Oh, Farrah

At one point in time, we thought we wanted to be her. Now, looking back on this scene from the camp classic, Myra Breckinridge, we suspect another slightly confused dynamic might also have been at play.

A fond farewell. (And a bonus sighting of film critic Rex Reed!)

You be the judge!

You put all that time in the seats, be sure to let us know what you think!

Our CineKink community on B-Side gives you the ability to rate your favorites (and, though hard to fathom, not-so-favorites) and leave reviews on the films you saw throughout the festival.

These reviews are keenly anticipated by our filmmakers, fellow audience members, other festival programmers and all of us at CineKink, as we use them to help determine and promote bookings for our upcoming tour appearances.

All you need to take part is an email address, just register here and pass along your thoughts.

And the winner is...

Slightly delayed by the lingering effect of--and subsequent recovery from-- our ever-popular AfterGlow Party, here at long last are the CineKink awards for 2009!

"CineKink Choice" - AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARDS
CineKink Choice awards, which go to feature-length works in competition during the festival, were determined by audience balloting at the close of each eligible work's screening. The 2009 award winners are:

CineKink Choice Award for Best Narrative Feature:
"The Auteur" (James Westby)

CineKink Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature:
“Graphic Sexual Horror” (Barbara Bell & Anna Lorentzon)
-tie-
“Kinky” (A. Benjamin)

CineKink Choice Award - Honorable Mentions:
“Happy Endings?” (Tara Hurley)
Sex Positive” (Daryl Wein)


"CineKink Best" - JURY AWARD FOR BEST SHORTS
CineKink Best awards, which go to short works in competition during the festival, were determined by jury deliberation and ranking. The 2009 award winners are:

CineKink Best Narrative Short
“Kink, Inc.” (Casey Clark)
-tie-
“Matinee” (Jennifer Lyon Bell)

CineKink Best Documentary Short:
“Serving Madame Gina” (Gabriele Hoff, PsyD)

CineKink Best Experimental Short:
“Erotic Moments” (Eva Midgley)
-tie-
“Un Piede di Roman Polanski” (Lauren Wissot & Rosanne Kapitoa)

CineKink Best Animated Short:
"Teat Beat of Sex: 8-11" (Signe Baumane)

CineKink Best Musical Short:
“At the Porno Shop” (Michael Mehfield)

CineKink Honorable Best Mentions:
“BDSM: It’s Not What You Think” (Erin Palmquist)
“Belle de Nature” (Maria Beatty)
“Rubberheart” (Brian Crano)

This year's jury included Steven Speliotis, a photographer and CineKink alumni director, Viviane, ring-leader of the sex blog, "Viviane's Sex Carnival, and Bill Woods, a film festival programmer and curator of the New Filmmakers series at Anthology Film Archives.


"CineKink Tribute" - FESTIVAL AWARD FOR EXTRAORDINARY DEPICTION OF KINK & SEX IN MAINSTREAM FILM & TELEVISION
Recognizing extraordinary depiction of kink and sex in mainstream film and television, the annual CineKink Tribute was presented to two works this year:

"Swingtown" (CBS)
"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS)

Honorable Mentions (aka the CineKink Nod)
"Burn After Reading" (Focus Features)
"How I Met Your Mother" (CBS)

Many thanks and congratulations to this year's CineKink award winners - and to all of our ultra-talented filmmakers!

For more details on all of the award winning works...

Amuse bouche?

As we continue to tinker behind the scenes on CineKink NYC, coming up February 24th to March 1st, let us whet your appetite with this tasty morsel, a glimpse at The Auteur, a mélange of romantic comedy and raunchy satire that tells the story of renowned porn director Arturo Domingo, creative genius behind such classics as Five Easy Nieces and Requiem for a Wet Dream:



We've been admiring The Auteur from afar for quite awhile now and we're delighted to give this sweetly smutty film a stellar CineKink showcase slot--Saturday, February 28 @ 9 PM.

Hope you'll join us!

Hey, where's our tribute?!

Or where's your nomination, rather, which we're currently accepting for the CineKink Tribute, an annual award that honors outstanding depictions of kink and sex-positivity in mainstream film and television.

Last year's CineKink Tribute was presented to the film Shortbus-- which was directed by our long-time nemesis, John Cameron Mitchell, and distributed by ThinkFilm--for its "frank, funny and human look at the inextricable role sexuality plays in our day-to-day lives and the many flavors it can exhibit."

Meanwhile, honorable mentions (aka the CineKink Nod) went to Focus Feature's Lust, Caution, to ThinkFilm's documentary release Zoo and to the syndicated series, The Oprah Winfrey Show. (Yes, that Oprah...for the episode "237 Reasons to Have Sex"!) (You thought there were only 236?)

A wide range of works--will it be Tyra?--are eligible for consideration, as long as they were released for US distribution (theatrical, broadcast and/or cable) at any time in 2008. Winners will be announced in conjunction with CineKink NYC, which is coming up February 24-March 1, 2009.

So, who's gonna take it home this year? Let us know!

A little more Bond-age, if you please

While we were more than a little disappointed that the latest Bond installation, Quantum of Solace, didn't feature a reprise scene of a naked Daniel Craig tied to a chair, we at least found that our renowned appetite for men-in-suits was, er, suitably sated.

And additional solace was discovered in the beguiling form of two new Bond "girls." Gemma Arterton as the perkily British Agent Fields, whose - spoiler alert - ultimate denouement is recounted pictorally by Violet Blue. And the sultry Olga Kurylenka who, also via Violet, talks below about her role in the French thriller, The Serpent, and her enjoyment of taking part in the movie's graphic and detailed bondage scenes:

Oh, yeah, happy belated birthday.

We've been so pins-and-needles over tomorrow's election thing, we're totally late to the party for the 40th birthday of the MPAA's rating system. Oh, well--it's not like they bothered to show up for our 40th shindig.



Founded in 1968, largely as a way for industry to stave off government intervention in the movie business, the ratings were/are intended as a way to help parents decide which titles are appropriate for the precious youngsters, but have tended to be a bit, er, capricious over the years.

In a fitting birthday gift to the MPAA, Defamer has come up with a very special list of questionable rulings made over the years, "40 Reasons to Wish the MPAA Ratings System an Unhappy 40th Birthday."

Be sure to check out the rest, but just a few of the hits:

Boys Don't Cry: Threatened with an NC-17 for a lingering shot of a topless Chloe Sevigny experiencing an orgasm, but allowed to keep the climactic rape scene and gunshot to Brondon Teena's head.

and, of course...

Waiting For Guffman: A classic example of the "Fuck Rule"; a Christopher Guest mockumentary with no sex or violence but featuring the F-word used one too many times in an actor's audition using the scene from Raging Bull. Its R-rating was upheld on appeal. (You can use "fuck" in a non-sexual way up to four times in and retain a PG-13 — maybe.)

And in an interesting coincidence (or is it?!), Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which barely squeaked away from it's own NC-17 rating, opened on the MPAA's birthday to not-so-spectacular results. At work might have been a skittering away from the the film's title and subject matter by mainstream newspapers and venues... though several reports underlined the odd hypocrisy of limiting the sex-themed feature while glorifying such torture-porn fare as Saw V.

Then again, going back to Defamer, it could just be bad marketing on the part of the distributing Weinstein brothers. Shocking, indeed!

Poodle!

We're a little dubious about how affirmative a depiction one might expect in Choke, the adaptation of the Chuck Pulahniuk novel of the same name, but we have been amused at the trailer's bits of a forced entry roleplay scenario unfolding in the midst of cable news coverage of our nation's pending financial "bail-out."

Here, in a clip from the movie, our haplass, sex-addicted protagonist negotiates the terms of said scenario:



The movie opens tonight, but in the meantime, distributor Fox Searchlight is interested in hearing about your favorite types of roleplay. If you'd like to weigh in--or check in on some of the creative (or not) suggestions thus far--your chance is right here.

No soup for you, Zack and Miri!

In Kevin Smith's ongoing struggle with the MPAA to get his latest film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, out into the theaters and in front of an audience, comes news that the agency has rejected the original poster for the movie. Featuring the title characters, each fully clothed, you may also notice at the bottom edge of the poster the somewhat humorous suggestion that each is getting oral, er, attention from the other. Pretty innocuous--and banned by the MPAA!



Interestingly, as noted on CinemaBlend.com, the MPAA earlier approved very similar imagery for the Dane Cook-vehicle, Good Luck Chuck, for a poster that went even further--if you can call it that--featuring the actor more apparently in flagrante delitico.



One might chalk up the discrepancy to mere bureaucratic inconsistency. Or, perhaps something more insidious, as it brings to mind contentions made in the documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, that the MPAA regularly applies far more rigorous standards when a depiction includes female sexual pleasure--and not just some guy boffing a pie.

Hypocrisy much? Meanwhile, first reports on the film, which just premiered in Toronto, can be found here!

A return to core values

Between last week's visit home with family and the past few days indulging a consuming fetish for national politics, we've been too distracted to think much about sex and/or movies.

Time to put a stop to that! This weekend we'll finally catch up with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the latest from Woody Allen and, from some of the buzz of it, a likely candidate for the next CineKink Tribute. Or, at very worst, a little time spent in the dark watching pretty people making out in pretty places:



Also on deck for tonight, the next-to-last installment of Swingtown, the series that seems to get better and better with each episode, even as fears of its imminent demise continue to swirl.

Granted, that's a lot of laboring for one weekend, but hopefully we'll get through it!

Peter Greenaway's naughty bits

While we loooved The Draughtman's Contract back in our full-on film school days, we've been loathe for a current revisit, fearing it might not hold up to our one-time adulation.

Karina Longworth recently took the film on, however, providing commentary for Kevin Lee's video essay series on the alleged "1,000 Greatest Movies of All Time". Her findings? Before placing the film in context of other 1982 cultural phenomena, Duran Duran included, she laughingly pronounces the movie's message as nothing much more than "well, people who wore corsets liked to fuck."

We'll have to take another look!

Oh, well, as long as it's not titillating.

Kevin Smith's upcoming latest, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, in which two friends attempt to overcome debt(!) by entering the adult film world, just had its rating reduced from an NC-17 to an R, after an appeal made by the director to the MPAA.

Acknowledging in an AP report that the more restrictive rating would have been "commercial suicide,"

Smith said the MPAA ratings board objected to two sex scenes involving co-stars Jason Mewes and Katie Morgan. After the movie's initial NC-17 rating, Smith said he trimmed those scenes as far as he was willing to go but was unable to convince the board to lower the rating.

"They felt it was rather sexually graphic. My point is, it was comically graphic. All the sex in the movie with the exception of one scene is very cartoonish, very campy," Smith said. "It wasn't designed to titillate."

The MPAA appeals board apparently agreed with Smith's arguments, which he presented on Tuesday. No word yet when/if he'll get an official thumbs-up on an early teaser for the film - see below - which the MPAA ordered yanked from its internet-only release back in June.

Sex on Spout

It's summertime and - much to our delight! - they definitely seem to have sex on the brain over at SPOUTBlog!

Just today, there's a round-up of The 10 Best Masturbation Scenes that will first have you questioning if there's even that many. Then have you rushing to comment on your favorite glaringly obvious omission. (Um, hello. Secretary?!?)

Beyond that, we've been horribly remiss in mentioning the blog's weekly posts by our provocative friend, Lauren Wissot, who began writing regularly for Spout back in June: "We wanted to call her column 'Art Films To Jerk Off To,' but in the end that might be too limiting––after all, who’s to say what qualifies as art?"

Since then, Lauren's missives on the libidinous in indie and mainstream cinema have touched upon such natural candidates as David Lynch, the S/M classic Maitresse and the Five Unsexiest Movies About Sex: The Breillat Awards(!!). And they've incorporated some unlikely subjects as well, from the consideration of Charlie Chaplin as sexy rogue to the BDSM underpinnings of Hitchcock's Marnie:

She was “always pulling her skirt down over her knees as if there were a national treasure,” Marnie’s lecherous employer-turned-victim Mr. Strutt mutters at the beginning of Hitch’s classic, introducing us to Hedren’s character as a trobbing cock-tease – who, of course, needs to be punished like the naughty little girl she really is deep down inside. Enter Connery’s controlling Master Rutland, immaculately dressed in suit and tie (I love a man in a uniform!), a big bad wolf smile on his face as he eavesdrops on Strutt’s report to the police. Is there any doubt that this is the perfect square-jawed, hairy-chest daddy for the B&D job?

We imagine she does - but we can't wait to see if Lauren shares our take on The Sound of Music!

A sailor's not a sailor?

In honor of Fleet Week and the fine men, women and all possible variations thereof who have served our country over the years:



Enjoy the day, however you best see fit!

(From Irving Berlin's There's No Business Like Show Business, via danbearnyc)

The revolution will not be televised, but can be seen on various cable outlets.

A sprawling, four-part documentary, Sex: The Revolution, takes on just that when it airs on VH1 this week.

We missed the first episode ourselves, but as with all things VH1, repeats are a-plenty and there's still time to set your dvr! Or, if you're feeling a little more highbrow, catch the encores when they're broadcast on the Sundance Channel next week.

Starting with the sexual repression of the 1950s and moving into the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the series promises to "... explore a time in American history that challenged centuries of traditional morality about sex. A time that eradicated people's fear, loathing and ignorance about sex. A time that promoted unprecedented sexual honesty and expression. And in the end, a time when laws were changed and rulings made to end censorship and legal retribution for people's private sexual behavior."

How much of a back-sliding we've experienced since then we'll try not to contemplate. And turn our attention instead to this clip from the series about Barbarella and the sexual trends that the movie exemplified:


video.vh1.com

Comedy, pathos and lots of naked, dangly bits!

A stand-out at the recent Tribeca Film Festival, we've got our eyes on The Auteur, the sweet and raucous story of Arturo Domingo, the one-time leading director of art-porn cinema (Five Easy Nieces, Requiem for a Wet Dream, Full Metal Jack-Off), who finds himself at an all-time low in both career and romance.

The movie is a perfect fit for CineKink and we'll naturally be looking to include it in our next fest. But that's still a ways off - approximately 291 days as of right now, but who's counting? - and we'd love for it to find the audience it deserves in the meantime.

And you can help! Currently in the running for a slot in From Here to Awesome, a new festival that strives to cut through a lot of distribution mumbo-jumbo and make films more widely and directly available, you can take a gander at the submission trailer for The Auteur below and then make your desires known right here:



(It plays a much larger role in the actual movie, but watch for a few cameo appearances of the Clinton Street Theater, past and possibly future home to CineKink: PDX!)

Um. Pornography is in focus?

A twist on an old joke has cropped up around CineKink, surfacing more frequently around festival submission time:

"What's the difference between art and pornography?"

"Pornography arrives with its 2257 compliance properly identified."

Bah dump bump.

Anyway...an expansion on some of the topics we discussed during our recent SXSW panel, The Porn Police: Know the Rules, an article by attorney Alan Levy has just been published in The Yale Law Journal.

First tracing the history of federal 2257 record-keeping regulations and its recent judicial back-and-forths, the article then goes into the implications that they present to all filmmakers, including those working with actual and with simulated depictions of sexual conduct.

Mainstream filmmakers should be especially concerned with the language of the most recent published § 2257 regulations, in which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wrote, “Section 2257A requires that producers of visual depictions of simulated sexually explicit conduct maintain records documenting that performers in those depictions not be minors.” Does this mean that a noted film such as Taxi Driver, in which a twelve-year-old Jodi Foster portrays a thirteen-year-old prostitute, is unlawful? What about the more recent controversial film Hounddog, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and portrayed twelve-year-old Dakota Fanning as a rape victim? Even a film nominated for Best Picture at the 2008 Academy Awards may be affected by § 2257A. Atonement has one scene of explicit simulated sexual conduct involving actress Juno Temple, who was seventeen years of age at the time of filming.

While filmmakers working in the adult arena are, for the most part, all too aware of the regulations, their existence seems to escape notice of documentarians who occasionally stumble into the realm of actual sexual conduct. (And again, we ask, what the hell does that mean?) And with the expansions presented by 2257A, a huge new class of fiction filmmakers is folded into the mix.

For all, it is critical to know both the rules and the risks - and to work together in protesting their chilling presence.

To read more of Alan's article: How “Swingers” Might Save Hollywood from a Federal Pornography Statute

Really, baby, that's just crazy talk

Naturally, just as soon as we finally manage to convince the relevant men in our life that this whole "teeth in the vagina" phobia is merely primal fear turned urban legend, along comes, well, Teeth.

The movie, about a virginal, teen-age girl who discovers that she does in fact suffer from vagina dentata, was a cult hit at last year's Sundance and is going out in limited release this weekend from Roadside Attractions. As is often the case, a comparison of the promotional posters created for its festival vs. theatrical release is pretty illuminating, an interesting glimpse into who the marketing-powers-that-be see is the film's true potential audience - and what needs to be tapped to get them in the seats.


No tagline, but t-shirt reads "Warning: sex changes everything."


"Every rose has its thorns," plus pull-quote "The most alarming cautionary tale for men since Fatal Attraction."

Ooooh, scary boys - look out! To be fair, probably a more accurate pitch, since this isn't some wacky rom-com. But if fear's not your only motivator and you're looking to know more before you go, Lauren Wissot's got the review over at The House Next Door.

"There aren't enough X's in the alphabet..."

In a recent interview with The Reeler, director William Friedkin discusses his back-and-forths with the MPAA to get an R rating for the original release of Cruising in 1980. Sadly, for anyone hoping for a bit more detail on what ended up on the cutting room floor - and what apparently still isn't being put back for the DVD release scheduled next month - Friedkin remains pretty mum:

What didn't make it didn't make it. I'm not about to circumvent the ratings board now and describe all the scenes that aren't in the movie. There's about a half-hour to 40 minutes. But I would have to say is was mostly just more of what was going on in the clubs, and they didn't change or advance the story in any major way.

You know. Just more of what was going on in the clubs. That kinda stuff.

Much less the buzz-kill, this week's episode of ReelerTV contains a clip of the film's memorable hanky scene, along with host S.T. VanAirsdale's revelation of which color he's flagging these days. Who knew?!

This just in...

Evan Shapiro of IFC, home to such bold programming as Indie Sex and This Film is Not Yet Rated, is - how shall we put it? - "...very interested in sex."

Perhaps even obsessed.

Pinch hitting for The Reeler, he explains:

What I am obsessed with are the myriad sexual hang-ups ingrained in American society and how they continue to affect and constrain our culture. I don't mean private penchants or fetishes practiced behind closed doors by everyday consenting citizens. I mean the sexual neuroses of those in positions of authority who constantly tell us that our own predilections are not "normal" or "acceptable." These hang-ups are both interesting and important, because they who possess them often seem hellbent on inflicting them on the rest of us. Fact is, America is far more obsessed with sex than I am. By exploring sexuality, and exposing society's sexual hang-ups, we've tried -- in our way -- to de-stigmatize sex in all its forms, and help treat America's collective phobia.

This refreshingly straight-forward, activist-minded stance obviously make its presence known in much of IFC's programming. And it carries through the rest of Shapiro's post, ranging from the production of the Indie Sex series to the relevance of R Kelly's Trapped in the Closest to challenging sexual stereotypes. (WTF? Just read it.)

Yeah, so where do you get off?!

Quite alot of twisted knickers seems to be the result of a new video promoting European filmmaking. A rapid montage of sex scene clips builds and, er, climaxes to the slogan "Let's come together." Granted, the end image of an apparently male-only audience in rapt attention left us a wee bit skeeved, but we suspect much of the reported outrage was piqued by the inclusion of lovers that fall outside of strictly heterosexual and HWP parameters.

Or then again, maybe it's just any excuse for nationalism. Reports The Guardian:

Godfrey Bloom of the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party described the film as "cheap, tawdry and tacky" and demanded to know the cost to European taxpayers. "You might say it's appropriate for them to put out films like this," he told the Sun newspaper. "Brussels has been screwing the UK for at least 30 years."

We probably shouldn't take comfort in this, but we're finding it oddly uplifting to know that moralistic posturing isn't restricted solely to this side of the pond.

Save the Dates - CineKink NYC!!

Alright, you can stop holding your breath now, your anxious anticipation is over. We're delighted to announce that our anchor event, CineKink NYC, will be moving out of the glutted fall cultural season and leaping into February - yep, it's a leap year - in our fifth annual(ish) appearance.

Get ready to jump along with us, February 26 - March 2, 2008, when we present a specially-curated program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality. In addition to screenings, plans also include a short film competition, awards, panels, parties and a gala kick-off fundraiser.

CineKink is currently inviting sponsors to come on board for the festival and a call for entries will go out shortly. If you're not receiving our regular updates, be sure to sign up here to get all the latest information.

Meanwhile, mark your calendars... February 26-March 2, 2008 !!!

Rubbing the clitoris, sir?

Over at Sugarbank, they're pulled together an entertaining montage of fondly satirical send-ups of that time-honored classic, the sex education video. Among them you'll find the scene from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, in which bored schoolboys grudgingly recount various methods of foreplay and look on as headmaster John Cleese demonstrates sex with his wife.

Also included is this disturbingly erotic animation, What the Heck is Happening to My Genitals?, featuring Amy Sedaris and her puberty pals:



(Hat-tip Viviane's Sex Carnival!)

Who's your daddy?

Invited by Rachel Kramer Bussel to take part in the kinky virtual book tour for her just-published anthologies, She's On Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission, along with the complementary He's On Top: Erotic Stories of Male Dominance and Female Submission, we pretty readily chose the latter to highlight. Because we're switchy and all, but given a real choice in the matter, that's the direction we'd generally prefer to tumble.

That said, book in hand, we recalled, afterall, that our focus is ordinarily on kinky film and television, and that there are plenty of other outlets devoted to literature and such. What might we possibly add to the discussion, other than the observation that the bulk of the stories are well-crafted, engaging, achingly hot and, best of all for the adaptation-minded - really, really short! (We might also point out which of them are ripest for a jump to the silver screen - perhaps even suggest some casting possibilities - but that's generally the type of high-level development work best reserved for your cadre of unpaid interns.)

Instead, we thought we'd take He's On Top: Erotic Stories of Male Dominance and Female Submission as a jumping off point for a ramble through some of our favorite cinematic male dominants:

Rene/Sir Stephen/random guys at château
This one was tough. It's one of the most obvious in terms of literary characters, but we just can't seem to make the leap to film with everyone successfully intact. Udo Kier plays a romantic if overly mopey Rene in L'Histoire d'O and Evan Stone nearly nails - so to speak - the role of Sir Stephen in Ernest Greene's recent O - The Power of Submission. We're still waiting for a rendering of "random guys at château" that anywhere near approaches the version that lives on inside our fevered brain.

Marquis de Sade

Another classic, one who's made countless cinematic appearances. Our personal best is Benoît Jacquot's Sade, featuring a rumpledly handsome Daniel Auteuil. This depiction takes place at a point when Sade is not confined to a grim cell, just merely detained with various noble others at a château (again with that!) in the French countryside, allowing for a bit of fresh air, lavish costumes and dalliances that include a wide-eyed daughter of aristocracy and a whip-flavored romp with the stable boy.

Dr. Sayer

This time the action moves to a villa in 1960s Italy for The Frightened Woman - and we'll cop to including this one largely so we could link to its mondo groovy trailer. But while Philippe Leroy is a bit bloodless for our taste - and, hmmm, is he a real dominant? - there's something about his chilly sadism that resonates. Bring out the big hoses!

John Grey

To our mind, 9½ Weeks has always gotten a bit of a bum wrap. Sure, it's from a big-budget Hollywood director and it's all mainstream and shit. But Mickey Rourke definitely looks great in a suit, knows how to smack a riding crop and he's always got this wry, little smile about to break through, so we're never quite sure how much trouble we're actually in for. (No château, but in Manhattan real estate terms, a penthouse loft is just as good.) So what if it turns out that Kim Basinger's really not all that kinky afterall? There's plenty more of us just waiting to fill the void.

Mr. E. Edward Grey

Just three little words: type it again.

Captain von Trapp

Yeah, this one surprised us a bit as well. But - a cautionary note to parents with young children - take a four-year-old to the movies and you might well create an imprint. We first saw The Sound of Music in its original release way back when. But then, during a latter years screening it struck us - Christopher Plummer - it all began right here! The handsome but aloof (suit-wearing!) man, just waiting for the right woman's love to melt his heart. The willful young supplicant who blossoms under (finally!) just the right amount of discipline and loving guidance. And, of course, row upon row of fresh-scrubbed faces gazing up beseechingly for approval. ("You've been fraternizing with Nazi sympathizers again? I'm afraid that Daddy's very, very angry with you.")

Hey, we're just glad we managed to avoid also fetishizing Bambi.

The Kinky 10 14 15!

The original posts brushed teasingly through our consciousness back when we were in the full, happy thrust of SXSWing and, while we meant to come back for a good going over at the very first opportunity - well, you know how that goes. Just too. many. shiny. things.

But, we've returned - we always do! - for a closer look at ScreenGrab's list of the Kinkiest Films Ever Made, part one and part two:

Peter Coyote in a pig mask. Joan Chen getting her foot sucked off in Cinemascope. James Spader spanking Maggie Gyllenhaal. James Spader screwing a scar on someone’s leg. James Spader doing anything, come to think of it. Some of us just have a taste for the bizarre. Of course, that also makes creating a list of the kinkiest films a bit of a minefield. After all, one man’s aphrodisiac is another man’s bellybutton cheese – sometimes literally so.

After a nice nod to CineKink - yes, forgiveness is at hand, if that's what you really want - they go on to spell out some of the ground-rules for picking the top ten. Which became the top 14. Which looks to be evolving into a sequel, for which they'd happily welcome your suggestions.

Of the list, several had long ago been duly and hopefully noted for our possible inclusion at a future screening. (So, who does hold the exhibition rights to In the Realm of the Senses?) And a few others we've already had the pleasure of programming. But some left us dashing for our NetFlix queue. Especially now that we've been educated in the ways of Zoo, we can't wait to see what Jane Fonda gets up to with that horse in Spirits of the Dead! (Somehow we'd always just figured that was some old Bergman snoozer.)

As to potential additions, several spring to mind. But since the list seems a bit mired in gloom and doom, we thought we'd first add some happy S/M to the mix, in the form of our perennial favorite, Preaching to the Perverted, which took home the Audience Choice Award for Best Narrative at the premiere edition of CineKink NYC in 2003.



Directed by the UK's Stuart Urban, the film stars another perennial favorite, Guinevere Turner, as Tanya Cheex, a (usually) latex-clad dominatrix who runs a fetish empire on both sides of the Atlantic. Her world is violated by a young (suit-wearing!) infiltrator, dispatched by crusaders in Parliament to gather evidence against her immoral and illegal activities. Naturally, he grows infatuated and - see above - becomes quite enmeshed in much the very same. Ah, the savory rush of corrupting the fresh-faced and the righteous to a life of licentious profligacy!

But that's just us. What might be your suggested favorite kinky bit?

Um. Wow.

On our way out of the multiplex the other day, we noticed the rather demure posters for This Film is Not Yet Rated and a banner instructing us to visit IFC.com to see the posters "they wouldn't let us show you!" Later, in one of our regular moments of online procrastination, we actually remembered to do so.





We're not sure, but we assume that the "they" preventing you from seeing these posters in a theater lobby is the MPAA, the motion picture industry's trade association. And, using this instance as just an example, that might not be an entirely bad thing. While we're as down on censorship as anyone, we're not so keen on floating out of some dreamy rom-com to be smacked in the eye with a blazing image of seared flesh. (We should probably come clean with the revelation that branding is one of our own personal squick points.) (Come to think of it, both in the physical and in the marketing sense.)

But once we've left the town square and plopped down our $10.50 to see a particular film of our own adult-minded choosing, the determination of which images confront us should be left to the creativity of the filmmaker. And the process of classifying what is considered "adult" needs to be made transparent, so that filmmakers and audiences alike know where the line falls, as well as the how and the who behind that determination.

And that's where This Film is Not Yet Rated comes in. Directed by Kirby Dick--who holds a permanent place in our heart for the sensitive and engaging Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist--the documentary delves into the whimsically arbitrary MPAA rating system and the power it wields over what we're ultimately allowed to see on the big screen. Featuring the candid anecdotes of such directors as John Waters, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, Kimberly Pierce and Mary Harron, the film is particularly compelling in its look at the discrepancies in the MPAA's treatment of sex vs. violence and in an apparent aversion to homosexuality and the depiction of female sexual pleasure.

Opening in NYC and Los Angeles tomorrow, This Film is Not Yet Rated rolls out in several cities in the next weeks. Definitely make the effort to see it.