In our weekly series Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy, we're going to be taking a look at (in)famous sexscenes and nude scenes throughout cinema history and examining their construction, their relationship to the film around it, and their legacy. This week, we're looking at one of the most famous full frontal nude scenes of the decade from Danny Boyle's Trance.
For the first hour of its 100 minute running time, Trance seems like just another solid outing from one of the most kinetic directors in the business. With a plot revolving around art thievery and hypnotism, it doesn't take itself too seriously, knowing that it's never quite the highbrow thriller some may have thought it would be considering its pedigree. For that first hour, though, it just doesn't seem like anything to write home about.
Rosario Dawson plays Elizabeth, a hypnotist who is hired by criminal Franck (Vincent Cassel) to unlock the brain of an auction house worker Simon (James McAvoy), who absconded with a rare Goya painting during an attempted burglary.You see,Simon is suffering some form of amnesia—caused by a blow to the head during the robbery by Franck—which has blocked him from remembering what he did with the painting, making hypnotism seem like the only option for recovery of the stolen goods.
Elizabeth lays out an elaborate plan that involves her seducing Simon as part of unlocking his memories. Though her methods seem unconventional, they've yielded positive results up until this point, leading Franck to go along with the plan despite the fact that he and Elizabeth have started their own affair on the side. One minute past the hour mark, Elizabeth begins her seduction of Simon, excusing herself to the bathroom just when things are getting hot and heavy. From off-screen we hear the whir of an electric razor before shewalks back into the room not only fully nude, but fully shaved as well...
Now, one could reasonably assume that Rosario's character is the type to fastidiously groom her pubic region, a victim of the ever-increasingsocietal pressure to maintain a well kept mons pubis. However, as absurd as it may sound, this is indeed one of those situations where this serves an actual purpose to the story and characters. I know, nudity being integral to the plot is one of those token excuses you hear from filmmakers and actresses all the time, thefilmmaking equivalent of the"I have lots of black friends" sort of qualifier you hear from time to time.In this case, though, it's true.
As the plot unfolds, we learn that Elizabeth and Simon once had a relationship, prior to the whole art heist thing, and she hypnotized his memories of her out of his head.This is howshe knew that he had a thing for women who were completely shaven, just like the women in Rembrandt's paintings. She is exploiting his fetish, knowing that it will give her instant leverage over Simon and make him the proverbial putty in her hands.
Simon explains in the film that prior to Goya's painting "La Maja Desnuda," artists never depicted pubic hair in their paintings. Pubic hair, by its very existence, confirms the subject's humanity, and Simon's desire is to hold women to that same, unrealistic standard of sexy that existed during the Renaissance. To confirm, the film ultimately reveals Simon to be the antagonist of the film, so ittracksthat he would espouse beliefs that objectify women and keep themsimultaneously unattainable and eminently controllable.
The game Elizabeth is playing with Simon is a dangerous one, in which she must make herself vulnerable to Simon's whims, all while maintaining control over the situation. There is true power in what she does because she's exposing herself—on every level—to a volatile and violent man, yet she knows that it's the only way to gain his trust on a subconscious level.
As the film's third act reveals pile up, many of them in an exposition dump by Dawson herself, we see a flashback to an earlier time in their first relationship wherein she had shaved and felt as if she had surrendered to Simon's deluded and ultimately dangerous fantasy...
The full frontal reveal at the 61 minute mark is her reclaiming this dark part of their history together. She is using the very thing she knows he'll fall for against him. In this case, he is a sexual deviant, so her seduction is sexual in nature. Had he been a gambler or an actual thief, I'm sure that there would have been another plot thread which followed to this same conclusion.
My biggest gripe with the first scene is a simple one. There's no way she got that close with just an electric razor. There'd be stubble every which way without a razor blade. If she just used an electric razor, she'd come out of the bathroom with her bottom half looking likeJohn Stamos' face.Needless to say, the scene didn't go down smoothly for everyone, and there were many critics who lambasted the scene at the time. Meredith Borders at Birth.Movies.Death saw it as exploitative, just another flimsy excuse to get a woman to shave her nether-regions for a dumb movie about hypnotism...
"While there is technically script justification for the lengthy exposure of Elizabeth's bare vagina, and while I am certainly no prude when it comes to nudity on film, something about this detail feels defiantly indecent. It's not only thatTrancemakes the argument that a woman must shave her vagina to be considered beautiful. After all, that's Simon's point of view, and Simon's a jerk. Perhaps if Elizabeth's character were defined as something more than victim/villain (and this is in no way Dawson's fault, as she is the best part of the film in a quicksilver performance), her flaunted genitals would not rankle so."
Is nudity ever integral to the plot of a film? I think it can be provided the scene's aspirations are in line with the film's overall goals. In the case of Trance, a film wherein hypnosis is a legitimate plot device that ultimately proves the key to unlocking the mystery, then yes, I think comparing Rosario Dawson with Renaissance paintings is a completely fair thing.
For her own part, Dawson admitted in an interview with Vulture that she not only has a name for her vagina, but that it was mad at her for taking this role...
“Waxing hurts!” she told Vulture when we saw her at the Cinema Society premiere of the film last night. “I wasn’t thrilled about that. The General, she was angry with me for a little while!”
We salute Rosario and The General for the sacrifices they made while shooting this film. Pain is temporary but film is forever.
Click Here to Read Our Skin-Depth Look at the Frantic Sexuality of Danny Boyle's Films
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Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Anatomy...
—The "Real Sex" ofDon't Look Now
—Scarlett Johansson's Nude Debut inUnder the Skin
—The 2 Very Different Sex ScenesofBasic Instinct
—How Halle Berry's Nude Debut Led Her toMonster's Ball
—HowMulholland Dr.'s Legendary Lesbian Scenes Deepen the Film's Mystery
—Showgirls and the Dangers of High Camp
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Header image via IMDb
