CINTIMA stands for Cinematic Intimacy Artists, which means we love Cinema, and we love Intimacy. Crafting intimacy on camera is an art form in and of itself.
This is the first in a series of analyzing intimate scenes we love.
We thought we'd open with a classic, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1982 film Querelle -- a precursor to the New Queer Cinema of the early 1990s.
Adapted from Jean Genet's 1947 Novel Querelle de Brest, this is the iconic and controversial-at-the-time scene between Querelle and Nono (played by Brad Davis
and Günther Kaufmann). Notice the power dynamic between the two, the use of body fluids - sweat and spit, the staging, the continual disruption of our gaze through the use of mirrors, breaking the 180 degree line, and frames within frames, the hazy soft focus and dreamy lens filters, the gripping of flesh, the costumes, theatrical sets, the explosive orgasm with kriatic spasms. The use of spit and sweat elicits a visceral response, while the choreography and mixed use of obstructed closeups, dutch mediums and wides makes the audience feel the intensity of the physicality between the two characters.
Tell us what scene you'd like us to analyze next!~