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For a change, Swanberg works with familiar faces such as Jess Weixler (”Teeth“) and Josh Hamilton (”The House of Yes “), but the occasional buddy Swanberg met on the subway makes an appearance in the film as well. The film is about a young, married actress named Alex who is tempted to have an affair with her onstage lover, Jamie, while her husband is touring with his band. Jamie, however, is interested in Alex’s sister, Helen, which causes complications for Alex on more than one front. One scene that stood out in particular, was when Alex and Jamie are working with the director of the play they’re in to choreograph a sex scene that happens within the play. It is full of the awkwardness that comes along with making love, and then some, because the scene is intercut with scenes of Jamie and Helen having sex…passionately.
Watching this reminded Monica of Catherine Breillat’s film “Sex is Comedy”, where a film director is consumed with perfecting a sex scene between two young actors that can’t stand each other. I decided to watch it, and thoroughly enjoyed what it had to say about the intimate relationship between director and actor; the same relationship required between Swanberg and his actors to pull off his graphic, noteworthy love scenes. In the end, I also came away with the same sentiment as Breillat: sex as performance art is pretty hilarious.
- Christen Cromwell
The following is our verbatim online chat on this topic:
9:58 PM Christen Cromwell: hey monica
9:59 PM Monica Lopez-Gonzalez: hey christen
10:00 PM CC: so I watched the French movie you suggested, “Sex is Comedy”, and I thought there were so many similarities to “Alexander the Last”
10:01 PM the passionate, intrusive female director
10:04 PM MLG: Yet in “Alexander the Last” I didn’t see the similarity to be with the director (even though she too was female). That is, in “Alexander the Last” the director had a specific idea but then let the actors do their own thing. No?
Or perhaps what’s different is that in “sex is comedy”, it’s about staging every single move and yet making it appear natural.
10:05 PM While in “Alexander the Last”, it’s about staging some moves to make it appear more natural.
10:06 PM I mention this b/c in “Alexander” the director made a beautiful juxtaposition w/ the ‘on stage’ sex act vs. the real-life sex act yet the ‘real-life’ sex act is really a staged sex act given that we’re watching a film!
10:07 PM CC: true, but I think the sexual tension between the two actors in “Alexander” could have just made the sex choreography enough
10:08 PM I think that was another commentary on film and theater, that directors don’t give enough credit to actors
to allow them to be human when it would benefit the production the most
10:09 PM I would expect a film scene to be choreographed, but I think theater could stand to be a bit more surprising
MLG: What do you mean by “just made the sex choreography enough”?
10:10 PM Also, I see what you’re alluding to, I think, with respect to theatre vs. film but why should there be a difference? Just b/c in film we can so-call ‘edit’ scenes, change them while in theatre
what you get is what you get and every time it’s going to be different?
10:11 PM See, in both “Alexander” and in the practice sex scenes in ’sex is comedy’, the actors are dressed.
But in the ‘real’ sex scene in ‘Alexander’ the actors are undressed, so to make it more authentic, perhaps?
10:12 PM CC: the sex choreography could have been enough if the actors were allowed to let loose, and I think Swanberg did a great job with juxtaposing the sex choreography session for the stage and watching Alex’s sister have sex with Jamie, the actor.
10:13 PM MLG: Yes, very true. So why do we think film directors and theatre actors go through the whole ‘directing’/'practicing’ of a sex scene when leaving it to the actors to do is enough!?
10:14 PM Just like any scene, there’s something a director wants, and for a sex scene it’s about certain look, feel, etc., perhaps?
10:15 PM CC: definitely i know that at least with theater, you do have to plan a lot because something is bound to go wrong
10:16 PM i think that’s why there isn’t a lot of sex onstage
MLG: but so too in film! At least you just yell out ‘cut’ and ‘action’ a bunch of times!
10:17 PM CC: haha yeah editing is a real help for that in film
MLG: But returning back to the staging of a scene, it’s interesting to see that a sex scene has so many causal effects to everyone involved: the actors, the directors, the assistants, the actors’ significant others, friends
CC: I want to say it’s cheating, because it takes the documentary feel away from it
10:18 PM but it really isn’t
10:19 PM yeah I love that the writers were there in both cases. In “Sex is Comedy”, the director and the writer were the same person and for her to look at it and not involve the actors too much was very interesting
and the playwright in “Alexander” was there at all times commenting on what happens onstage
10:20 PM MLG: And the actors are fretting about it off-stage/off-set.
CC: watching your baby come to life involves a lot of work
MLG: Haha, tell me about it!
10:21 PM CC: I feel like Swanberg is very involved with the actors though when he does his sex scenes
MLG: It’s like we, the directors, want reality, the actors and writers as well, but it’s hardly ‘real’.
10:22 PM Yes, I agree, Swanberg is more so involved. But only as far as he can be involved.
CC: yeah I love that he is into improvisation with his actors, and it’s hilarious that some actors are terrified of that.
10:23 PM MLG: Which is exactly what makes the sex scene ridiculous in the theatre rehearsal but in the ‘film’ portion so real!!
CC: but I feel like as uncomfortable as his sex scenes make you feel, as real as they are
they are probably what takes the most time to shoot
exactly!
10:25 PM MLG: And in the end, it’s all so ridiculous once you start even thinking about how the ‘film’ sex scene was probably completely contrived! I mean, it has to be! Out of expectation, out of the norm in how many scenes are staged, be it in film or theatre.
Which, brings us to the idea of ‘cinema verite’…
CC: but the end goal is reality
perfect timing
10:26 PM MLG: So you mean that when perfect timing is achieved, we, the viewers get ‘tricked’, for lack of a better word, into feeling, seeing it as ‘reality’?
10:27 PM And that’s what’s so wonderful about Swanberg’s analysis in “Alexander”!
Everyone’s lives get affected!
That’s the point, I think.
10:28 PM CC: right everyone is affected by the circumstances
MLG: It’s so perfectly matched in time that it becomes real and b/c of that it affects everyone else in real time too
CC: like the final scene in ‘Sex is Comedy”
10:29 PM it was anything but comedic
MLG: That’s why we see the husband-wife tensions and sister-sister tensions in “Alexander”
CC: but it arrived at the perfect place that you couldn’t help but be affected
10:30 PM MLG: exactly.
what’s comedic is the ridiculization of what we think was only just comedic. B/c nothing was to begin with
10:32 PM CC: tensions are very high in both films
10:33 PM MLG: indeed
CC: and sexual tension as an obstacle is one of the oldest forms of entertainment!
MLG: it’s a universal!
10:34 PM CC: look at Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn
MLG: ha, and we could cite many more
by Christen Cromwell and Monica Lopez-Gonzalez
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