On July 19, the MPA ratings board handed an Nc-17 rating to “Passages,” Ira Sachs’s acclaimed drama about a very unusual love triangle. The film was set to be released just two weeks later; Sachs and his distributor, Mubi, were understandably upset. The scene that triggered the Nc-17 rating, as is often the case in situations like this one, was an extended sex scene (the MPA does not like things that are long). As almost always happens, the filmmaker and the distributor immediately committed themselves to releasing the movie unrated. “There’s no untangling the film from what it is,” Sachs told the Los Angeles Times. “It is a film that is very open about the place of sexual experience in our lives. And to shift that now would be to create a very different movie.”
He’s totally right, of course. Yet in the days that followed, as I...
He’s totally right, of course. Yet in the days that followed, as I...
- 8/13/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
For those of us around in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was a wild time for American cinema. You wouldn’t know it by looking at what’s screening at the multiplex today, but once upon a time sex actually existed at the movies. Practically every week there was a new erotic thriller like Unfaithful or an indie drama like Roger Dodger openly dealing with sex, laying it on the table and discussing it as if it were a natural thing to engage with and not run away from as cinema does today.
In fact, sex was so frequently present in the visuals and dialogue of films at the time, that occassionally there were even films that featured real sex. That’s right, unsimulated. Most films of this type were from outside of the United States, but sometimes you’d get some in the US, and we got...
In fact, sex was so frequently present in the visuals and dialogue of films at the time, that occassionally there were even films that featured real sex. That’s right, unsimulated. Most films of this type were from outside of the United States, but sometimes you’d get some in the US, and we got...
- 1/25/2022
- by Mitchell Beaupre
- The Film Stage
“Falling” will be the opening film of the 28th edition of the EnergaCamerimage Intl. Film Festival, which focuses on the art of cinematography. The film’s director Viggo Mortensen and cinematographer Marcel Zyskind will attend the opening, which takes place on Nov. 14 in Toruń, Poland.
The film, which will compete for Camerimage’s Golden Frog, centers on John, who lives with his partner, Eric, and their daughter, Mónica, in California, far from the traditional rural life he left behind years ago. John’s father, Willis, a headstrong man from a bygone era, lives alone on the isolated farm where John grew up. Willis’s mind is declining, so John brings him West, hoping that he and his sister, Sarah, can help their father find a home closer to them. Their best intentions ultimately run up against Willis’s angry refusal to change his way of life in any way.
The film stars Mortensen,...
The film, which will compete for Camerimage’s Golden Frog, centers on John, who lives with his partner, Eric, and their daughter, Mónica, in California, far from the traditional rural life he left behind years ago. John’s father, Willis, a headstrong man from a bygone era, lives alone on the isolated farm where John grew up. Willis’s mind is declining, so John brings him West, hoping that he and his sister, Sarah, can help their father find a home closer to them. Their best intentions ultimately run up against Willis’s angry refusal to change his way of life in any way.
The film stars Mortensen,...
- 10/14/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Inside Deep Throat
PARK CITY -- Deep Throat is still the most successful indie film ever made, a $25,000 porn flick released in 1972 that may have grossed -- no one was really counting -- $600 million. So what better place to premiere Inside Deep Throat, a film by Sundance veterans Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), than here at the king of indie fests?
The docu turns out to be an often provocative and perceptive look at the history of the porn business in America, the cultural wars the movie fed into and the lives of some who worked on the film.
Since forces on the right are currently galvanized for a renewed attack on civil liberties and freedom of expression, Inside Deep Throat is making a timely appearance. The film, which Universal will release nationally Feb. 11, looks like another documentary boxoffice winner.
When asked about the landmark film he made more than 30 years ago, director Gerard Damiano (a.k.a. Jerry Gerard) admits, "No, I don't think it's a very good movie." Which has to be the most irrelevant fact one can state about Deep Throat.
A poorly shot, absurd sex comedy constructed around its star's remarkable ability at fellatio, the movie opened in Times Square at the height of the war being waged by the counterculture and sexual liberation movements against a belligerent establishment. While Erica Jong's comment that suddenly sex was out of the closet may be overstating things, the movie certainly marked the first time grandmothers stood in line to watch porn and talk show hosts and The New York Times could make references to a sex act, then considered illicit in some states, which few had any trouble understanding.
The movie traces several themes emanating from this cultural phenomenon. First there are the damaged lives of the film's stars, Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, an assistant camera drafted into the male starring role while on location in Florida. Then there is the growth of porn, which many filmmakers and artists saw as having artistic as well as commercial potential if it could cross over into the mainstream. That never happened.
The film also navigates through the legal and political battles this film and others faced including a presidential commission's investigation into pornography and society, which was roundly ignored by the government when the commission reached the "wrong" conclusions.
For the most part, Bailey and Barbato succeed in weaving together these various themes, thanks to smart editing by William Grayburn and Jeremy Simmons. Linda Lovelace, who disowned the film in a memoir that claimed she shot it under duress, later seemed to embrace her former image in a sexy magazine layout. She died in an auto accident in 2002 dead broke, according to her sister.
Reems suffered federal prosecution. While he prevailed, this sent his life into a downward spiral of alcoholism. Thankfully, he has recovered and lives here in Park City, where he has a real estate license.
For interviews, the filmmakers astutely cast a wide net, bringing before their cameras people not always connected to the film yet with insight into the issues it raised. These talking heads include Norman Mailer, Helen Gurley Brown, Susan Brownmiller, Alan Dershowitz, Camille Paglia, Gore Vidal and Reems' zealous prosecutor, Larry Parrish. A narration delivered by Dennis Hopper is unobtrusive, appearing only when necessary.
The salient point here is that Deep Throat can be seen as one of the first battles of the culture wars that still divide this nation. The choice of interviewees tilt the viewpoint heavily in favor of freedom of expression, yet both sides conclude that damage has been done and the wars are far from over.
There seems to be no middle ground on this issue, just as there never was any intersection between mainstream and porn. Movies such as Last Tango in Paris and, more recently, 9 Songs hint at the possibilities. But when an actor such as Reems can be hauled into court for accepting a movie role, little wonder those possibilities remain unexplored.
INSIDE DEEP THROAT
Universal Pictures
An Imagine Entertainment in association with HBO Documentary Films presentation of a Brian Grazer Production in association with World of Wonder
Credits:
Writers/directors: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Producer: Brian Grazer, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Co-producer: Mona Card
Executive producer: Kim Roth
Directors of photography: David Kempner, Teodoro Maniaci
Editors: William Grayburn, Jeremy Simmons
Music: David Steinberg
MPAA rating: NC-17
Running time -- 88 minutes...
The docu turns out to be an often provocative and perceptive look at the history of the porn business in America, the cultural wars the movie fed into and the lives of some who worked on the film.
Since forces on the right are currently galvanized for a renewed attack on civil liberties and freedom of expression, Inside Deep Throat is making a timely appearance. The film, which Universal will release nationally Feb. 11, looks like another documentary boxoffice winner.
When asked about the landmark film he made more than 30 years ago, director Gerard Damiano (a.k.a. Jerry Gerard) admits, "No, I don't think it's a very good movie." Which has to be the most irrelevant fact one can state about Deep Throat.
A poorly shot, absurd sex comedy constructed around its star's remarkable ability at fellatio, the movie opened in Times Square at the height of the war being waged by the counterculture and sexual liberation movements against a belligerent establishment. While Erica Jong's comment that suddenly sex was out of the closet may be overstating things, the movie certainly marked the first time grandmothers stood in line to watch porn and talk show hosts and The New York Times could make references to a sex act, then considered illicit in some states, which few had any trouble understanding.
The movie traces several themes emanating from this cultural phenomenon. First there are the damaged lives of the film's stars, Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, an assistant camera drafted into the male starring role while on location in Florida. Then there is the growth of porn, which many filmmakers and artists saw as having artistic as well as commercial potential if it could cross over into the mainstream. That never happened.
The film also navigates through the legal and political battles this film and others faced including a presidential commission's investigation into pornography and society, which was roundly ignored by the government when the commission reached the "wrong" conclusions.
For the most part, Bailey and Barbato succeed in weaving together these various themes, thanks to smart editing by William Grayburn and Jeremy Simmons. Linda Lovelace, who disowned the film in a memoir that claimed she shot it under duress, later seemed to embrace her former image in a sexy magazine layout. She died in an auto accident in 2002 dead broke, according to her sister.
Reems suffered federal prosecution. While he prevailed, this sent his life into a downward spiral of alcoholism. Thankfully, he has recovered and lives here in Park City, where he has a real estate license.
For interviews, the filmmakers astutely cast a wide net, bringing before their cameras people not always connected to the film yet with insight into the issues it raised. These talking heads include Norman Mailer, Helen Gurley Brown, Susan Brownmiller, Alan Dershowitz, Camille Paglia, Gore Vidal and Reems' zealous prosecutor, Larry Parrish. A narration delivered by Dennis Hopper is unobtrusive, appearing only when necessary.
The salient point here is that Deep Throat can be seen as one of the first battles of the culture wars that still divide this nation. The choice of interviewees tilt the viewpoint heavily in favor of freedom of expression, yet both sides conclude that damage has been done and the wars are far from over.
There seems to be no middle ground on this issue, just as there never was any intersection between mainstream and porn. Movies such as Last Tango in Paris and, more recently, 9 Songs hint at the possibilities. But when an actor such as Reems can be hauled into court for accepting a movie role, little wonder those possibilities remain unexplored.
INSIDE DEEP THROAT
Universal Pictures
An Imagine Entertainment in association with HBO Documentary Films presentation of a Brian Grazer Production in association with World of Wonder
Credits:
Writers/directors: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Producer: Brian Grazer, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Co-producer: Mona Card
Executive producer: Kim Roth
Directors of photography: David Kempner, Teodoro Maniaci
Editors: William Grayburn, Jeremy Simmons
Music: David Steinberg
MPAA rating: NC-17
Running time -- 88 minutes...
- 3/8/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Inside Deep Throat
PARK CITY -- Deep Throat is still the most successful indie film ever made, a $25,000 porn flick released in 1972 that may have grossed -- no one was really counting -- $600 million. So what better place to premiere Inside Deep Throat, a film by Sundance veterans Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (The Eyes of Tammy Faye), than here at the king of indie fests?
The docu turns out to be an often provocative and perceptive look at the history of the porn business in America, the cultural wars the movie fed into and the lives of some who worked on the film.
Since forces on the right are currently galvanized for a renewed attack on civil liberties and freedom of expression, Inside Deep Throat is making a timely appearance. The film, which Universal will release nationally Feb. 11, looks like another documentary boxoffice winner.
When asked about the landmark film he made more than 30 years ago, director Gerard Damiano (a.k.a. Jerry Gerard) admits, "No, I don't think it's a very good movie." Which has to be the most irrelevant fact one can state about Deep Throat.
A poorly shot, absurd sex comedy constructed around its star's remarkable ability at fellatio, the movie opened in Times Square at the height of the war being waged by the counterculture and sexual liberation movements against a belligerent establishment. While Erica Jong's comment that suddenly sex was out of the closet may be overstating things, the movie certainly marked the first time grandmothers stood in line to watch porn and talk show hosts and The New York Times could make references to a sex act, then considered illicit in some states, which few had any trouble understanding.
The movie traces several themes emanating from this cultural phenomenon. First there are the damaged lives of the film's stars, Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, an assistant camera drafted into the male starring role while on location in Florida. Then there is the growth of porn, which many filmmakers and artists saw as having artistic as well as commercial potential if it could cross over into the mainstream. That never happened.
The film also navigates through the legal and political battles this film and others faced including a presidential commission's investigation into pornography and society, which was roundly ignored by the government when the commission reached the "wrong" conclusions.
For the most part, Bailey and Barbato succeed in weaving together these various themes, thanks to smart editing by William Grayburn and Jeremy Simmons. Linda Lovelace, who disowned the film in a memoir that claimed she shot it under duress, later seemed to embrace her former image in a sexy magazine layout. She died in an auto accident in 2002 dead broke, according to her sister.
Reems suffered federal prosecution. While he prevailed, this sent his life into a downward spiral of alcoholism. Thankfully, he has recovered and lives here in Park City, where he has a real estate license.
For interviews, the filmmakers astutely cast a wide net, bringing before their cameras people not always connected to the film yet with insight into the issues it raised. These talking heads include Norman Mailer, Helen Gurley Brown, Susan Brownmiller, Alan Dershowitz, Camille Paglia, Gore Vidal and Reems' zealous prosecutor, Larry Parrish. A narration delivered by Dennis Hopper is unobtrusive, appearing only when necessary.
The salient point here is that Deep Throat can be seen as one of the first battles of the culture wars that still divide this nation. The choice of interviewees tilt the viewpoint heavily in favor of freedom of expression, yet both sides conclude that damage has been done and the wars are far from over.
There seems to be no middle ground on this issue, just as there never was any intersection between mainstream and porn. Movies such as Last Tango in Paris and, more recently, 9 Songs hint at the possibilities. But when an actor such as Reems can be hauled into court for accepting a movie role, little wonder those possibilities remain unexplored.
INSIDE DEEP THROAT
Universal Pictures
An Imagine Entertainment in association with HBO Documentary Films presentation of a Brian Grazer Production in association with World of Wonder
Credits:
Writers/directors: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Producer: Brian Grazer, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Co-producer: Mona Card
Executive producer: Kim Roth
Directors of photography: David Kempner, Teodoro Maniaci
Editors: William Grayburn, Jeremy Simmons
Music: David Steinberg
MPAA rating: NC-17
Running time -- 88 minutes...
The docu turns out to be an often provocative and perceptive look at the history of the porn business in America, the cultural wars the movie fed into and the lives of some who worked on the film.
Since forces on the right are currently galvanized for a renewed attack on civil liberties and freedom of expression, Inside Deep Throat is making a timely appearance. The film, which Universal will release nationally Feb. 11, looks like another documentary boxoffice winner.
When asked about the landmark film he made more than 30 years ago, director Gerard Damiano (a.k.a. Jerry Gerard) admits, "No, I don't think it's a very good movie." Which has to be the most irrelevant fact one can state about Deep Throat.
A poorly shot, absurd sex comedy constructed around its star's remarkable ability at fellatio, the movie opened in Times Square at the height of the war being waged by the counterculture and sexual liberation movements against a belligerent establishment. While Erica Jong's comment that suddenly sex was out of the closet may be overstating things, the movie certainly marked the first time grandmothers stood in line to watch porn and talk show hosts and The New York Times could make references to a sex act, then considered illicit in some states, which few had any trouble understanding.
The movie traces several themes emanating from this cultural phenomenon. First there are the damaged lives of the film's stars, Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems, an assistant camera drafted into the male starring role while on location in Florida. Then there is the growth of porn, which many filmmakers and artists saw as having artistic as well as commercial potential if it could cross over into the mainstream. That never happened.
The film also navigates through the legal and political battles this film and others faced including a presidential commission's investigation into pornography and society, which was roundly ignored by the government when the commission reached the "wrong" conclusions.
For the most part, Bailey and Barbato succeed in weaving together these various themes, thanks to smart editing by William Grayburn and Jeremy Simmons. Linda Lovelace, who disowned the film in a memoir that claimed she shot it under duress, later seemed to embrace her former image in a sexy magazine layout. She died in an auto accident in 2002 dead broke, according to her sister.
Reems suffered federal prosecution. While he prevailed, this sent his life into a downward spiral of alcoholism. Thankfully, he has recovered and lives here in Park City, where he has a real estate license.
For interviews, the filmmakers astutely cast a wide net, bringing before their cameras people not always connected to the film yet with insight into the issues it raised. These talking heads include Norman Mailer, Helen Gurley Brown, Susan Brownmiller, Alan Dershowitz, Camille Paglia, Gore Vidal and Reems' zealous prosecutor, Larry Parrish. A narration delivered by Dennis Hopper is unobtrusive, appearing only when necessary.
The salient point here is that Deep Throat can be seen as one of the first battles of the culture wars that still divide this nation. The choice of interviewees tilt the viewpoint heavily in favor of freedom of expression, yet both sides conclude that damage has been done and the wars are far from over.
There seems to be no middle ground on this issue, just as there never was any intersection between mainstream and porn. Movies such as Last Tango in Paris and, more recently, 9 Songs hint at the possibilities. But when an actor such as Reems can be hauled into court for accepting a movie role, little wonder those possibilities remain unexplored.
INSIDE DEEP THROAT
Universal Pictures
An Imagine Entertainment in association with HBO Documentary Films presentation of a Brian Grazer Production in association with World of Wonder
Credits:
Writers/directors: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Producer: Brian Grazer, Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Co-producer: Mona Card
Executive producer: Kim Roth
Directors of photography: David Kempner, Teodoro Maniaci
Editors: William Grayburn, Jeremy Simmons
Music: David Steinberg
MPAA rating: NC-17
Running time -- 88 minutes...
- 1/24/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
9 Songs
Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Prolific British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom -- who, in the past three years, has turned out the well-received 24 Hour Party People, In This World and Code 46 -- is back with another, and this one's a certified envelope-pusher.
An examination of a sexual relationship that's about as viscerally explicit as hardcore can get, 9 Songs is shot fast and dirty -- on handheld digital video relying on existing light and unscripted dialogue.
The murky, grainy result, which still offers ample visual evidence that nothing has been left to the imagination, is certain to cause a sensation.
But as satisfying viewing experiences go, the film comes up mighty short in terms of story, interesting characters and technical prowess, not to mention a 65-minute running time.
Winterbottom claims to have taken inspiration from a sexually explicit novel by controversial French author Michael Houellebecq for the graphic liaisons shared by Matt (Kieran O'Brien) and Lisa (Margo Stilley) after meeting at a rock concert in Brixton.
Matt's a glaciologist who's working in Antarctica when he reflects back on the time he spent with Lisa, an American who was studying in England.
Their sticky encounters are interspersed with concert performance footage featuring a bunch of popular bands, including Franz Ferdinand, the Von Bondies and The Dandy Warhols, as well as a 60th birthday piano performance by composer Michael Nyman, who contribute the titular 9 Songs.
Maybe the lyrics of the songs are meant to represent various points in the couple's relationship. Maybe not. Because those live recordings have all the sonic fidelity of a bootleg tape, only Mr. Winterbottom knows for sure.
TORONTO -- Prolific British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom -- who, in the past three years, has turned out the well-received 24 Hour Party People, In This World and Code 46 -- is back with another, and this one's a certified envelope-pusher.
An examination of a sexual relationship that's about as viscerally explicit as hardcore can get, 9 Songs is shot fast and dirty -- on handheld digital video relying on existing light and unscripted dialogue.
The murky, grainy result, which still offers ample visual evidence that nothing has been left to the imagination, is certain to cause a sensation.
But as satisfying viewing experiences go, the film comes up mighty short in terms of story, interesting characters and technical prowess, not to mention a 65-minute running time.
Winterbottom claims to have taken inspiration from a sexually explicit novel by controversial French author Michael Houellebecq for the graphic liaisons shared by Matt (Kieran O'Brien) and Lisa (Margo Stilley) after meeting at a rock concert in Brixton.
Matt's a glaciologist who's working in Antarctica when he reflects back on the time he spent with Lisa, an American who was studying in England.
Their sticky encounters are interspersed with concert performance footage featuring a bunch of popular bands, including Franz Ferdinand, the Von Bondies and The Dandy Warhols, as well as a 60th birthday piano performance by composer Michael Nyman, who contribute the titular 9 Songs.
Maybe the lyrics of the songs are meant to represent various points in the couple's relationship. Maybe not. Because those live recordings have all the sonic fidelity of a bootleg tape, only Mr. Winterbottom knows for sure.
- 9/14/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Toronto fest sets slate for 3 programs
TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday announced world premieres for U.S. filmmaker David Gordon Green's Undertow and U.K. helmer Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs and a North American premiere for Claire Denis' L'intrus. In all, 62 titles were announced as Toronto programmers unveiled film bookings for the Discovery sidebar for emerging talent, the Vision program for experimental film and the Wavelengths forum for video artists. Toronto's Discovery lineup will present 28 features from 23 countries, including German director Hendrik Holzemann's feature film debut, Off Beat; Xiao Jiang's Electric Shadows, from China; U.S. filmmakers Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik's On the Outs, which portrays three Latino girls in New Jersey; Oyster Farmer, an Australia/United Kingdom romantic comedy by Anna Reeves; French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic's coming-of-age tale Innocence; Saving Face, which stars Joan Chen and comes from U.S. filmmaker Alice Wu; Macedonian filmmaker Svetozar Ristovski's Mirage; Ra'up McGee's thriller Autumn, a French-American film; Pete Travis' Omagh, an Ireland-United Kingdom co-production looking at a tragic 1998 IRA bombing in Ireland; and from Germany, Marco Kreuzpaintner's Summer Storm.
- 8/17/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tartan tunes up 'Songs' lawsuit
LONDON -- U.K. distributor and financier Tartan Films said Thursday that it plans to sue British production banner Revolution Films for £2 million ($3.7 million) for breach of contract in a dispute over U.K. and U.S. rights to Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs. In a statement issued at the end of business Thursday and greenlighted to be released to the press by its lawyers, Tartan said it is suing for "loss of profits as a result of Revolution's attempt to renege on the distribution contract for the U.K. as their actions will prevent Tartan from releasing the film in 2004." The statement goes on to say that Tartan will also miss out on capitalizing "on the publicity generated by Revolution and Tartan during the Cannes film festival (in May)."...
- 6/17/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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