Yesterday, my daughter and I were exchanging emails and she mentioned that she and her other half are planning to go to the cinema this weekend. 'I fancy going to the cinema,' I was writing when, with Startling Synchronicity, an email arrived from Ro, saying that a David Lynch film is on in the arty cinema in Norwich and did I fancy coming with him. Well, such timing cannot be overlooked and so the arrangement was confirmed.
We are slightly apprehensive, however. Some years ago, when he was in his mid teens, we went to Mulholland Drive together. Quite apart from the fact that I was hopelessly confused throughout the film, I was absolutely confounded by the love scene between the two women in the film - not the scene itself, but being there with my young son. Afterwards, Ro and I agreed that, to a sensitive lad and his mother, sitting in the cinema watching a naked Naomi Watts and the other actress (sorry, other actress for not being sure at this minute who you are) embracing each other is embarrassing. "Don't worry", said Ro last night. "It's a 15, not an 18, so that won't happen this time."
But I've been thinking about it, and I don't think MD was an 18 either. So I IMDb'd Inland Empire and it mentions 'gratuitous nudity'.
Oh well. We're both older now, and we can take it.
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If you are not confused after a David Lynch film you haven't been paying attention. I was jolly glad I wasn't watching 'Blue Velvet' with anyone I would have been embarrassed with. In fact I think I watched it on TV alone. Incredibly erotic film. Hope to take MTL to cinema on Monday.
I agree on all counts, Pat!
Blue Velvet? Erotic? Being raped by some sort of asthmatic sado-maniac child-kidnapper with a pair of scissors up your whatsit? No thanks, you two can keep it! I'll stick with Betty Blue if you don't mind.
Pat, do you feel put in your place as well?
I guess that leaves "9 1/2 Weeks" out of the question.
I think the timing here is spooky. My son and I were instant messaging back and forth last nite. I think he must have been drinking, because the later it got the more I had to have him clarify what he had said. Then I was quite sure he was "shafahzed" (I think you would say pissed), when he started trying to suggest some helpful hints for his fathers and my sex life, accompanied by lots of "I shouldn't say this" "How do I say this". I have always been very open with my children. But this was getting too close for comfort. He is 29 and a lot of our whole conversation was him lecturing me to get out more and such. At one point I pointed it out and added, "Like I used to do to you all the time. Maybe this is payback!" He agreed and was amused.
Oh blimey - if anything, I think my children would be nervous that I might drop something into the conversation about my sex life - I mean, they are pleased that the Sage and I still like each other and all, but more than that would come under TMI, instantly!
HA! You just reminded me of the time I went to see "The Pillow Book" with my platonic male roommate. Neither of us had any idea what it was about, but liked the art cinema and Ewan McGregor well enough, so we went. He was extremely uncomfortable (and quite familiar with) Ewan McGregor's dangly bits by the end of the movie.
My parents and I rarely agree on movies, so that hasn't been a problem.
In about 1970, I went to a Visconti film called 'The Damned' with Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, with a group of friends. I can't remember all that much about it, but that I was quite taken aback - it was the first X-rated film I'd been to, I think largely because of the violence. It was set in Nazi Germany and involved the Night of the Long Knives, but it had a sort of Shakespearean tragedy feel about it, with more sex. As I remember, vaguely.
No dangly bits last night and not much nudity.
But was the nudity gratuitous?
Not really, it sort of fitted in with the scene, although the scene only fitted in the film at all in a Lynchish sort of way.
I didn't mean to disparage anyone's idea of the erotic, I'm just genuinely surprised...yet gruesomely fascinated at the same time. Am I the odd one out?
Darling, we're all gruesomely fascinating in our own way. I suppose suspension of disbelief and disassociation and that sort of thing comes into it. You can dislike the actuality of something and appreciate it as fiction at the same time. Look at the huge number of people who read crime fiction.
So you two weren't thinking of the wrong film? Blue Velvet is erotic? I think I need to think about this for a minute.
It's absolutely years since I saw it, I can hardly remember and I might hate it now. Don't take it to heart, dearest.
On the other hand, it still might be a vast turn-on. I don't know. I almost feel obliged to watch it - I've a feeling someone in the family has the DVD. Won't be the Sage. Only thing allowed to turn him on is me...
Now I'm wondering if I've got the right film. I think Ingrid Bergman's daughter was in it.
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