If I was telling that story in a '50s style, it would have been a melodrama, ... a story of 'An innocent girl falls into the seedy, sordid world of bondage and then sees the light and is born again.' If I were telling it now in an urban, sophisticated way, you would have a story about a girl who is a free spirit, who does these lighthearted bondage photos, then she crashes and she turns to religion which would be the tragedy in the modern view, because it's so polarized now that people see any religion as representing the horrible forces of puritanism. I was trying to comment on the sad confusion surrounding sex at that time, present it in a complex way, and give her religion a fair hearing too.
More Quotes from Mary Harron:
I'm very interested in women in the '50s, and sex is more interesting in that time than any other period of the 20th century. It was so sexual and yet so repressed, so naive and yet so obsessed with sex. So there's a lot that was latent.Mary Harron
I like subjects that are enigmatic and contradictory, ... And Bettie expressed these interesting contradictions between something we associate with shame and sexual oppression, something sinister, something hidden, powerful, decadent the bondage imagery and then her own spirit, which was wholesome and happy and joyful. And by expressing that joyfulness she made the photos seem fun and playful.
Mary Harron
When we couldn't find the right person, we decided to abandon preconceptions and look at people we hadn't thought of. She came in and her very first audition was so wonderful, so magical. She had this sweetness and innocence, but also something sexy and a little dark.
Mary Harron
She was very much of the period, ... A lot of people played it too sexy, in a very modern way. And I think Gretchen had a very instinctive understanding of the sexiness of a very different time. You have to go back before Playboy, before the outright, blatant sexiness to something more hidden, teasing, more of the nice girl. Naughty but nice.
Mary Harron
We haven't faced that yet, ... I don't know what's going to happen. The scene when she takes all of her clothes off the movie is so much about what is the fear of sex, and Bettie's whole career is about showing her body. She is famous for posing naked in the Garden of Eden, and she is famous for the bondage, the clothes, the gear. You have to have that contrast. You had to show what everyone is afraid of. That's the heart of the movie. To lose that would be very hard.
Mary Harron
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Based on Topics: Fairness Quotes, Light Quotes, Present Quotes, Puritanism Quotes, Religions & Spirituality Quotes, Sadness Quotes, Time Quotes, Tragedy QuotesBased on Keywords: lighthearted, melodrama, polarized, seedy
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