Sex, Dialogue and No-Dialogue

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Sex, Dialogue and No-Dialogue

Folks, I am a “No-Dialogue” kind of guy, but I am convinced that since we all know the climax of customary poking and moaning (just sex scenes)---conversation about sex---fantasies, encounters, what are you wearing or what are you going to do to me etc, will arouse your audience to the premise of your story and will keep it there until the closure. Why? Because you don’t know what to expect from them, just sex scenes---like in porn, will bring your audience to a premature ejaculation.

In any event of a Dialogue or No-Dialogue, if it is done right and in the right time and at the right place it will work. But since we are all so jaded by sex appeals, to everything, everyday in our lives, I would say it is impossible to create (rather than re-create) an original sex scene. Keep on trying.

Have them talk about sex---Bergman in “Persona” and Godard in “Weekend” did it so well, and keep their mouth shut for the rest of the movie --- it will work.

Comment on someone’s post I read on indietalk.com, sorry but can't remember who's

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Thanks, to LOGAN L and all other folks for the comments on "Per Jury"

I am holding the cmera all the time, becasue I am blocking the shots. We had only one week to block the shots. And 1 and 1/2 days to rehearse with Antonio. Another reason I had the camera on me all the time becasue I felt that I needed to get used to the weight of it, and not struggle with it while trying to make a shot since it was hand held.

Vassily
 
I would have to agree, when it comes to sex, it's all about the dialogue. With the right dialogue you can make an audience view a sexual act as happy, sad, horrifying, or any other emotion.

Poke
 
Poke said:
I would have to agree, when it comes to sex, it's all about the dialogue
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i don't know if any of you have seen a rather mediocre british film from a couple of yrs ago (Savinda and me i think it was called) but any ways, this young girl (16) has sex with a boy (17) on a huge rock, and she just lies back and takes it, and he grunts up and down
so slow, so disturbing - that was the most disturbing scene i've ever seen.
i think when it comes to sex, the relationship between the doers is what it is all about, and that can be done by actions as well as words. but actions speak louder than words, especially when it comes to this.
 
Personally i dont think Dialouge works too well in sex scenes unless there is a pupose for ti to be there... for instance in Love Actually there was a very well played sex scene between 2 people playing stand ins for a porno... and thoughout their highly provocative movements they start to chat about traffic and weather etc... But as for grunting a moaning i think unless this has purpose in the script (e.g a charachter who makes a LOT of noise is trying to find a partner who can put up with them) then it is more of a distraction than anything else... Although dont get me wrong... heavy breathing is alright... and so are small grunts and moan... but it should never be a highlight in the soundtrack.
 
SEX, blah-blah-blah and No-blah-blah-blah

Folks, I value everyone's reply on my post, with or without "Blah-Blah-Blah" a master will creat a great scene. It just seems to me that with words (in sex scenes), there is more room for a fantasy in spactator's mind, and therefore, it creates complexity, etc. if you want a specific emotion that is controled and that is the only emotion you want a spcetator to see, leave no room for anything else --- then go without Blah-blah-blah. And that's a different type of movie.

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filmgenre said:
if you want a specific emotion that is controled and that is the only emotion you want a spcetator to see, leave no room for anything else --- then go without Blah-blah-blah.
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Scenes where dialogue is used normally reveal how the characters feel, like say at a rape 'oooohhh stop it' or 'ooohhhhh i consent' for example. My point is that dialogue reveals how the characters feel about things, and thus, reveal to the audience how they should feel about the scene, in accordance to the rest of the film (if they like the characters who are enjoying it etc).
There was a Japanese short a couple of yrs ago about a rape, where two men grab a women from a bus and rape her outside - she remains silent and subservient to their demands - if she was all 'oooohh don't' it would have completely destroyed the point.
Also I find that a lack of dialgoue reveals vulnerability in the situation - the audience is not listening to the characters, but their own inner Mr Morality or whoever. By having dialogue I think you can actually constrict the emotions to just good, bad or aroused, or not aroused. However, without it you leave much more up to the audience and allow them to utilise their actual life experience to make sense of what goes on - and that is much more challenging for the audience, and much more challenging for a film maker - you are giving up control.
 
The scene that immediately pops to mind is the train scene in Unfaithful in which Diane Lane is riding home after cheating on Richard Gere with that foreign dude. There's no dialogue, but the audiences sees a conflicted woman from her body movement and facial expressions.

I think sex still falls under "it's better to show, than tell" rule.

There's a french film called Fat Girl that came out a few years ago that would be interesting to rewatch in light of this conversation.
 
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Sex is a complicated human activity and therefore there is no stock, dialogue good/dialogue bad answer.

For instance, it is the dialogue that makes the scene between Isabelle Rosselini and Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet.

Except in the worst Hollywood pap, sex is rarely about sex in films, but a way of showing the complexity of the relationships between people. Personally I think some of the best usage of sex in a film, is the scene in American Beauty where Kevin Spacy is playing with himself in the shower, simply because that scene tells us so much about him as a character.

There is little point from a story telling point of view of showing a sex scene at all if the only thing the audience gains from it is "Oh, people have sex." (unless you need some naked flesh on the cover to get your direct to DVD sales)

So I guess my answer is, the dialogue or lack of it has to show the audience something about the character's relationships, it has to open the character up for the audience, which is true of every scene, a sex scene is no different.
 
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