May 27, 2006 | Sex & Society

Sexy Cannes films dis porn

Sex in most mainstream movies is pretty boring; beyond some nudity and tastefully disguised fuck scenes, there's not much to it. Sex in porn is -- by its very nature -- erotically charged, full of giant cocks and cumshots. But in between are several new films that are revolutionizing sex on the big screen while at the same time critiquing pornography.  

Catering to an indie audience, these films debuted at this month's Cannes film festival.  They promised to flout conventional notions of sex on screen, and to challenge Americans' puritanical attitudes about it.

Still, prude Americans aren't these filmmakers' only target. According to Reuters, Cannes directors also plan to take Internet pornography to task.

"When I was a kid, no one told me nothing," said director Larry Clark. "Now you can go onto the Internet and find out anything. [Young people] are looking at pornography and they are thinking that this is the way to have sex."

Clark's film, "Destricted," is a compilation of explicit sexual stories featuring interviews with young men about their sexual preferences. Meanwhile, "Shortbus," directed by John Cameron Mitchell, features a montage of real people having explicit sex in an effort to demystify the act for the audience. One scene purportedly shows three gay men having sex while singing "The Star Spangled Banner."

Of course, not all the sex at Cannes this year was real. One Danish film, "Princess," is an animated attack on pornography. The film is about a priest who sets out to destroy all of his dead porn-star sister's films and to take care of her traumatized daughter.

"I decided to make a film about porn's influence in society because I saw porn seeking its way into everything," said director Anders Morganthaler. "There is a 'porn way' of selling things because it sells very well. I got very angry at the role of porn."

It's about time people started having hardcore sex in mainstream movies! It's too bad, though, that all this cinematic screwing is meant to slander our beloved porn -- when it ought to be celebrating it.

• Cannes sex films question role of porn [Sydney Morning Herald - Reuters]