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elements of this film have been affected by what people think of pornography, but this isn't pornography: it's
not
about turning men on.
MacDonald:
Has the film been censored? I know when I first saw it in Toronto, the scene where Molly masturbates the Asian man who refuses to shower or wash was painted over (it was funny because you could see the shot through the paint). That shot is gone in the version of the film now available.
Borden:
When I tried to get an R rating, I found out that so much would need to be cut to satisfy the MPAA [Motion Picture Association of America] that there'd hardly be a film left. I decided to distribute the film without an official rating. I did end up cutting the hand-job shot: it was six seconds. The only other changes I made were to revise the ending a bit and to change the prostitutes' names (to avoid a suit!). Also, I added a bit of conversation between Molly and the Ricky Leacock character at the end of their session.
Anyway, I'd like to make a porn film where you're aware that a woman is controlling the camera. I mean, is the cinema apparatus intrinsically male? Is the voyeurism that happens in film intrinsically a male approaching, attacking, a female? I guess I don't believe so.
It'd be funny too, to make a film about the awkwardness of sex. Sex is so awkward. It's always awkward; you can't get it in the right place, or whatever. When it's passionate, you laugh about the awkward parts and then forget them, but when it's notand it's certainly not in pornographythe awkwardness is very extreme, because it's not two people who are attuned to each other. When it's not passionate, sex is pretty funny and funny not usually in the way that people want it to be.
In your article you talk about the experience of going to porn shops. Have you ever considered bringing Pat [Patricia O'Connor, MacDonald's wife], or somebody, to a porn shop?
MacDonald:
No.
Borden:
How would you feel if she were there?
MacDonald:
Embarrassed.
Borden:
Really?
MacDonald:
When I wrote my article, I was trying to understand the experience for myself. It's embarrassing to realize what you're paying to look at. I certainly can't speak for all men, but I'd guess most men are embarrassed to know that there's actually something in these places, and in this imagery, that does turn them on, even briefly. Part of my embarrassment has to do with how porn shops must look to women. If I were a woman, I'm sure I'd feel that the imagery men see there is really horrible for women and must create images in the male psyche that feed into their real sex lives in debilitating ways. And yet, on another level, as a sometime experiencer of that material, I feel that there's more involved.