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All the Common Sense of a Ring Tailed Lemur on Meth
Just in case anyone out there was starting to think Hollywood had any sort of moral compass, or more scruples than a junkie looking for their next fix, we have this:
Nicole Kidman has sparked outrage with her new film in which she gets passionate in the bath with a ten-year-old boy.
This is just too weird for words. Kidman seems a bit flakey, anyone who plays pretend for a living and gets paid millions of dollars to do it generally is, but this sounds a bit twisted even for her.
Oh yeah, I know, "it's just skin, God you Americans are so uptight we're surprised you can even walk straight, you can't even spell art let alone understand it..." etc., etc. However, the situation as described in the article is not just nudity, but nudity in a clearly sexual context, with a real-life minor no less. Where were the parents? Where were the lawyers? Is everyone in Hollywood insane?
I'm just as outraged at the utter "bone-headedness" of the entire project. 99.9% of parents out there, in every English speaking country that I can think of, will flip when they hear about this. You might not have kids, you might not care, but a whole bunch of the movie-going public does, and will. To be this disconnected with the market, to commit PR suicide in such a spectacular manner... it's just staggering.
Because they could have been a lot more clever about this. The whole point of a visual medium is it allows you to explore metaphors and abstracts in creative ways. Hell, even I can think of ways of keeping the "creep factor" high without involving a minor in the shooting. Just have the kid step into the tub, cut to the apposite actor looking away, looking back, being shocked, cut back to the tub, big grown man standing there now, talking with kid's voice. Have lots of scrub-a-dub-is-that-a-bar-of-soap-you-have-there? action, then have the last shot be of the kid standing there in a towel. Done. Moral outrage, skeevy feelings, gets across the character is an utter loon, all without giving the fundies a free shot.
I hate it when I can out-think people who get paid millions of dollars to be creative.
Ah, but do you also hate it that there are people out there that get paid millions of dollars to be creative and can out-think you?
Posted by: Joshua on June 14, 2004 10:57 AMNope. More power to 'em. The movies and TV shows I enjoy the most are the ones that surprise me. It's when they get paid a lot of money for doing something badly that I start hunting around for a baseball bat.
Posted by: scott on June 14, 2004 11:50 AMheh..
Paiging Mr.Cruise, Mr. Travolta, Mr. Costner and Mr. Mostow your party is waiting for you in the batting cages, err I mean the "garden".
Posted by: Joshua on June 14, 2004 12:58 PMhopefully she does get crucified in the media here for that sort of nonsense...
Posted by: Ron on June 14, 2004 05:27 PMAnd the Sun, the Enquirer, and the New York Daily News are reliable...how? This reeks of "scandal" to generate buzz....
http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2004/0-9ABC/Birth/main-page.html
Birth: Nicole Kidman (The Hours) stars in "Birth" as Anna, a young widow who is finally getting on with her life after the death of her husband, Sean.
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/202593p-174773c.html
"It's entirely possible there's a bathing scene in the film, but I don't think there's any passionate kissing. That doesn't happen," said New Line spokeswoman Marion Koltai. "You can find any movie with something that seems inappropriate. It's a dream sequence, like in 'Rosemary's Baby.'"
I'm withholding judgment until somebody reliable prints it.
Posted by: Liz on June 14, 2004 09:10 PMYou might be right Liz. This could all be a case of somethign that was int he script that was not done in filming. Lots of times when talking of a film in production they use declaritive statements like "we see XXX walks up to YYY and does ZZZ", even before it is shot..if ever.
I would imagine (hope) that something like this would be handled with more tact then what is being reported by the tabloid "papers". I makes me think of the film Lolita and how they were able to do things without doing things.
Posted by: Joshua on June 15, 2004 10:12 AM