> I can't help but wonder: if the film industry had
a history of having mostly female producers and
directors, whether it would be primarily males on-screen
in their underwear.
Jane Campion wrote, directed and produced The Piano starring Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel. Both of the stars wear considerably less than underwear in it but would you really believe that the beauty of this film is diminished by nudity?
In one scene Keitel, who is infatuated with Hunter buys her piano but cannot play himself, walks around the piano takes off his nightgown and dusts the surface. I asked a lot of my female friends if they thought this was obscene. They all replied to the contrary. In a closing scene they both engage in sex but we see it through the eyes of her jilted husband (played by Sam Neill) who can only glimpse the couple through holes in Keitel's wooden shack walls.
Voyeurism? I don't think so and your mind is constantly distracted away from the couple with the suspense of what may happen next. This is a film that uses nudity and love-making to a high-level and doesn't cheapen it. The metaphors and imagery in the film are rich and, if you are one to instantly switch off when nudity is displayed on celluloid, you will have missed a beautiful and very satisfying film. If only there were more like it.
This is a film which clearly does not exploit either men or women (but does point out the sexual inequalities of the late Victorian period and includes some wonderfully funny matriarchal characters) and uses sex and nudity in an acceptable and cultured way. Clearly there is a lot to be said for your point, Jackie. The woman's viewpoint in film-making can make a difference to its quality. I'm certainly getting a bit sick of the constant thread of films which are being made for 'male' audiences by the male-dominated industry. I'm an ardent film-goer but I find myself moving closer and closer towards the fringe of film-making of the 'Sundance', Cannes, Berlin variety due to the growing crassness of the 'Hollywood' style.
