Shortbus

Over the weekend I have been writing a review essay on Shortbus, the succès fou of independent filmmaker James Cameron Mitchell about a few visitors of a New York sex-club which I've seen in London last week. It's a great film, though it is not as subversive as it might seem at first glance or as Mitchell seems to put forward in several interviews. It engages interestingly with the almost total disappearance of the distinction between reality and fantasy, but, I guess as a result of the development of the plot on the basis of improvisations with the actors, the message is diluted as the narrative strands are tied up neatly at the conclusion of the film. Still the film offers interesting connections with both research themes I'm working on right now. For one thing it questions the possibility of authentic desire which could lead to an interesting dialectic with Reich's theories. On the other hand it poses questions on when something could 'count' as an authentic event, or when it is rather a pseudo-event. I will not, at this moment, proceed these connections, however, as I have several deadlines closing in on me.