The Sexy International Paris Film Festival (SIPFF)
 
By Bill Mousoulis

Last year, Jason’s (Turley, SIFF Aust)  programming raised eyebrows (not cocks) when he selected several “relationship study” films for the Paris Sexy Film Festival. “Where was the sex?”, people cried.

What is “sexy”? Maybe “normal” sexy (fashion models, revealing clothes, a sensual swagger, and actual depictions of sex, pornography or not) just, really, in the end, AIN’T that sexy.

So if I say “I heart you”, is THAT sexy? Yes, if it is an active declaration. If a passive statement, i.e. a summation of my position towards you, then … it’s cuddling time, not fucking time.

I want you to turn MY SPIRIT on. I want you to make my spirit come. “Come” – “arrive”. My spirit is elsewhere, hidden, confused, shy. Only you can make it appear.

But do you know how? Do you know how to connect with me at that deepest level? Have you got the sass for THAT?

Or do you only have the sass for twinkling your eyes and unhitching your skirt? So you know how to suck real good, but do you know how to really satifsy me … did anyone teach you that?

You can have your “quickies”. I want a long, slow, soft one … because I want to come, I want to truly come … come with me?
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By Victoria Deterding

Sexy is to me - without a doubt - nearly synonymous with the word acceptance.  To be sexy is to accept our own inherent beauty, despite whatever “flaws” might also be apparent.  This is because, in order for a person to be sexy, he or she must feel beautiful.  We are all worthy of appreciating what is naturally ours; both the physical and the intangible.  Sexy, sexy people choose to express that inner and outer loveliness to themselves and others.  It is clear to most people that sexy is an attitude, a mindset.  

Example:Woman X has a voluptuous body and hypnotizing green eyes.  This same woman X also happens to have a high-pitched wheel-of-fortune style guffaw that slips out every time she sees or hears something funny.  Which is often. Is this woman sexy??  If she loves every bit of herself, including the potentially awkward, and revels in the unique way she expresses her joy, then YES.   Maybe her laugh even charms to the men she dates.  I bet her boyfriends like tickling her!

We are all very unique individuals, but the principle of sexy expands to include everyone.   To be sexy is to accept and value the beauty that blooms out from others.  There isn’t a person on this earth who isn’t sexy.  There are as many different flavors of sexy as there are…well, individuals – and we all swirl together in our interactions with each other to form a steamy lovely sweet committed divorced sultry young male juicy skintight casual female middle aged devilish spicy nude elderly kinky blend.  And more! What a hot mess.

You see, it is a choice to express to express sexy – in each moment of life, in each piece of artwork, in each second of a steamy scene in a film.  Sexy is often portrayed in film within the context of a relationship, or within the realm of men searching for and admiring pretty women.   Sometimes, and stereotypically, these men and the women they chase are young, hot, and flashy. 

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La Fille coupée en deux (2007)
A great example of sexy is the youthful two-thirds of a love triangle that lusted after each other onscreen in Claude Chabrol’s La Fille coupée en deux (pictured left).  While Capucine remains married to her much older sugar daddy and performs some sexy role playing to please him, she also gets entangled with a flamboyantly rich and hair-gelled heir.  It is a young, dramatic, and adulterous sexy that plays on naïveté and indolence.
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City of Angels (1998)
A less rapid and more subtle kind of sexy caught my interest back in the day in the relationship between Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage’s characters City of Angels.  Seth, an angel, decides to to “fall” and become human after falling in love with Dr. Maggie.  After falling, Seth experiences each human activity through his new 5 senses, including a firelit night of ecstasy.  With fresh human senses, even the most mundane task is intense and absorbing – his transformation is the film’s testament to the sensual human form.  Their gentle relationship evolves throughout the film, exploring sexy within the context of ethereal, carnal, and loving ties. here to edit.
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Je vous salue, Marie (1985)
 And I love, love when sexy motifs are used to provoke in a film.  One of my favorite Godard movies is Je vous salue, Marie – a modern and blasphemous retelling of the Virgin Mary’s birth of Jesus.   Appalling to Catholics everywhere, the film documents the pregnancy of Mary in a highly sensual manner with several nude scenes, and closes the film with Mary hanging her head out of the car calling out to Jesus, a cigarette dangling in her fingers and blood red lips – a real woman with passions and vices of her own.  Sexy, smoking and provocative.  edit.
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Mamma Mia! (2008)
Lastly, sexy includes celebrating what is naturally ours – our mind, body, humor – at every age.  I cannot be the only one who thinks Meryl Streep is amazing and becomes more beautiful year!  As an absolutely radiant Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia, Streep frolicks around with her best girlfriends and carries herself with the knowing confidence that comes from experience.  Her and her girls woman are mature, hot and loving it.  Very sexy. 
Sexy: belongs to everyone, but especially those who own it!

Victoria is part of the Sexy International Film Festival team 2010
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What is Sexy? 25/01/2010
 
By Kathleen Dooley

There are few adjectives as difficult to define as this one. Now used to describe everything from cars to stationary, it seems to have something to do with a level of excitement or attractiveness which a thing or person emits. A TV commercial for some sort of self help product in Oz recently asked me, ‘Are you sex confident?’ I’m not really sure what that means but all I can say is that it’s definitely a subjective experience. One girl’s Brad Pitt is another’s Patrick Stewart. I certainly didn’t think ‘Sexy Beast’ was particularly sexy, but someone must have. 
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For me personally it’s a mix of attractiveness and mystery, where something greater overtakes notions of the essential and the other. Sexy Films? I would keep this concept separate from that of ‘sex films,’ as some of the most memorable film moments that come to mind are those that avoided physical contact all together. In terms of French films I’m thinking of Daniel Auteuil throwing knifes at an excited Vanessa Paradis in ‘La Fille sur le Pont.’  Sure, the woman is playing the passive role once again, but it’s certainly more interesting than the scene involving her character Adele shagging a random in a phone box earlier in the film.
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Similarly the electricity is flying when hardened criminal Paul (Vincent Cassel) catches an accidental glimpse down the shirt of his deaf boss Carla (Emmanuelle Devos) in ‘Sur mes Lévres.’ Tension builds to a climax as we wait to see the outcome of these two opposites who are thrown together, each learning something new from the other.
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As a straight woman, I must say that it’s not just about heterosexual romances either. There is something absolutely compelling about the journey of the dying gay protagonist Romain, in François Ozon’s ‘Le temps qui reste.’ Having left behind his sexy grandmother (Jeanne Moreau) with the promise that they will both find death soon, Romain goes forth into a threesome, doing his bit to help impregnate a sterile young couple. Maybe it’s his distance from the other characters or his closeness to dying that makes this as memorable as it is. 

So thumbs down to gratuitous nudity, sexual violence and soft porn. Bring on the meeting of minds and bodies by way of compelling narratives and characters. Others many disagree but that’s my 2 cents worth.  

Kath Dooley is an award winnning Australian filmmaker who has created a range of shorts, music videos and educational works. Also currently undertaking a Postgraduate degree, her Masters thesis examines idea of identity and desire in the work of contemporary French directors.
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