“Desperate for Intimacy”
“Desperate for Intimacy”
Loneliness and Fun in 9 Songs and Shortbus
Chapter 6 shifts focus from French to North American real sex films, beginning with film reviewers’ positive response to the film Shortbus because it contains an optimistic humor absent from European-made films. Addressing these industry critiques of European “doomed, furtive or violent” real sex as in Intimacy, the chapter asks: Does this represent a different worldview? It draws on Kelley Conway’s interest in seeking out different authorship/generic configurations within a historical “malaise” by exploring the layers of narrative history conveyed by comedy and political subtext in John Cameron Mitchell’s U.S-made film Shortbus. The chapter argues that Shortbus and Michael Winterbottom’s British real sex film 9 Songs have a similar combination of sex and music, but find that this is used in very different narrative ways. Moreover, unlike 9 Songs, Shortbus has a strong political subtext that critiques both the current (capitalist) commoditization of communication technologies and the US invasion of Iraq.
Keywords: Shortbus, John Cameron Mitchell, 9 Songs, Michael Winterbottom, confluent love, Kelley Conway
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