Cannes
(Reuters):
Directors
at
the
Cannes
film
festival
this
year
say
they
are
using
radical
images
of
sex
to
challenge
mainstream
pornography
and
its
widespread
availability
on
the
Internet.
A
series
of
filmmakers
say
Internet
porn
alone
now
shapes
many
young
people's
perception
of
sex
and,
in
many
cases,
replaces
the
experience
of
real
physical
relationships.
''There
are
kids
who
have
seen
pornography
from
a
very
early
age,
before
they
are
ever
gonna
have
sex,''
said
Larry
Clark,
one
of
the
directors
of
the
eccentric
Destricted,
a
compilation
of
explicit
sex-centred
stories.
In
his
own
short
film,
Clark
interviews
young
men
about
their
sexual
preferences
and
then
allows
one
candidate
to
appear
with
his
favourite
porn-star.
''When
I
was
a
kid
no
one
told
me
nothing.
Now
you
can
go
onto
the
Internet
and
find
out
anything
...
(Young
people)
are
looking
at
pornography
and
they
are
thinking
that
this
is
the
way
to
have
sex,''
Clark
said,
noting
his
film
was
educational.
U.S.
director
John
Cameron
Mitchell,
who
has
brought
''Shortbus''
to
Cannes,
agrees
that
young
people
are
increasingly
using
the
Internet
to
replace
real
sex.
In
Shortbus,
he
has
collected
an
ensemble
of
non-professional
actors
who
engage
in
real
on-screen
sex
and
masturbation
in
an
attempt
to
de-mystify
the
subject.
He
does
not
consider
his
film
to
be
pornography.
He
said
that
the
United
States
had
a
puritanical
view
of
sex
which
turned
it
into
an
issue
in
young
people's
minds.
In
one
particularly
provocative
scene
in
his
film,
three
gay
men
engage
in
a
sex
session
while
singing
''The
Star-Spangled
Banner''.
''I
really
believe
our
country
specifically
needs
to
take
a
look
at
that
stuff.
You
crush
something,
it
pops
up
somewhere
else,
it
comes
back
to
haunt
you,''
he
said.
Journalists
watching
the
film
generally
agreed
that
Mitchell
had
succeeded
in
taking
much
of
the
eroticism
out
of
the
sex.
Film
critics
in
Cannes
say
risque
images,
which
would
be
considered
distasteful
by
many
were
they
to
be
shown
in
a
mainstream
movie
theatre,
are
unlikely
to
shock
a
film
festival
audience,
and
in
any
case
are
not
necessarily
new.
Michael
Winterbottom
used
real
sex,
for
example,
in
his
2004
film
''9
Songs''.
''When
you
have
run
the
whole
gamut
of
sexual
positions,
you've
lost
the
power
to
shock,''
Screen
magazine
wrote.
Danish
director
Anders
Morgenthaler
reverted
to
animation
to
hit
out
at
the
porn
industry
in
his
film
''Princess'',
which
disturbed
some
by
portraying
child
abuse
and
violence.
Morgenthaler
tells
the
story
of
a
priest
who
is
determined
to
destroy
all
films
of
his
deceased
porn
star
sister
and
to
take
care
of
her
five-year
old
daughter,
a
traumatised
child.
''I
chose
animation
for
the
obvious
reason
that
if
I
had
made
it
a
live
action
piece
you
would
have
probably
left
the
theatre.
It
would
have
been
too
terrifying
to
see
a
girl
go
through
that,''
Morgenthaler
told
Reuters.''I
decided
to
make
a
film
about
porn
influence
in
society
because
I
saw
porn
seeking
its
way
into
everything,
into
clothes
or
toys.
There
is
a
'porn
way'
of
selling
things
because
it
sells
very
well.
I
got
very
angry
at
the
role
of
porn.''
Digital
sex
will
feature
in
the
British-Norwegian
co-production
''Free
Jimmy'',
while
ex-porn
star
HPG
shows
a
porn
actor
trying
to
get
into
regular
films
in
''We
Should
Not
Exist''.