Nudity in art movies!!
I just don't get why they have to push in huge footage of nude scenes in all of the art movies. I mean does it add substance or whatever. I don't know whether it's sexy or just nudity.
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MovieChat Forums > Equus (1977) Discussion > Nudity in art movies!!
i dont know about other movies, but Equus in particular has nudity to demonstrate alan's feeling of exposure and vounerability. there is nothing sexy about the nude scenes, and they are not ment to have to audience think of sex. alan is naked for his God (equus) because he wants to be pure in front of his god. thats the same reason why he doesnt wear a saddle when he rides. hope that helps :)
sharesometimes it's important as someone has already said, and a good artist won't care about what some people think about it.
sometimes it's just fun and interesting to see how some people care about such a stupid thing.
you don't have a pennis or a vagina? is it any different? I do have mine, as everybody, and I don't have a problem with mine or any other, they are all the same.
it disturbs you? poor boy... it's sunday, let's go to the church.
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Quote from the play: "There's nothing as naked as a horse!" Besides, much sensibilities as it may hurt, people get naked. Fact of life.
shareIm no prude, but too many atrhouse directors/productions rely on a little nudity and sex in general to give their films substance - i think it reflects male directors and writes personal hangups/taboos/fustrations. European cinema is often very sexist.
Havent seen equus, but i imagine it is more justified here than many other places.
It's Jenny Agutter. Get over it. For a few years, she just seemed unable to make a movie without dropping her drawers. This. Equus. Logan's Run. Sweet William. American Werewolf. That peculiar western she did.
Hey, there's worse things in the world she could have done. Could have invaded Iraq or something similarly dumb.
I'm always amused at how prudish Americans can be about nudity in general..(and how much
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"I'm always amused at how prudish Americans can be about nudity in general..(and how much"
Why did you have to make this an American issue? I don't think the original poster said they were American. Anyway, I'm American and I was about to post that the nudity in art films is there largely because playwrites are not going to kowtow to societal norms and given that this movie was all about how there is no real definition of normal the nudity fits well. Sometimes it was a little annoying but it was good for the movie. At first I was thinking, "Oh, gimme a break more nudiy - what is it with theater anyway - like we're children needing some stupid titilation from the nudity." But then I realized what they were doing and didn't have any problem with it. The problem with American really isn't prudishness it's not really understanding artisitic things. In some ways we were much too much of a practical people - we go to the movies for entertainment and expect that it will be very cut and dried - this is a fault and I hope it's one that we will get over but it seems instead the rest of the world is becoming like us. I loved Equus but it seems that too many of us (worldwide) are Dr. Dysarts who don't even realize they're the high priest destroying all uniqueness we find around us.
What hump?
You forgot about Nicholas Roeg's WALKABOUT(1971); perhaps her first nude appearance.
shareShe seemed slightly chubby in this one.
One can't help notice that she's quite erm bushy here. Is this something actresses (don't) do when they've a nude scene coming up-grow out to hide the working parts ? (thinking also of Suzanna Hamilton in 1984).
Think it's more to do with the fact that until fairly recently (mid-90s) it was regarded as quite normal for women not to trim/wax/shave their pubic hair. It's only in the last few years that the neurosis about female body hair has reached its current level.
PUNK IS NOT DED
The play itself involves nude scenes and is a stretch for any actor, so hats off to Peter Firth. As for the arguement of nudity in ArtHouse films, the european film industry is a bit more free in that sense than American and Australian cinema. Most you will see in an Aussie films is a quick glimpse of breasts and maybe a male ass out of a car window. American films, some buff guy's backside and a possible glance at a nipple.
European or Arthouse films use nudity not as just a sexual instrument but as an artistic element to the film. Some people may see it as a money grabber or something to entice the audience but Arthouse movies never get a huge box office taking from the nudity or sex involved. I am an acting student and have been asked to do a scene naked. Of course, the offer was just a ploy to see how I would handle it but it did make me think in the right circumstances and if it fits with the content, then I might consider it.
That's my two cents...
I think nudity should be considered important or not in a movie, You just see It and that's it.
As for American People, I think they should be more mind opened in this kind of movies.
Do you know any other movies with male-frontal nudity on it?
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Shallow Grave, Intimacy, 9 Songs, Betty Blue, Ma Mere, The Dreamers, Ken Park, Anatomie de l'enfer, The Idiots
off the top of my head
Personally, as a long-time lover of cinema, arthouse and Hollywood, I don't see anything wrong with nudity, especially male nudity on stage or in movies. You see female nudity all the time in films. Male nudity, especially frontal, is relatively rare, TOO RARE, in films today. Equus uses nudity very well and artistically. As an American, I too can't figure out why this country can handle excessive violence in films but not a little nudity, especially male nudity. Alot of men (straight men), seem to have a double standard when it comes to nudity in movies. They are very comfortable seeing females nude but, show a little full-frontal male nudity and they act all sick to their stomaches and complain. They forget there are others out there that go to movies that might enjoy seeing male nudity, i.e. straight females and gay men. Alright, I'll get off my soapbox now. I think I should have been born in Europe sometimes.
shareThere absolutely is a double standard in American movies, which is ironic considering how artsy and leftist Hollywood is today. Full nudity of a female or even two beautiful lesbians in a love scene are very common and assumed ok. However, Straight American males have a problem with phallus envy or something. There's no reason to accept one standard for females and not accept the same standard for males.
shareI think the human body is quite beautiful and sublime and I'm rather sorry there isn't more male nudity in films. But somehow in America it's considered "pornographic" if a penis is seen in a film.
Oh, and as far as the church comment goes? I attend services twice a week, but still enjoy nude sunbathing at Canaveral National Seashore here in FL.
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If attitudes towards inclusion of nude scenes (particularly male ones, somehow viewed as more controversial) in films of quality could only be relaxed over time, perhaps we could reach the point where they won't seem gratuitous or "pushed in", but help provide a more realistic context.
"Believe not what you wish to believe, but what in truth you can"
Somehow fat@$$#$ like Jerry Falwell (typically white, male, obese, judgmental and unhappy) and their reverses like Larry Flynt (typically same) - the mirror images of the same ugly individuals inflicting their misery on their surroundings - have been allowed to govern both sides of our political, social, spiritual, 'moral' spectra. I'm, frankly, sick of them all.
Nudity in any movie doesn't hurt anyone. Don't watch if you don't like. Art movies are not enhanced by nudity, nor are regular movies detracted from by nudity. Gratutious sex is another matter. But nudity in and of itself is really not the issue.
Agree with all you say, nosnojsirhc, except for the statement that "Art movies are not enhanced by nudity...." Sometimes they are, just as art itself is.
"Believe not what you wish to believe, but what in truth you can"
sure, but it's not the nudity alone - one has to take into account the context, the raison d'etre, the mood and tone, etc.
shareExactly!
"Believe not what you wish to believe, but what in truth you can"
I suppose because a lot of French films incorporate nudity partly because the French don't have the hang ups with it that the Americans do.
I'd agree, and add that it's probably not "incorporated" when your culture doesn't have a hangup... In the U.S., we "incorporate" it as something that is consciously thought about in filming. In France, it would be something along the lines of set design, costume, makeup, blocking - another aspect of filming... not something discussed in depth.
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