The
depiction of desire burst upon movie screens in 1896 when well-known
theater stars May Irwin and John C. Rice held one another and kissed
(and did an awful lot of lip moving) for one minute. Because the film
was nearly in close-up, allowing the viewer to feel too close for
comfort, there was an immediate outcry of
“obscenity” and calls for censorship of the
fledgling art/industry of moving pictures. In the first two decades of
the 20th century D.W. Griffith’s Victorian sensibilities were
far more compatible with American ideals of propriety, so there were
lots of maidens and furtive glances over bouquets of flowers. The only
sexuality the Southerner seemed to want to depict was at the extreme
end of the spectrum, where “miscegenation” and
“a fate worse than death” resided. In the
postwar period of the 20s vamps, Valentinos, and flappers tore right on
through momentary desire and ended up in an off-screen bed. The very
European Eric von Stroheim fashioned remarkable films sporting hints of
fetishism -- desire misplaced from the person to objects. Cecil B.
DeMille exhilarated in cheating spouses and lavish bathtub scenes
before discovering the possibilities of “pagan”
nudity in Bible films, where the satisfaction of desire seemingly led
straight to hell. The fast-talking foreplay of screwball comedies of
the 30s -- desire held at bay until the talking stopped -- was followed
by the postwar return of the femme fatale, now very American, harder
and tougher than the European vamps of the 20s. The more assertive 40s
film noir woman was a motivator of lust and greed, but the men were not
bumbling innocents either, since they had seen the world and humanity
at its worst in wartime. Desire in film noir could be quenched but at a
terrible price. The 50s made desire almost comic in its cartoonish
emphasis on body parts, but there was also a steady move toward honesty
about desire via Tennessee Williams and other dramatists, though deeper
desires (e.g. gay) were still coded and confused. In the 60s, the
restrictive Production Code of censorship lay dying and the gateway to
depictions of sex was thrown wide open, particularly as European art
house cinema brought nudity and adult relations to the screen. Desire
became far more complex, since its "satisfaction" could at least now be
presented. Subsequent decades have decreased the need for metaphors and
veiled language. All can now be seen, from hardcore porn to art house
cinema from every country in the world. Still, the idea of desire as a
yearning for completeness found only in another person persists -- in
coming of age stories, in films from countries that restrict mingling
of the genders, as a source of humor in comedies, or a source of drama
in films examining repressed or neurotic characters, or simply in films
in which one character "wants to" and the other doesn't. Desire is
still a reliable motivator for characters in both dramas and comedies.
-- Chale Nafus, Director of Programming, Austin Film Society
Sunday 7 Feb
3:00pm
L’AVVENTURA
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Screenplay by Michelangelo Antonioni, Elio Bartolini, & Tonino Guerra
Cinematography by Aldo Scavarda
Italy/France, 1960, DVD distributed by Janus Films, black & white, 141 min.
Cast: Monica Vitti, Gabriele Ferzetti, Lea Massari, Dominique Blanchar
Italian with English subtitles
Seven
friends enjoy an Aeolian island cruise aboard Patrizia’s
yacht. Their leisurely pleasures are interrupted when Anna disappears
from the small island they have been exploring. Her best friend Claudia
is desperate, while Anna’s fiancé Sandro is rather
unmoved since he knows how moody and capricious the young woman can be.
The maritime police become involved and Sandro and Claudia set out in
separate boats to continue their search, but it is their own desire for
each other that causes their paths to intersect. Because of
Antonioni’s remarkable mise-en-scene and eloquent
compositions, L’AVVENTURA received a special prize at Cannes
“for a new movie language and the beauty of its
images.”
Sunday 14 Feb 3:00pm
WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN (Mujeres al borde de un atque de nervios)
Written, produced, and directed by Pedro Almodovar
Cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine
Spain, 1988, color, DVD distributed by Sony Pictures, 90 min.
Cast: Carmen Maura, Julieta Serrano, Maria Barranco, Antonio Banderas
Spanish with English subtitles
Almodovar’s
contribution to the “Hell hath no fury like a woman
scorned” subgenre of romantic comedies is a major statement
about desire transformed into an out-of-control obsession. Pepa, a
successful TV actress/ad pitchwoman, flies into a rage of destruction
of telephones, plate glass windows, and her mattress when she discovers
that Ivan is leaving her. Ivan’s former wife, Lucia, driven
into a psychiatric hospital by misplaced love, is hell-bent on
murdering the man who made her crazy. Ivan’s newest paramour,
feminist lawyer Paulina Morales, is the only one who tells Ivan that he
is weak. And then there is Candela, Pepa’s friend, who got
innocently involved with a Shiite terrorist and is now in hiding. With
its trademark use of eye-drenching primary colors and post-modern
references to glossy fashion magazines and styles, WOMEN ON THE VERGE
announced the arrival of a completely new and delightful filmmaker
blasting a new path through the jungle of desire and obsession.
Sunday
21 Feb 3:00pm
SHE’S GOTTA HAVE IT
Written, produced, directed, and edited by Spike Lee
Cinematography by Ernest Dickerson
USA, 1986, DVD distributed by MGM, black & white and color, 84 min.
Cast: Tracy Camilla Johns, Tommy Redmond Hicks, John Canada Terrell, Spike Lee
Nola
Darling has three men in her life: Jamie, Greer, and Mars, the latter
hilariously played by Spike Lee. Each man wants her to choose him as
her sole soulmate, but she thrives on the sexual variety brought by
three different bodies to her bed. In a society which still calls a
single man with several girl friends or one-nighters a
“playboy,” but which brands a woman involved with
several men a “slut,” Nola is writing her own
rulebook and taking her own pleasurable time before “settling
down.” Filmed lovingly in chiaroscuro black & white
by Ernest Dickerson, this almost-feminist film marked the international
debut of one of America’s most important directors.
Sunday 28 Feb
3:00pm
HAPPY TOGETHER [Chun gwong cha sit]
Written and directed by Wong Kar-wai
Cinematography by Christopher Doyle
Hong Kong, 1997, DVD distributed by Kino International, black & white and color, 96 min.
Cast: Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Chang Chen
Mandarin, Cantonese, and Spanish with English subtitles
Lai
Yiu-fai and Ho Po-wing are always “starting over.”
They left Hong Kong to “start over” in Buenos
Aires, but they continue their pattern of breaking up and getting back
together, angrily, drunkenly, tearfully, passionately. The two men seem
to be happiest when one is convalescing and the other is the caretaker.
Chang, a younger, less worldly man, inadvertently engenders a final
breakup of the couple, and soon all have gone their separate ways,
lonelier than ever. Christopher Doyle’s cinematography, Wong
Kar-wai’s direction, and the impressive performances of the
principal actors make HAPPY TOGETHER one of the most unforgettable
films of the 1990s. It is also one of the most honest depictions of
relationships, gay or otherwise, in all the complex choreographies of
love and desire. Astor Piazzolo’s soundtrack reminds us how
the tango is the preeminent music/dance of desire – coming
together, separating, leading, following.