Fifty Shades Franchise (Taylor-Johnson/Foley, 2015-?)

[flyonthewall2983]

50 Shades of [Sigh]: The Disastrous 50 Shades of Grey Press Tour.

[flyonthewall2983]

So did anyone see Fifty Shades of Grey?

[theflirtydozen]

So did anyone see Fifty Shades of Grey?

Guilty! My group almost got kicked out for laughing unreservedly for the first half hour. If one should so happen to stumble into a showing, keep your eyes peeled for the scene with the piece of toast (though it's hard to miss the payoff). It's quirky comedy gold.

[colinr0380]

Does it do for S&M what Atlas Shrugged does for capitalism? I hear it is all about technicalities surrounding contract law.

[theflirtydozen]

I hear it is all about technicalities surrounding contract law.

I'd say the runtime in the last 2/3 is split evenly between this and the sex scenes.

[Murdoch]

So did anyone see Fifty Shades of Grey?

Just saw it yesterday and I was expecting to hate it, but it was so generic and dull in its plotting that I forgot most of its happenings once I left the theater. For a franchise so touted as sexually provocative and risque I was rather disappointed that none of that was present in the film (maybe not in the books either? I haven't read them). There are several scenes of the lead actress fully nude and others of the lead actor's backside, but it all felt very dull in this age of "there's a fetish for that" and Game of Thrones' deviousness. Grey, who I thought would be an abusive S&M craving playboy, is much more like Edward Cullen whose secret is his sexual interests instead of being a vampire (I can see how this originated from Twilight fanfiction). I mean, he's just as stalker-y, showing up standing directly behind the lead actress while she's just looking over things in her apartment, following her to another state just because he didn't want to be without her. I wish what I saw was laughably bad, but it just wasn't anything - it feels like a TV movie that thinks its pushing the envelope when really its just doing what much better films from decades ago have already done, but very poorly.

[jindianajonz]

(maybe not in the books either? I haven't read them).

Everything I know about the book comes from this (NSFW language) video, but it certainly seems pretty explicit.

[flyonthewall2983]

Despite making a healthy 400 million world-wide so far, it's box-office dropped 73 percent in the US this weekend. That's got to be a bad omen for the sequels, on top of the author wanting to write the script herself and the problems it may be causing the studio now.

As I've not made my own kinks secret here, I've seen this whole thing as a bit of a double-edged sword. One that's even more sharper now that the movie's come out. On one hand it feels like something that's so much a part of me is being recycled into something palatable as pop culture to the masses. But it's also given a larger audience to some pretty smart and important voices of people representing that realm of sexuality, who've done well to dispel what the books portray it as. And fortunately, the mainstream press has paid due attention to that.

[Dylan]

I haven't seen Fifty Shades of Grey, but I find it interesting that a lot of people are going into it anticipating a trashy style-over-substance 1990's-style film along the lines of Cruel Intentions, Basic Instinct, and Wild Things, perhaps even Showgirls. By most accounts it's a dull, unimaginative, not particularly sexy film. The novel, which I could only stomach for a few pages, wasn't 1/10 of 1% as well-written as the worst Harold Robbins novel (and it was light years away from any random page of his sublime The Carpetbaggers), so it doesn't surprise me if a film adaptation completely fails to transcend the source material. I wonder how many of these people going in for contemporary 90's-style Trash cinema are aware of De Palma's Passion from just a few years back, which pretty much does what it sounds like they're looking for (and in spades)?

[colinr0380]

That Gilbert Gottfried video is fantastic! It reminds me of some of the more hilarious moments on the BBC's arts review show in which the straight-laced guests would read passages from books nominated for the 'bad sex' awards that year. I also wish I could find a clip of the moment in which regular guest Tom Paulin during a review of a recently released edition of the collected works of Led Zeppelin (which he didn't much care for because apparently other students were continually playing their records in the Halls of Residence while he was at University, preventing him from studying!) did a fantastic straight-faced recitation of the lyrics from one of their more famous songs: "I'm going to give you my love. I'm going to give you....every inch...of my love"!

Somehow Tom Paulin reciting that line with his slightly quizzical Irish brogue, and with an edge of contempt for pop music in general, made the lyric even filthier!

I wonder how many of these people going in for contemporary 90's-style Trash cinema are aware of De Palma's Passion from just a few years back, which pretty much does what it sounds like they're looking for (and in spades)?

That's what surprises me about all the fuss over this film - with almost entirely female-centric boardroom-based sexual powerplay material in films such as Passion, the original French version Love Crimes and especially Olivier Assayas's Demonlover, which entirely blurs the lines between the boardroom and the bedroom and submission/domination in either area, it seems a bit of a retrograde step to bring things back to 'just' a dominant man in a powerful position interested in a fluttering naive waif of an assistant.

But then I thought the Twilight films were retrograde steps in both vampire, werewolf and teen drama genres (I still wonder exactly why that series of films were particularly necessary when the area had been so thoroughly, perfectly, explored in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer show), so what do I know?

[MichaelB]

My wife saw Fifty Shades of Grey and The Duke of Burgundy within a 48-hour period last week, at least partly for research as she's retraining as a psychosexual therapist.

Her Facebook posts on each:

Saw Fifty Shades today. OMG. Aside from the fact that it does indeed represent abuse rather than a BDSM relationship, it was without a shadow of a doubt the very worst dialogue I have ever seen or read or heard in anything not vanity published. Good God. You'll be pleased to know there about 5 sexy minutes, and although Dakota Johnson was pretty good, Jamie Dornan looked utterly embarrassed throughout. Think the wince-worthiness of Mamma Mia, and multiply it several times.

Went to see the Duke of Burgundy last night. Very good. All about the prescriptive nature of kink, power in sub/dom interactions and the essential mundanity of sex in long-term relationships. Contrary to other viewers, I didn't find it sexy, but it wouldn't be - it's more of a domestic drama than any kind of filth. Very interesting. And beautiful. Fabulous costumes, enchanting cinematography. Oh and intentionally funny.

[jojo]

I think a lot of the more negative think pieces out there are actually asking the wrong questions and tackling this whole phenomenon in entirely the wrong way. Yes, it's a mediocre at best film from a poorly written book, and taken as is, it is about about a crazy, unhealthy relationship, but all the noise and ire over the fact that it represents...even "promotes" abusive relationships is probably just shouting in the dark. Many of the book's fans know this. Many of the book's fans are even intelligent, socially conscious women who would raise hell if they saw something like this happen in real life.

But that's just it, really. It's not real life. It's pure escapism. When you read or watch something, I guess, trashy like this (though the film is, as noted above, disappointingly un-trashy), it's about getting a thrill in a way that you wouldn't necessarily want or promote in real life. Do Fifty Shades fans have a desire for abusive relationships? Of course not.

I mean, as a typical guy, I get a certain thrill out of seeing action movies where the main character mows down hundreds of bad guys and causing collateral damage into the billions, but it's not necessarily the way I think people in real life should solve their problems!

I think there aren't enough think pieces out there examining the psychology of this type escapism. Telling people that this story is just promoting abuse is preaching to the choir to those who already have no interest in this whole phenomenon to begin with, and seems to completely fail to engage with why so many people flock to something like this, despite being otherwise intelligent and progressive-minded people. It seems like every time a hugely hyped movie targeted at a specific demographic emerges, it's expected to push forward a progressive agenda when in fact something that is supposed to be "good for you" is often the exact opposite of how pop culture phenomenons are formed. That's probably why that trying to convince its fans that "you should read or watch this instead, it's better written/directed, more progressive, etc, etc" is probably actually adding more, I guess, "street cred" to this franchise.

As someone who had no interest in seeing this or spending even a single minute thinking about it a few months ago, I can tell you that all the people telling me NOT to watch this because it's this and that and SETS MALE-FEMALE RELATIONSHIPS BACK 50 YEARS actually made me more receptive going into this than I would normally have been.

[R0lf]

I can't wait for the extended version where Grey spends an hour untying Ana after using those rubbish knots.

[flyonthewall2983]

Looks like your wish might come true, R0lf.

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson drops out of sequel, further muddying the waters of what's already been a difficult wrangling for Universal to get everyone on the same page for the sequel.

[flyonthewall2983]

Kim Basinger to play Christian Grey's "Mrs. Robinson" in the sequel.

[The Narrator Returns]

The Knick's Gallinger to play Anastasia's boss/stalker in the sequel

[flyonthewall2983]

Fifty Shades Darker is getting a shellacking from critics, but won last night's box office. I doubt this will be the story by Monday