Comments on: 50 Years of Failure

By: TonyComstock

TonyComstock — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:21:04 +0000

A decade ago I would have been ready to accept this explanation, and in fact, my to tackle sexually explicit subject matter, but eschew outlaw production and promotion tactics was my own personal attempt to break what I perceived as a logjam.

But in the last 10 years, artists of considerably larger reputation than my own (not a strong statement) have taken on the creative and financial challenge of explicit sexuality in cinema, and the results have been decidedly unimpressive, creatively or financially.

More over, the more I look at the question holistically, the more I am beginning to see in citation of shame and/or erotophobia in the same light that Danes and Co see porn — pat, and intractable answers that only perpetuate unproductive discourse.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 21:30:21 +0000

Even though movies with sex were legally acceptable (at least some of the time), the negativity attached to it kept most people away from it. For a while in the 70’s, some people were trying to create actual movies with explicit sex, but despite the media hype, none of them ever managed to get much traction.

It seems like that situation encouraged the growth of porn purely for profit. After all, even though it was legal, it was still subject to stigma and legal challenge, so “only outlaws would make porn.” It’s hardly a surprise that no “geniuses of cinema” would touch it- it’d ruin their reputation. Instead, it was easier to push the boundaries of sexuality within mainstream movies.

I don’t think that this fully explains it, but it’s part of it.