I was reading Hunter James’s blog today and saw that he and his boyfriend Damon have been cast in John Cameron Mitchell’s new project Shortbus.
Mitchell was the creator and star of the of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which Mrs.C and I loved, and I’ve been hearing about this project on and off for a few years now. I can’t help but be both curious and hopeful about Mitchell’s promise to give us real sex in the context of a real movie. Commenting on his aims in Shortbus Mitchell says:
“The purpose of pornography is to arouse, whereas here the priority is the emotional life of the characters. Sex has been cheapened by porn. Why can’t we not focus on sex, as porn does, but make sex part of the film?”
The integration of graphic sex into a film with same ease as kissing or graphic violence is, in many people’s minds, the holy grail of sex on film – a film you could enjoy as pure cinematic entertainment, only with cunts and cocks and cum.
But the above quote has me wondering: Is placing priority on the emotional life of the characters antithetical to the audience’s own arousal? Does setting out to arouse the audience (and get them off if I can!) necessarily cheapen sex? I sure hope not, because if it does, I’ve really gone off in the wrong direction with my real life sex stories.
-T.C.