Category Archives: eroticism

Violence is fine, sex is not

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

Explanations on the different ratings

[Youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTL3XMDwY0c]

More on the private investigation bit on the MPAA members

This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

The MPAA gave the original cut of the film an NC-17 rating for “some graphic sexual content”: scenes that illustrated the content a film could include to garner an NC-17 rating. Kirby Dick appealed, and descriptions of the ratings deliberations and appeal were included in the documentary. The new version of the film is not rated.

NC-17 is a film rating of the United States film industry used to denote films “No One 17 And Under Admitted” (18 and older ONLY). These films contain excessive graphic violence, sex, aberrational behavior, drug abuse, strong language, or any other elements which, when present, most parents would consider too strong and therefore off-limits for viewing by their children and teens. NC-17 does not necessarily mean obscene or pornographic in the oft-accepted or legal meaning of those words. The Board does not and cannot mark films with those words. These terms are legally ambiguous, and their interpretation varies from case to case.

(A little) more on film censorship and banned films and more on Censorship in the United States.

Gratuitous nudity #3

On The Necessity of Violation

“On The Necessity of Violation” by Jean-Jacques Lebel in TDR T41 (1968)

Description: Incl. photos of happenings – ‘Sunlove’ happening with the Soft Machine, 1967 (Mike Ratledge with naked girl), ‘Miss Festival Contest’ happening with a naked Yoko Ono in background, Lebel’s ‘Happening on the theme of Playtex bras’, etc. Also: Arrabal; Stefan Brecht; Ann Halprin; interviews with Jerzy Grotowski (17pp.) and Charles Ludlam

The tragedienne of strippers

Rita Renoir 2

Rita Renoir, stripteaseuse and intellectual

Rita Renoir was/is a French nude model, actress and ‘art’ stripteaseuse, known in Paris as the “tragedian of strippers.” She was mainly active in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s along with an ‘elite’ of European stripteaseuses with exotic names as Lady Chinchilla, Rita Hymalaya, Rafa Temporel, Dodo d’Hamburg, Poupée la Rose, Bonita Super, Véronique, Truda, Lova Moor, Bettina Uranium, Sofia Palladium, and Rosa Fumetto.

Her first ‘serious’ work was with the happenings and mise-en-scènes of Jean-Jacques Lebel (Picasso‘s Le désir attrapé par la queue), and her first critical success was in the film Les Immortelles by Bourgeade. She also starred in Pierre Koralnik‘s film Cannabis.

She also worked with Michel Simon and starred in The Red Desert as Emilia.

She played herself in Sois belle et tais-toi.

Freddy de Vree wrote an article about her, so did Julio Cortazar (Homenaje a una joven bruja).

Any extra info is more than welcome.

Of pain and pleasure

The Tears of Eros, in a German translation, with a cover by José Manuel Capuletti.

I’ve been re-reading Bataille’s last book The Tears of Eros, including the introduction by J. M. Lo Duca and their correspondence. I also found an online version (see above) of the cover picture as used in the German and Dutch translations. The painting is by José Manuel Capuletti, a now forgotten surrealist, here depicting yet another Danaide just as Rodin did in post #795.

This afternoon I acquired the excellent Quatre siècles de Surréalisme, L’Art fantastique dans la gravure.

Parisian “book hell” open to public

Dessin d’un boudoir () – J. J. Lequeu

Three days ago, I reported that it was Jean-Jacques Lequeu‘s 250th anniversary. My good friend Dominique alerted me that the Parisian “enfer” will open its doors from December until March of next year. This will be a unique opportunity to see books and illustrations which have been hidden from the general public for more than 170 years.

Enfer is French for hell. In this instance it refers to the private case of the French national library. The contents of this library were cataloged by Pascal Pia and Guillaume Apollinaire in the 1913 Les livres de l’Enfer, and in 2007 the “Enfer” will be shown to the public in an exhibition titled Eros au secret. Children are not admitted.

I hope this will be an impetus for other European libraries to do the same. Let the gates be opened of all private cases, Giftschränke and Remota.

View the original French advertisement here and my entry Eros au secret.

Così fan tutte

All Ladies Do It/Così fan tutte (1992) – Tinto Brass [Amazon.com]

Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti, (Eng: “They all do it” or “They are all like that”) opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a bawdy film by Tinto Brass. Mozart took as a theme “fiancée swapping” which dates back to the 13th century, with notable earlier versions being those of Boccaccio‘s Decameron and Shakespeare‘s play Cymbeline. Elements from Shakespeare‘s The Taming of the Shrew are also present. Furthermore, it incorporates elements of the myth of Procris as found in Ovid.

Although the title is usually translated into English as “They All Do It”, Italian speakers will notice that the word “Tutte” has a feminine ending on it. The title can thus be translated as “All Women Do It” (i.e. cheat), or even “Women are all the same”.