sex, lies, and videotape
セックスと嘘とビデオテープ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
An impotent drifter videotapes women talking about sex; the interview is the intimacy. It helped to change American independent film in the years that followed.
Ann Mullany lives in a comfortable house in Baton Rouge with her husband, John, a successful lawyer. She is in therapy, and she tells her therapist that the idea of John touching her repels her. John is having an affair with Ann's younger sister, Cynthia, a free-spirited artist who tends bar, and he tells himself that Ann's coldness is to blame.
Graham Dalton, John's old college friend and now a drifter with some money saved, comes to stay until he finds a place of his own. He and John no longer have anything in common, but he and Ann get on. While she helps him look for a flat, he tells her he is impotent. Calling on him later, she finds stacks of videotapes labelled with women's names: interviews in which women talk about their sexual experiences and fantasies. Watching them alone is the only way Graham finds release. Ann leaves, disturbed. Cynthia turns up uninvited, hears the explanation and agrees to make a tape of her own. When she tells Ann and then John, both are appalled.
Vacuuming the bedroom, Ann finds Cynthia's pearl earring and understands. She goes to Graham's flat and insists, over his objections, on making a tape. Then she asks John for a divorce and tells him what she has done. John goes to Graham's flat, punches him, drags him outside, locks him out and watches the tape. On it Ann says she has never found sex satisfying, and admits she has thought about sleeping with Graham. Then she turns the camera on him. He confesses that he was a pathological liar, that his lies destroyed his relationship with his girlfriend, Elizabeth, and that he came back to Baton Rouge hoping to lay that to rest. Ann moves close to him, and the tape ends.
On the porch, John tells Graham that he slept with Elizabeth while she and Graham were together. When he has gone, Graham destroys the camera and every tape. Some time later John is summoned to his boss's office. Ann and Cynthia make peace at the bar where Cynthia works. Ann goes to Graham's house and joins him on the front porch. She predicts rain; it is already raining, he tells her.
Starring
James Spaderas Graham Dalton
John's old college friend, a drifter back in Baton Rouge, who is impotent and videotapes women talking about sex.
Graham Dalton’s story
Graham comes back to Baton Rouge after nine years away with one key, for his car, and a rule that he no longer lies. While Ann helps him look for a flat, he tells her he is impotent, and when she finds his tapes he tells her plainly what they are. He asks Cynthia to make one, and gives way when Ann insists on making her own. Then Ann turns the camera on him, and he admits that he was once a pathological liar, that his lies ended things with Elizabeth, and that he came back to lay that to rest. John punches him, locks him out of his own flat and, leaving, tells him he slept with Elizabeth. Alone, Graham destroys the camera and every tape. At the end Ann comes and sits beside him on his porch.
Andie MacDowellas Ann Bishop Mullany
John's wife, comfortable and unhappy, who is in therapy and repelled by the thought of her husband touching her.
Ann Bishop Mullany’s story
Ann keeps her house spotless and tells her therapist she worries about where the world's garbage goes. She and Graham get on from the first evening, but his tapes frighten her, and she rings Cynthia to warn her away from him. When she asks John whether he is having an affair, he denies it, and she believes him. Then, vacuuming the bedroom, she finds her sister's pearl earring. She drives to Graham's flat and makes him film her. On the tape she says that sex has never satisfied her and admits she has thought about sleeping with him, and then she turns the camera on him and makes him talk. That night she asks John for a divorce. Later she makes peace with Cynthia at the bar where Cynthia works, and goes to sit with Graham on his porch.
Peter Gallagheras John Mullany
A successful lawyer who is sleeping with his wife's sister and blames his wife's coldness for it.
John Mullany’s story
John, a successful lawyer, brings Cynthia home while Ann is out and sleeps with her in the marriage bed, and moves a meeting with an important client to see her. He makes no secret of his distaste for what his old friend Graham has become. When Ann asks whether he is having an affair, he denies it and talks her round. When Cynthia tells him she has made a tape for Graham, he rails against Graham and blames him for everything, and she ends the affair. Then Ann asks for a divorce and tells him about her own tape. He drives to Graham's flat, punches him, locks him out and watches it. On the porch afterwards he tells Graham he slept with Elizabeth. Some time later, having neglected his clients for the affair, he is summoned to his boss's office.
Laura San Giacomoas Cynthia Patrice Bishop
Ann's younger sister, a free-spirited artist and bartender, who is John's lover and agrees to make a tape for Graham.
Cynthia Patrice Bishop’s story
Cynthia paints, tends bar and has never settled things with her older sister, and she is sleeping with Ann's husband. When Ann warns her away from Graham, she goes straight round to his flat uninvited, gets him to explain the tapes and agrees to make one. Afterwards she tells Ann, who is horrified, and John, who rages at Graham and blames him for everything; disgusted with him, she tells John it is over. The pearl earring Ann finds in the bedroom is the one Cynthia lost. For a while the sisters do not speak. At the end Ann comes to the bar where Cynthia works, and they make peace.
Why it matters
sex, lies, and videotape looks at a marriage that is sexless and dishonest at once, and at four people who cannot say what they want to the person in front of them. Ann cannot bear to be touched; John lies to her and sleeps with her sister; Graham can feel desire only at the distance of a lens. The film's quiet proposal is that talking truthfully about sex can be more intimate than sex itself, and that the camera Graham hides behind is also what finally lets Ann speak. Steven Soderbergh made it for $1.2 million. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1989, when he was 26, the youngest solo director to win it, and James Spader was named best actor. It helped to change American independent film in the years that followed. It ends not with sex but with two people on a porch in the rain, having told each other the truth.