The Loss of Sexual Innocence.The Loss of Sexual Innocence * Written and directed by Mike Figgis * Starring Julian Sands, Saffron Burrows, Stefano Dionisi, Kelly MacDonald, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers * Sony Pictures Classics Sex is forever being cut short in Mike Figgis's The Loss of Sexual Innocence. Phones ring, people stumble through the door, and, in the most extravagant display of coitus interruptus coitus in·ter·rup·tus n. Sexual intercourse deliberately interrupted by withdrawal of the penis from the vagina prior to ejaculation. Also called onanism. ever, a squad of police with attack dogs and searchlights disturbs a couple's reverie, followed by a fleet of flash-popping paparazzi pa·pa·raz·zo n. pl. pa·pa·raz·zi A freelance photographer who doggedly pursues celebrities to take candid pictures for sale to magazines and newspapers. . When you talk about love, to paraphrase Patti LaBelle, you should be talking 'bout shame. That's the gist of this magical, mystical mess of a movie from the man who brought us Leaving Las Vegas and One Night Stand. Alternately alluring and confounding confounding when the effects of two, or more, processes on results cannot be separated, the results are said to be confounded, a cause of bias in disease studies. confounding factor , The Loss of Sexual Innocence hearkens back to all those obsessive early nouvelle-vague efforts of Alain Resnais and Jean-Luc Godard, the ones that sent our parents fleeing to some diner afterward to argue over coffee and cake whether it was fabulous or a piece of shit. Through a fragmented, assertively nonlinear accumulation of flashbacks, dreams, and fantasias, we piece together the life of Nic, a successful English film director (played as an adult by Julian Sands and as a teen by Velvet Goldmine's Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). As Nic drives home to his frigid wife or off to yet another exotic third-world shoot, we get glimpses of his past. A 5-year-old Nic living in Kenya witnesses an older relative sexually exploit one of the local girls. A 12-year-old Nic is subjected to harassment by his gym teacher and classmates Classmates can refer to either:
or idyl In literature, a simple descriptive work in poetry or prose that deals with rustic life or pastoral scenes or suggests a mood of peace and contentment. in which a black Adam and a white Eve play out the fall of man to a potently contemporary finish. In this unforgiving landscape even a blind woman is subject to gross insensitivity when her Seeing Eye dog Noun 1. Seeing Eye dog - (trademark) a guide dog trained to guide a blind person guide dog - a dog trained to guide the blind trademark - a formally registered symbol identifying the manufacturer or distributor of a product is pounced upon by a lusting mongrel mongrel of mixed or uncertain breeding; said of dogs in particular but also used adjectivally to refer to any species. . For all the jumping about in time and place, Figgis keeps us focused until a baffling baf·fle tr.v. baf·fled, baf·fling, baf·fles 1. To frustrate or check (a person) as by confusing or perplexing; stymie. 2. To impede the force or movement of. n. 1. interlude that features supermodel bombshell Saffron Burrows (who has talked about her real-life bisexuality in the press) as twins separated in their youth. Figgis tracks their separate, nearly intersecting paths but also implies that they are just alter egos of the same person (although one of the alter egos sleeps with women). Your guess is as good as mine. But then this is the sort of ultrahip movie that makes us feel stupid for questioning that Nic's adult self doesn't look a thing like his adolescent or teenage selves. The real star is the camerawork of Benoit Delhonune, the hot French cinematographer (The Scent of Green Papaya) whose ravishing rav·ish·ing adj. Extremely attractive; entrancing. rav ish·ing·ly adv. reflections through pools of water and poignant glimpses of figures through panes of glass take the breath away. Is The Loss of Sexual Innocence fabulous or a piece of shit? I'd say it's a bit of both. But then I haven't had my cake and coffee yet. Stuart is theater critic and senior film writer for Newsday. |
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