The concept of “obscenity” is tested when we dare to look at something that we desire to see but have forbidden ourselves to look at. When we feel that everything has been revealed, “obscenity” disappears and there is a certain liberation. When that which one had wanted to see isn’t sufficiently revealed, however, the taboo remains, the feeling of “obscenity” stays, and an even greater “obscenity” comes into being. Pornographic films are thus a testing ground for “obscenity,” and the benefits of pornography are clear. Pornographic cinema should be authorized, immediately and completely. Only thus can “obscenity” be rendered essentially meaningless.
The term pornography is usually in the West defined by its origins: Greek—porno/graphos, “the writings of prostitutes.” That is, advertisement, an incitement toward sexual excitement. The reader or viewer is titillated until a sexual climax is achieved, either with a partner or, more commonly, with the viewer’s own hand. Masturbation is usually pornography’s means of sexual gratification. For this to occur, however, a number of stipulations must be observed.
In pornographic films, the intent is to sexually inflame the viewer, and a number of techniques are used. One is to divorce the displayed sex from a demanding story line. Narratives are slight, since the aim is not to tell a story but to exhibit a group of actors. Most porn narratives are quite empty and are designed to be so. Any consideration of narrative consequences, of character, detracts from the recognized aim of titillation.
For this reason, the sexual acts are not photographed in any considered fashion. The only “rule” is that the best view of the genitals ought be somehow obtained. This means that the cameraman must carefully follow the movements of actors who have been instructed to be noticeably active. The idea of a long shot (from far away) or any consideration of the aesthetic possibilities of film is not encountered, and so there is no narrative development as indicated by camera movement. Pornography is deliberately improvisatory.
At the same time, the photographer does have some rules to follow. One of these is the low camera angle. This indicates that the viewer is on the same level with the performers. One is not above them, not merely observing them. Rather, the viewer is partaking—which is the reason for the prevalence of both close-ups and low-level shots.
Contributing to this illusion of intimacy, of partaking, is a certain amateur quality that is carefully crafted. The performers are rarely asked to act, merely to exhibit themselves. Indeed, if they do bring any degree of acting skill, they risk creating feelings for the characters they are enacting. This detracts from the aim of pornography, which is to stimulate sexually and nothing else. Empathy—which is what feeling amounts to—would suggest sympathy, and if the masturbator begins to feel, say, pity for the performing couple, then his or her masturbatory impulse will considerably lessen.
In pornographic film, it must also be suggested that all of this sexual activity is done only for the camera and the solitary viewer. This is one of the reasons that the art of editing is almost unknown in porno, or at least is mostly invisible. The ability of the editor to shape narrative by showing and by not showing cannot apply when the film is specifically designed to show only sexual detail. Hence the insistence upon an apparent spontaneity.
And hence the reassuring presence of the kind of film punctuation that seeks to persuade, that has editorial ambitions. The fade-in, the fade-out, the dissolve, all are used as rhetorical devices in film to suggest a certain accord, to give an idea that some intelligence is guiding the visual display. Though such is common in all films, the use of such punctuation is important in pornography, where it can smooth away any difficulties, can suggest agreement and accord, can “civilize” as well as objectify, can imply “beauty,” and suggest an aesthetic aspect.
At the same time, it is important that the actors be objectified, even dehumanized, so that they can be more used, more objectified by the viewer. Since there is no narrative and little character displayed in the pornographic film, the fornicating actors become the vessels for the sexual ambitions of the viewer.
Viewers are, in other words, alienated. They are alienated from their own body, and from the bodies of others. Indeed, pornography is a function of this alienation. Seen in this fashion, pornography is not so much a symbol of sexual need as it is of a need for self-acceptance and respect.
When Paul Thomas Anderson made his depiction of the world of filmed pornography in the 1997 Boogie Nights, he depicted nothing lubricious, only a need for family, for self-acceptance, for respect. That this filmmaking “family” is held together only by alienating pornography is one of the many ironies of this picture.
It is this insistence upon alienation that makes In the Realm of the Senses one of the least sexually exciting of sexually explicit films. The couple do not, despite the frequency of their couplings, intend to inflame their audience. It is their political predicament that Oshima wishes to portray. Sada and Kichizo may have found their sexual identity, but they are alienated from their society. They find security only at an inn where they are not known; he does no work at all, she “works” only just enough to keep them alive. They are indeed antisocial and engage in antisocial acts.
She prostitutes herself with an older man and finds herself so alienated that she demands that he hit her. Returned to Kichizo, this punishment is repeated, with him asking her to hit him. She dreams of mistreating children. He is passed on the street by a troop of soldiers going off to war (this is 1936) and is made even more aware that he has no part in society. At the end of the film, she is hopelessly “lost” and dreams she is playing hide-and-seek with a younger self. This alienation becomes more and more painful, and with it the solace of sex becomes less and less helpful. Eventually the lovers are driven to punishment games, simply to raise the power of sex, and this leads to her killing him.
The means of death is symptomatic. After many prolonged sexual sessions, the lovers are losing their capacity. She presses the carotid artery in his neck, which increases his blood pressure to the extent that his penis stiffens. She eventually presses too hard and too long, and he dies. Thus the very intensification needed to counter an alienation is the cause of what is described in the film as a mauvais fou tragedy.
In witnessing all of this, we are led to empathy—that answer to alienation. We don’t view these people as merely something to excite us. Though we might be titillated during our initial glimpses of nudity, we are soon turned ambivalent.