What’s the Matter with Sex Scenes?

At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, I watched a movie that featured a graphic, and in its way revolutionary, sex scene and found myself wanting to sink into the floor. The film was the funny-painful character study Passages, from director Ira Sachs, in which characters played by Ben Whishaw and Franz Rogowski enjoy a bout of post-breakup sex. (At least, they sort of enjoy it.) The scene is long and shot straightforwardly—there is no sensuous camera movement or lighting, no murmuring music underscoring the action. It’s a frank depiction of gay sex, though not pornographic, of the sort that is… Read Full Article