Pornoglossia

[*Author’s Notes: Information gathered and used by permission from sources, especially the true story of Michael Winterbottom’s “9 Songs” (who also made “Band of Brothers” and “24 Hour Party People”). A friend of mine who had learned of the film at Cannes had a bootleg copy of the film, which is how I saw it, so I’m not exactly sure how one would go about finding the film if you’d like to watch it (and I’m NOT in the bootlegging business, so don’t ask me to make you a copy! Sorry.). Before Winterbottom said it, I had always had the same perspective on graphic sex in movies. I’ve always thought that saying “intimate shots of lovemaking was exploitation” was an absurd thought, so long as the scene had some importance to the story of the film. I learned in anthropology that the human condition is wherever we go, so I believe that leaving sex out of art is like leaving pieces out of a jigsaw puzzle. You don’t get the whole picture of the human condition. And I was always told (and thought myself) that art was art because it was a reflection of human culture. Am I wrong, then, to reason that intimate scenes in movies can actually be art?*]

Xenoglossia: (a.k.a. Zenolalia, Xenoglossia) This is the ability to spontaneously speak a foreign language without first having learned it, or even been exposed to it. This term is also derived from two Greek words: Xenos, which means “foreign” or “foreigner”, and glõssai, which means “tongues” or “languages.” An event in which an individual who knows only English, has never been exposed to any other language, and who suddenly starts to speak in fluent Swahili would be an example of Xenoglossia.

–Copyright © 1998, to 2001 incl., and 2003
by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Author: B.A. Robinson

Pornoglossia: The language of talking dirty, or a tongue that knows how to please? This term is also derived from two Greek words: Porno from pernemi, which means “to sell”, and glõssai (see above). However, the root of “porno” here has a more contemporary definition to it. Here, I mean “sexually explicit pictures”, so it’s short for pornography. Thus, the definition is more like “the language of intimate picture capturing”, if you will.

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Scene 16, according to Tanner’s notes, was called “Mandy & Lucy Give In”, which was because Mandy and Lucy had been fighting to conceal their craving for each other since the movie began, and now it was time for them to release that primal urge. While scenes 3, 12 and 14 were not shot yet, Tanner was antsy to get this scene out of the way. It was important to the movie, though such scenes often made actors and crew a little uncomfortable.

Funny thing, really. When he got the script, read it, he found himself doing some research about “sex scenes”. One director, Michael Winterbottom, had recently made a film called “9 Songs”, which he was quoted as saying, “What’s so wrong with sexually explicit scenes in a movie? Books describe graphic scenes all the time and they can get away with it? Why can’t movies do the same?”

Tanner watched the movie and realized he wasn’t kidding. The scenes were just as graphic as a porno – merely done with great cinematography and high-end editing. Tanner would have told Mr. Winterbottom that the answer to his question was because novels don’t actually exploit real people in their making, since they’re only words.

That would have been a justifiable remark, but then Tanner found another quote by one of Winterbottom’s actors (a defender): “People who say they find it offensive are liars. If they say they find it shocking, I don’t believe them. It’s only sex. Michael only does extraordinary stuff,” he said. “He wanted to explore an intimate relationship and tell it predominantly through love-making, showing how sex changes throughout a relationship. It’s a love story.”

So maybe some actors don’t mind the exploitation, though Tanner was sure that, to some people, graphic sex in cinema wasn’t exploitation. It was nothing more than shooting an intimate scene in a beautiful, artistic way, just like anything else captured on film.

Tanner collected a list of movies, that apparently had similar guts in the making of them, and watched them:

All Women Do It

Capricio

Devil in the flesh (1980’s Italian movie)

Fruits of passion (70’s French)

Intimacy

Jesus was a Palestian

Lies

Sweet movie

Idiots (aka Idioterne or Les Idiots)

Fallo

The Dreamers

Ken Park

Some of them, he decided, were really good. But could *he* do it?

The actresses hired to perform the roles of Mandy and Lucy were a couple of close friends of his, both having worked on past projects with him. Jennifer Noment was performing Mandy and Jennifer had posed for a couple of adult magazines (though she had showed very little). Jamie Cardine was doing a good job as Lucy, who was a cock tease in the film. Jamie had never done anything nude before, so it was a lucky thing that she trusted him enough to take on this sort of role. What the problem was, with Tanner – he didn’t know if had the balls to actually shoot a nude sex scene. He wasn’t planning on having the scene very graphic, but both Jennifer and Jamie had asked, “Why not?”

Over a conversation last week, when the girls had asked this, Tanner found himself flummoxed.

“What do you mean?” he had said.

“We’re all adults here,” Jamie had said. “The movie is a classy representation of two girls who happen to fall in love. I don’t really think you get that these two are in love that much when you read through the script, so why not show how much they’re in love by showing how much they are engrossed with each other in their lovemaking?”

Tanner had chuckled nervously. “Okay, so you both are asking me to let you two have real sex in front of the camera? You’re asking me to film the two of you pleasuring each other’s intimates?”

Jennifer had laughed. “Yeah! Come on, Tan. It’s already known that Jamie and I love each other, so we could make scene 16 very real. It’s perfect.”

Tanner had shaken his head, saying: “I don’t know, girls. I’ll have to think about it.”

Now, here he was, sitting in his office, thumbing through his scene notes, knowing that the sound stage would soon be swimming with crew trying to get the set all ship shape. And he was thinking: Dear God, what the hell am I going to do?

After a few moments, he decided that he was going to close the set and run the camera himself. The boom could be supported with stationary goose-arm and he could run the DAT machine just before running the camera. All easy enough, he thought. And then he’d let happen what happened. If he wasn’t comfortable with shooting the scene with a graphic edge, then he’d make sure his shots were done more subtly.

His AD, the ‘assistant director’ of the film, was standing beside a gaffer, going over floor plans when he walked up to her. She looked at him, smiled and reduced the sound on her walkie.

“Hi, Tanner. Ready to get going? The caller hasn’t rounded up the actors yet,” she said.

“No, um, we’re going to do things differently today,” Tanner said and he told her what he was thinking. The AD looked annoyed by the thought, but she shrugged her shoulders.

“I’ll have to talk to Harry,” she said.

“No producers. Harry’s at a meeting anyway and this is my film. I’m just doing what I think will be most comfortable for the actors,” Tanner said.

“Alright. You’re the boss…” the AD said before putting her walkie to her mouth and saying: “Okay, everybody. Finish up. You’ve got five and the director has asking for a closed set. And that means everyone will be out in ten! Call the performers.”

“Thanks,” Tanner said.

“You’ve got one magazine, so don’t waste it.”

“Fifteen minutes will be all I need. I hope,” Tanner said.

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Jennifer and Jamie, in character, came onto the set within about six minutes. Good time, since their trailers weren’t right outside.

Jennifer was the taller of the two. She had real blond hair and blue eyes, the type that looked like they belonged on the beach. She had beautiful pouty lips that, when pooched, made guys go nuts with curiosity as to her oral skills. As Mandy, Jennifer was wearing her hair up, a school uniform type white blouse and black, short skirt.

Jamie was shorter, only 5’1″ and about 100 lbs. Her hair was dark, but she had the most brightly colored green eyes that Tanner had ever seen. As Lucy, Jamie was dressed more like a tomboy: ass hugging jeans and a flannel shirt that, strangely enough, matched the cherry-wood floor on set.

Both were sexy and petite, so scene 16 was sure to be a eye-stunner, Tanner thought.

Once the crew left the set, the three of them were alone on a stage that was constructed to look like a fashionable New York apartment, owned by a very feminine person. Lush pink drapes, copies of paintings from celebrity artists (of the last 50 years), and a wall with a collection of dolls from all around the world.

Deciding to get to business, Tanner stood between them and went through the scene with them: “Okay, first there’s the scene with the two of you working your relationship out, which is focused a little on the frustration that two of you have with each other. Then, suddenly, Lucy can’t take it anymore, she’s looking at Mandy’s lips for a long, breathless moment… the kiss, passionate,… and we’ll improv the physical reactions of the characters at that point. Okay?”

“Sounds fun,” Jamie said. “I’m already getting hot.”

Tanner laughed and pointed at the tungsten lights: “Those are about 500 watts, each. You’re going to be hot.”

“You’re an ass sometimes,” Jennifer said, slapping his ass.

“Heeeey. Sexual harassment, huuuh,” Tanner whined, sarcastic.

“Nobody cares,” Jennifer said, tossing her script onto her chair off stage as Jamie began to look around.

“Okay, okay… Hit your starting marks and give me a moment,” Tanner said.

After using a light meter on the girls, to make sure his camera’s aperture was set properly, and after checking his focus on the 35mm Arriflex wide angle lens, he started the DAT and took his place behind the camera. Headphones on, he was ready to roll…