
Nagisa Oshima’s Erotic Diptych: “In the Realm of the Senses” and “Empire of Passion.” (pt. 1)
Having recently written about the pornographic and or erotic film “NYMPHOMANIAC” — having, therein, touched lightly on the ambiguity of those two previous adjectives both of which are, by my article’s own logic, aptly, though paradoxically, used in the above — I’ve decided now to explore a film of a similar vagueness regarding its class and category: “In the Realm of the Senses,” the erotic (pornographic?) film by Japan’s great iconoclast (pornographer?) Nagisa Oshima.
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Anatole Dauman
“In the Realm’ came about thanks to a chance meeting between the film’s director and Anatole Dauman, its producer. Dauman had made a name for himself by working with the likes of Godard and Bresson in the 60s. However, by the early 70s he had decided to experiment with the production of sexually explicit, hard core, films. A thought cemented when he met Oshima in 1972, and decided then that he wanted to work on this hard core project with Oshima as a collaborator. Four years later they entered into a contract wherein Oshima was to produce three sexually explicit films (only two would be made: that which we are currently discussing, and its sibling, “Empire of Passion”)
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Unsimilated Sex
Similar to NYMPHOMANIAC, “In the Realm’s” sex is unsimulated, though here missing is that computer’s sleight-of-hand that allows a shot of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s vagina getting eclipsed by the backside of a man whose penis has just penetrated her to exist without her vagina ever having been shot, much less penetrated. Without the advent of CGI, all the sex partaken by actors in the set of “In the Realm,” is real, and really being done by he or she whose face is in active, pleasurable reaction to the stimulation of his or her genitalia. This, unfortunately, having been the late 70s, resulted in the death of many careers associated with the film. The lead actress, for example, was never able to find work after completing “In the Realm,” at least not in parts that were of a different type as to what she played in Oshima’s film.
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Click HERE the second part of this "Oshima Diptych" in which we'll examine the film "Empire of Passion"
Have you seen In the Realm of the Senses? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below...!!