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Chapter 9 - Lessons in Seduction

from Part IV - Love, Seduction, Death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2020

Martin M. Winkler
Affiliation:
George Mason University, Virginia
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Summary

Chapter 9 is about eroticism and seduction. Ovid’s Ars amatoria (The Art of Love) is a sophisticated, although today not quite politically correct, guide to romance, love, and lovemaking, in which Ovid presents himself as teacher of love. The Art of Love is of elementary (and elemental) interest to the cinema, a medium that rarely if ever neglects the appeal of love and romance. Polish director Walerian Borowczyk, a major but also controversial figure of European art cinema, made an idiosyncratic feature film of The Art of Love and, for the first and only time so far, put Ovid himself on the screen as protagonist. Consideration of this film includes analyses of on-screen nudity and sexuality: eroticism vs. pornography. Next, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut comes in for extensive critical discussion, for in an early sequence an Old-World seducer puts the moves on a pretty American wife by explicitly referring to Ovid. He reveals himself, however, as an incompetent reader who gets nowhere. By contrast, another film by Max Ophüls, La ronde, comes closest in spirit to the wit, elegance, and sophistication of Ovidian eroticism. The Roman master at the game of love here finds his most congenial descendant. Brief considerations of several thematically related other films end this chapter.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ovid on Screen
A Montage of Attractions
, pp. 302 - 338
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Lessons in Seduction
  • Martin M. Winkler, George Mason University, Virginia
  • Book: Ovid on Screen
  • Online publication: 27 January 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108756891.009
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  • Lessons in Seduction
  • Martin M. Winkler, George Mason University, Virginia
  • Book: Ovid on Screen
  • Online publication: 27 January 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108756891.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Lessons in Seduction
  • Martin M. Winkler, George Mason University, Virginia
  • Book: Ovid on Screen
  • Online publication: 27 January 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108756891.009
Available formats
×