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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 1987)
TWENTY-THIRD AVENUE EEC CAPE BOOKS Wide Selection of: Breakfast Sat-Sun • Best Sellers, • Hardcover and • Paperback Books. Dinner Tues-Sun 9:00-1:00 5:30-9:30 Personal Services: • Special Orders •Gift Wrapping • Gift Certificates * I t -1 WES E L E A N O R M A L I N Written & Directed by: Denys Arcand Starring: Rémy Girard, Domenique Michel, Louise Portal Playing at: The Movie House irst thing in this story, Domenique (Domenique Michel), states in an interview for Diane (Louise Portal), that the American empire is in decline. She points out that whenever a population has ‘ ‘arrived” to the point of its citizenry starting to F Homemade Food Reasonable Prices 4C t f i £ S t < lin t t n 1015 NW 21rd Avenue. Portland, Oregon 224-5097 7 ,0 0 0 square feet o f Specializing in Victorian Pine Furniture Large Dining Room Sets • Robes & Sideboards Stained Glass W indow s • Doors • & M uch More Direct English Importers 3Renatt’s Antiques ^ ^ We re losing the battles, losing the war, losing the empire, too B Y • Lesb ian /G ay O ver The Decline of the American Empire " Hn. 1 0 -6 p.m. 7 Days 2444 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. • Phone 233-6823 JANUARY CLEARANCE SALE S ° t v S a £ > think o f their individual pleasures and self- fulfillment, that civilization has passed its prime and is on the decline. In its more dynamic formative state, individuals do not expect, probably don’t even think about, personal hap piness in marriage. Survival is the key, and the needs and wants of the individual are sublimated. These two women, and two others, Louise and Danielle, get together for a lengthy workout session, and start talking about sex. Domenique and Diane, anyway, have spent a great deal of their leisure time searching for sexual fulfill ment. Their revelations range from the ordinary — Louise would have (possibly) had a fling with her tennis coach if husband Rémy hadn’t stalled his car in front of hers — to the more sensational — Diane is having an S-M affair with a shady character and has the welts to prove it. Domenique has paid for sex with men on her many travels, and once with two Afri cans they told her what to do, anyway. Louise and Rémy went to a swingers party for profes sional couples, and Louise had sex with another w om an’s husband, though there was not much to report. Back at the ranch, four men are fixing dinner and talking about sex. They go on at great length about the thrill o f the conquest and kinky things they have stumbled across. They laugh about how women discuss their private parts and the unwholesome afflictions they are prone to. O f the eight principals, only Rémy and Louise are still married. Domenique never mar ried; Pierre and Diane are both divorced; Claude is a homosexual, and a young male teaching assistant approaches the ensemble with not much to say. Danielle, the youngest of the women, met Pierre at a massage parlor where she performed a special on him while discussing the bizarre goings-on during the mil lenium. It was one of the funniest scenes in a film packed with funny scenes. Another is r .- . V.’VM.'.S v e o o4lS ' ° ' c e " ' e tfe rt* ® '* • n » K - ......... i P m Cotton Cloud Futon Co. 0oW • All cotton futons • Futon covers, pillows, accessories • Custom built frames, and furniture Come by or call Terri 234-6567 3125 E. Burnside A Woman's Place Feminist bookstore and more 1431 NE Broadway • (503) 284-1110 Mon.-Sat. 11-7 pm • Sundays noon-5 pm kv.__ < ■ ••• _ * [.4 Unique, original gifts in our gallery • fabric art & toys • ceramic sculpture when Rémy and Pierre demonstrate the art of disco dancing and making small talk — some thing they abhor, but must learn to do to court women. “ Baryshnikov— fantastic, eh!” — “ Acid rain — it’s terrible!” Through skillful intercutting, we see the full extent of the duplicity heterosexual males exer cise in the pursuit of casual sex with women; on the other hand, the women reveal the spiteful tricks they play to get even with the men. When the foursome of history profs and com pany meet at the country estate where the men have been cooking, they greet each other with rather formal hugs. While each set has been relatively spontaneous and truthful with others o f their sex, the mix of males and females causes a complete change in the texture of the proceedings. Men and women can’t discuss their innermost feelings and sexual histories together, because their attitudes are light years apart. When Mario, Diane’s bad and mean looking boyfriend, breaks in on the dinner, he scoffs at the original Pilsner beer they give him, invites them to engage in sex, then scoffs at them for spending all afternoon talking about it and refusing it when it’s offered. Though this is a consistently funny film, plenty of serious ideas surface. Claude can talk about cruising and AIDS, but can’t share a startling symptom with the group. Domenique, who has paid for sex with men, recounts how they have stolen her passports, money, watch, the same as Claude’s tricks have stolen from him. Diane is actually the most at risk in her relationship with Mario. Not much imagination is required to note the extent to which his op tions might reach. And she is getting addicted to pain in a game which she says has fixed rules, but no limits. When Mario interrupts and insults the group, Diane has just made a feminist speech com plaining she will never get tenure or make full pay since she took 10 years out to have children. She’s embarrassed by Mario’s frankness, but nearly breaks a leg joining him for more sensa tional sex. And one is aware that these historians are recounting their own bedroom-eye view histories without realizing they fit into the grand plan of history being made by the moment. At one point Diane comments to her class that we have many more documents on the Spanish than on the Aztecs, and many more on men than women. She suggests historical re cord favors winners, not losers. Less is shown o f Claude's sex life than that of the heterosexual males. Less is shown of the women’s previous liaisons than of the men’s. Though Rémy dis cusses his conquests with gusto, and it seems that sex is important to him, it’s only important for the moment. If women have the power to drive men mad with desire, it’s so transitory as to be meaningless, and few women ever figure out how to benefit by this biological phenomenon. Depending upon one’s mood, of course, it’s easy enough to go along with George Will’s comment that these are wretched times. Possi bly we are losing the empire, and under- educated, goalless, soulless lowlifes are taking over the shreds of what’s left. But the women in this film have invested a great deal of time and thought looking for the heart of fulfillment, and have found not much there for them. The men have spent a great deal of time looking for temporary solutions to an age-old quest, and have a few shaggy dog stories to tell, and not much in the way of real memories of relation ships. This might be due to the dichotomy of sex to thought. Sex is something not verbalized very well except by the few with profound liter ary talent. It lurks in a pre-civilized, bestial portion of mind and body, but doesn’t set well at a civilized dinner party, and leaves the age- old question, just how far would we go, given an infinite number of partners, and an infinite number o f positions? • r- Just Out 14 January. 1987 TOW .-murici vV'v, .( a V