sex scene
Before I watch this movie...how "much" or is the sex scene? Could someone please detail how intense the scene is...otherwise I can't watch it.
share[deleted]
The sex scene had absolutely nothing to do with the movie. The movie is based on a short story (which we read in Spanish class before we watched the movie) and pretty much the whole middle of the film wasn't in the story. Moncho didn't even have a brother.
shareWas it very long? Because regardless of how intense it was, I'd rather not watch it. Especially if, as people have said, it has little importance to the plot.
share
Was what very long ???????? Oh ... the scene!
the scene only lasts a few seconds... you see the girl's ummm... how to say this... upper body parts lol and the guy's behind... but its not as graphic as some other spanish movies i have watched in spanish class....
shareOut of interest, whats the problem with sex scenes anyway? Its part of the art isnt it? You can't honestly have a problem with the sculpture 'the kiss' can you?
sharethe sex scene in this movie has nothing to do with the story. I don't mind sex and nudity when they add to the movie. However, in this case, the scene is just bluntly for the sake f having sex in the movie. It's as if they decided to just have a random bomb going off with a huge explosion, I wouldn't mind it, but it'd completely pointless.
Could some of the persons who admitted they'd rather not watch the sex scene explain what's that they find so disturbing about them (regardless to their dramatic justification)?
Don't pretend to be so innocent. I'm not disturbed about this or similar scenes, either, but we know what's the point in their question. They make a frank and simple question. Sometimes the "inverse puritanism" you are showing here looks like fanatism
share???
What do you mean by "inverse puritanism" looking like fanatism?
I'm sorry, I don't understand what you mean with your comments.
Oh I disagree. The fact that there is sex between the young man and the "slut" is significant in the plot. The young woman turns out later to have an interesting tie in with other main characters, and the fact she is a bit loose in morals makes a lot of sense. It's an astute psychological observation. Also, the dog of the young woman is a powerful and central symbol in the movie.
We can always argue about how much should actually be shown on the screen. Here I think a tasteful compromise was reached. Some might disagree. But the fact that the relationship exists is quite significant to the plot and the symbolism.
henry
It does add to the movie even though most people don't think it does.
shareThe only thing I don't like about the sex scene is the kids watching, but it's not that explicit , I guess (well, as a Spaniard I'm used to it, I don't get scandalized easily)
shareIt didn't bother me at all. And I disagree with the notion that it didn't have anything to do with the plot. The sexual relationship that it was showing was one of many dysfunctional relationships in the film that were shadows of the one, big dsyfunction that hangs over the entire story: the relationship between the Republicans and the Nationalists and its coming collapse into civil war.
At any rate, if you can't handle a brief sex scene, you should probably just stay away from serious filmmaking altogether.
The movie is a combination of three stories by Manuel Rivas from the same volume of short stories.
While the main plot has to do with Moncho and his teacher, the subplots about the country lass and her dog and the saxophone player who meets the girl who looks Chinese are actually from other stories unrelated to the main one ("La lengua de las mariposas" in the castellano version).
That is why some of these plot lines seem disjointed, but the intention was to include several stories by the same author to show the "spirit" he creates around his homeland of Galicia.
The sex scene was a trifle brutal and bestial and that would be jarring to some viewers. I would not show it to kids under eighteen, just as a matter of taste.
I'd say that under eighteen is a bit harsh, the sex scene is, in my opinion, suitable for anyone over the rating age (15 in the UK) and though it might be slightly uncomfortable to watch it isn't disturbing or anything and is certainly no worse than scenes in other films.
'Oh goody'
UK yeah; I'm talking USA.
We have more religious fanatics.
Also the scene with all the little girls semi-nude in the brook is hard to watch in mixed company. Seems gratuitous and made with pedophiles in mind.
"The root of all unhappiness is unmet expectation." ô¿ô
The scene with the girls is about the little boy trying to impress a little girl with a flower. He does not recognize her nakedness because he is a child and not a perverted adult. It is completely innocent. That is what makes the scene non-pornographic. That is what is supposed to make it moving. Still there are the more jaded among us that want to run and hide. Anyone that views that scene with sex in mind needs therapy.
As for the scene with the dog....The scene is not so much about the sex as it is about the child learning. If one remembers the film, his friend tells him, this is what people do when they are in love. It reminds us that everyone finds about sex in different ways. I don't think you need to be a pedophile to understand that. Two kids watching an act that they can't quite understand, is not so much pornography as it is everyday life. In a past generation kids would sneak peaks at the underwear models in catalogs. Thats what kids do. Adults are the ones who find it pornographic.
Those who were bothered by the scene were probably shocked by the sex and they completely missed the point. They would like to see some romanticized fantasy of love making that does not exist except in Disney films. This film was about the education (good and bad) of a child. He learned about love (his brother), sex (those people in the barn), politics, betrayal....etc.
Children from about five years of age onward have a sense of decency and they do realize when they are seeing someone in the nude that they wouldn't normally see that way. So the scene does not strike me as natural. And as a viewer I just don't care for seeing these half-naked children—it was disrespectful to film them that way: they should not be exposed to the cameras, the crew, and the viewers.
There is nothing perverted about having a sense of decency, especially where children are concerned.
And if you think the only alternative to the brutal, nasty sex displayed between the country girl and her boyfriend is "romanticized fantasy," it's time to widen your horizons. There is something in between.
Sneaking a peek at models in underwear catalogs cannot be compared to catching a glimpse of a couple engaged in coitus. The latter would have a much stronger effect on a child and most people in the know would not think it healthy for them, even though it does happen from time to time. It would not be a learning experience, just traumatic since they are not ready for it.
The boys did seem very disturbed by the 'sex' scene..., in my mind all of this controversy has nothing to do with religion, it's more about political correctness and declaring that the sex scenes were gratuitous and the semi-naked children improper and sexualised is ridiculous - the movie is indicataive of the time, children frolicking about in river semi-nude was just play. I suppose some of you may also take umbridge to Don Gregorio skulking in the bushes, encouring young Moncho to persue a young girl....ridiculous, how do some of you get through life, let alone prime time tv.
shareI've been reading this thread with curiosity and, being a son of Spaniards/Europeans and having visited every single year since I was 4, just obtaining dual-citizenship six years ago, I find it difficult to believe that most everyone is making a federal case out of "the sex scene". SO WHAT????? Big Deal! Get with it! Now I believe my family and friends in Spain when they laugh and tell me the U.S. is a "puritanically ,tight-assed country". I can see many Americans are not familiarized with European (or any other international) cinema. I see commercials, (on prime time!) over there, with, among the many, a dream-like sequence of women running naked down a beach accompanied by a seagull flying overhead. Doesn't seem to bother anyone...not even my little nephew! Europe is more progressively advanced in everything, including psycologically, than this country will ever hope to be, as much as it saddens me to admit it. I have seen many Spanish films, including those directed by Pedro Almodovar; very provocative indeed, but they bring out the many little truths,the humanity and the general reality of life, up front, on your face, just like other Spanish,French,Scandinavian (particularly Swedish),Japanese and even Czech films. There is NOTHING wrong with the sex scene in this movie..THAT'S LIFE!! You know, things like that happen here too (duuhhh!); only you don't see it on TV, not in the way international film would present it anyway. I was told once by a French citizen I met in Madrid who had visited the U.S. that he felt "American society was way too puritanical, righteously-inclined,and pathetically narrow-minded, akin to a Fascist state"..."Funny thing", he added,"...and yet it leads the world in sexual perversion and rape!"(Laughs) It's time to break out of the shell and join the rest of the civilized World, people. Open your minds already...
shareThe United States leads the world in REPORTED RAPES, it's estimated that rape is equal or greater in Europe but it's reported far less because it is not taken seriously by the police. As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to live in a country where I can report a sexual assault without fear of being told that I will have little chance of bringing my attacker to justice.
As for the sex scene, it was integral to the plot and if one cannot take an intelligent, well shot film with some sex in it then I feel very sorry for you.
@ Bklyn4ever: How much do you know about Spanish culture, exactly? Have you ever been to Spain?
Shirtless children of both genders are actually a pretty normal sight on the beaches of southern Spain (I don't want to generalize and just say Europe, so...). In fact, kids here regularly escape their parents without their bottoms, too.
And, I hate to break it to you, but the bare female breast in general is not castigated in here like it is in your mind. TV commercials, tracking shots of beaches on the evening news, and, of course, Spanish cinema all are known to contain the dreaded, bare female breast completely uncensored. I guess you won't be visiting soon?
I have lived in Spain for many months at a time, and I have gone topless on the beaches there and even in public swimming pools.
However, filming children in the seminude and putting that on the big screen is different.
It gives the movie an "ick" factor that is disruptive to the overall effect. It's in bad taste, no matter the cultural context.
American who has never lived anywhere else checking in to say that I thought nothing of either the sex scene or the scene where the girls were in the water and topless. If anything, it was refreshing to see uncensored portrayals of normalcy.
shareIs always amusing to see these prude rednecks voicing their opinions about ANYTHING related to sex, graphic or not. According to these proud inhabitants of the Bible belt, Sex is evil! even if it's only suggested.
BTW somebody mentioned that the boys were watching the sex scene. How he/she could know it? Have he/she ever heard about the word "editing"? I bet the boys weren't present when the actors shot that "infamous" sex scene.
ahh those smart puritans!
Argonautical, you are so right---the American South is one anachronistic limb that the U.S. could definitely do without,especially in this day and age! Those people are narrow-minded,right-wing/good ole boy, religious (actually synonymous with "hypocrisy"), racist bigots with absolutely NO KNOWLEDGE of what goes on in the world BEYOND their county line. Quite frankly I find them extremely repulsive and personally, I can't stand them!!! It's a shame that, in the eyes of the ever-progressive, open-minded civilized World (i.e. the EU), they make us look bad! "Smart puritans"? Yeah. Try PRIMEVAL MORONS!
shareWay to display how non-judgemental you are....
And, fyi, the stereotypical conservative/racist/bible-thumpers are not limited to the south. I live in the Midwest and they abound here as well. In fact, they cover most of the country. Look at all of the red on the election map. Liberals all band together in highly populated areas... in both the north and south.
It's not being "judgemental"; it's a goddamn fact!!!!!!!
share""""""""""""""the American South is one anachronistic limb that the U.S. could definitely do without,especially in this day and age! Those people are narrow-minded,right-wing/good ole boy, religious (actually synonymous with "hypocrisy"), racist bigots with absolutely NO KNOWLEDGE of what goes on in the world BEYOND their county line. Quite frankly I find them extremely repulsive and personally, I can't stand them!!! It's a shame that, in the eyes of the ever-progressive, open-minded civilized World (i.e. the EU), they make us look bad! "Smart puritans"? Yeah. Try PRIMEVAL MORONS!""""""""""""""""
oh my.. i love how you claim to be so morally and intellectually superior over those you accuse of being 'narrow-minded bigots,' and yet you turn right around and spew such judgmental, vile and stereotypically judgmental blanket statement bullsht in the very same breath.. foot meet mouth.. ;-D
again, for future reference, try and steer clear of insanely bigoted blanket statements cause they tend to negate your so-called credibility on the issue..
Because it's TRUE! And it's not *beep* because everyone I know in Spain (Europe) seems to agree with me 125%. Welcome to the 21st Century, "yanqui"!
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