Monday, October 28, 2013

Jumping Into the Fray With My 2 Cents on 'Blue is the Warmest Color'

This one goes out to Ms. Snarker...
I think I started reading about Blue is the Warmest Color around the time it won the Palm d'Or at Cannes, or whenever AfterEllen started paying attention to it...And it was around that time that the author of the graphic novel on which it was based came out with a very lengthy essay delineating her thoughts on the win and the movie. It's an interesting, if not quick, read. Here is one of the oft quoted passages in a portion she straightforwardly entitled "About the Banging":
I don’t know the sources of information for the director and the actresses (who are all straight, unless proven otherwise) and I was never consulted upstream. Maybe there was someone there to awkwardly imitate the possible positions with their hands, and/or to show them some porn of so-called “lesbians” (unfortunately it’s hardly ever actually for a lesbian audience). Because—except for a few passages—this is all that it brings to my mind: a brutal and surgical display, exuberant and cold, of so-called lesbian sex, which turned into porn, and made me feel very ill at ease.
I think I read this as well as a couple of reports from Cannes at the time, but it no way deterred me from crossing the days off my calendar in eager anticipation of the movies stateside release. (First of all, what's wrong with porn?!) I just chalked up all the smack talk to puritanical views of sexual displays between women. (At this time, I really wasn't thinking about the fact that Julie Maroh was the author of the work on which the movie was based and the only lesbian involved in any of it.) And because once I've made up my mind to see something, I generally put all the kibitzing away so that I can watch without too much prejudice. So, fast forward to the present.

I tried to put any negative preconceptions aside--if anything, I think I was predisposed to like the film, and really, I did...sort of. Most of the reviews have centered around the lengthy sex scene, and I'll get there, but I want to talk about some other things first, and yeah, there will be SPOILERS. So, first of all, the movie is THREE HOURS long. I really appreciated the way the director let the camera linger in that oh-so-foreign-filmy-indie way, but after awhile, I was like, Um, I really don't need to watch Adele sleeping or shoving spaghetti in her maw any more. Tighten this shit up!

And I also had issues with how the film conveyed the passage of time--which was not at all. There was one really big jump, but the viewer doesn't know how much time has past. Adele looks exactly the same, with the same messy up-do for the whole movie. Once I found out that there was no hair and makeup crew on set I understood why. The director said that he paid 1.5 million euros out of his own pocket to spend an extra month (shooting nekkid scenes I guess), but didn't budget for hair and makeup? Hmmm...

And now we get to the lesbian feels portion...and I am going to do something that any legitimate reviewer would not do. I'm going to compare the movie to the graphic novel. Julie Maroh graciously said in the aforementioned blog post, "Sure, to me it seems far away from my own method of creation and representation, but it would be very silly of me to reject something on the pretext that it's different from my own vision." While I understand that the book and film are each their own work of art to be judged independently, I make the comparison because I feel like the graphic novel has elements that the book was lacking and really would have benefited from. A lot of times when I watch a film and something doesn't seem quite right, I wonder if there was some key element left on the cutting room floor. But the guy had THREE HOURS to tell his story, and the graphic novel was only 160 pages, so, you'd think that he could've gotten it all in there. But, yeah, I had that nagging feeling as I was leaving the theater and I ran out and got the book and yes, SO MANY THINGS MADE MORE SENSE.

Apparently, the director, Abdellatif Kechiche is a big deal in France and both Julie Maroh and one of the lead actresses, Lea Seydoux spent a ton of time talking to him about the project pre-shoot, so everyone must have been okay with his vision, but me, not so much. The plot is so much richer in the graphic novel and if Kechiche had kept in the part about the two being found in flagrante and Adele thrown out of the house, it would have made what came after so much clearer and more poignant. Not to mention the whole dying thing. Although, I have to say, I was totally fine with the fact that he let her live. I was grateful for that.

I think some (maybe most, definitely not all) of my disappointment, came from the fact that I'm a gay lady and the graphic novel is by a gay lady and I resonate more with her vision--that of the anguished gay teen coming to grips with trying to be 'normal' and making out with your 'girl' friend and getting rejected, meeting your first love and being ostracized from friends and family (y'know, that gay story). The film is by a straight dude who employed straight ladies to execute his vision of exploring the devastation of first love lost. The gay element, as it were, in the film was more a canvas from which to work than a key plot point. The actresses did very little, if any, research on the lesbian perspective (their admission, not my assertion). And I would say to those who think this is an appropriate way for an actress to work given that they are playing inexperienced baby dykes...Uh, no, that makes no sense. If the actresses were gay but for some reason had no real-life experiences to draw from and were playing inexperienced lesbians...maybe? Some people seem to think that we are living in a post-gay world where there is no such thing as 'gay'; hence, there would be no merit in talking to actual gay folks about their experiences in order to play a gay person. "Adele, isn't 'gay'. She's just a women who happens to fall in love with a woman." I call bullshit. This is SUCH A COP OUT. I'm sure this is the case for some people, but since the graphic novel is very rooted in the coming out paradigm, I feel that scrubbing out that aspect from the film was, frankly, insulting. [Side note: in the film Adele has sex with her boyfriend, but in the book she gets skeeved out and goes home in the middle of the night.] I could go on and on about this...

So, I feel like I should say a word about the much discussed, maligned, vaunted sex scene....but really, what more can be said? I agree with this Daily Beast reviewer's assessment. It was too long. The way it was shot made one (me?) feel uncomfortable as we are placed in the position of voyeur. The women are on display for us as opposed to us feeling like we are immersed in the story...if that makes sense. [Side note: in the novel, the main character's name is Clementine, in the film, the director changed it to Adele. Creepy, no? Seems like that guy has poor boundaries.] I don't feel like it's necessarily a fact that a man can't accurately and sympathetically capture lesbian sexuality on film, this just happens to be a case where the attempt failed. In my opinion. And I think the above review, as well as Julie Maroh's statement, mirrored my own feelings perfectly.

I feel that some of my recent research on feminist pornography intersects with this conversation. One of the aspects that makes something 'feminist porn' is good working conditions and best labor practices, and I don't think that it is unimportant to note that the actresses felt exploited and tortured (not the Guantanamo kind) during the ten days spent shooting what ended up as a 7 minute sex scene. Naked, wearing merkhins and faking orgasms for ten days--it sounded physically trying and psychologically awful. Much ink has been spilled over the feud between the actresses and the director and I'm not going to get into it, suffice it to say, I think that it is probably one of the reasons why the scene plays cold and 'clinical' to some people--me among them. The actresses were miserable and felt like 'prostitutes'. I'm not just a gay lady who likes to see ladies make out with each other, I want them to like it! Or, y'know, at least do a good job pretending they do, and certainly not feeling horrible about it. That just makes me feel badly. I didn't really know about the whole back story before I watched the film, I just knew that the scene didn't work for me. And once I read/watched copious interviews, I had an idea why. (Although, perhaps it was due to the fact that I was at a theater surrounded by old, straight people whilst watching two women going down on each other and scissoring like porn stars--and not the good porn stars!)[Edit: I just want to be really clear that the issues I have with the scene are not about any particular act being shown. It's not about whether they are scissoring, fisting, whateveh. The scene should be judged as part of this film. Does it work for the film? Is it in keeping with the characters? Etc. These are the questions from which I am critiquing the scene and the film as a whole.]

As a final note, I just want to say that, really, the performances were wonderful--especially that of Adele Exarchopoulos. The camera hardly leaves her for three hours, and although, yes, I think it could benefit from some editing, I was quite smitten. And certainly, one of the most fun things about this film is all of the discussions that it engenders, so what do you think?

Friday, July 13, 2012

Why don't lesbians talk about Zöe Bell more?

Notice how my eyes are totally trained forward. I'm no perv...

So, last weekend I had my first brush with the silver screen when the circus came to town in the shape of a film crew from the movie Raze. The movie has been described as Fight Club meets Hostel. (AfterEllen has a good write-up about it here.) I have never seen either of those movies, and I probably won't watch Raze either, to be honest...I don't like horror movies. And although I liked Pulp Fiction (and probably a lot of other movies w/ bursts of extreme violence), the premise of women being kidnapped and made to fight to the death seems...extreme...and cring-worthy to me. Now, if the girls were making-out...

OK, that said...although ,sitting around for a couple of days in a velvet dress in sweltering heat was not what I would call fun, I will take away some fond memories, such as...meeting Zöe Bell! The super hot star of Raze who was also the subject of a documentary called Double Dare--which I had seen a screening of at the Roxy in San Francisco years ago. And now, finally I had a(nother) chance to have my t-shirt signed. (I was too cool to do it at the original screening, but any illusion of coolness dissipated when I moved to this hick town. Now I am free, free, free to be the fangirl that I am.)

So, with that prelude out of the way, can I just say, Zöe Bell is ridiculously HOT. Like, y'know, you look at her and immediately vow to go to the gym daily and never eat carbs again. I don't even think the pictures I've seen of her do her justice. I would look at her...and look around for validation, like, "Are you people seeing this?!" (There need to be many more Tank Top Tuesdays devoted to her). She very kindly hung out and participating in shoots that she need not--she could have escaped the heat and fucked off to a trailer somewhere, but no, she stayed with the sweaty masses, and even hopped up as food server when they were a man down:



So, in conclusion, lesbians, I'm talking to you. Zöe Bell may not make out with ladies, but she was the stunt double for Xena: Warrior Princess, so that gives her, oh, I'd say a lifetime of lesbian points. And if you're into hot chicks kicking each others asses check out Raze--Heeey, hot ladies in tank tops...bloody tank tops, but still...

Thursday, January 12, 2012

'Friends With Kids': or 'Jennifer Westfeldt didn't just marry Jon Hamm and call it a day'

As an ardent fan of Kissing Jessica Stein (my go-to movie to pop in when I'm feeling down. Well, that and Imagine Me and You--"Number Niiiiine", but that's another story), so from time to time I wonder to myself, "What is Jennifer Westfeldt doing?" And sometimes I see her on Jon Hamm's arm at an award show and I wonder, "Yeah, but what the hell is Jennifer doing?" The answer is this:



I will watch almost all romantic comedies, excepting ones with Reece Witherspoon (Kevin Smith ruined her for me) and Jennifer Lopez (don't ask, I don't have an even a tenuous explanation for that one). But there are soooo few good ones (I'm still recommending It's Complicated and The Proposal to people). So, I won't necessarily get my hopes up too high, but Maya Rudolph?, Kristen Wiig? C'mon! And Jennifer wrote and directed this, so just based on the principal of supporting a sistah (not the gay kind, just the lady kind), this might be an opening weekend watch. Jennifer Siebel Newsom, director of Miss Representation said "Go see movies that are written, directed and produced by women on the opening weekend." That is where we can affect change in what gets produced, not by renting the movie from Redbox! (And then go rent it from your local video store when it comes out on dvd.)

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Might I suggest a change in your Desktop Wallpaper?

What can I say? I love me some Lady Gaga...The other day I was just wondering when Gaga was going to have her answer to Madonna's Sex book. Well...

And don't forget to watch the video of the Vanity Fair shoot she did with Annie Leibovitz for the January 2012 issue:

Friday, November 25, 2011

Some People Are Just Gay

OK, so, there is a reason why I, once-upon-a-time, decided not to watch real life interviews with actors playing in TV shows I lurved. But, I got blind-sided. I went into a fan-girl tailspin over a new sci-fi Canadian show called Lost Girl about a bi-sexual succubus (played by Anna Silk) coming to terms with her identity, looking for love, and kicking demon ass. (Who wouldn't love that?!) While it hasn't aired in the U.S., it is already half-way through its second season in Canada. Which means, thanks to the joyful tear-inducing miracle that is the internet machine, I've been able to gorge myself on 23 (and counting) episodes of Succubusty glory. (Side note: write your Congressman and urge them to vote against the Stop Online Piracy Act) Having exhausted those, I moved on to YouTube videos of the actors, and as Julia Robert's would say, Big Mistake. Huge.

So, what's the big deal, you ask? Some super nice Canadian (isn't that redundant) actors sitting around being genial and trying to get people to watch their fantasy series about a society of super-human beings called the Fae (“Genus, not species”) comprised of, among other things, shifters, brownies, sirens--and those are just the ones you might've heard of...and that I could spell. But the thing is, I heard about this show through the lesbian not-so-underground (get the AfterEllen 411 on Lost Girl here). It has a growing lesbian following due to the relationship of the aforementioned succubus, Bo, to her human doctor, Lauren (played by Zoie Palmer). (You don't even have to use your subtext-y powers on this show! It's all right there getting jiggy in your face. Sooo awesome...) So during these press junket-y things the issue of sexuality was bound to come up in the questioning, but for some reason, I was left having post-traumatic stress flash-backs to the Lucy Lawless/Xena Warrior Princess press tour when she was still insisting that Xena and Gabrielle were not lesbians (insert groaning, eye-rolling, oh-puh-leeze here). OK, so it wasn’t quite as bad as that, but…

During the Fan Expo panel with the series regulars, an audience member asked the group as a whole to expound a bit on the sexuality of characters that haven't been explored as much. We get that Bo is bi-sexual, or omni-sexual (I think really she's in Margaret Cho's I'm-just-slutty- where's-my-parade club.), but what's up with the other people? So, this fan asked a meandering rather than pointed question which no one exactly understood (because we live in a hetero-normative society and it should be assumed that everyone is straight unless told otherwise), to which Kris Holden-Ried (Dyson) said “I'm a lesbian” Big laugh. Yeah, that’s so funny…Then Zoie Palmer took a stab at it:

What was sort of integral to the writers and the concept of, certainly this dynamic [Bo and Lauren], was that it was done in a truthful, realized way, and that it wasn't about two chicks getting it on, it was really about a relationship between two people. And I think what's so cool about this show is that it's never really talked about. We never talk about Lauren's sexuality and what she is ...For all we know she could end up with a guy next season. It's assumed she's gay, obviously, but...what I love so much about playing it is that it's never kind of an issue...It just is what it is...They're people who love each other.

Said like a true straight lady. OK, don't get me wrong, Zoie Palmer, you had me at “Please...come with me.” and I would totally have your lady-babies, but woah, seriously? Lauren could end up with a...what? Maybe you were thinking that Lauren was just taken in by Bo's Succubusty charms, but she liked her before ever getting Succutouched, and then why isn't Kenzi and everyone else falling all over themselves to get their faces sucked off. Yeah, I don't buy it. And while I can see that as an actor it would be easier to play an action, (in this case some sweet Doccubus love) than a trait (Like, how do you play “gay”. Which reminds me, can people please stop casting Julianne Moore as a lesbian? Thanks.), but sometimes people are just gay! Trust me. I've done a lot of practical research in this area. And, Grandma, if you're reading this: When you're gay, even when you meet a guy who's the bees knees, it ain't gonna happen. True love will not be in the cards. I'm sure many of you have had your own “Yep, I'm gay” moment. Or maybe for you it was a “Yep, I'm Straight” moment. Or maybe you straddled the fence but found no clarity--more power to you. And if you never even tried...I'm sorry.

So, unless, of course, one wants to make the case that not only is this a world where frost giants and furies roam the earth, but where everyone is a Kinsey 3, then, as soon as Dyson starts macking on dudes, you can have Lauren. But until that happens, Writers of Lost Girl, I beseech you, Can Lauren please JUST BE GAY? This may be too of a preemptive screed, but I just want to put this out there now to save myself the effort of having to throw virtual tomatoes at Canada at some point in the future. (Come on Canada, you have gay marriage fer crying out loud; throw us a bone!)

Also during this panel Anna Silk and Zoie Palmer alluded to the effort they had put in to creating a relationship that could stand up to Bo’s on-again-off-again relationship with wolf-shifter Dyson, but lately, I’m not seeing it. (How can you compete with fireworks-in-the-mouth wolf action?) And certainly not with the way the writers are writing the story and the way Anna Silk is playing it. Zoie Palmer’s playing for keeps, but Bo doesn’t even seem that into Lauren. She hasn’t even fed off Lauren once. (If you’re not familiar with the show…they do that. It’s cool. She doesn’t kill people…anymore.) So, that can’t be very satisfying. I wouldn’t even be so invested in Lauren being with Bo except for the fact that whoever ends up with Bo is going to get more screen time. (Just ask Kris Holden-Ried). But Lauren deserves better. I say, give her her own show! It could be like Body of Proof Fae-style. Lauren needs more screen time, not less.

According to a GLAAD report, less than 3% of scripted-series regulars are LGBT, and although that is a paltry number, relatively speaking, bi-sexual women abound. My very unscientific estimate is that there is ONE regular lesbian character on scripted network television. That would be Arizona Robbins on Grey's Anatomy. The rest of the ladies who love ladies also love them some stubble-faced men-folk. I think we all know, without employing the Pew Research Center, that women are perceived as having a more fluid sexuality than men, and are, hence, more available to said un-fluid men. (Which I’m sure accounts for the way the mass media decks are stacked.) And while that might be true, I don’t see EVERY straight women on television having occasional relations with other women (unless it’s sweeps), so I think TPTB should also respect the sexuality of women who love women and are past the coming-out story, they’re done experimenting, and yeah, like Ms. Palmer said, there doesn’t need to be a big discussion about it, they’re just…gay.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Doccubustless...or, nipple-less really

So, we all know that sex scenes are choreographed as much as fight scenes...except people are in various stages of undress, but with a little suspension of disbelief the audience can still get caught up in the moment. Or, should, that's the point after all...but I seem to always find myself focusing on the wrong things. It's probably akin to walking in on a couple at an inopportune moment and uncomfortably offering, "Wow, your wallpaper is so nice." (I almost said rug, heh. That would have defeated my example.) Anyway, in this case, Lauren and Bo are getting it on in a super Doccubusty-lusty scene and I keep thinking, How do they keep their boobs where they're supposed to be?? Now if this was on HBO, this wouldn't be an issue. So, what do you think? Boob tape? Lighting? Just really careful placement of arms?
If they can turn Bo's eyes blue in post, I'm sure they can airbrush out a nipple here or there. It's a mystery. I guess I'll just have to watch this scene over and over until I figure it out... Hey, this is a purely technocratic exercise...

Monday, August 10, 2009

Right Wing-Nuts are Hi-jacking Health Care Debate

I've been meaning to post this since the end of last week...Rachel Maddow has been following the right wing-nuts attempt to silence debate around health care, and I found last Friday's show to be particularly invigorating. I highly recommend watching the whole thing, but for a couple of the best segments, check these out: