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SEX in the NEWS 9/15/02
French Director Breillat Says Sex Is Comedy
— By Jeffrey Hodgson
TORONTO (Reuters) - French director Catherine Breillat, whose work has been banned for its sexually explicit nature, said on Thursday her latest film is meant to show there's a lighter side to the serious subject of sex.
"Sex Is Comedy," which had its North American debut at the Toronto film festival this week, tells the story of a French director trying to guide her actors through an explicit love scene.
Unlike Breillat's films "Romance" and "Fat Girl," which ran afoul of censors with their frank depictions of sexual acts, "Sex is Comedy" spends far more time talking about the subject than showing it. And even more uncharacteristically for Breillat, the film is meant to make people laugh.
"I like the title because of the fact that sexuality, human sex, is really where the entire human comedy takes place and transpires," Breillat, speaking through a translator, told Reuters in an interview.
"Sex could be something so simple if it were sexuality of the kind practiced by animals. But instead humans invest all their terror, all their sense of social and moral reprobation in sexuality, and at the same time the longing and desire for love," she added.
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL TALE
"Sex is Comedy" tells the tale of a film director named Jeanne, played by "La Femme Nikita" star Anne Parillaud, who is obsessed with filming a love scene that doesn't shirk from truth or reality.
Unfortunately for Jeanne, the actors involved in the scene hate each other, and possibly her. Their various demands frequently bring filming to a halt, and Jeanne herself is plagued by doubts about the quality of her script.
To get the scene done, the director lies and cajoles, coaxes and manipulates, defending her actions and the effect on her performers in the name of art.
"Sex Is Comedy" would seem to be a straightforward autobiographical tale from Breillat. But the filmmaker said her style is far more collaborative, and that her job is to project "my inner vision of the film so strongly that the other people respond to it and can reproduce it."
"The art of making a film has something magical about it. It's something that's beyond my control in a way, it's something that as a creator surpasses you in the sense of taking on a life of its own," she said.
"The director's job is to be very humble toward her or his work. To be able to be open to those moments of inspiration, or grace."
BANNED IN CANADA
Grace and humility are not terms critics often use in describing the work of Breillat. The graphic sex scenes in "Romance," which include a violent rape, prompted many critics to label it as pornography. And her work has come under fire from some critics in France, normally known for more liberal attitudes.
Breillat said she feels critics are finally starting to get past the shocking images of her films to appreciate their serious intent. But she makes no apologies for the subject matter.
"This is part of how I see my work, as obstinacy. Even as a little girl, it was impossible for me to accept when I was forbidden to do something unless it was explained why, unless there was a valid reason," she said.
Ironically, Breillat debuted her latest work in a Canadian province that banned her last film, "Fat Girl." That movie explored the sexual rites of passage through the eyes of two teenage sisters.
The Ontario Film Review Board banned "Fat Girl" because of nude scenes involving teenagers in sexual situations. But the decision sparked an outcry from civil liberties groups and prominent Canadian filmmakers including Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg.
Breillat remains angry about the issue, especially given that Ontario was the only major jurisdiction to ban the movie. She said the board has set itself up as the moral guardians of the entire population.
"They consider the adult population of Ontario so stupid, so incapable of making up its own mind that they have to intercede on their behalf. If that's really how they see the population of Ontario, to me it's absolutely ridiculous they allow the population to vote," she said.
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