For many years, kisses were the only sexual acts to be seen in mainstream American movies. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, American cinema 'grew up' in response to the sexual revolution, and movie audiences came to expect more knowledge about what happened between the sheets. In "Screening Sex", the renowned film scholar Linda Williams investigates how sex acts have been represented on screen for more than a century and, just as important, how we have watched and experienced those representations. Whether examining the arch artistry of "Last Tango in Paris", the on-screen orgasms of Jane Fonda, or the anal sex of two cowboys in "Brokeback Mountain", Williams illuminates the forms of pleasure and vicarious knowledge derived from screening sex.Combining stories of her own coming of age as a moviegoer with film history, cultural history, and readings of significant films, Williams presents a fascinating history of the on-screen kiss, an exploration of the shift from adolescent kisses to more grown-up displays of sex, and a comparison of the 'tasteful' Hollywood sexual interlude with sexuality as represented in sexploitation, Blaxploitation, and avant-garde films. She considers "Last Tango in Paris" and "Deep Throat", two 1972 films unapologetically all about sex; "In the Realm of the Senses", the only work of 1970s international cinema that combined hard-core sex with erotic art; and, the sexual provocations of the mainstream movies "Blue Velvet" and "Brokeback Mountain".She describes art films since the 1990s, in which the sex is aggressive, loveless, or alienated. Finally, Williams reflects on the experiences of screening sex on small screens at home rather than on large screens in public. By understanding screening sex as both revelation and concealment, Williams has written the definitive study of sex at the movies.
| ISBN | 0822342855 | | Pages | 432 | | ISBN13 | 9780822342854
(What's this?) | | Volumes | 1 | | Publisher | Duke University Press | | Weight (grammes) | 635 | | Imprint | Duke University Press | | Published in | North Carolina | | Format | Paperback | | Height (mm) | 234 | | Publication date | 18 Oct 2008 | | Width (mm) | 166 | | Library of Congress | 2008013530 | | Spine width (mm) | 23 | | DEWEY | 791.436538 | | Academic level | General, Tertiary education | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | |
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| | | Introduction to Screening Sex | | 1 |
| 1 | | Of Kisses and Ellipses: The Long Adolescence of American Movies (1896-1963) | | 25 |
| 2 | | Going All the Way: Carnal Knowledge on American Screens (1961-1971) | | 68 |
| 3 | | Going Further: Last Tango in Paris, Deep Throat, and Boys in the Sand (1971-1972) | | 112 |
| 4 | | Make Love, Not War: Jane Fonda Comes Home (1968-1978) | | 155 |
| 5 | | Hard-Core Eroticism: In the Realm of the Senses (1976) | | 181 |
| 6 | | Primal Scenes on American Screens (1986-2005) | | 216 |
| 7 | | Philosophy in the Bedroom: Hard-Core Art Film since the 1990s | | 258 |
| | | Conclusion: Now Playing on a Small Screen near You! | | 299 |
| | | Notes | | 327 |
| | | Bibliography | | 379 |
| | | Index | | 397 |
"With Screening Sex, Linda Williams establishes herself as not only the preeminent scholar of cinematic eroticism but also the most significant voice in cinema studies of her generation." Eric Schaefer, author of "Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!" A History of Exploitation Films, 1919-1958 "Linda Williams is a terrific storyteller about sex, and, as she tracks the growth of her own cinematically-mediated sexual consciousness, we go to the movies with her, imagining as though for the first time new encounters with explicitness, new sexual knowledge, and new spectatorial sensations." Lauren Berlant, author of The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture "Screening Sex is a truly remarkable follow-up to Linda Williams's groundbreaking book Hard Core" Jane Gaines, author of Fire and Desire: Mixed-Race Movies in the Silent Era "[A] book that, while far from amateurish, retains a personal element that adds much to its appeal and cogency...-Williams homes in on key films that have advanced or radically changed what is considered acceptable, or indeed desirable, on our screens...Williams' approach is serious but never solemn, and she derives amusement from various subterfuges resorted to by film-makers wanting to appear bold and adult, while still not offending too many people...Williams offers a lucid and perceptive account, never slipping into a simplistic "the more frankness the better" attitude, but noting how advances in openness often entailed retrograde steps." Philip Kemp, Times Higher Education, January 2009
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