Kamera. The Sex Issue.

Antonio Pasolini introduces the modest issue with a few thoughts: "Perhaps our resistance and uncomfortable-ness with 'real sex' stems from the fact that we don't want to be reminded that the thing is actually quite banal. Naturalising it means losing the magical, forbidden, subliminal appeal that pulls millions of filmgoers to cinema theatres in search of an elusive erotic moment."

Thessa Mooij on "The World's First Vamp on Film": "Theda Bara was an instant hit; her exoticism played up in the days before the moguls decided that blonde, corn-fed shiksas would be the object of the theatergoer's desire, instead of moody, dangerous and dark women of unclear ethnic origins."

Colin Odell and Michelle Le Blanc on conservative morality and the coupling of sex and death in horror movies: "Innocence is no guarantee of protection but promiscuity is a pretty good ticket to a nasty end."

Tanya Krzywinska's Sex and the Cinema, a study in two parts, "Defining Sex in Cinema" and "Themes of Transgression," is excerpted.

Posted by dwhudson at June 21, 2006 1:13 PM