Random play: Fine line between pleasure and feign

In light of Kerry Fox's daring turn in Intimacy, DITA DE BONI ponders the difference between 'gritty realism' and porn.

Sure as sugar, there will be queues to see local girl made good Kerry Fox star in the new Brit arthouse film, Intimacy.

And we can probably sketch in advance the type of people who will be clamouring to see the film: plaid-wearing urban sophisticates, the types who take hampers of brie and methode champenoise to Opera under the Stars and bemoan the acoustics of the night sky.

Their foray into Intimacy will be interesting. The film is a gritty take on "street level" London with a kick: sex scenes so real they are, in fact, real. Now, suggest that pornography might feature in the viewing diet of these gentry and be met with hot denials. But lovable Kiwi lass rocks the casbah for real in gritty chronicle? "Of course — it's art, darling!"

That reviewers of the movie have lovingly lingered on Fox's sex-scene "realisms" — with Fox's assent — suggests that they weren't just slipped in as an afterthought, if you'll pardon the expression. Much has been made of the actress' "bravery", her understanding husband, and her leap from the epicene Janet Frame in Angels at my Table to Intimacy's Clare, who embarks on the kind of meaningless sexual escape that Cleo editors could only dream about.

All of which is PR bumpf. And all of which will give the sex scenes in Intimacy a kind of legitimacy that the art crowd will lap up.

But it's a clear-cut case of snobbish doublethink. As if Linda Loveglove's husband/agent/pimp isn't incredibly forebearing! As if Busty Tittenfrau didn't yearn for respectability when she took a bit role in Killer Tomatoes Storm Kentucky!

These glaring inequities aside, it seems that even the line between pornography (ie unrealistic portrayals of real sex) and mainstream movie sex scenes (ie realistic portrayals of unreal sex) is becoming increasingly blurred. For one thing, hair and makeup stays unmussed, orgasms are achieved in tandem and condoms are rarely mentioned in mainstream sex scenes. Moaning is pretty darn common, too.

For another thing, real sex must occur in mainstream films, as several actors have sheepishly alluded to in the wake of Fox's admission. It seems somewhat implausible that leading lady and man, admitting to feverish affairs in continually rocking trailers during film shoots in exotic locations, would settle for chaste kisses and flesh-coloured body socks during racy scenes. Method acting, my foot!

It took a French director — au naturally — to drop the pretence of make-believe love and market his stars on their risque escapades. Patrice Chereau's Intimacy, and his lovely Kiwi star, will no doubt stir and shake the arty crowd, who love a bit of taboo-breaking in their filmed entertainment — as long as it's not in the privacy of their own homes.