In my dream, Papa and I were seated at a table in the cafe. The waiter brought me a blueberry muffin, ‘on the house’ that the chef wanted my opinion of. There was a lovely blueberry on top of the muffin. Dad and I were having an animated discussion though I don’t remember what it was about really. I absentmindedly cut the muffin in half and bit into one half of it. I nearly spat it out again! I looked at the muffin and it was all full of chocolate chips and coconut shreds. It was tasty but it wasn’t what I was expecting! A blueberry sitting on the top of a chocolate chip coconut muffin does not a blueberry muffin make! I must have made a very comical grimace because Papa laughingly asked me what was wrong and I explained about the muffin and he motioned the waiter over. The waiter looked at us like we are crazy, pointed at the blueberry and said, ‘Sir, that’s a blueberry; ergo, that’s a blueberry muffin”. Papa leaned over, bit the blueberry off the top of the muffin and put the muffin top back on my plate saying ‘What kind of muffin is it now?’ The waiter went red in the face and said ‘Fine. You don’t want the COMPLIMENTARY BLUEBERRY muffin, you don’t have to eat the COMPLIMENTARY BLUEBERRY muffin!’ turned on his heel and strode furiously away. A moment later we heard this tremendous sound of crashing dishes in the kitchen and boisterous shouting in a language I didn’t understand interspersed with the waiter saying: “Heya! Don’t blame me that we can’t even give them away!” :)
Okay. So what does all that have to do with my opinion of film? It has to do with the fact that I go into a film expecting that the structure and content will ‘taste’ like the advertised genre. In the case of ‘Skin I Live In’ I expected that the scenes would support/further the story as a standard narrative, therefore the extensive use of graphic, violent rape scenes seemed to me gratuitous; they didn’t need to be delivered as they were (delivered) in order to tell the story.
Had the film been advertised as a porno flick I’d not be sitting saying “OMG. What does watching numerous extended graphic rape scenes have to do with the development of the plot?!” No, I’d be sitting in the theatre saying “Huh, I suppose that this is pretty conservative for a porno.” Of course, had it been advertised as a feature-length porno flick, I wouldn’t have gone! Maybe that’s why they aren’t calling their films porno; they want general recognition and many people would dismiss their work (if it were called porno). If that’s the case then they are intentionally misrepresenting their films . . . ?
Again, I was grateful for the Monday Movies seminar conversation because it helped me to understand the admirable qualities that many critics keep mentioning about the film. From my own personal perspective it was impossible to see past the overall cold, vengeful negativity of the film. It raises a question I feel all artists/composers/storytellers must ask themselves constantly: how far should I go? How far do I challenge the sensibilities of my audience? For that matter, who is my audience and is the manner of my expression going to reach them? Will they listen/take in what I am trying to communicate? Are my own needs for self-expression and the meeting of my creative objectives at risk of sabotaging my communicative objectives?
Yes. Well. Enough of me and my soapbox! It is Sunday and there is still a huge fair happening in Leicester; maybe I’ll go stall browsing. . . btw, the muffin shown in the photo IS a lovely, wheat-free blueberry muffin, happily populated with blueberries.
