I’m so curious about this Esme character. I love your description of how the film deprives the audience of the female rivalry trope in a lot of 90s erotic thrillers. And you never miss an opportunity to talk about In the Cut, Gina!!!
Interesting the roll of genre in this film! I wonder if she had to put it in a genre like erotic thriller to sell it but was making something else. I like the way you are thinking about it more as Helina using this genre to say something different… Genre is so fun that way. I heard her call it a “comedy of manners” in an interview which is interesting These two actors are so fucking hot and I loved watching them together !
Wow—“comedy of manners,” haha. I’d like to hear her argument for that one. I don’t think she should be so eager to pin down the genre. Genre comes with so much baggage and sets up audience expectation in a way that the filmmaker can never satisfy. And, actually, the biggest thing that killed the eroticism and thrills in this moive was its lack of catastrophe. There were so many unsexy moments in the film, as when Romy and Samuel struggle to make their relationship consensual and safe or as Romy continually apologizes to everyone. It’s really just a movie about a woman with a lot of social pressure on her to fulfill various feminine roles who struggles, late into her life, to figure out who she is and what she wants. And I liked it for that. No need to bait me with “erotic thriller,” haha.
I’m so curious about this Esme character. I love your description of how the film deprives the audience of the female rivalry trope in a lot of 90s erotic thrillers. And you never miss an opportunity to talk about In the Cut, Gina!!!
You're going to like Esme, I think.
That's true--I think everyone should see In the Cut and LOVE it.
Interesting the roll of genre in this film! I wonder if she had to put it in a genre like erotic thriller to sell it but was making something else. I like the way you are thinking about it more as Helina using this genre to say something different… Genre is so fun that way. I heard her call it a “comedy of manners” in an interview which is interesting These two actors are so fucking hot and I loved watching them together !
Wow—“comedy of manners,” haha. I’d like to hear her argument for that one. I don’t think she should be so eager to pin down the genre. Genre comes with so much baggage and sets up audience expectation in a way that the filmmaker can never satisfy. And, actually, the biggest thing that killed the eroticism and thrills in this moive was its lack of catastrophe. There were so many unsexy moments in the film, as when Romy and Samuel struggle to make their relationship consensual and safe or as Romy continually apologizes to everyone. It’s really just a movie about a woman with a lot of social pressure on her to fulfill various feminine roles who struggles, late into her life, to figure out who she is and what she wants. And I liked it for that. No need to bait me with “erotic thriller,” haha.