Posted on 05/20/2006 5:12:08 PM PDT by .cnI redruM
A US film featuring actors performing real sex is a "call to arms" against President George W. Bush, the director told journalists at the Cannes film festival.
"Shortbus," an explicit, largely improvised arthouse flick that includes a rendition of the American national anthem during a gay sex scene, is a direct provocation, director John Cameron Mitchell admitted.
"It's a little bit of a cri de coeur to us, a little bit of a call to arms" against the prevailing conservatism, he told a media conference, adding that his country was living in "the era of Bush, which is about clamping down, being scared."
The 43-year-old, whose previous work was "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," about a transsexual rock singer, said the film was his own small act of defiance against Bush.
"If you can't do elections you might as well do erections," he said.
Although the first half of the film is filled with sex, including orgies and masturbation, the act itself is not meant to be erotic but rather to challenge the audience and make it confront issues such as loneliness, the illusion of self-sufficiency and other seemingly unrelated problems, Mitchell said.
One scene likely to create controversy in the United States and some other countries shows a gay threesome in which one participant joyfully bellows "The Star Spangled Banner."
The actor with the singing voice, PJ Deboy, said he did the scene to show that he was as American as anyone, despite resistance to gays in parts of the country, including Washington.
"I thought to myself: 'Can I do it...?' And I decided I could, because it is a patriotic act.... There's nothing un-American about gay sex and there's nothing unpatriotic about it," he said.
He also joked that "I am now touring and singing every country's national anthem," and called for volunteers to assist.
Mitchell pointed out that the movie, filmed in New York City, also made pointed references to the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Near the end of the movie, the lights flicker out as they did during a blackout that briefly occurred in 2003, provoking fears of a terrorist attack -- and then relief and a sense of togetherness that is likened to an orgasm.
"This film is in the shadow of 9/11, but it shows we're still alive, y'know?" the director said.
"Sex is not that interesting unless it's put into an artistic context, or you're having it yourself," Mitchell said.
"And sometimes not even then," added a cross-dressing actor called Justin Bond who played himself in the movie.
...zzzzzzzz...
I have a natural inclination to give a chance to non-Hollywood films, indie films, art films, anything that's different, but so very often they are BS solipsistic portraits of the "worldview" of some 20- or 3-something weirdo who thinks pointing out that there ARE gay people, or that people hate flag-waving, or that religious symbols can be perverted, or whatever, is some kind of Incredibly Deep Artistic Experience.
I enjoy plain old entertainment movies; I enjoy movies that have something to say BUT only if it's an interesting statement or it's related in an interesting way.
The above description in the article could be slapped on so many of the garbage independent directors are cranking out, all of them pointless attempts to get people pissed off. Most of these movies are quickly forgotten and the next piece of disposable anger is rolled out to insult the same targets over and over again, mainstream Americans.
It's boring.
I love the strawmen these people create to knock down and show how "brave" they are. "Can I do it...?" Yeah, like singing the anthem during a gay sex scene is going to make your gay filmmaker friends say, "Hey, man, you went too far with that one."
Any insult to conservative principles is not going to be considered "too far" with the moviemaking crowd. Seriously, can anyone here think of any attack on the US, any satire aimed at the traditions of this country, that liberals would be up in arms over?
Go to Iran and sing their anthem while having gay sex, then tell me how horrible George Bush is, you moron.
bill clinton: "If you can't do elections you might as well do erections"
hillary clinton: "If you can't do elections you might as well kill babies"
ted kennedy: "If you can't...uh...do elections you might as well...uh...do booze"
robert byrd: "If you can't do elections you might as well join the klan"
john kerry: "If you can't do elections you might as well shoot yourself in the foot and get a Purple Heart.
Beautiful!
Totally agree with you guys, a bunch of perverts trying to give credibility to pornography by disguising it as political discourse and using the name of the president and 9/11.
What I find significant here is the fawning article. This AFP (the French news agency no less) writer simply reports vomitous idiocy such as this:
"... the act itself is not meant to be erotic but rather to challenge the audience and make it confront issues such as loneliness, the illusion of self-sufficiency and other seemingly unrelated problems ..."
For years, we've been asking them to just report the news and not inject their stupid opinions, and this moron decides to take our advice while reporting on a cretin pervert trying to sell a disgusting porn movie as a political manifesto.
This article is just another piece of propaganda, like Goebbel's lies or Stalins party press. Little people mouthing off the ideology of their masters. In this case liberal perverted crap!
It's hard to make the Venus De Milo have a gay threesome while singing the national anthem.
How utterly childish!
Just doing my part to keep keyboard sales up.
*rimshot*
I was going to say someone should do "Sex for Bush", but that doesn't sound right...
This looks like a good campaign ad showing the sheeple the kind of foks who support the left. Then watch the dems run for cover just like roaches do when the lights are turned on.
hehehe
.....Paul DeBoy, the Balladeer of Baltimore. Somewhere between boy band babe and Tom Waitts, this Charm City native is a Gus Van Zandt wet dream come true. Now, after a 5 year "rest" in a Baltimore Mental Institution, PJ DeBoy returns to the East Village stage with a lot of help from his friends. ......
This is the guy who 'joyfully bellows "The Star Spangled Banner."'
Apparenly, P.J. ingnored the warnings about excessive you-know-what and had to spend some time in the nuthouse.
'Although the first half of the film is filled with sex, including orgies and masturbation, the act itself is not meant to be erotic but rather to challenge the audience and make it confront issues such as loneliness, the illusion of self-sufficiency and other seemingly unrelated problems, Mitchell said.'
He is living in "the era of Bush, which is about clamping down, being scared.
I theorized it had to do with equipment that the main actor brought with him to his starring role.
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