la notion de "représentation-limite", ce colloque proposera une réflexion collective sur les enjeux esthétiques, politiques, économiques, anthropologiques et culturels des figurations de la sexualité humaine qui, aujourd'hui, pour diverses raisons, "posent problème" dans l'espace public. Pour cela, il rassemblera plusieurs orientations de recherche qui restent relativement récentes en France dans les domaines du cinéma et de l'audiovisuel, aussi bien en termes d'objets (cinéma contemporain, vidéos Youtube, films pornographiques, etc.) que de disciplines (études visuelles et culturelles, Queer Studies, etc.). Les interventions traiteront ainsi de la perpétuelle redéfinition des "limites" (juridiques, formelles, morales, politiques, etc.) assignées à la représentation des corps sexuels au cinéma et dans les médias audiovisuels. La réflexion sur cette évolution des frontières de l'"acceptable" sera aussi l'occasion de questionner la construction des normes par rapport auxquelles on juge du caractère problématique ou non d'une représentation.

Since its publication, the works of the Marquis de Sade have challenged the reading public with a philosophy of relentless physical transgression. This is the first book-length academic study by a single author that applies the philosophy of the Marquis de Sade to the analysis of a wide array of film texts. By employing Sade’s controversial bodily-oriented philosophy within film analysis, this book provides a new understanding of notions of pain, pleasure, and the representation of the transgressive body in film. Whereas many analyses use theory to excuse and thus dilute the power of sexual and violent images, the application is deliberately transgressive and confrontational, seeking to examine cinematic representations of human relations as unflinchingly as Sade did in his novels.

Since the silent era, Hollywood has maintained a particular fascination with disasters. Up on the screen buildings collapse, volcanoes erupt and tornadoes destroy all in their path. This article investigates the Hollywood disaster genre for its depiction of sexual and gender identities. Researchers increasingly recognise the significance of sexuality and gender in how ‘real-world’ disasters are experienced. Social marginality linked to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) identities has specific consequences within the social impacts of a disaster. In Hollywood disaster films, LGBT identities are almost entirely absent. This does not mean, however, that sexuality is positioned as irrelevant to the disaster experience as represented by Hollywood. Instead, these films valorise and naturalise a particular vision of heterosexuality and represent disasters as mechanisms for the creation of heterosexual space.

Carlos Reygadas explores both the ordinary and extraordinary in contemporary Mexico. He stages scenes of graphic violence, sex, dying, and death; his non-professional actors convey sadness, contempt, distrust, and experience great loss.

In this video essay I tried to bring together these elements of Reygadas's oeuvre. We see these themes in the deaths of animals and humans, the consistent depiction of guns, and the ties between religiosity and sex and death. In my reading of the director's work, seemingly incongruous scenes can be connected to help us understand more about Reygadas's place within contemporary film-making and his view of life in contemporary Mexico and, if we're lucky, we may also come to understand ourselves a bit better too.

Video from Reygadas's Japón (2002), Battle in Heaven (Batalla en el cielo, 2005), Silent Light (Stellet Licht, 2007), and Post Tenebras Lux (2012).

A short essay on animals, non-human animals, and death is available here: troybordun.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/mexico-is-bleeding-the-films-of-carlos-reygadas-video-essay/

A very early attempt at teasing out death and dying in Reygadas's cinema can be found here: vimeo.com/101023277

Depuis le début des années 2000 et le « passage à l’euro », on assiste à une prolifération de « comédies d’argent » sur les écrans français, souvent repérables à partir de leurs titres, comme Ah ! Si j’étais riche (2002) ou Le Coût de la vie (2003). Sous-genre aux contours flous privilégiant une orientation masculine, cet ensemble de films a pour intérêt d’envisager l’argent comme enjeu et fondement des interactions sexuées, via des situations mêlant rapports de genre et rapports financiers entre hommes et femmes (des dépenses inhérentes aux manœuvres de séduction à la relation tarifée avec une « professionnelle »). Après avoir présenté les enjeux de ce corpus, nous proposerons une comparaison entre Le Prix à payer (2007), un film très représentatif de cette tendance, dans lequel un homme d’affaires (Christian Clavier) décide de « couper les vivres » à son épouse (Nathalie Baye) pour l’obliger à accomplir son « devoir conjugal », et Cliente (2008), une œuvre plaçant la même actrice au cœur d’une intrigue similaire, mais en inversant les points de vue et les positions de dominant/dominé au sein des échanges économico-sexuels. Que révèle l’analyse comparée de ces comédies d’argent ?