Ever since her first sexual encounter at age 15, middle-class Barcelona Frenchwoman Valére (Belén Fabra) has reveled in her exploits and, at her grandmother's urging, begins writing about them in her diary in director Christian Molina's lush erotic escapade. After losing her job, Valére meets an older man and believes she has found true love. But when he turns out be a disappointment, Valére indulges her love of pleasure by working in a brothel.
And of course the actress who portrayed the protagonist is a Scorpio, her birthday being the day before mine exactly ten years earlier. I also just found out that this film was based off the writings of Valerie Tasso [who the main character in the film is named after]. I will definitely be finding myself buying her books soon. Insatiable: The Erotic Adventures of a French Girl in Spain
is the book upon which the film is based. I have so much to say about this film, pertaining to the acting, the visuals, the content/lines, the situations, and my own personal relation. Hopefully this will all be coherent and orderly at least in some fashion. And of course, some it may be more personal than I'd like to share so I will probably be excluding some details or more.
I will say that it was nearly impossible for me to fall asleep after watching this. By the time I was done it was 5 O'clock this morning and the sun lighting the horizon. My mind was far to provoked to sleep, despite the fact that my body was tired. Yet my body felt as if I had an electrical current running through it on high power.
Before I also forget, the soundtrack was interesting because it combined songs over different languages. My favorite was when Morcheeba's "Blue Chair" came on. I enjoyed the diversity.
In the beginning, the subject of Valerie to begin writing things down was approached by her grandmother. The grandmother had originally told her to jot down her issues, thoughts, etc. and look that them from an outside perspective. Instead Valerie basically starts a diary, upon which her grandmother states that diaries are for lonely people. She goes on about it for a few more minutes. This whole scene perked up my ears [or rather opened my eyes since it was subtitled]. It made me think about this very blog, which serves as some sort of diary for me. It makes me wonder, am I lonely? I think so. Those very thoughts have been hovering over my head just prior to watching this film. The film only put it in a different light and others could argue it but I actually don't mind that it serves as some truth for me. I actually welcome the revelation because it makes sense.
Valerie's loneliness is consistently increasing as she loses the ones she loves, whether through a break up or death. Which, although severely depressing, is realistic and a reminder that as I go through life, I will have to deal with expanding losses.
The way Valerie is very observant of her surroundings and in tune with her body is awesome and both something I extremely relate to. I do not wish to go into any further details of that. There was a part that I really wanted to discuss which involves her sense of smell. When she's obsessed with a man she is also obsessed with his smell. Not only that, but the mere fact that she can sense it, even before getting close to them. She takes it in so sensually. She appreciates it, and lets it envelop her. The way she always comments on the smell, she lets them know. The way she inhales a man's scent. I've never quite seen that in a film, especially in a sense that mirrors my own actions. Smell is interesting because it is one of the senses that is exempt from the film experience. The only way you can experience it is if they paint an elaborate and vivid picture for you. Perfume
is a perfect film for that. When that picture is painted for you, it is very personal, and extremely sensual because it is unique to every watcher. The visuals seen by each audience is the same from one to another, but the scent that you make up in your mind from a scene in a film is different for each person.This was the beginning of my electrical feeling whilst watching the film. This sparked a personal receptivity in me. Brought me right back to this. Made me intensely imagine the smells I enjoy. The idea of the scent of men is absolutely wonderful. The smell of warm skin is life shattering, in a very good way. It is one of those simple pleasures in life that never gets old to me. The experience is new with each occurrence. It makes my heart race to think about it.
This film is, on a whole, about the fact that Valerie is a nymphomaniac. All of her thoughts, concerns, and feelings are another of which I've felt and feel. My experiences and my actions may be different, but not all. All far too personal to depict here, and some aspects of which may be going into my "Confessions of a Blogger" posts. I'm aware I'm not giving a lot of information here, but my point is that what the film portrays is so realistic and really gets to the heart of what some people have and do feel. This film just astounds me with the number of facets of issues and ranges of emotions and thought processes that I and others have found themselves in.
Furthermore, the way she catalogs all the advice she had been giving in during this part of her life, and how certain situations cause them come to the forefront of her mind. Also, it seems she doesn't necessarily take advice right away, for example, when it comes to love, moving to fast, danger, etc. She is human like the rest of us and realizes that the important people in her life were right after she had to experience it for herself. This is something that annoys me about my brother but something I am noticing more and more about myself that I do just the same. I know my best friend has to watch me do this constantly, but she keeps her mouth shut because she knows I will still do what I wish, and when I'm ready she'll talk to me. The way she is for me, I'm often like for others. I have to realize I'm not perfect.
It makes it difficult/different since I'm aware of these things, but I still go against the current.
The acting, particularly of Valerie, played by Belén Fabra was amazing. Not only does she get credit for being naked for over half of the film, but for being involved in very intimate sex scenes with several different actors. I can imagine that would be difficult, especially since a lot of the actors only had those scenes with her, so there was probably no other time for them to work together. It's just like, "Hey, nice to meet you. Guess it's time to get naked." That aside, her emotions, particularly those shown on her face were impressive. As I watch more people and more movies, I've become hyper-aware and more critical of how emotions and facial expressions are imitated. She was great. They way she cried, I've found myself doing it in the exact same way. It was almost frightening, because it was so real.
Not only did this film finalize the realization that I was lonely, it made me crave company so intensely that further kept me awake. My hands kept moving for I wanted someone to touch. Someone to smell. And most of all, I didn't want to sleep in my own bed. For various reasons I often rather sleep in someone else's bed even if I were alone...these are thoughts that have been occurring for some time.
Another small part of the movie that I appreciated was a particular customer Valerie had while working in the brothel. The man was a quadriplegic. He only had some feeling in his hands and on his neck. He taught her to appreciate that she could move her hands. It was a beautiful scene and surprisingly the only one that made me cry. It's only surprising because I should of cried more, but not surprising because things like that always get to me. [At First Sight make me cry uncontrollably]. I could say more about the scene, but it's something better experienced through the film.
As I said already, there's more I could talk about, pertaining to the sexual aspects. But I'm a person of some sort of privacy, most especially about my sexual side. I don't believe I've ever said it explicitly here before, but I feel that my sexual side is a privilege, amongst others, to those that are intimately involved with me. It's not information I'd like to waste.
All in all, I definitely recommend this film. Hopefully I did not forget anything else I wanted to talk about. These ideas were floating around in my head all the while I was trying to sleep which provoked me to write some of them down. If there's more, I will add it to this post and inform you.
"But you must know, I'm really a mermaid, a dryad, simply a nymph."
No comments:
Post a Comment