Azura's' Home Planet

An Eccentric, Compelling Way of Exploring Human Connection In An Age of Isolation

In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression, self-denial. – Audre Lorde

Erotic films don’t have to be about sexual pleasure. That can be quite strange to say because the term erotic has always been equated to sex. While the film Shortbus from a surface level seems more like a pornographic film due to its unsimulated sex scenes, it is not pornographic at all in my opinion. It is quite sensual, erotic, and not in a sexual way. Activist and writer Audre Lorde and author Octavio Paz both make assertions that test the equation of eroticism exclusively to sex in their writings. In her essay Uses of the Erotic, Lorde asserts that the erotic is not only a faculty utilized for sexual pleasure, but also an energy source within us that helps us to experience life holistically; in the form of internal to external rather than external to internal. Progressing to Paz I take from his book The Double Flame this quote:

“Eroticism is, above all else, exclusively human: it is sexuality socialized and transfigured by the imagination and the will of human beings.

Paz makes light of the role culture and society has in people traversing their erotic side both emotionally as well as sexually. Holding both concepts in mind I will be analyzing the use of mise-en-scene and narrative structure in the film while also examining the role of ideology in the story. These concepts will demonstrate why I believe that erotic films don’t always have to be about sexual pleasure and have the power to critically examine problems in society while also making us a little horny, that is horny for connection and love. 

When I came upon a list titled “10 Erotic Arthouse Films Exploring the Complexity of Love and Desire”, of course I was skeptical because erotic films can sometimes be just films about sex with an excuse to show sex in a “tasteful” way; That skepticism has been destroyed by this eccentric, obscure movie. This is a description of the film from the website Letterboxd: “In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.” To elaborate, the film follows a group of people from various backgrounds: James and Jamie, a male gay couple who open their relationship up, Sofia, a sex therapist who prefers to be called a “couples counselor” who can’t orgasm, Severin, a dominatrix who is disaffected and struggling to connect with others, and a bunch of different people. The mise-en-scene of the film is both the salon and New York City itself while the ideology deals with individualism and heightened isolation with the rise of the internet as well as the political state back then. New York was still recovering from the terrible attack of the twin towers and at the same time had to sit with the societal psychological and emotional fall out of the whole ordeal. The population of New York in the year 2006 under Bush’s administration was 7.9 million people. The movie does a good job heightening that loneliness and isolation for each character. The scenes where Sofia is in “Shortbus”, the distance between her and everyone else is palpable. There is one scene where she stands outside a large room full of people having sex. The physical distance is quite small between her and others, but the distance that she feels is shown in her body language and the way she talks. Often with Sofia’s character, she is in enclosed spaces with other people and yet still feels lonely in her quest to understand why she can’t orgasm. It is only when the movie concludes that she realizes that the only person in her way was herself. The way it is revealed is in an engrossing scene where she is running through the woods only to come out to an open beach. I found this scene to be quite powerful because of the scenes before it; the use of space was done quite well in this film. For narrative structure, I do not think this film could’ve been done in a traditional structured way. The decision for the director to use alternative narrative structure was superb.

Sex was part of the narrative structure in the form of allegory. Yes sex is all over the screen and sexual scenarios, however it is not arousing sex. It is sex that makes one uncomfortable and laugh at times. It is strictly meant to communicate the story and plot, which is that this group of people are disconnected. Pertaining to character connections, it can be said that Sofia is a main character, I think it is even better to say that she is the glue that brings all the characters together. James and Jamie first meet Sofia at her office for couple’s counseling. In a fit of irritation, Sofia slaps Jaime in his face which then leads her to exposing her problem: she’s never had an orgasm. They then invite her to “Shortbus” which is where we meet the other characters of the movie: Severin, Leah, Caleb, Ceth, and many more. We learn her story through their story and vice versa. This way of storytelling only added to the layers of what the director was wishing to portray, which is the disconnection between the characters, their environment, the people around them, and their individual selves. They find the connection they all have been looking for by actually interacting with one another. For Jamie and James they find their way back to each other and strengthen their bond by connecting to their third in their relationship, Ceth, and James’s stalker, Caleb; for Sofia it is through consensual voyeurism as well as queer experimentation that she realizes that she is her problem. She is the reason she cannot orgasm. She cannot let go of the idea of tradition which then stops her from enjoying her own body and expanding her relationship to encompass both her and her partner’s desires that they both cannot fulfill. Through these interactions the director is able to scrutinize the ideology that was at play: individualism will not save us, instead it will only hurt us. When this movie came out, not only was there the Bush administration and the aftermath of 9/11, the internet was on the verge of becoming a major force that will forever alter how we interact with each other. I think this movie is even more important now due to how the internet has come to affect us. We are disconnected more than ever before. This movie’s messaging is still loud even today. 

To conclude this analysis, Shortbus is a magical exploration of disconnection in a post-/911 New York that examines it through sex in a unique way. Through the use of mise-en-scene, narrative structure, and ideology, we the audience are able to see how this film is more than just sex story. It is instead a film about connection that seeks to get people to understand that the only way we will survive is if we just open ourselves up to one another as well as be honest with ourselves about our needs. That way we are able to move towards collective healing. 

Works Cited

Evans, Hayle. “10 Erotic Arthouse Films Exploring the Complexity of Love and Desire”. Scene360 https://scene360.com/movies/93632/erotic-art-house-movies/ 

Lorde, Audre. “Uses of the Erotic”. Excerpt from Sister Outsider. 1984. Pg. 53 – 59. 

Paz, Octavio. The Double Flame. First Harvest Edition, 1996.

See you peeps in two weeks! Thanks for tuning in and love to you as always. Keep watching films and connecting with people in the world ❤

– Azura Lee