Corona crisis: sex scenes with a safety margin – how should that work?

How do you show closeness without getting close? The film and TV industry is wondering this and is also looking for answers in the past.

The film and TV industry, which is hesitantly restarting, is faced with a dilemma. How should intimate moments such as sex scenes be filmed when actors are not allowed to get close due to the continuing concern about the coronavirus? Best not at all, according to "Direktors UK", an association of British directors. To solve the problem, they appeal to the creativity of filmmakers and screenwriters. Inspiration is supposed to be provided by an era of the greatest possible US prudery, in which all-time classics such as "Casablanca" were created. The new route? "I look you in the eye from a safe distance, little one."

Sex ban, otherwise professional ban

From 1934 to 1968 he was active in the USA, the Motion Picture Production Code, also known under the name Hays Code. From the beginning of the 1960s onwards it ceased to be unofficial. For over 20 years, however, he forbade, under punishment (fines to professional bans), among other things, to show "profanity in any form". In other words: Everything that went beyond a kiss had to fall victim to the scissors, or the whole film ended up on the index.

Of course, some filmmakers insisted on suggesting sex as explicitly as possible without showing it and thus being put on the "black list". Nobody succeeded in this as well as the rogue director Alfred Hitchcock in the final scene to his film "The Invisible Third" from 1959. Even the moral guards of that time must have understood the symbolism: Cary Grant passionately kisses his colleague Eva Marie Saint before he did Train you are on, full speed ahead, "enters" a tunnel – The End.

The fact that "Direktors UK" is now recalling this involuntary creativity from back then in their letter "Intimacy at the time of Covid-19" shows how serious the entire industry is at the moment. To make matters worse these days, however, is that the "censorship" by Corona would have to go further than the Hays Code ever did. Because even an innocent film kiss is currently difficult to reconcile with social distancing. So does Corona mean the (temporary) end of sex scenes? Rather, it even seems like a forced break for the canvas love in general.

The hope of recovery

Scriptwriters, especially for series, are encouraged to postpone intimate highlights narrative as long as possible: "The structure of an intimate scene can sometimes be more exciting than the scene itself", is the paraphrase for the phrase "anticipation is the most beautiful joy". Hope is also a bit of a brother of thought: If the corona pandemic is defeated while a series or film is being shot, sex and kissing scenes after celluloid celibacy can be rescheduled or re-shot against will.

Until it hopefully soon happens, the suggestions in "Intimacy in the Times of Covid-19" suggest a break with what is perhaps the most important creative law in the film industry: the commandment "Show, Don't Tell". . Figures, one suggestion, could, for example, tell each other what indecent things they want to do with each other or have already done. Moviegoers should therefore be prepared for an exponential increase in phone sex scenes.

Alternatively, modern technology could also be used – sex scenes from the computer. Another suggestion that could be interesting for celebrity couples: Those who are already together in real life should of course get closer in front of the camera. Motivation for the comeback of many a former Hollywood dream couple?

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