F&F Vol. 2 - OBSESSION - MAR 2019
“[...] the need for human connection quickly becomes the obsession we don’t know we have. But it is not like other obsessions. It arises not from bad habits, not from addictions, fixations, or exposure to external stimuli. It arises from deep within us like the beating of a heart. It arises because we are alive.”
by Zack Long
“Simone has already told us that her and R will be a part of each other – she’s not wrong. Using an electric knife, she cuts R into pieces to be stored in the freezer until she is able to cook and consume all of him, going so far as to grind his bones into powder.”
“Eventually, the pair require more and more extreme sensations to get them off, and biting each other and drinking each other’s blood only lasts for a while before they move on to more overt S&M practices. Eventually, Aki decides that her death would be the ultimate ecstasy, and implores Michio to amputate her arms and legs. All of this takes place in a studio filled with two mammoth sculptures of women without heads, feet, or hands, and overseen by Michio’s disembodied eyes and noses and arms and legs and breasts.”
“The idea that pretty, poppy famous women crucified for being ‘filthy’ are not popular is, like the doubled Mima, simultaneously two things at once: true, and a lie. It would be better to say that they are liked in a different way, one that is crueller, camper, or more violent than the love that they receive when they are pristine, clean as air. Mima’s fans, all male, read Mima’s Room religiously, finding it easier to believe that she would write things like: ‘I don't want to do that drama anymore! The producer is a total pervert, and my role is really screwed up!’ or ‘Everyone is forcing me to do it! It's all the screenwriter's fault!’ than to believe that Mima might have wanted to act in a rape scene, or to be photographed naked for a soft-core magazine.”
“The deliciously nasty and cruel suggestion in Knife + Heart is (jokingly) that we are, in some ways, complicit in our own exploitation, that to be exploited is the greatest form of pleasure. Even with shitty rates, the porn stars of Anne’s film work with her, killer on the loose notwithstanding. To experience the consequences of exploitation, as either victim or perpetrator, is euphoric, transcendent. To be exploited is to submit is to cum.”
“What we have to highlight in Gaspar Noé's work is the focus on sexuality in a very original and personal way. He may be narcissistic, but he's never trivial, and he did something nobody ever did before: representing explicit, real sex with real feelings at the core of it – be they positive or negative, violent or sick, tender or perverse. Gaspar Noé talks about the human experience without judging it, without separating the good from evil. He's just free.”
“In Muscle and Hunters’ Sense of Touch, the protagonist’s quests are driven less from ‘love’ and more from fetishization, chasing the high of their ex-partner’s touch, the thrills of their sex, the way they could hurt the protagonists’ bodies in the best ways. In Muscle, the longing is literalized by Kitami’s severed arm, perfectly preserved on his nightstand as Ryuzaki’s masturbation aid, a (literal) fetish kept to spark fantasies of his old lover brutalizing him in a blue-tinted dreamworld.”
by Juan Barquin (with Evan Purchell)
“Porn itself has a fascinating history, a never-ending collection of styles and content that often mirrors the way any other genre of cinema evolves. ‘I’m interested in the progression of the genre over time, so that includes everything from experimental and physique films through to Pat Rocco and his softcore shorts, and onto hardcore and beyond,’ he elaborates. ‘With my research, I try to explore the ways that filmmakers both pushed the boundaries of censorship and taste, and adapted and changed with the times. Some of those filmmakers, like Tom DeSimone, successfully made the transition from softcore into hard— even eventually moving into mainstream features.’”
“Almost immediately following the crash, Ballard is subsumed by his exploration of symphorophilia, or the sexual arousal of staging or watching tragedy. It begins when Catherine slowly and methodically masturbates him while relaying the incredibly specific details of his fatal crash as he recovers in the hospital. Ballard also allows Vaughan (Elias Koteas) to carefully inspect his body at the hospital and the way the two men look at each other’s scar tissue is erotically charged. Later, Ballard observes a re-enactment of the famous car wreck that killed James Dean and, at one point, he even spends an afternoon watching slow motion crash test dummy footage.”
“The ever-changing Slade shifts his obsessions as regularly as he does his colorful costumes. His infatuation with Mandy fades, and he becomes obsessed instead with Wild. He’s never truly in love with them, however, as much as he is in love with the idea of them. He basks in their adoration and soaks up their attention because it comforts him. As vain and narcissistic as Slade may be, he’s also incredibly insecure in his love for himself. Surrounding himself with people who are likewise enchanted with his persona allows him to indulge his more selfish whims. He takes what he needs from his lovers…”
by Vincent Bec
“When Mark attempts to force Anna to give up her affair, she threatens to jump out of a window. He remarks, ‘You need it that much?’ Her obsession with the physical naturally creates a physical manifestation--a monster created from a woman’s sexual desire. Through this monster she creates her doppelganger of Mark. She must give her body sexually to create this doppelganger, while Mark’s doppelganger of her manifests cleanly. There is a direct connection drawn between a woman overcome with sexual desire and monstrosity. During a fight with Mark she screams, ‘I’m a whore, a monster, yes, I fuck around with everyone!’”
“However, Alex is taken in more by Eddy's more intellectual ambitions, especially when he succinctly condemns her current play: ‘I just don't understand why anyone would want to do a lesbian version of Oedipus Rex?!’ This triggers Alex's dormant sexual desires, so hungry to the point where she manages to get him in her room and on her floor practically unzipping his fly with her teeth; Eddy is uncomfortable about the encounter and swiftly bails, much to Alex's consternation. It's only in the very next scene do we discover that Eddy may be gay and lusting after Stewart; Eddy even finds himself aroused at Stewart going on about his penis and what he do with it had he been in the same situation.”
by Drew Dietsch
“This fixation eventually crosses over into an outright sexual dynamic between Jeffrey and Dorothy, and it is where Jeffrey realizes that his compulsion to watch has led him to a point where he is made to act. During their first encounter when Dorothy discovers Jeffrey in her closet, she performs oral sex on him while threatening with a knife. This power play continues the danger that Jeffrey associated with his voyeurism, but he is now rewarded with sexual gratification. When they meet again, Dorothy reveals her masochistic side and demands that Jeffrey hit her. When he finally concedes, he has crossed over into the darkness that he only watched from a safe enough distance.”
“Under the old dialectic, under the umbrella of patriarchy, women are always The Other. They are ineffable, unknowable. As symbols and gatekeepers of the natural, earthy world, they are a reminder of humanity's mortality, the quick rush to the grave in our mayfly lives. Women, as representatives of the chthonic, remind us of our abjection, of our ultimate materiality, the mystery of what lies outside our imaginary egos, the frailty of our autonomy, the composite nature of our personalities, and the power of nature.”
“You don’t love me. I’m just something you’ve caught. You think I’m some kind of animal you’ve trapped.”
“In a painfully ironic twist, Renee states what Cauoette implies during the entirety of the film, but has yet to verbalize himself: ‘Sick parents raise sick children.’”
WE STAN!:
Orgasm Addict
(a comic book mixtape)
Danica says: “@heyAnnieMok is so damn talented at depicting sexual longing, desire, the need to connect & the fumbling, desperate way we go about it in this post-digital age. I strongly urge everyone to buy a copy. (& not just because I'm in this as a character named Amor!)”