Full Frontal Week
Beginning with a Sunday evening debut of HBO gone Cinemax, probably-prosthetic exhibition of man-parts in Tell Me You Love Me, and culminating in this weekend’s bath-house knife-scrum for the ages in Eastern Promises, the male phallus was a major topic of conversation in the past week, and that’s the first and last time I have and will ever use that word. More on the subject from The New York Observer. Quick review:
– Despite all the hand-over-mouth explicitness that the early reviews of Tell Me prepared us for, the series opened to less than a million viewers (Variety). For the record, the doomed John From Cincinnati premiere was watched by 3.4 million, though it had a hell of a lead-in. I didn’t catch episode 2 of TMYLM last night. Please tell me they went through the trouble of writing a joke into the script. The show needs a sense of humor, a hint of it at least, in the worst way.
– Curb Your Enthusiasm: Penis cake.
– The Brown Bunny debate hasn’t subsided, even now some four years after the fateful oral sex scene between Vincent Gallo and Cloe Sevigny. Nerve notes the most recent debate between Gallo and NY Post writer, Frank Scheck over the authenticity of the much-discussed member on display in the film. Said Vincent, “Tell that hack to convince his mother, sister or wife to let me give it to her. . . and then she can report back to little Frank if she thought [it was fake].”
– Finally, there was Eastern Promises, which took the top prize last week in Toronto. Director David Cronenberg asked star Viggo Mortensen for realism and “body-ness” in a brutal, four minute knife-fight during the climax of the film, to which Mortensen said “Well, it’s obvious, I have to play this naked.” (L.A. Times.) Though the brawl will be talked about in film circles for years to come, the nudity was hardly the only aspect worth nothing - the thing is visceral, bloody, and you’ll find yourself re-adjusting your posture after all the wincing and eye-shielding - those are the longest four-minutes you’ll sit though in the movies all year.
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September 19th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I’m not a fan of film nudity at all…it takes away from the multi-audienceness and recommendation-to-people status quickly.
eastern promises’ final scene sounds difficult because if offended, you can hardly look away because it sounds like a long scene and one that’s crucial to the story.
September 21st, 2007 at 1:58 am
I think most of the viewers of the first episode of TMYLM joined me in not tuning in for the second ep. Lame! Lame, sprinkled with–literally–sweaty balls! Blargh.
I almost ended up going on a second date to Eastern Promises… then we heard that it’s just as violent as History of Violence. Bad date averted. But I still want to see it. Bad.