Gaspar Noé's Love 3D

Since the United States seems to be the world center of pornography, according to The Road to Grace, a website keeping track of porn statistics, and porn sites receive more regular traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined, I should perhaps not be surprised to discover that Netflix is now apparently offering porn among its regular movie listings. 

I sat down last night, scanned for new movies on Amazon Prime and Netflix and clicked on Love. Nice catchy title for a movie, don’t you think? Available on Netflix.

The film opens with a naked man and a naked woman lying on a bed masturbating each other. For real. Not a simulation. And we were off and running.

We soon learn that the man, Murphy, and the woman, Elektra, met in Paris, and are in a seriously dysfunctional relationship. He seeks sex where he can find it; she goads him on to explore ever new sexual adventures and then faults him when he follows her lead. He has the brain of a sexually immature teenager; she is probably best understood, simply, as a self-destructive neurotic. At some point they bring a 17-year-old neighbor, Omi, into their bed. In time, Murphy gets Omi pregnant, Elektra disappears, and the film consists of endless flashbacks of Murphy blaming Omi for his current miserable state and pining away for Elektra. At this point we learn that the entire story takes place on a single recent New Year's Day, and entirely in Murphy's mind. We also become aware that this is not a porn flick, if you define porn as having no purpose but to titilate, but a tale of two people you’d really have to work hard to like, a film made by someone who wants to make a movie about the emotional side of an essentially sexual relationship, and kind of succeeds. You kind of wish he'd chosen one that succeeds, not one that fails, to focus on.

What makes the film interesting is not only the discovery of the fact, in case you didn’t know this already, that endless images of people engaged in sex does not necessarily make what you’re watching porn, but also seeing how a filmmaker can play with your emotions. In this case, I’m talking about Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noé and the emotions are annoyance which turns ultimately to pity. “Why do people make movies about such unsympathetic characters?” becomes “there but for the grace of God go I” as you watch the clueless shoot themselves in the foot.

Although new to Netflix, the film came out five years ago and was featured (in the “outsider” category) at Cannes, and has had time to get some pretty good reviews. One I recommend is by Simon Abrams on the Roger Ebert site if you’re still on the fence about wanting to see it. 

I reached a much simpler conclusion. It’s not as bad as you want to think it is. But don't watch it for the story; I can't see what satisfaction there is in watching clueless people behave badly. Watch it for the sex, if you like; it's quite erotic in parts. But be prepared to be struck with the awareness of how sex can just as often make you sad as it can make you happy.

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