Shortbus
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| Shortbus | |
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| Directed by | John Cameron Mitchell |
| Produced by | Howard Gertler John Cameron Mitchell Tim Perell |
| Written by | John Cameron Mitchell & Cast |
| Starring | Sook-Yin Lee Paul Dawson Lindsay Beamish PJ DeBoy Raphael Barker Jay Brannan Peter Stickles Justin Bond |
| Music by | Yo La Tengo Scott Matthew |
| Cinematography | Frank G. DeMarco |
| Editing by | Brian A. Kates |
| Distributed by | ThinkFilm (film site: shortbusthemovie.com) |
| Release date(s) | May 20, 2006 (Cannes Film Festival) |
| Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | ~$2,000,000 USD |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Quote: (Justin Bond) "It's just like the 60's, only with less hope."
Shortbus is a 2006 film written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell, writer/director/star of the play and film Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It was released in North America October 2006 by Thinkfilm, after premiering in May at the Cannes Film Festival. It's played in over 25 countries and won multiple awards at the Athens, Zurich, Gijon film festivals. Howard Gertler and Tim Perell received an Independent Spirit Award as Producers of the Year.
The film aims to "employ sex in new cinematic ways". Much of the sex in this movie is unsimulated. Mitchell says, "In the old days, when you couldn't show sex on film, directors like Hitchcock had metaphors for sex (trains going into tunnels, etc). When you can show more realistic sex, the sex itself can be a metaphor for other parts of the character's lives. The way people express themselves sexually can tell you a lot about who they are. Some people ask me, 'Couldn't you have told the same story without the explicitness?'. They don't ask whether I could've done Hedwig without the songs. Why not be allowed to use every paint in the paintbox?" Some have branded the film "pornographic" but the filmmaker points out that the dictionary defines porn as "material created and viewed for the primary purpose of sexual arousal". According to Mitchell, the sex in Shortbus is often purposefully "de-eroticized" in order to "remove the cloud of arousal to reveal emotions and ideas that might have been obscured by it". The sexual scenes are often desperate, ridiculous and unsuccessful. "Sex, like music, is a universal language. We want to use it to introduce character, evoke emotion, propel the plot. Sex is also the funniest thing I know. How the hell do we find ourselves in those positions?"
The film's characters and story were created collaboratively over 2 1/2 years through improvisation workshops with the cast. The audition website elicited half a million hits and 500 audition tape submissions. 40 people were called in for improv auditions and 9 actors were cast, all before there was any story in mind. Mitchell wrote the screenplay from the raw material generated by the workshops and rehearsals.
The characters all converge on a weekly underground gathering or salon called Shortbus, named after the short yellow schoolbus for "challenged" students. The Shortbus salon was loosely based on a series of events known as the Lusty Loft Parties that occurred at DUMBA between 1999 and 2002, as well the weekly CineSalon, both of which were organized, in part, by Stephen Kent Jusick, who plays Creamy in the film.
The cityscape animation (which resembles a scale model) was completely computer generated and designed by John Bair.
The film was released to DVD in N. America March 13th, 2007. The DVD features the 31 minute making of the film "Gifted and Challenged: the Making of Shortbus" (Director/Producer M. Sean Kaminsky), "How to Shoot Sex: A Docu-Primer", Deleted Scenes, and Filmmaker & Cast commentary.
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[edit] Plot
The movie is set in contemporary New York City and revolves around a character played by Canadian singer and radio/TV personality Sook-Yin Lee (who previously appeared as the Korean guitarist Kwahng-Yi in Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Lee plays Sofia, a married woman and couples counselor/sex therapist who has herself never achieved an orgasm. She comes into contact with a couple: Jamie (PJ DeBoy) and James (Paul Dawson). James, a former male prostitute, turns out to be the other main character in the film. At the outset, James suggests to his boyfriend that they open up their relationship to sex with others.
During their first consultation, Sofia snaps and slaps Jamie. The couple suggests she attend a social get-together/sex party held weekly called "Shortbus", which is hosted by transgender performance artist Justin Bond, playing himself (well-known in the alternative cabaret world as Kiki of Kiki & Herb). Sofia slowly opens up to new sexual ideas; this includes a friendship with a dominatrix who goes by the name Severin (the name of the masochist male protagonist of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's classic novel Venus in Furs).
Sofia's inability to achieve orgasm begins to cause conflict with her husband Rob (Raphael Barker). Rob begins attending Shortbus with Sofia.
James and Jamie meet a young ex-model and aspiring singer named Ceth (Jay Brannan) and the three begin a sexual relationship. Meanwhile James and Jamie's life is being (and has been for, we learn, nearly 4 years) closely watched by their across-the-street neighbour Caleb (Peter Stickles). Caleb fears the inclusion of Ceth in James and Jamie's relationship might break them up (and thus destroy his ability to live vicariously through them) so he attends Shortbus and confronts Ceth.
Sofia begins to go daily to a spa with an isolation tank to meet Severin, and the two begin to have intense conversations. Severin begins to help Sofia loosen up sexually; Sofia helps Severin achieve a deeper human connection than she had experienced before. One evening at Shortbus Severin discusses with Sofia the idea of giving up sex work to pursue her dream of being an artist. The two then have an unplanned sexual experience, where once again, Sofia is left lying unsatisfied under an orgasming person, in this case Severin.
Throughout the film we see that James has been making a film about himself. It turns out to be a suicide note, and he tries to take his life by drowning himself after ingesting sleeping pills. He is rescued by Caleb, who calls for help but is too embarrassed to wait with James for the help to arrive, so he writes his phone number and email address across James's face. When James wakes in the hospital, he contacts Caleb. James goes to Caleb's home to be consoled, but does not contact Jamie or Ceth, neither of whom can understand why he wouldn't call them or come home.
There follows an interlocking trio of scenes showing connections between the characters' emotional problems and their sexual acts.
1) At Caleb's house Caleb and James have sex, and James allows Caleb to penetrate him, something he has never allowed anyone to do to him before. In a dramatic revelation, James is seen in the window of Caleb's apartment by his boyfriend, Jamie, who realizes in that moment that James is alive and OK.
2) Rob and Severin have a paid encounter where Rob asks to be beaten, something he couldn't ask Sofia to do. As this progresses Severin loses control and Rob tries to comfort her.
3) Sofia seems to have a dream of struggling through an overgrown, wild forested area to a gentle seashore where she tries to achieve orgasm again. On failing she screams and (in the real world) the lights go off across the city.
The film ends with a song by Justin Bond at Shortbus during the blackout (seemingly caused by the characters' collective frustration about their ability to connect and "feel something"). Sofia arrives and sees Rob with Severin and after acknowledging him sits on her own. James and Jamie also arrive followed by Ceth and Caleb.
Justin's song starts on a wistful note but as it progresses it becomes energetic and positive (helped by the arrival of a brass band). This is mirrored in the actions and emotions of the actors. Jamie and James "make out" on the floor in front of a sofa where Ceth and Caleb seem to be hitting it off. Rob seems to find a friend and Severin towards the climactic moments of the film moves from nervous anxiety to happy elation upon the arrival of the band.
While having a threesome with the couple, Nick and Leah (Jan Hilmer and Shanti Carson) who she has seen several times before Sofia finally achieves an orgasm, the blackout affecting New York ends, as does the film.
[edit] Public reaction
Lee was nearly fired by her present employers, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (for which she hosts a radio program "Definitely Not the Opera"), for taking a role in this film in which she takes part in several unsimulated sexual scenes. Ultimately, she retained her job as the CBC relented in the face of support for Lee from the public[1], as well as celebrities such as Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Stipe, Julianne Moore, Gus Van Sant, David Cronenberg, Moby, Todd Haynes, Douglas Coupland and Yoko Ono.[2]
[edit] Production
As noted above, the film's sexual scenes were mostly unsimulated, most notably a group sex sequence in which numerous hetero-, homo-, and bisexual couples were filmed engaging in sexual acts. Both Sook-Yin Lee and Shanti Carson suggested they be filmed having real orgasms in separate scenes rather than fake them. One of the participants in the orgy was noted sex columnist Tristan Taormino. The director also participated in the scene, performing oral sex on a woman for the first time "as a gesture of solidarity".[3]
[edit] Trivia
There is a plot device involving a vibrating egg with the brand name "In the Realm of the Senses". This is a wink to the explicit 1976 Nagisa Oshima film of the same name in which a man urges his lover to insert a hard-boiled egg in her vagina and "lay it".
The man who steals some "blondies" off the plate in the Sex-Not-Bombs Room is played by Jonathan Caouette, director of "Tarnation". Mitchell met him when he auditioned for "Shortbus" and subsequently became executive producer of "Tarnation".
Well-known downtown New York performers who provide cameos in the film include: Bradford Scobie (Dr. Donut), Murray Hill (on the swing), The Wau Wau Sisters (on the trapeze), Dirty Martini (doing the strip tease) and The World-Famous *Bob* (sitting with the mayor in the Truth-Or-Dare Room).
Alan Mandell, who played the Mayor, met Mitchell when they performed together wearing radiation burn makeup in a 1987 LA stage production about Chernobyl. Mandell was a great friend and collaborator of playwright Samuel Beckett and was directed by him in Waiting For Godot and Endgame. They met after Mandell co-founded the San Quentin Prison Drama Workshop in the mid-60's which produced the works of Beckett among other playwrights. Mandell appeared in the Hedwig film as a restaurant customer who receives a "car wash" from Hedwig.
[edit] Soundtrack
The soundtrack was released on Conor Oberst's (Bright Eyes) record label, Team Love. John Cameron Mitchell directed the music video for Bright Eyes' "First Day of My Life."
[edit] Tracklisting
- Scott Matthew - "Upside Down"
- Azure Ray - "If You Fall"
- Yo La Tengo - "Wizard’s Sleeve"
- Animal Collective - "Winter’s Love"
- Scott Matthew - "Surgery"
- Sook-Yin Lee - "Beautiful"
- Gentleman Reg - "It’s Not Safe"
- John LaMonica - "Kids"
- Scott Matthew - "Language"
- Jay Brannan - "Soda Shop"
- Anita O'Day - "Is You Is Or Is You Ain’t My Baby"
- The Ark - "Kolla Kolla"
- Jasper James and the Jetset - "This House"
- The Ark - "This Piece of Poetry Is Meant To Do Harm"
- The Hidden Cameras - "Boys of Melody"
- Scott Matthew - "Little Bird"
- Justin Bond and the Hungry March Band - "In the End (Long Film Version)"
- Scott Matthew - "In the End (Acoustic)"
[edit] References
- ^ Stone, Jay (22 May 2006). Sook-Yin Lee's film debut definitely not CBC fare. The Ottawa Citizen (via Canada.com. Retrieved on July 24, 2006.
- ^ Johnson, Brian D. (02 June 2006). Sook-Yin Lee shocker in Cannes. Macleans.com. Retrieved on July 24, 2006.
- ^ "How to Shoot Sex: A Docu-Primer" (2007): Shortbus Region 1 DVD release (Th!nk Film)
[edit] External links
- Official Website
- BBC Collective Shortbus feature including Sook-Yin Lee and John Cameron Mitchell video interviews
- Shortbus Reviews at Metacritic.com
- Shortbus at the Internet Movie Database
- AZcentral On the making of 'Shortbus', 2004
- Breitbart News
- Shortbus review at Reel Film Reviews.
- EconoCulture - Sook-Yin Lee on her character Sofia in Shortbus
- Shortbus Review by Jürgen Fauth
- [1] "Gifted and Challenged: the Making of Shortbus"
