Adrian Lyne, Adrian Lyne, Adrian Lyne, I wish you would go all the way and be well and truly sensual. The next featured film on Barefoot Aphrodite will be another directed by Lyn (the first is Unfaithful). Just as with Unfaithful, Lolita, Fatal Attraction, Lyne is an expert at creating a sense of place–capturing the look, feel, smell of everything he touches with the eye of his camera. But it is exactly these images that promise so much and, for me, really, REALLY disappoint. In the end, they are empty images inhabited by people with a mean streak or coldness. They often reflect an initial delicate appreciation of women and their form or sexuality that becomes abusive and voyeuristic. I hate to blame it on his nationality or sex but…why can’t this director get it right and come through on a truly sensual film for women?
I dated an Englishman while living in France (how did that happen?!) and when a friend of his came to visit from England he asked, “So what do you think of English men.” As I pondered my response, my boyfriend said, “She thinks they are cold-hearted bastards.” And maybe that is why Lyn doesn’t come through. While the next featured film is quite beautiful in many ways, he supposedly elicited the desired emotions from the lead actress by being essentially abusive. If you’ve got that mean streak running through you, yourself… Still, one can hope that Lyne will learn as he ages and maybe, maybe come through in the end…one can hope…
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