Today's female filmmaker is a true artist who got her start showcasing the art of sex and nudity onscreen. Nowadays her work is shown in art museums, but we also have it here on Mr. Skin. Watch the sexy and artistic work of director Bette Gordon.
Bette Gordon was recently mentioned in our Staff Picks on No Wave Cinema. As we mentioned it was sort of a punk-rock movement in the late 70s and 80s that revolved around the punk rock and art scenes in the Lower East Side and Alphabet City neighborhoods in New York City. Artists thrived and experimented with film and several major directors got their start directing short films in the No Wave Movement. Bette Gordon was among them!
So where did Bette Gordon come from?
Ms. Gordon was originally from the Midwest which explains the titles of her early short films in the 70s called Michigan Avenue and 1-94. She made films in Madison, Wisconsin, and Chicago, Illinois - two cities that she spent a lot of time in. She even went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison where she earned her BA, MA, and MFA in film. She is very educated! This lady knows what she is doing.
She burst onto the scene in a major way with 1983's Variety. The film starred Sandy McLeod as a woman named Christine who really needs a change. She is bored with her boyfriend, her job, her life - everything. Sandy decides to spice up her own life by taking a new job at a seedy adult theater in Times Square. This was old Times Square when the place was lousy with sex clubs!
Sandy learns the scene and she soon becomes very comfortable dancing for men at the theater. The trenchcoated guys watch Christine dance and they soon start coming for her. The once-shy Christine embraces her new lifestyle and comes out of her shell and her shirt as she checks herself out in a tight bustier.
Nan Goldin got down to her undies as well in the movie. We don't get as much TA as we would like, but Bette left that for her next project. Still, this film was a cult classic and it has received quite a bit of critical acclaim.
She continued directing a wide variety (hey, there's that word again) of films. In 1994, she directed episodes of the erotic series Love Street. Do you know what happens on Love Street? Sex, sex, and more SEX.
Her last film was 2017's The Drowning starring Julia Stiles. Julia always stays in style! It was a pleasure to watch her even though she keeps her clothes on. She wears a rather see-thru shirt at one point that shows off just how small and pointy her nipples are. We see pokies a few other times, but it's the see-thru shirt that had me wanting to drown in Julia's bosom.
Nowadays, Bette Gordon teaches at Columbia University in New York City. She also works with the Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney Museum where her experimental films are often on permanent display. She is not just a filmmaker. She is an artist and she proved that art can be made with exquisite sex and nudity. Thank you, Bette Gordon, for giving us that gift!
