2003 Directed by Jane Campion
Following the gruesome murder of a young woman in her neighborhood, a self-determined woman living in New York City--as if to test the limits of her own safety--propels herself into an impossibly risky sexual liaison. Soon she grows increasingly wary about the motives of every man with whom she has contact--and about her own.
In the Cut - Wenn Liebe tötet, En carne viva
The FATAL ATTRACTION-style erotic thriller is of course in Campion's hands an intrinsically misogynist construct but what's most interesting is that the conventionally "feminist" romanticism that would normally be considered a response on its own, with those storms of flower petals and purple voice-over poetry, is here equally limiting in its lack of any real aggression. This is a pretty thorough reclamation of female sexual agency that has the good sense to delight in the most tantalizing and frequently silly genre tropes (highlight: dismembered corpse in the washing machine) and even make room for some intentional camp (I'm looking at you, most of Mark Ruffalo's dialogue).
takes the erotic thriller, a lurid campy and frequently misogynistic genre and recontextualises it to be a feminine and haunting portrayal of a woman's sexuality, with the luridness coming from her desires, her sexual interactions, her satisfactions. campion's formalism here is magnificent, she creates constant unease with her lens by using hazy focusing, constant handheld camera and zooms and almost delirious editing, plays like a low budget domino at points. she captures the filthiness of these streets and their inhabitants perfectly, and uses her almost abstract presentation to its fullest potential in the more erotic/tense sequences. ryan's body is not there to be ogled at, its sexual but not objectifying, her orgasm is important for her not for the audience's…
"How many ladies have to die to make it good?"
"At least three."
Campion films this using various methods that slur in an out of Frannie's perspective: handheld shots; POV close-ups of intense, fixated gazes; shifts in film speed that draw out or chop over various focal lengths that literally blur our perspective. Operating in a genre known for its misogyny, Campion not only refuses to revise it by stripping out lust but instead she triples down on sexual hunger. This is an erotic thriller in which everything is eroticized, every glance and pause. Dion Beebe does a loose dry run for his work for Michael Mann here, parlaying his intense color saturation and tactile texture into impressionistic flashes.
The…
(My full analysis is here:
ajournaloffilm.blogspot.com/2012/03/jane-campions-in-cut-shadows-from.html )
Excerpted:
In the Cut plays with boundaries - between dream and reality, past and present, mother and daughter, sister and friend, dream and nightmare, romance and horror story, lover and killer, ecstasy and agony - as we follow Frannie’s character, who cannot see, as clearly or as quickly as we’d perhaps like her to, the differences, the boundaries. She, herself, frequently blurs in the camera's unsteady gaze.
She moves, often, it seems, as if in a waking dream, reacting slowly or oddly or lethargically, her volitional power compromised in the midst of a life she cannot grasp hold of, control, and define. And her story takes on that weight felt in the throat…
"Some women give terrible blowjobs. No rhythm at all. No sense of cock whatsoever."
A befuddling experience, occasionally for good, where the only real clarity is Ruffalo.
Went in with low expectations due to this movie's reception, but I'm glad I gave it a chance. So many parts felt familiar to me. It evoked emotions I haven't felt in a while. Ones you get lost in.
I related to Meg Ryan's character deeply in some moments. Her persistently quiet demeanor had me dying to know how she felt. Her life breathed confusion and repression, some scenes dark and grimy and others full of pretty prose and flitting petals.
The men surrounding her were at times egregious, worrisome, mesmerizing... Mark Ruffalo's character's intoxicating, shape-shifting qualities were a black mirror held up toward her own desires. His offer to be whatever she wants felt like a call to the…
Nightmarish and languid, In The Cut is like if the album cover from the Cocteau Twins’ Head Over Heels was turned into a thriller about how men always want to hurt women.
my first jane campion!
the shallow focus and grimy yet multicolored textures of dion beebe's cinematography cast new york as a seedy metropolis, much like many movies have before, but through the eyes of ryan's main character, a woman attempting to maintain her own sexual agency when multiple men try to take it from her, and one of them could be a killer; nicole kidman was originally attached to the role, and meg ryan is clearly drawing from her, but while adding her . ruffalo as her main love interest and suspect gives her the most chemistry but also the most reasons to doubt his innocence as a police officer, his kindness with helping her contrasting with his frankness and…
A lot happening here but overall an interesting look on attempting to enter different (discourse) communities and language and identity. Because you are something (a profession, a race, etc) you talk and move in a certain way.
The Gacy shit didn’t work for me.
Also yeah it’s so clear the lead role was made for Nicole Kidman. And it’s a classic example of how early 2000s movies all just looked kind of shitty, which can’t really be saved even with restorations or whatever.
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