"Sex, Lies, and Videotape" - How You Can Forgive Your Stupid Then, Now

Daniela 2022-04-21 09:02:32

Dialogue is actually a difficult and dangerous thing. Not all the words that are understood can express the dilemma or mood at the moment, so in the process of trying to open up, you often lose to the insincere words or deepen the misunderstanding between the two sides of the conversation. When the time comes, let your heart sink slowly. In "Sex, Lies, Videotape", what we see is one conversation after another. People's confusion revolves around sex, carrying their own identities, and seeking answers in ways that are difficult for them to understand. Some people can only communicate with video tapes, some people gain the strength to move forward through betrayal, and seize the tranquility after a volcanic catharsis.

A sudden visit by an old friend disrupts the peace of the defunct couple. The husband, who has been cheating with his sister-in-law for a long time, pretends to be a modern successful person, while the seemingly opposite sisters are both fighting each other: conservative. The elder sister used contradictory and contradictory sexual behavior to prove that she was different from her younger sister, who used her cheating brother-in-law's behavior as a trophy. In the tapes of the seemingly innocuous Graham, the sisters confide their hearts one after another, and the hidden pain is reconciled by the release, until Graham himself enters the tape...

Confessing pain is a science. You have to be careful not to fall in love with the "psychiatrist" in front of you, and it is not easy for an overly professional psychologist to reach telepathy with patients. So when my sister confided her problems about sex to her psychiatrist, she felt more shame and unnatural confession, but when facing the videotape, she could naturally fall into the memory, like gradually sinking The process of entering the bottom of the water, even if it is dangerous, has the illusion of being protected. A person who is smart and good at self-protection will not show weakness in the process of expressing his heart, otherwise he will lose miserably.

Just as love only happens in one incoherent moment after another, so does warmth, in another voiced or silent exchange. Maybe people don't love anyone most of the time, and it is difficult to find the ultimate answer for their own desires, confusion, and the meaning of existence. The cold wind from the dark wasteland is sometimes just an innocuous companionship again and again, and the forcible determination of the next socially approved relationship for each other is often a precursor to freezing. The seemingly unbreakable status, identity and other factors of social relations are destined to become a breeding ground for lies and betrayal. As a successful husband, the husband is busy with betrayal and dereliction of duty, but Graham, who is a homeless man, is recognized by his sisters. A person who is willing to admit that he has a problem is more likely to gain the approval of other mental patients. After all, everyone is sick, just like everyone has a responsibility.

The role of videotape exposes the fragility of modern people's psychology. Even in the relationship between husbands and wives, sisters' relatives, or the relationship between doctors and patients of psychiatrists, they may not be as comfortable as the muttering in the video. That's the problem, the difficult communication problem. In each reel is an uneasy story about someone who can't open up. If you want to be warm, maybe you should first allow others to warm, even if it will lead to inevitable harm, after all, absolute understanding only exists in imagination.

What a blessing to be able to free each other from each other's problems. The branches and leaves hide the spreading sexual desire, the dripping body tramples the tide of desire under the feet, and the faucet that is desperately wiped seems to express its attitude towards sex. Even if you have seen the other party's confession, the people in the videotape still have a trace of lonely beauty. We are always strangers to each other, and we are always on the way to find answers.

And every inch of your stretched skin and every pore is a sexual organ waiting to be fed. When it is difficult to reconcile with sex, it can only be maintained in a superficial entanglement.

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Extended Reading
  • Verda 2022-03-21 09:02:12

    Trivial to the point that your whole world is in pieces.

  • Iliana 2022-03-26 09:01:07

    CC.Sex is the pretense, lies and videotape is the focus of Soderbergh (it is said that he only spent eight days to write the script, but in the interview he said that it takes a year to collect material), the narration comes before the image, the narrative quartet is a bit like a wave In Locke's hourglass painting (interior decoration in the film), one paint is already in mid-air before it has landed on the canvas. The psychological complexity of the characters is layered, and although it is expressed as a quick dialogue, it evaporates the essence of desire and its repression. This is a description of a class that is indifferent to life, but who worries about its way of life all day long. This class is also indifferent to itself and its desires, focusing only on layer upon layer of videotape. The sexual repositories hidden there are sites of seduction and language. And each person's interaction with his own life, from an existential point of view, is meaningless. Likewise, the director's interaction with his film is, from a theatrical point of view, meaningless. The image comes out of the drama and enters the psychodrama of the image, which makes the image lose its charm and is tiresome. The film itself falls into the same cold video.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape quotes

  • Ann: Nothing's what I thought it was. John's a bastard. Let's make a videotape.

    Graham: No, I... ahem... I don't think that's a good idea.

    Ann: Why not?

    Graham: Because I don't think it's a choice that you'd make in a normal frame of mind.

    Ann: And what would you know about a normal frame of mind?

  • Ann: So let me see, you said, um, you said that I should never take advice from someone that I haven't had sex with, right... right?

    Graham: Basically.

    Ann: Right. And, uh, *we* haven't had sex...

    [giggle]

    Ann: right?

    Graham: So...

    Ann: So, I, I, I guess from your own advice, I shouldn't take your advice.

    Graham: I wouldn't.