MovieChat Forums > La vie d'Adèle (2013) Discussion > Hetero male cr@p

Hetero male cr@p

posted 11 years ago by nycruise-1
89 replies | jump to latest

I saw this film and realized how much it caters to heterosexual male fantasies of women.

I saw it with four lesbians, none of whom found the sex scenes at all something that they could connect with.

That final act of Adele grabbing Emma's hand and putting it on her vagina was purely a "guy" thing, not a "girl" thing. One woman commented on how it made Adele seem very desperate since it reduced the relationship between the two girls to the physical - something that never happens with women (although it happens all the time with men, even gay men, ESPECIALLY gay men).

These scenes pretty much boiled down to lesbian porn for str8 men.

Furthermore, Adele was something of an unlikable character. Emma tried to raise Adele's self-confidence, but Adele did not seem to appreciate that.

Finally, what was with the movie consisting pretty much of close-ups of the actresses? Good think I had to read subtitles, otherwise, I would have really been bored by the cinematography.

This film got overlooked by the Academy for an Oscar - and it's no wonder why. Even one of the lesbians I was with admitted that, after finally seeing "Blue," she was less disappointed it didn't get a nomination.

I finally concluded that this film, despite so many shortcomings, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes because most of the jury is made of str8 men (like Steven Spielberg), who, no doubt, found delight in the lesbian sex scenes. Such a jury subsequently allowed their lust to overwhelm their collective artistic eye and pronounce this travesty of a same-sex relationship film as "ground-breaking" when nothing could be further from the truth.

"Don't call me 'honey', mac."
"Don't call me 'mac'... HONEY!"

[–] daphen_axa 10 years ago

Lol are you trolling?

If not, I disagree with every one of your points and I am a bit in awe of your comment

[–] andrj908 10 years ago

Think about when you came out, some of your friends had weird reactions didn't they?

No, not if they were good friends. Notice how Adele ditches the ones that reacted angrily, they aren't at her 18th birthday party. She did the right thing, because "the ones that don't matter, do mind, and the ones that do matter, don't mind". They berated her and treated her with utter scorn about something she was obviously very insecure about, that is not how a true friend handles a "coming out".

[–] daphen_axa 10 years ago

yeah yeah I agree with you! She is way better off without them, especially that bitchy one that kept screaming "you'll never lick my pussy" and who was definitely not a good person. I actually don't think they were close friends to begin with, they were just friends because they were in the same class.

My point was that I don't believe it is an inconsistency or unbelievable that these girls reacted the way they did about Adele's sexuality when they are at the same time pretty accepting of Valentin's.

I believe even great friends or family can have pretty *beep* reactions on the spur of the moment. And then they'll calm down and realise how *beep* they were. I don't think it is all black or white, you can't judge an entire friendship on one *beep* moment. In the film, one girl says something like "cmon you said you would go about it nicely and not corner her" so they probably had planned to ask her differently and it got heated because Adele was very insecure but the other girls as well.

They had these very common ideas and internalised homophobia (probably unconscious as well) that if she is lesbian she is automatically lusting after them all and checking them out, because it is well known lesbians are into every single girl and can't control themselves (!). So they felt threatened by her in a way that Valentin would never, since he is gay. Then they got pissed off because Adele was lying so it just snowballed into this fight.

I am not defending their behaviour, but I felt the scene was spot on and totally believable.

[–] andrj908 10 years ago

My point was that I don't believe it is an inconsistency or unbelievable that these girls reacted the way they did about Adele's sexuality when they are at the same time pretty accepting of Valentin's.

True. But girls can be very funny like that. They tend to be completely supportive of gay men, especially if that male is a friend (for example Valentin) but when it comes to someone of their own gender, they are completely vicious. It probably has something to do with female psychology. It's the same with men - often they can get along with a lesbian very well, but not a gay male. The camera sometimes panned over to Adele's friend, the one that made the sexual advances towards Adele in the beginning then turned down her reciprocation in the high school bathroom, and she looks genuinely concerned. Perhaps its fear that Adele would reveal what happened, perhaps she's worried to see how ferociously the group reacts to Adele's homosexuality... it's very interesting.

They had these very common ideas and internalised homophobia (probably unconscious as well) that if she is lesbian she is automatically lusting after them all and checking them out, because it is well known lesbians are into every single girl and can't control themselves (!).

Men are the same when it comes to homosexuality in this instance. They think that any second glance from another gay man correlates to checking them out, or any kind of gesture of kindness or civility from a gay is some kind of attempt to "come onto" them.

Not only is Blue a wonderful study of sexual relationships and human attraction, but its also an interesting meditation in how people relate and interact with others.

[–] Howlin Wolf 9 years ago

I thought her reaction was unrealistic, and one of the only 'false' scenes in the entire film - showy sex sequences, aside... Homophobia is one thing, but anyone freaking out about the possibility that their friend might be lying about being gay would never have agreed to sleep naked in the same bed with them, on past occasions... If you are friends and sleep naked together without sex, then surely that shows that you are extremely comfortable with one another, and trust each other enough for neither one of you to make advances, no matter WHAT your sexuality is?

If you have any doubts or discomfort surrounding same-sex attraction, then you wouldn't willingly put yourself in such a situation where it might conceivably happen.



"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"

[–] davannacarter 10 years ago

People, people, the OP is a troll. You can tell this by the fact that he only once came back to respond to posters who have replied to his post. Plus, he even admitted in another thread he's a gay male:

I was an extra on the set of "American Flyers" and I remember him being really touchy-feely with his Asian girlfriend.

But his bio doesn't mention any "wife".

WTF?

He looks like a blond version of my HOT ROWER gay boyfriend, so I'm just wondering...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001942/board/thread/232380518?d=232380518# 232380518

How can a gay male try to act as if he knows how lesbians have sex? Notice he never responded to the lesbian poster in this thread who said she didn't object to the sex scenes?

[–] luzi_825 10 years ago

I am a straight woman and I completely disagree.
I do indeed admit at first I thought the sex scenes were unnecessary, but later on, they prove to be worth it, as one of the things that made Emma and Adele connect was that their sexual relationship was good.
Anyways, I don't at all think it was made for straight men, as I watched it with my boyfriend and he didn't really care for those scenes as much as the rest of the film.
People that really appreciate good film and their meanings don't really care about how much sex there is in it.

[–] Samuraibro 9 years ago

I really hate the notion that if you don't like an element of a film, then you don't "appreciate" it.

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[–] kidjay83 9 years ago

I saw this film and realized how much it caters to heterosexual male fantasies of women

The movie definitely catered to the male perspective i think thats why it was made pornographic.Just like in america they got to reel in that "just hit puberty porn watching " crowd of boys .The novel is graphic but if you were to translate it into a movie just purely based on the novel it wouldnt of been rated NC-17 it would of been a R rating .The author of the graphic novel who is a chick even bashed the director of the film for making it so male fantasy lesbo porn which is .Don't listen to these indie idiots and fart headed artsy types they dont know sh!t everything to them is the same they can't find the differences in things because too them everything is one and the same . I was at the library the other day and i was in the graphic novel section and saw this book and decided to see how it differed from the film and you could clearly tell a woman wrote it it was from a woman's perspective.Even the sex scene between the chick and her BF was tame it didn't show her having sex with him.they were just in bed together it focused more on the girl on girl relationship.it focused more on the feelings between the 2 girls then the actual sex it was more tasteful then the movie and didn't brow beat you over the head like the movie tends to do .Brow beating is a indication of the person telling the story not understand what the material is about .i actually was more interested in the book then the movie which i couldn't finish because it was just so brow beating and uninteresting .The book the author actually accomplished making the reader care about the characters .I actually stopped fingering through and sat down and read the book front to back the book made me feel for these people .The film is just hetero male fantasy 2 chicks dyking it out which i've seen in person and there's nothing special about it but .If you have the sexual maturity of a 13yr old its fascinating and arousing to see 2 girls going at it .You know if you take the sex scenes out of the film then the story would of fallen apart because it wasn't told well..If you took the sex out of the book it would still keep you interested because it focused on the relationship more so then the actual sex between these people .Its true the book is always better then the movie way better .

character is habitual action, we are what we do habitually.

[–] lazarillo 9 years ago

Hmmm. Well, I have also read the graphic novel and I disagree.

The sex scenes MAY be a little overly graphic, but it's amazing how none of the "critics" of this movie can see past them to consider the REST of the three-hour movie. And it's highly ironic that you criticize people for not being able to find the differences in things when you repeat the same old tired argument that every movie with graphic sex, however well-made, is "pornographic". Would you waste this much ink on an actual porn video? For that matter, you can criticize "artsy-fartsy" types or horny frat boys, but they're definitely not the same people, so make up your mind about how you're going to stereotype the fans of this movie. You also might notice that the defenders of this movie are obviously NOT 13-year-old boys (and many of them write a lot more eloquently than you do), nor was the Cannes jury that awarded it the Palm D'Or, so why keep claiming this? Are you just an unusually persistent troll?

I don't know if you're male or female, but sexual fantasies are not strictly divided into male and female. Nor are all male fantasies the same. Nor is this movie a sex fantasy really aside from, arguably, a couple hot sex scenes that take up maybe fifteen minutes of a three-hour movie. After about forty minutes of this movie, they DO take the sex out of it and it is a very good movie about relationships for the next couple hours. None of the critics seem to notice this though, so which of us is obsessed with sex?

"Let be be finale of seem/ The only emperor is the Emperor of Ice Cream"

[–] planet17 9 years ago

I understand your complaint and I agree with you that the sex scenes were shot for straight male audience. But the movie is much more than sex or a lesbian relationships. For me at least it was about my generation, among other things.

Also, the actresses did a fantastic job and I think both deserved nominations, despite the sex scenes. Both of them were outstanding.

[–] mslugroup 9 years ago

"the sex scenes were shot for straight male audience"

You completely unright. The sex scenes were shot for showing that a man (a penis) is totally unnecessary for complete sexual pleasure of a woman. That's the point)

[–] Captain_Wesker 9 years ago

Auch .

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It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing .