Books
by Hariette Surovell available at Amazon.com (click
on the title for reviews and ordering info):
Lovestrokes:
Handwriting Analysis for Love, Sex And Compatibility
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Ten
Beautiful, Sensuous Films Which Do Not Contain Explicit Sex
by
Hariette Surovell
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As
your basic Hedonistic film critic, I can really get off on a truly
great graphic sex scene--like Richard Gere pleasuring Katherine
Borowitz from behind in Mike Figgis' sizzling "Internal Affairs".
I also see merit in the perspective of The Master, Alfred Hitchcock,
who was sexually obsessed (think Kim Novak in "Vertigo") but blatantly
refused to portray any intimate act on celluloid. Quoth Hitch: "If
an actress wants to convey a sexy quality, she ought to maintain
a slightly mysterious air." I began thinking of films which are
incredibly sensuous and erotic but totally non-graphic. Just conjure
up the image of Daniel Day-Lewis rapturously kissing Michelle Pfeiffer's
satin slipper on her decadent leopard-skin rug in "The Age of Innocence"...
1)
"Death in Venice" (1971). Luchino Visconti's cinematic vision of
Thomas Mann's masterpiece is widely considered to be one of the
most gorgeous films ever made, with the look of a Manet painting.
Set in heavenly Venice, Dirk Bogarde plays a widowed world-famous
composer, who, in keeping with his eternal search for beauty in
art and in life, becomes lasciviously enthralled by an angelic,
androgynous-looking young blonde Polish boy who wears sailor suits,
frolics in the ocean, and returns Bogarde's strange, suggestive
smiles.
2)
"The Age of Innocence" (1993). Martin Scorcese's precise adaptation
of Edith Wharton's novel, (which won a 1994 Oscar for Best Costume
Design) takes place in 1870's N.Y.C., in elegant mansions filled
with ornately be-jeweled and luxuriantly gowned women; in lavish
gardens and at orgiastic feasts. Protagonist Daniel Day-Lewis is
torn between his consuming love for the scandalous, experienced,
worldly Michelle Pfeiffer (Countess Oleska) and his contempt for
the naivete of his virginal fiancée, Winona Ryder. Without
anyone even making an overt reference, but with double entendre
aplenty, each actor in this sumptuous film is so carnally consumed
that it should more accurately be titled "The Age of Sexual Obsession".
3)
"The Dead" (1987). John Huston's rendition of a story from "Dubliners"
shows us the virtue of simple pleasures...instead of Whartonian
gourmet gluttony, an Irish family gathers together to derive joy
and excitement from a perfectly-cooked slice of goose, a wedge of
delectable plum pudding. The regal Angelica Huston has never looked
as beautiful; snowfall has never seemed so sensual or so sad; the
events and ambiance inspire Huston to tearfully tell her husband
the heart-rending story of a deceased young man, the only one she
had ever truly loved. More about romantic love than sex itself,
the attention to detail makes this film's subtlety sublime.
4)
"Gods and Monsters" (1998). Directed by Bill Condon, and starring
Ian McKellan, Brendan Fraser and Lynne Redgrave (nominated for a
Best Supporting Actress Oscar for 1999), this exquisitely-detailed
drama of a sensitive, thoughtful aging gay man's (McKellan) inspired
but unsuccessful attempts to seduce his irresistibly handsome straight
gardener (Fraser) is filled with pathos, sadness, beauty and eventually,
transformation.
5)
"Far From the Madding Crowd" (1967). The brilliant director John
Schlesinger ("Midnight Cowboy") working with cinematographer-turned-director
Nicolas Roeg have created a breath-taking adaptation of the Thomas
Hardy novel about Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie), a "maddeningly
beautiful" and independent young woman who inherits a farm in the
lush English countryside, and of the three men: Peter Finch, an
older, wealthy landowner who is possessive of her; Terence Stamp,
a charismatic young soldier whose phallic swordplay is one of the
classic scenes of cinema; and Alan Bates, a humble but loyal shephard--all
of whom vie to worship her. Love, love, love and lust are the hallmarks
of the second most gorgeous film ever made.
6)
"The Story of Adele H." (1975). Directed by Francois Truffaut, it
is the sorrowful true tale of Victor Hugo's daughter Adele, played
by the unbelievably ravishing Isabelle Adjani when she was just
20 years old...and quite possibly the world's most beautiful woman.
In the surreally foggy city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the late
1800's, the intensely passionate Adele Hugo tries unsuccessfully
to win back the affections of her unworthy ex-lover, a decadent
Army Colonel, as she writes feverish poetry and discreetly follows
him, wearing scarlet satin gowns in covered carriages, to his trysts
with other women. She even sends a prostitute to his quarters so
she can enjoy him vicariously.
7)
"Shall We Dance?" (1996). Masayuki Suo wrote and directed this story
of a repressed businessman, Koji Yakusho who wants to...and succeeds...in
learning to express his emotions, passion and joie de vivre by studying
ballroom dancing. Splendidly-realized and captivatingly choreographed,
Yakusho's graceful and gracious teacher was formerly one of Japan's
premiere ballerinas, Tamiyo Kusakari.
8)
"Black Orpheus" (1959). Marcel Camus' 1960 Best Foreign Language
Film Oscar Winner is an amazingly vibrant and colorful re-telling
of the tragic, passionate myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in (then)
contemporary Brazil during Carnival, ending with the two lovers,
Marpessa Dawn and Bruno Mello falling together, in an eternal embrace,
into a giant flower. Will the two star-crossed lovers make love
in the afterlife?
9)
"Gabbeh"(1996). Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf tells of the
fable of Gabbeh, a lovely young woman from an almost extinct nomadic
mountain clan. Gabbeh (Shaghayegh Djodat) travels with her family
through luscious scenery, dreaming of the mysterious horseman who
pursues her, howling love songs...with her tale of unfulfilled desire
simultaneously being woven into vividly-hued tapestries by a wise
elderly couple.
10)
"Three Seasons"(April, 1999). The first American film to be shot
in Vietnam since the war by writer/director Tony Bui, (and last
year's Sundance Grand Jury, Audience and Cinematography Awards Winner)
it tells of the fates of four strangers, as they love and survive
in the hauntingly scenic old city of Saigon; in ponds where a young
woman, Gnoc Hiep, harvests white lotuses while old women sing constantly;
on a tree-lined street where a sweet young prostitute, Zoe Bui,
(no relation to the director), whose suitor sees only her inner
beauty, wears a white dress and a red scarf and dances ecstatically
with upturned hands, twirling and swirling, as clouds of red blossoms
cascade upon her.
Hariette
Surovell
rp@panix.com
http://www.matahariette.com
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