In an interview with the Sunday Times, Paul Verhoeven castigates the absence of sex scenes in the latest James Bond films, pointing to a Hollywood industry that has become completely sanitized on this aspect.
While the producers of the James Bond saga phosphorate (or keep in mind, it depends) the name of the next actor who will slip into the impeccable costume of agent 007, succeeding Daniel Craig, Paul Verhoeven takes the opportunity to deliver his vision on the last films of the saga, castigating the absence of sex scenes.
The interested party knows what he is talking about, he who has regularly sprinkled his films with explicit, and even sometimes traumatic, scenes, such as that appearing in his masterpiece Flesh and Blood, which will also be honored very soon in a sumptuous Blu-ray edition planned by the publisher Carlotta.
When Verhoeven’s “Flesh and Blood” was 30 years ahead of Game of Thrones…
The filmmaker therefore expressed his frustration in an interview with the Sunday Timesdenouncing Hollywood productions now completely purged of sex scenes. “It’s just stunts and explosions” he lets go. “Sometimes these movies are fun, but their stories don’t say anything about us anymore.” An observation which, according to him, concerns Marvel films such as the 007 saga.
“I would like to come back to reality, with cars that do not leave in the sky” he comments, if by chance he was given the reins of a next James Bond opus. If he points out that he appreciated Daniel Craig when he took over in Casino Royale, he did not appreciate Dying can wait.
“There was always sex in James Bond! They didn’t show breasts or anything, but they had sex.” If in the last film Bond is linked to Madeleine Swann, the two characters do not have an intimate scene.
That said, the likelihood of the filmmaker directing a James Bond movie is as believable as an alternate reality. Good foot good eye, now 83 years old, Paul Verhoeven is in any case more frankly in the odor of holiness in Hollywood. Too uncontrollable. And carrier of a cinema which would find no, or very little, its place in a Hollywood industry more formatted than ever.