Questions about Hans?

[Gg]

there is something really charming about all this trying to understand each other!

[jessyjellybean]

if Hans didnt shake it all about these mistakes wouldnt keep happening :-[we could talk about nice stuff lambs,kittens, and the Last Night of the Proms

[Gg]

Hey, nudity is just part of his work, and if you listen to his Bathory interview, I think he is a bit sheepish about it himself, so perhaps we should respectfully keep the discussion of nudity as light as possible. Imagine if you heard people talking about your...stuff. Whether or not you had been asked to "put it out there" for a role. Usually it's women who are criticized for this kind of thing. Theoretically, it's Caravaggio's body, or Jeno's, or Jake's or whomever the character may be. In that moment at least -- "nudity" is a costume choice.

is whomever right?

[starkiller]

Nov 20, 2008 7:30:45 GMT 8 Gg said:

Hey, nudity is just part of his work, and if you listen to his Bathory interview, I think he is a bit sheepish about it himself, so perhaps we should respectfully keep the discussion of nudity as light as possible. Imagine if you heard people talking about your...stuff. Whether or not you had been asked to "put it out there" for a role. Usually it's women who are criticized for this kind of thing. Theoretically, it's Caravaggio's body, or Jeno's, or Jake's or whomever the character may be. In that moment at least -- "nudity" is a costume choice.

is whomever right?

Besides which, as any actor/director will say, filming nude scenes is not a cakewalk. It is not as easy as taking off the clothes and stepping in front of the camera. There is lighting, timing, dialogue, temperature to consider, and if you read any interview with any actor or actress who has done a nude scene, you will not find any of them talking about how wonderful an experience it was, rather you will find them saying that it is uncomfortable to film because it is NOT natural, there is endless repetition to get the shot right. They will also say that the scene(s) are necessary to further the plot and the story line and are not there to titilate or make the audience omghorny.

Besides which, if people are looking for a UK actor who drops his kit at the drop of a hat, look no further than the immensely talented Ewan McGregor, who does nude scenes as required by the film he is working on and is as talented as they come. So nudity is not something that should be considered shocking, after all, this is the 21st century and we are also on the internet.

[Gg]

I think you're right on Star -- although I have to say that as to "artist intention" where female nudity is concerned, with much chagrin, i admit that the American entertainment industry has a severe double standard, that often has nothing whatsoever to do with plot development and has everything to so with omghorny.

But as to the actual making of a nude scene -- lest we forget, even on a closed set, you are going have at least a skeleton crew, people WILL be watching and giving you notes and of course it seldom is over in one take. JUST try to imagine, a teamster coming up to you with a light meter, inches from you skin, asking the tech about readings -- 'okay her breasts are really hot' (what, um, huh? are we still talking about lighting now). NOT to mention, and this is the actory thing that is either giggled about nervously or brings on condemnation from the outsiders who are privy to it -- if a male actor is meant to be as professional as possible in said sex scene -- I mean seriously -- biological reactions being what they are and wanting to be "in the moment", he must be thinking, oh GOD I'm I going to get slapped if I do... or is she going to be offended if I don't. You might not even LIKE the person you're sharing the scene with. I mean it's a little more than just "being naked" and few people I respect have ever gotten off on it -- though there are those who do. I think everyone who has ever done this kind of scene has a eye-rolling story about them.

My experience,... you really need to understand your underwear (thank you Star!)

When, as an audience member, it isn't gratuitous, I appreciate well done love scenes, sex scenes, and not just romantic ones -- ever seen "Sherry Baby"? It would be a completely different film without those scenes. Her damage would be imagined (and therefore easily disregarded) rather than realized. And they aren't easy scenes to watch. But they hit you viscerally, you are angry at her, you feel tragic pity for her, you can't understand WHY oh why she's doing it,... you realize how horribly damaged she is. OR "Black Snake Moan" OH MY GOD -- Christina Ricci in that film and without the understanding of her in that way, well, you'd just see that chain as some kind of perverted bondage.

So I think to say it's just about flippantly dropping your pants is a bit too simple.

"Velvet Underground",... wow, it's been years since I saw that!

[jessyjellybean]

would any of you parade about naughty naked nude :oTheres no way on Gods green earth i would,Im thin as a promise with loads of birthmarks and freakles and my feet are like the stuff of nightmares. Anyhoo moving along Iv NEVER see Ewan MaGregors clothes fall off how the heck did I miss that ;D

Lets get back to the important things questions about Hans.....I wonder if he belives there is intellegent life on other planets or has ever see a UFO?

[Gg]

I don't know -- have you ever seen any UFO's??? I have a Carl Sagan kind of outlook on that. Billions and billions...


Actually, I wouldn't call it parading, but I have performed/posed for a purpose, privates at least partially unhidden... And I am hardly perfect. Or for that matter exploited. I can not remember one nude scene where I went away thinking -- yikes, nasty feet! I think you're being too hard on yourself! I bet you look perfectly lovely naked -- not naughty at all (or maybe a little, but in a good way ;D)

[lynette]

I really do not think, that Hans is like filling in the so-called naked scenes with great joy in front of the camera. In the tv show Bathory: Movie about movie he looked deeply traumatized from these naked scenes...
Director Jakubisko, his wife Deana Horváthová and cinematographer F.A. Brabec are a little erotomaniacs .. They, in all his films require nudity and erotic from actors occupation...
Anna Friel also had major problems in the naked scenes. She was very shy... It was not easy ..

[jessyjellybean]

I once see a bright orange light zipppppp over the sky,what it was I still dont know but it went at a cracking speed.My friend Nick spent years working for the Minestary of Defence investigating things of this type,that alone leads me to belive,

[lynette]

I saw also a UFO in my life several times. This must experience! I do not know, if Hans believes in UFO, but I know once said that he believes in karma. He also believes in ghosts!

[starkiller]

Nov 22, 2008 1:27:11 GMT 8 lynette said:

I really do not think, that Hans is like filling in the so-called naked scenes with great joy in front of the camera. In the tv show Bathory: Movie about movie he looked deeply traumatized from these naked scenes...
Director Jakubisko, his wife Deana Horváthová and cinematographer F.A. Brabec are a little erotomaniacs .. They, in all his films require nudity and erotic from actors occupation...
Anna Friel also had major problems in the naked scenes. She was very shy... It was not easy ..

That's not the point. I don't know of any actor that enjoys filming a naked scene - for whatever reason they happen to be naked, wether it be for sex or bathing or someone has stolen their clothes. As Gg said, even on a closed set, which means not very people watching, the experience is not a fun one.

But it's their job. They know what they're getting into when they read the script. Every script will say where nudity is required, and the director will also explain what's going on in a scene. So to say that nude scenes are traumatising, well, if that is the way they are supposed to look on screen, sure. But for the actor and director and crew making the movie or play, it's a *JOB*.

Hans has been naked in a lot of his films - Doctor Zhivago, Bathory, Comfortably Numb (which is a different genre entirely), Stella Does Tricks are the ones that spring immediately to mind. If he did not want to be naked, he would not take those roles. I doubt very much that he choses roles based on the percentage of nudity or sex in a given film. He has said that if a film speaks to him and he feels passionately about the story being told, he'll take it. *THAT* is what separates contemporary film from basic porn.

If the audience is going to be turned on by the naked body, that's up to the audience. The reaction of the audience isn't the actor's fault. And frankly, so what if Jakubisco has nudity and sex in all his films. So did Felini and he was and is regarded as a master of film making. Same with Kubrick. We're all adults here, we're all familiar with how the human body looks, having appreciation for the human form is natural and nothing to be ashamed of or shocked over.

In off-topic, I'll post a list of films with Ewan McGreggor dropping his kit, he's quite renowned for it, hahaha. He's very comfortable with his body and his body image, and good on him. There is nothing to be ashamed of, as I said. Sex is natural, nudity is natural. But at the end of the day, Hans, like Ewan and every other performer who has done nude work, is doing a JOB. Nothing more, nothing less. And personally, good on them. For all our advancements in the modern world, people need to lighten up and accept themselves and have a positive body image and good role models for that are awesome.

Sorry to tl;dr, Virgil. Will go to off-topic now.

[Virgil Reality]

OMG I opened a can of worms and I just thought I was cracking a joke.

Virgil foot - meet virgil mouth; meet other foot; change etc

Stella Does Tricks

Where?

I'll post a list of films with Ewan McGreggor dropping his kit, he's quite renowned for it, hahaha

For starters. Pillow Book and Young Adam

[starkiller]

Nov 22, 2008 20:01:46 GMT 8 Virgil Reality said:

OMG I opened a can of worms and I just thought I was cracking a joke.

Virgil foot - meet virgil mouth; meet other foot; change etc

Stella Does Tricks

Where?

I thought it was a joke to start with but then the discussion got all srsbzns!

Didn't he? I'm sure there's a sex scene with a bit of bottom showing in it.

[Gg]

you know it's ironic but I don't think either of them had any true nudity in Stella --

so much in the way of sex acts but no actual nudity... except of course the John she used the "suppository" on. But then again, nudity allows soem true intimacy with a character and I think we are meant to stand at arms length from Stella -- if that makes sense.

Oh come on Virgil -- we can talk about this stuff without it being a mistake!

But seriously, the nudity thing is absolutely part of the work, and if you don't want to do it, you can work with a nudity clause in your contract, limiting your exposure, or ask for a body double (if you are high enough on the food chain to ask for one, because of course it will cost production more to hire the "body"), and that is a pretty usual practice for actors in both cases. You never have to sign a contract before you've read a script, and so you are going to know what you are contractually obligated to do. This is business. A screwy business, but business. Or you can just pass on the role. Most break downs will tell you "actor should be prepared for partial nudity to include,...".

but as to the integrity of nudity -- come on, if it has a point, what's the big deal. Body's are beautiful and any actor who is willing to expose theirs for their art is due the same generosity they offer to their audience. Pollyanna as that is.

I think "traumatized" was probably the translator's version of Lynette's words. "Rueful" maybe? But he hardly seemed victimized in that interview -- cynical perhaps, but not traumatized... I seem to remember Anna Friel being more concerned with burning to death or being eaten by a flesh eating rash than her nudity. But if we are going to talk about "traumatized" watched the documentary on Fellini where Donald Sutherland talks about shooting the sex scenes in "Casanova"... ANd Fellini is considered, as mentioned, hello, a whole other genre of high-artistic cinema.

Acting, filmmaking, stage work -- hardly glamorous stuff, I think, is the lesson!

[starkiller]

Nov 22, 2008 23:58:27 GMT 8 Gg said:

you know it's ironic but I don't think either of them had any true nudity in Stella --

so much in the way of sex acts but no actual nudity... except of course the John she used the "suppository" on. But then again, nudity allows soem true intimacy with a character and I think we are meant to stand at arms length from Stella -- if that makes sense.

It's been a while since I watched it, it was one of the first Hans dvds I bought as it was on special in one of the shops in town. I remember thinking it was interesting in terms of the 'Trainspotting' or drug culture/prostitution genre, in that it showed another face of that life and subculture, and the hoplessness that fills so many young people who are for whatever reason, living that life.

Oh come on Virgil -- we can talk about this stuff without it being a mistake!

But seriously, the nudity thing is absolutely part of the work, and if you don't want to do it, you can work with a nudity clause in your contract, limiting your exposure, or ask for a body double (if you are high enough on the food chain to ask for one, because of course it will cost production more to hire the "body"), and that is a pretty usual practice for actors in both cases. You never have to sign a contract before you've read a script, and so you are going to know what you are contractually obligated to do. This is business. A screwy business, but business. Or you can just pass on the role. Most break downs will tell you "actor should be prepared for partial nudity to include,...".

but as to the integrity of nudity -- come on, if it has a point, what's the big deal. Body's are beautiful and any actor who is willing to expose theirs for their art is due the same generosity they offer to their audience. Pollyanna as that is.

It's also that body image thing again - we are conditioned by the media to want to be thin thin thin and sometimes scarily so, when actors like Christian Bale portray just how awful that is in 'The Machinist' for instance, or actors like Natalie Dormer or Heath Ledger show that a healthy weight is not equal to zomgfatty but instead a beautiful figure, that should be celebrated and encouraged.

I think "traumatized" was probably the translator's version of Lynette's words. "Rueful" maybe? But he hardly seemed victimized in that interview -- cynical perhaps, but not traumatized... I seem to remember Anna Friel being more concerned with burning to death or being eaten by a flesh eating rash than her nudity. But if we are going to talk about "traumatized" watched the documentary on Fellini where Donald Sutherland talks about shooting the sex scenes in "Casanova"... ANd Fellini is considered, as mentioned, hello, a whole other genre of high-artistic cinema.

Definitely Anna was more worried about burning up - and really, I don't blame her with all those candles and having gotten a rash from the copper bath tub earlier! It sounds like taking your life into your own hands on that set! I would not be at all surprised to learn that Hans was worried about setting his hair on fire with that candle hat contraption he was wearing, because that thing looks d**n dangerous! And you know what, I will admit it quite freely - I am looking forward to seeing those nude scenes and that sex scene. Not just because it's Hans, but because the characters are in love and celebrating that love and isn't that an important part of life? One of the most beautifully shot love scenes that showed a lot of skin was Brad Pitt's scene in 'Meet Joe Black.' That was such a beautiful, tender, romantic scene, and he conveyed so much with his eyes. I also admit to liking the scene in 'Mr and Mrs Smith' with him and Angelina, for entirely different reasons!

Acting, filmmaking, stage work -- hardly glamorous stuff, I think, is the lesson!

It's bloody hard work. JRM in the extras on the S1 Tudors dvd talks about how hard it was to keep that level of intensity fresh and vibrant when doing take after take and sometimes working from 7am to 8pm and wanting nothing more than to go home and have something to eat and a long sleep! And it's the same for directors and crew, a lot of the stuff I worked on here, although small fry, it was hard work, long hours, and scenes with nudity were always the hardest because there's that element of how much do we show, where do we fade to black, is the lighting right, lines are flubbed, new take, etc, etc. Although my stint was many, many years ago, that has not changed a bit.