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comfortable. Actually, at times I felt a little like a madam myself. Louise had to act all the sex scenes, one right after the other, for a week. She
like a prostitute by the endwhich was great; that's how she was supposed to feel, though the sex is simulated.
I always find it interesting when what seem like limitations work positively for a film. In
the awkwardness in the actors doing what they do seems perfect for the situation.
A lot of people have attacked the acting, especially the men. It was so much easier to find women who would take their clothes off than men. I got the Chinese guy from
magazine. He's not an actor. I could not find a Chinese man over forty who would take his clothes off. And I didn't want it to be a young man.
The way I dealt with the actors was parallel to the situation they were acting out. They'd come to work on the film, and they'd be uncomfortable. I had to keep the men happy; otherwise they were impossible to deal with. Because the women had longer parts, they were around more; and when a new male actor would come in, there'd be this uncomfortable exchange. I did the bedroom scenes first, actually. I knew what would happen if I didn't: they'd do their downstairs scenes, freak out, and not show up for the bedroom scenes. I wasn't paying very much. I paid the men more, the more clothes they took off and the more they would do. So it was a role reversal.
Many men think they can show themselves naked, and that they'll have perfect control. One guy assured me he could get an erection, but that never worked out. So I didn't do the scene the way I wanted to. In another scene a guy was
supposed to get an erection, but he got one. He was so embarrassed that he wouldn't take his towel off. So I said, 'Great, great, great. Do you know what other men would do to get that?' But he hid in the towel. I said, 'You've got to take your towel off. I don't want to have to shoot the scene from the waist up; lie on your stomach.' But he was too embarrassed. I was furious. These menthey couldn't control their erections, but they had no sense of humor about it either! The two guys I found easiest to work with are Ricky Leacock and Fred Newman, who played Fantasy Fred. Both were very comfortable with themselves, and they had a great time doing the film. As a result, their scenes were fun to shoot, for the women as well.
How have men who have seen the film reacted?
I've been a bit depressed about some male reactions. One New York exhibitor said the film was done by a woman who obviously hated men, that the men were treated horrendously, that they're not real. And I thought, hey, wait a minute, don't you have a sense of humor? I wanted to make a film where the men would have to identify
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with
ultimately, where identifying with men would make them uncomfortable.
I think that kind of reaction has to do with the way you expose the men's sexuality, which is ironic since it's so ''normal' in film to expose female sexuality. Men feel hated if they're exposed.
Maybe men feel hated if there's not a strong, wonderful male character in a film. There are some likable male characters in
Elliot, her last client, maybe, and Neil, the sweet guy who just wants to talk. And it's clear that Molly doesn't hate men.
is one of the few films I've seen where the men who are genuinely liked by the women are the opposite of the men who are theoretically attractive in more conventional films. They're sort of gentle, sweet people, and they have a better time than the more macho guys.
Yeah. Exactly.
There's also a myth about prostitutes hating men. What I found interesting and informative was that a lot of women who had been through prostitution for a short period of time ended up liking men more, not less. They felt less threatened by men, less in fear, and more able afterward to articulate their own sexual desires. Because they could see and be more skillful in providing what men wanted, they themselves could make sexual demands from their boyfriends or husbands.
By the way, I didn't mean to suggest that the 'man-hating' charge is the only reaction the film gets. I've had a wide range of responses. In England, we did an audience survey at one point: young women and older men liked it. Older women didn't like it, and a lot of younger men said it turned them off. Of course, I don't want people to like the film necessarily; I want them to walk out
about prostitution.
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Ross McElwee
During the Italian Renaissance, schools of painting came to be identified with particular cities. In recent decades something similar has been occurring in North America, where 'schools' of independent filmmaking have
