Category Archives: eroticism

Woman makes love to cloud, divine jealousy

Io by Correggio

Jupiter and Io (c. 1530) – Correggio

It would appear that the dynamics of the two married protagonists of Greek and Roman mythology Zeus (Jupiter) and Hera (Juno) is one of a jealous wife chasing a promiscuous husband.

In order to conceal his escapades, Zeus constantly makes use of his shapeshifting abilities. Thus, he transforms himself into a cloud (he hid himself within a cloud with Io), a golden shower with Danae, a swan with Leda, a bull with Europa, depending on whether he needed to be charming and beautiful or powerful and frightening in his conquest.

See also: divine jealousy

 

WYWWYWI

Diario di un vizio (Diary of a Maniac)

Diario di un vizio (1993)

Fiction is consumed by the hours or days. People cocoon entire weekends to watch six seasons of Sex and the City. With an average length of 22 minutes per episode and a total of 94 episodes this comes to about 34 hours for the whole series. Talk about killing time.

I ask of the current media outlets to publish box sets of anthologies or series I want to watch. On demand. WYWWYWI, which is analogous to WYSIWYG, and stands for “What You Want, When You Want It.”

In my current mood, I’d like to order the box set of the complete oeuvre of Marco Ferreri. I’ve only seen two of his films: La Grande Bouffe and Tales of Ordinary Madness. I sadly missed a retrospective [1] of his work last December in London. Marco Ferreri has made about 27 films, with an average running time of 90 minutes each this gives a total viewing time of 40 hours. Slightly higher than the total time of Sex and the City. But a lot more satisfying.

About the photograph at the top of this post. It’s a screen cap from the 1993 Ferreri film Diario di un vizio starring Sabrina Ferilli. The nude female/dressed male motif is explored in it.

Mihály Zichy @180

Artwork by Mihály Zichy (1827 – 1906)
Image sourced here.

Mihály Zichy (October 15 1827 in Zala, Hungary; February 28 1906 in St. Petersburg) was a Hungarian painter and graphic artist, best remembered today for the erotic pencil drawings in his X portfolio.

He was born 180 years ago today.

His Google gallery

He is not to be confused with “Count” Thedore Zichy:

Unidentified leg photograph

Theodore Zichy is one of the more enigmatic figures in the world of erotomania. All I found is on his page. I’m quite sure he was not a professional photographer, the photo depicted above is the only one I know of, and I can’t even remember where I sourced it. If anyone knows more, please fill me in.

Update: I found more myself. His autobio is That Was No Gentleman, That Was Zichy, London, Polybooks 1974. ISBN 0284985619. And some more photos: (prices range from 500 USD, to 1,000 USD, all gelatine prints): Shoes on a pillow, 1948, Woman and idol, 1948 and Nude with mask, 1948.

 

It made me utter several moans

Bernini Saint Theresa

Ecstasy of St Theresa by Bernini

“In his hands I saw a long golden spear and at the end of the iron tip I seemed to see a point of fire. With this he seemed to pierce my heart several times so that it penetrated to my entrails. When he drew it out, I thought he was drawing them out with it and he left me completely afire with a great love for God. The pain was so sharp that it made me utter several moans; and so excessive was the sweetness caused me by the intense pain that one can never wish to lose it, nor will one’s soul be content with anything less than God.”

 

Seduced at the Barbican

Fresco, 1st century AD, at the Villa dei Vetii, Pompeii
Not on show at the Barbican

Yesterday, “Seduced, Art and Sex from Antiquity to Now” opened at the Barbican Centre. Curated by Martin Kemp it features usual suspects Araki, Bacon, Bellmer, Boucher, Carracci, Fragonard, Goldin, Klimt, Koons, Mapplethorpe, Picasso, Rembrandt, Rodin, Schiele, Turner and Warhol.

You may want to pay it a visit for works by Marlene Dumas (X-posure, 1999) and Thomas Ruff (nudes ama14, 2000).

Dumas was new to me: here is her Google gallery.

Ruff I was familiar, but think I need to buy his book Nudes, a collaborative effort with Houellebecq. His Google gallery. And a Google gallery of the Nudes set.

Tip of the hat to John Coulthart

Italian white noise and avant-garde exploitation

“In 1951, the first electronic music studio was conceived from scratch at the WDR Radio of Cologne (Germany) to enable the composition of electronic music sounds. Briefly, the concept of studios evolved up to the 1955 design of the Phonology studio in Milan by Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna. With nine oscillators, various filters and other sophisticated equipment , the presence of a technician/musician (Marino Zuccheri), the studio was the best equipped in the world at that time.” via usoproject

You may also know Bruno Maderna from his work on Death Laid an Egg.

Good night, sleep tight.

La morte ha fatto l’uovo (1968) – Giulio Questi

In praise of non-eventfulness

Tomorrow is Brigitte Lahaie 52nd birthday. While researching for this post I stumbled upon the following clip which is a perfect example of the non-eventfulness I appreciate in some films. The first time the concept of non-eventfulness took shape was when I saw the extended scene in La Maman et la putain where one of the female protagonists puts a record on and listens to it in real-time (I believe this actually happens twice in that same film).

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZzV7HLSYpk]

Unidentified clip of early Lahaie (when she was still a brunette)

Please notice how the food Lahaie is about to eat, gazes back at her in the clumsy editing.

The most powerful image of Lahaie I know of is the one where she is photographed standing topless sort of straddling a Great Dane dog. Here.

And here is her Google gallery.

Happy birthday Brigitte.

Happy birthday Laura

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGNvAsImwn8]

The Laura Gemser interview from the Alex Cox documentary “A Hard Look”

What a pleasure to hear Alex “Repo Man” Cox’s voice again. Alex was responsible for a substantial part of my 1980s and 1990s film education with his show Moviedrome. Laura turns 67 today, let’s hear it for Laura. “A Hard Look” is a documentary tv film about the Emmanuelle movies, looking at their making as well as their social and cultural impact. The Emanuelle films‘ primary interest is paratextual: its poster art, the scenery, the OSTs, the odd characters.

World cinema classics #16

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdFjxhDOKNQ]

sex, lies, and videotape (1989) Steven Soderbergh

sex, lies, and videotape (the title is always given in lower case letters) is the film that brought director Steven Soderbergh to prominence. It tells the story of an impotent “voyeur” who films women discussing their sexuality, and his impact on the relationship of a troubled married couple.

This clip features the unforgettable quote: “being happy is not that great … I mean … the last time I was really happy … I got so fat … I must have put on 25 pounds”

In 2006, sex, lies, and videotape was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Previous “World Cinema Classics“