SEX AND THE CINEMA

From the sanctioned to the forbidden, the suggestive to the blatant, evocations of sex have saturated cinema with a heady distillation of fleshly passions. Whether laced in the rapturous rhetorics of romance or seeking to pack a harder erotic punch, cinematic representations of sex and sexual desire have provided cinema with one of its major attractions. Sex and the Cinema traces the numerous factors and contexts – artistic, institutional, political and socio-cultural – that have shaped the way that sex appears in film. How does cinema mediate sex? Why is sex presented often in transgressive terms? What ideals and values inform cinematic depictions of sex? Given that cinematic representations of sex have perhaps caused more controversy than any others, Sex and the Cinema charts the cultural norms and contestations that are often diversely in play. Formal conventions used to represent sex and desire in cinema, as well as themes such as adultery, incest, romance, sado-masochism and ‘real’ sex are explored. Films discussed include Don’t Look Now, Broken Blossoms, Emmanuelle, Secretary, Close My Eyes, Eyes Wide Shut, Ginger Snaps, Frenchman’s Creek, Baise Moi, Romance, The Story of O, Zandalee, Way Down East, Red Dust, The War Zone and Oedipus Rex.

January 2006
224 pages

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Tanya Krzywinska is Reader in Film at Brunel University. Previous publications include, as author, A Skin for Dancing in: Possession, Witchcraft and Voodoo in Film (2000), as co-author, Science Fiction Cinema: From Outerspace to Cyberspace (2000) and as co-editor, ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces (2002).

‘This book is set to become an indispensable reference-point for the student and scholar, as well as an inspiring and informative map for the general reader.'
– Linda Ruth Williams, University of Southampton, UK

'A sober, readable, informative and clear presentation of that most elusive and sensational of topics: sex and movies ... Krzywinska broadly covers the major films with important sexual themes, especially of the last thirty years.'
– Linda Williams, University of California, Berkeley

'Sex and the cinema traces numerous factors and contexts that have shaped the way that sex appears in film: charting the cultural forms that are often diversely in play. Boundaries are constantly being pushed and this book examines how "transgressive" sexual imagery is continually being approached by the mainstream: exploring forms and themes such as narrative, incest, romance, sadomasochism and real sex. This is highly academic tome that delves and dissects the subject matter fro a very serious viewpoint.'
– Cinema Retro