The sex scenes ruined the realism of the movie.

Maybe that's just not the kind of sex you have. But in my experience, when I meet someone and we connect fast and we have this kind of sex, and a lot of it, right off the bat, like really balls-out extravagant sex - it just makes it that much harder to let go of the person when things fall apart. And I think that really added to the heartbreak and the tragedy in this film. They had that kind of explosive lust that you can't find very often, and it's that much harder to let go.

I thought the sex scenes were very real and showed what actual sex looked like. They had to blow hair out of their faces, and sometimes the way they moved honestly wasn't the most graceful thing. It wasn't polished like porn. It was realistic, albeit explicit. There is the distinction.

Honestly, I wish the rest of the filmmaking style had been more stylized and sensational like the sex scenes. It might have made the 3-hour runtime a little more understandable.

Adele's sexual encounters with her first boyfriend and then Emma were nothing short of a porn flick. I don't have problems with nudity or sexually explicit scenes at all (before anyone calls me a prude and thinks that the problem lies in that)

ITA!

You gotta love the folks who jump on the "you are a prude" bandwagon if you make an unfavorable comment about graphic sex in a film. It's such a cheap way to dismiss a point of view.

The word that comes to my mind about the sex scenes is heavy-handed. The director wielded a sledge hammer when he directed those scenes. I especially felt the first encounter between Adele and Emma completely lacked this idea of a young girl exploring her sexuality. The director "cut to the chase." This was supposed to be her first encounter? Emma was older and more experienced and yet, there no sense of that 'first time feeling' and awkwardness.

There's a degree of awkwardness for everyone's first time, hetero or homosexual. But the director chose to go right to it which leads me to believe that his intention was voyeuristic. Period.

Seduction for me is the most exciting part of recreating cinema sexuality. If a director does that, then raw, graphic sexuality the way this director choreographed is not necessary and if the director chooses to film such scenes, I think the audience handles it better. Because the on screen seduction is also seducing the audience.

I would have felt this way if these scenes were between a man and a woman. At what point in regular cinema due we draw the line between recreation of realism or just plain porn? Where was the eroticism? The sensuality?

That you were feeling that the scenes in this movie was nothing short of a 'porn flick' pretty much sums up how the director failed to use medium of dramatic film to tell his story.

Hold on a minute. I think you may be missing a theme the filmmaker(s) were trying to throw at you.

The movie suggests that women are superior sexual beings to men. You'll notice that Adele's hetero encounter with the dude at the beginning is exactly (and I suppose we disagree here) the lack-luster sexual encounter that you described. And if you didn't take that away from the guy-girl sex, I think you can at least admit that Adele appears unfulfilled by the end of the scene.

You are supposed to contrast that scene with the lesbian sex scenes later on in the film, which are obviously very sexy to say the least, and come to the conclusion that there is something about women that is, perhaps mysteriously and elusively, more sexy. The great sex they have together is also an important part of the story... it adds another reason for the audience to want them to stay together. In other words, if they had boring sex together, their relationship wouldn't seem that exceptional and thus would not be as big of a tragedy when it falls apart.

Add this on top of the male art exhibitor's speech about female sexuality and you get a pretty good idea that the Adele/Emma relationship was lighting in a bottle of great sex and great fun. Great sex was a huge part of their relationship, and it is the reason why the film ends with them finger banging each other in the middle of a bistro.

I agree with you. EXPLICIT sex scenes just don't help the movie and even more if these last for so long. SUBTLE sex scenes would fit much better.

I agree with the OP, the sex scenes stole from the film. They were too explicit and they always felt like sex instead of having any love in them between Emma and Adele.

I’ve just watched the DVD and found myself fast-forwarding the sex scenes because they were so porn/corny. All that was missing was some soft-porn muzak or a pizza guy walking in. I agree that these scenes were also unrealistic in the context of the ages and maturity of the characters – particularly as the rest of the film examines the power imbalance that can occur when youthful uncertainty and awkwardness meets adult sophistication in a relationship. In making the characters sexual equals, despite the fact the 17-year Adele was in her first lesbian encounter with a sexually experienced woman 6 or 7 years older than her, was not only unrealistic it was perverse.
I can only think the reasoning behind this was an attempt to make Emma appear less predatory than she really was. Somehow Emma manages to come out on top despite the fact that she exploits Adele for all she is worth which, to Adele, was very little.


“When you give trousers to a monkey, the trees will end up with lots of scarfs.”