Have Your ID's Ready, Now Crossing the Border into Different Taboos

Joshua Tuttle

Professor Manuel A. Pérez Tejada

Engl 1102 D2

April 21, 2009

Have Your ID's Ready, Now Crossing the Border into Different Taboos

Think about the last thing you would want to talk about in public. Regardless of what you thought of it is likely that it is a taboo subject. What makes something taboo? Well there are taboos that are unique to every culture, as well as universal taboos. Sex, drugs, violence, death, and combinations of the prior constitute the majority of taboos in this world. The taboos a movie breaks and challenges in one place can become irrelevant in different cultures, regions, and countries.

In less advanced civilizations taboos can seem very extreme. One example is the Wakelbura tribe of Queensland, they forbid women who are menstruating to come near the camp. The tribe fears that if a man were to see her he would die in which case the woman would be killed. In the Yolngu tribe of North Australia when a person dies their name and words that are similar must not be spoken for a certain period. While these taboos are interesting they are not the ones that are usually addressed in film.

Modern taboos are usually due to religious and moral beliefs in an area. An example of a religious taboo is in the Christian religion; to talk of premarital sex and other immoral activity is severely frowned upon. In the Jewish faith it is taboo to eat pork. In the Hindu religion it is forbidden to eat beef or to mistreat a cow. Morally in highly conservative countries and regions something as simple as a kiss can make a huge difference upon how a person is viewed. Not even five decades ago in the United States, if one was to go into a rural region it would not be uncommon to find family members that would disown a teenage child, because of a kiss or two. This is due to the assumption that if a couple were kissing they must also be participating in sexual activity. The film industry often addresses religious and moral issues because both make up a large portion of a person’s life.

In Indonesia, the film industry has just begun to pick back up since the 90's. There have only been three women who have worked as directors since the country's first film in 1926 and the end of the oppressive Suharto dictatorship in 1998. In recent years there have been more women directors, and there are more in the film schools of Indonesia. These women directors have been pushing the limits of taboo subjects within the film industry of Indonesia. Nia Dinata is one of these directors, her first film A Courtesan was the first film in more than 30 years with an ethnic Chinese main character. She also directed The Gathering and Love for Share, the first discussing the taboo of homosexuality and the second discussed the issues of polygamy in Indonesia. In 2007, four female directors including Dinata made Chant of Lotus, which discusses taboos ranging from abortion and prostitution to premarital sex and HIV/AIDS. Chant of Lotus received much censoring from the government. These movies addressing the so called “harder' taboos would have had no chance of being made had the lesser taboos not be broken in earlier Indonesian films.

In my studies one of the more popular films in Indonesia was What's Up With Love?. It is the story of a young girl, named Cinta (which means love in Indonesian). She goes to high school with her four best friends and loves to read and write poetry. Through a series of events she learns about l ove and true friendship. The movie addresses the taboos subjects of child and spousal abuse and suicide. Both of these events center on Cinta's friend Alyia. The movie begins with her showing he r friends the bruise she had received the day before from one of her father's rampages. Although physical abuse is never shown within the film the results are shown as well as the mental abuse. The mental abuse contributes largely to this taboo, because the fact it causes victims and friends of victims not to talk about it because of the stress it places on the victim. Because of the continued abuse from her father and the lack of somewhere to go, Alyia decides to attempt suicide in her shower. The scene doesn't show the act itself but shows Alyia in the corner of the shower using a high angle shot, which shows her helplessness. There is then a cut to a close up of the drain with blood draining down it. Many people don’t talk about suicide because of the spiritual ramifications of suicide that is in most religion's teachings.

The taboos broken by What's Up With Love? are not only social and moral taboos but it also breaks taboos within the film industry. At the end of the film Cinta and her love Rangaa share a passionate kiss. This is the first on screen kiss in decades from an Indonesian film. The reason this hadn't happened in the past is because of the predominantly Islamic demographic in Indonesia, whose morals are conservative. The reign of Suharto, president of Indonesia from 1968 to 1998, supported the censoring of many films also contributing to a lack of taboos being shown in film. This film was also produced by a woman which is also very rare, and almost a taboo in itself. This film set up the possibility for more risqué taboo breaking within Indonesia.

In France and Europe taboos are often used and discussed in film. This discussion has caused filmmakers to push the limits of what is taboo tremendously. In order to get the same response from today’s audience, more controversial taboos are required. This has helped spur on the New French Extremity movement in French film. James Quandt says:

The critic truffle-snuffing for trends might call it the New French Extremity, this recent tendency to the willfully transgressive by directors like Francois Ozon, Gaspar Noe, Catherine Breillat, Philippe Grandrieux--and now, alas, Dumont. Bava as much as Bataille, Salo no less than Sade seem the determinants of a cinema suddenly determined to break every taboo, to wade in rivers of viscera and spumes of sperm, to fill each frame with flesh, nubile or gnarled, and subject it to all manner of penetration, mutilation, and defilement.

Within this movement is a film that uses amateur actors and is the definition of raw, its title is Baise-moi. Not only was it banned, but it also caused the 18 and older restriction to be put in place specifically for this film in France.

Baise-moi is the story of Nadine, a prostitute, and Manu, a pornography actress, that go on a crime spree throughout France. The two separately kill a person in each of their lives; Manu her brother, and Nadine, her roommate. They meet as they are trying to leave the city by train, but the last train has left so they take Manu’s car. They continue murdering until their eventual climactic death and arrest. During their tour of violence the director,Virginie Despentes , chose to include several graphic sex scenes with apparent strangers. Not only are the main characters taking an extremely promiscuous approach to their actions but they are also clearly the ones in control of the sexual situations. Traditionally the man is seen as the dominate partner during a sexual act. This is actually a taboo that is being broken but also has a deeper m eaning. It is included due to Manu being raped at the beginning of the film and this sense of control she uses allows her vicarious revenge. This film also uses an excess of violence. Death is taboo to talk about, especially lightly, in most cultures. One exchange between the main characters exemplifies how lightly they take the murders they are committing:

Manu: We don´t have the right answers at the right time.

Nadine: But we do have the right actions, that´s a start, and we aren´t doing it that bad.

Manu: No. But those people are going to die. The dialogs need to have some level. Crucial to death.

What they are saying with this exchange is that they need to have witty remarks when they kill. This makes the deaths of innocent victims into punch lines of a joke. A taboo breaking movie on this scale would not be complete without heavy drug usage. Both actresses are visually intoxicated in one form or another in every scene. In the majority of scenes the drug of choice is just alcohol but there is also usage of cocaine and marijuana. Because of the legality of both drugs that is a major taboo breaker.

Although What’s Up With Love? and Baise-Moi seem different they do touch on similar issues in different ways. Most noticeable are the subjects of suicide and abuse. It can be seen from both film profiles that taboo relies heavily upon the origin and audience of a film. If What’s Up With Love? was played in France it would never be seen as breaking taboos, let alone be known for breaking them. While on the other hand Baise-Moi would never see any film screen in Indonesia. This trend is not contained only to these two countries; it is universal that taboos are variable. So although a film may break a taboo in on country it may be perfectly acceptable in another and vice-versa.

Works Cited

"Baise Moi Script - transcript from the screenplay and/or Virginie Despentes and Coralie movie." Drew's Script-O-Rama: free movie scripts and screenplays, baby! 21 Apr. 2009 .

"Flesh & blood: sex and violence in recent French cinema | ArtForum | Find Articles at BNET." Find Articles at BNET | News Articles, Magazine Back Issues & Reference Articles on All Topics. 21 Apr. 2009 .

Kwok, Yenni. "Motion picture directors & producers, Gays & lesbians." Ms. Arlington Summer 2008: 26-27.

Webster, Hutton. Taboo: a Sociological Study. New York: Octagon Books, 19731942.

Warning: These citations may not always be 100% accurate.