Andrew Repasky McElhinney boldly transgresses moral boundaries in his film, Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye. So what’s on the mind of this enfant terrible?

At 26, Andrew Repasky McElhinney has already directed and produced three films, with a fourth soon coming. In 2001, The New York Times declared A Chronicle of Corpses one of ten best films of the year. His latest work, which pays homage to French philosopher Georges Bataille, conjures up a balletic dreamscape where dazed characters engage in hardcore sex. In this NSRC exclusive interview, McElhinney talks about his art, his philosophy, his family, and Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye.
 

American Sexuality: I've read quite a few reviews of your new film, Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye, but I was wondering how you would describe it.
 

Andrew Repasky McElhinney: I would say that it's a film about looking and the culpability of desire, and the morality of spectatorship.
 

AS: How is the film different from pornography?
 

ARM: That's a question of semantics, I think. Certainly, the film is explicit, perhaps pornographic . It has many of the tropes of hardcore cinema—genital close-ups, scat play, a cum shot. But I think that when you watch the film, it's quite clear that while it's sexually graphic and primarily a film about watching sex-making, that you have to go beneath that surface and explore: What am I learning about these people by watching them copulate?

       Nudity and sex is alluring and forbidden by mainstream middlebrow American culture. Facets, no doubt, that first attract and repel people into the Bataille project just as sex first attracts/repels people to each other. From this initial lure, the Bataille film splinters off in several directions, which viewers hopefully will pick up and examine from the spectrum of their own experience and impulse. I think all my films are incomplete experiences, fragments—open texts—until they are filtered thought a viewer's perspective and become personalized, whole.
 

AS: Do you think how people watch Bataille affects their feelings about the film?
 

ARM: I think it is very problematic to watch cinema at home. I mean, people are lazy and there is the temptation to fast-forward, play the sound too low or go melt cheese on Wasa bread in the kitchen as you keep one eye on the tube. In a public setting the film is the focus, and the communal experience—the ritual—of sharing film becomes part of the action or plot of the movie. For a text that is about spectatorship, a public screening is most exciting and far more dangerous. Part of the reason I made this film was to foster a dialogue about sex in cinema and sex in American culture and I am great believer that this conversation needs to happen in public.
 

AS: What are your views on sexuality?
 

ARM: I'm interested in seeing the culture move toward a gender-free, poly-sexual identity, breaking free of traditional gender-sexual roles. I am very frustrated with the exclusory nature of heterosexual marriage, the ridiculous posturing by homosexuals to assimilate into that, and the apathy I see in all directions with regards to change, progress and evolution. Americans have this ill desire to “fit in,” colonize, lie and bury things under the rug. I want individuals to think outside the box—challenge themselves with art, understand the metaphor of spirituality and have the freedom to explore sexuality as you would a foreign language or a pie recipe.

      People are way, way, way, way too crazy about labels and fitting into one group or the other. I don't think gender and sexuality are as simple as that. I would like us to move more toward a peaceful socialist democracy away from the cult of consumerism, understand the value of “free love” and personal responsibility and be able to fall in love with people not genders.
 

AS: What does love have to do with sex?
 

ARM: I'm a complete crush junkie, so I'm the wrong person to ask…on one level nothing, but I generally think sex is better when you have it with people you care about, love or at least sort of know. More people having good sex would clearly make the world a better place. I am very happy when I find out that Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye aided as foreplay to an amorous encounter. That's as close to a standing ovation as I could want.
 

AS: Are your parents supportive of your art?
 

ARM: I think generally, yeah. This was a project that when I started doing it, I took them out to lunch and I was like “I want you guys to know about this project that's coming up; it's kind of Mapplethorpe-esque; you're probably not going to like it and you're not going to stop me from doing it.”

     They understood that and I'm sure they were appreciative of my giving them the heads-up. And then initially when it came out and they saw it, they were really very puzzled and worried by it. But certainly, now, they respect the support that the movie has gotten critically and commercially.

     They are, however, glad that I am doing a '30s romantic comedy next.
 

AS: Have your films expanded your parents' views?
 

ARM: Uh, well it's not like my parents have become swingers or anything. …I don't think I'm interested in changing my parents. They're very much who they are and I respect that and am grateful for the intellectual curiosity that they instilled in me from a very early age.

      More interesting than my parents is my Grandfather McElhinney, who is now in his mid-80s and was the adult who taught me to be broadminded as a child and who first took me to non-animated movies. He's a fan of Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye though he did remark that he prefers “happy porn films.” The black-on-white sex scene did make him uncomfortable and while I do not share those prejudices (I have my own) I was glad that the movie gave my grandfather and me the context to openly and candidly discuss our feelings toward race.
 

AS: What would you have become if not an artist?
 

ARM: Maybe I would have become a priest. I'm really interested in ritual and performance. Christian theology, like theater, offers a lot of ritual and a lot of performance. And then I am interested in etymologizing life and examining the human condition—a priest has the autonomy to do that via his or her congregation. I also think it's an opportunity for service. I hope my movies contribute to the bettering of people's lives. The priesthood would offer a similar opportunity, though I'm the first to admit that my lifestyle would be poorly suited to contemporary theological mores.