In ten days Inception
arrives, redeeming this shitty summer at the movies. For the next two
weeks I’ll be running sporadic feature articles counting down to this
occasion; some will be directly related to Inception while some will be
conceptually related. I’ll try to remain as spoiler-free as possible.
And I’m not trying to make the two week wait unbearable… but that
could be one side effect of this series.
For those
keeping track: my review of Inception counted
as the 11 Days To installment.
10 Days
to Inception: No Sex Please
Good luck getting a straight answer
out of Christopher Nolan. The inscrutable director will deftly dance
around actually answering any questions, as he did again and again at
the Los Angeles press conference for Inception. But sometimes a non-answer can be
as fascinating as an actual answer.
One of the few junketing press to
actively dislike Inception, Coming Soon’s Silas Lesnick had a
few intriguing problems with the movie, foremost of which was the
complete lack of sexuality. Obviously everybody dreams quite
differently, but for many people sexuality is a part of dreaming
(especially for men, who pop spontaneous boners all night long). And
sexuality is a huge part of Pink Floyd’s The Wall,
a movie that Nolan screened for the cast and crew before starting
production (and which he screened as part of the LA Film Festival a
couple of weeks back).
Silas, being a good junketeer and not
just a spineless quotewhore, asked Nolan point blank about the lack of
sexuality in Inception‘s dreamworlds, and he got this
weird, intriguing reply:
Well, there are certain
areas, when you’re talking about dreams, the analysis of
dreams and how you might examine them in the film that you do want to
avoid, because they would probably be either too disturbing for the sort
of action film genre that we’re working in or funny. And so
one of the things we talked about, tonally, I talked about with Leo, we
talked a lot about in the period when we were looking at the script very
closely is never tipping over into comedy, this funny version. I mean,
one of the things all these guys have done in their performances, which I
think is extraordinary, is that they’ve created very subtle
differences in the way the characters appear in the dream levels and in
reality — they’ve never made it funny. They’ve
never taken it to that comedic place. And certainly I think
there’s probably a great comedy version of this movie
somewhere — but I don’t want to make it.
One
of the central concerns of the film is the relationship between Cobb,
played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his wife, Mal, who keeps bursting out
of his subconsciousness while Cobb and his team are in dreams. The
inability to control this dream version of Mal is Cobb’s greatest
weakness, and he has, within his own dreams, constructed places where he
can revisit important moments of his life with her. None of which, it
turns out, are sexual.
I don’t think that DiCaprio and
Cotillard being sexual would be either disturbing or comical. Looking
back at Nolan’s filmography, sexuality has never played a huge role –
which is especially weird with the highly fetish-oriented Batman films.
Other versions of Batman on film have tackled the sexual component of
bondage implicitly – most memorably Burton’s twisted Batman
Returns
– but Nolan’s Batman isn’t just virginal, he’s utterly desexed. At this
point having Catwoman in Batman 3 seems unlikely just because it
seems unlikely that Nolan would want to tackle the relationship between
the Bat and the Cat, which is largely lustful.
It’s also interesting that Nolan is a
huge Bond fan, and that he sees Inception as his version of a Bond film; Bond
is notoriously one of the most sexual of all screen heroes, and Nolan’s
version of a Bond adventure might as well have everybody wearing
chastity belts. There’s more sexual heat in the Twilight movies, which are abstinence
fables.
Control
is a key element of the Nolan filmography, both on screen and behind
the camera. Nolan controls every aspect of production as closely as he
can, including marketing. Sex is, arguably, one of the times when we’re
least in control (if we’re really throwing ourselves into it, anyway) –
lust overwhelms reserve. Nolan again and again deals with emotions that
overwhelm the reserved man, but it seems like he’s not quite ready to
tackle how an uptight hero deals with a hard-on.
19 comments
You've brought this up before about Nolan in past articles.
It's even more interesting when you think of Nolan's personal life. He's got three kids.
WOW!? Nolan doesn't make a woman character into a sleezy sex whore!?
Jeez, if anything that's a compliment to the female population. We're not just there in movies to offer T&A.
It's a PG 13 Action movie. Same as his Batman films. I tink Nolan meant it's kind of hard to deal with sex in a film of that genre without it being comical or just sex for sex sakes. Audiences don't expect it. If you want to see sex go see a porn or an R Rated erotic thriller(which is genre that needs to come back). Anytime you throw sex scenes into movies where sexuality isn't an important part of the story it feels forced, wierd and sometimes laughable. Examples are the sex scenes in Michael Mann's Miami Vice, the sex scene in Avatar, and any other random sex scene in an action movies. It's like if I'm watching American Beauty or Revolutionary Road and they squeezed a crazy action scene in the film. I might think the action scene was cool but it would feel totally out of place with rest of the film.
this is very interesting. it seems there always been something with sexuality in American film, where you HAVE to have some in there to draw people in, but not too much to where family members might feel weird watching it toghether? lol. Bond films always walk that line perfectly. I guess those pull it off in a comedic way though, w/ infinite innuendo and dumb puns.
I loved this article, but I don't know if I can read the others because it feels like I'll be thinking about this the whole time I watch it. who knows what else you'll say in the next ones? I've heard so much about Nolan keeping quiet on details for a reason, so maybe I'll have to take a break from Inception info/analysis 'til after I see it.
Our society has become obsessed with sex. In a way it is actually refreshing to have a filmmaker who simply wants to tell an interesting story without using sex as a sales tactic. Turn on the TV and the ads are selling sex in one way or another, whether it's Viagra or a scantily clad woman holding a beer.
Stop bitching about how saturated American society is with sex. Go over to the Netherlands, or better yet, Japan. You think sex sells here…lol.
Yeah, claiming American society is "sex obsessed" is pretty silly when we're puritan compared to most of the industrialized world.
Sex obsessed compared to Saudi Arabia or something, maybe.
Anyway, I hadn't noticed the lack of sexuality in Nolan's work, but I think it's accurate. It could tie in with his themes of control, I suppose, but it could just be that sexuality is not a concern of his as an artist. I know that in my own writing sex is not prominent.
#2: I think it's pretty unhealthy to equate "sexuality in film" with "sleezy sex whore"… Sex is a healthy part of human existence. Sounds like you're bringing some baggage to the discussion.
@#2 Hahahahaaaa, what the fuck are you talking about Chee? Show me the part in the article where it says Cotillard's character should be a "sleezy sex whore". You can't. Because it doesn't.
I agree with what #3 said. Half the time these "sex scenes" dont move the plot forward in any way and if its a PG-13 movie they're not even sex scenes, they're just scenes of the characters making out in slow motion. If they serve no purpose to the story why have them in the film to being with. Nolan is just taking out unnecessary elements.
It seems this movie is being way too hyped for it's own good to the point where DEVIN'S gong to ruin this..
Nolan clearly doesn't have a lot of wet dreams. Art is a reflection of the artist.
The article is not talking about sex scenes. It's talking about sexuality. Obviously, some of you can't tell the difference. I'm curious to see if Inception has any emotonial heart to it, since Nolan's films have all been very dry on that level. It was fine for a few films, but the dryness is starting to cause cracks.
How did Silas Lesnick not like Inception? I read his review and it was still a positive review (7 out of 10), but just not glowing like the rest. Most of his criticisms seemed fair as well.
I actually get what Nolan is saying loud and clear. Look at how many films are ruined because they try to be sexual and can't pull it off realistically. Even in R-rated films, sex is toned down so much most of the time that it comes off as corny, funny and not realistic at all. Real people don't fuck each other in slow motion under sexy lighting while jazz music plays. It's the same reason Ridley Scott says he avoids shooting sex in his films, it's hard, no pun intended. If your good like Cronenberg you can pull it off (History of Violence) but most of the time you end up with the sex scene from The Matrix Reloaded which is one of the worst love scenes I've ever witnessed. Where's the passion and aggression? Old people fuck better than Neo and Trinity. Also, let's not forget that this is a PG-13 summer action film. I expect to feel more emotion from Cotillard and DiCaprio's relationship than I ever did watching Biel and Cooper from or Diaz and Cruise. Also, while sex is great, it's probably the last thing I think abut when thinking of past relationships. It's more about the little things like shared moments and gestures that stick in my memory. I know in most of my "sexual" dreams, they are more about the stuff leading up to the sex than the sex itself.
Nolan is a classy man, and he makes classy, sex-free films. And I love him for that. No awkward 'here comes the sex moments' in Nolan's films. Thank God.
I think that's a pretty sensible answer. Sexual content of dreams, is, I believe not always literally about sex, and can often be sufficiently skewed to feel rather farcical when looked at in the cold light of day. Although this is a movie about dreaming, and utting aside the obviousl philosophical question for a moment, we're viewing it in an awakened state. Representing the dream world of sex if highly likely to look ugly or farcical to a conscious mind.
How would have more sexuality made the story better?
Puritans think about sex more than anyone else… thus, America IS sex obsessed AND repressed at the same time. Thus, the dichotomy of American pop culture.
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