One night at RIFF I went to a Fake Orgasm Contest, an off-venue event, where girls (and a couple of guys) moaned at their best. After attending the contest I scheduled the films I wanted to see the next day, one of them being ‘Fake Orgasm’ by Spanish director Jo Sol.
The film started like the previous night’s contest ended – with some women faking it on a stage in front of an audience. The focus of the film story then shifted to the host of the contest, Lazlo. Turns out Lazlo has feminine and masculine physical attributes (very masculine bearded face and also a vagina) and uses fake orgasm contests as a way to get the audience’s attention, and then shock them with his body that undermines the traditional opposite of men and woman.
I surprisingly found myself sitting in a documentary about whether there are differences between women and men – or not. Still confused, I talked to director Jo Sol about his film and his opinion on the gender debate.
Why do you think so many people come to the screenings of ‘Fake Orgasm’? Did the title of the film help?
We chose the title to get people to go to the cinema, but having attended the Q&A after the screenings and the other events organised around the screenings, I’m convinced that the audience in Reykjavík is very mature and intelligent. The audience is not seduced that easily just because of a film title, they demand far more substance. It was without doubt the best audience the movie had so far in its journey around international festivals. I want to thank the Icelandic audience again for that.
You planned on doing a film about sex in general, and you ended up portraying a transsexual, Lazlo. Did this subject interest you before you met Lazlo or were you introduced to a whole new way of thinking?
The reason I changed the direction of my work wasn’t because Lazlo is a transsexual; it is because the both us share a dynamic vision of the reality. The film, and also the work with Lazlo is about exactly that: nothing in nature is fix or stable. The necessity of permanent change is what connects us.
Do you think it is generally possible to think without categories like “woman” and “man”?
We are trying to do it with ethnicity already: Nowadays it is politically incorrect to talk about “black” or “yellow”. Why not think we’ll end up doing it with gender as well, when in the near future, the technological production of gender will be a given?
In your movie there is a lot of talking about “faking,” like faking orgasms or faking to be a woman or a man – and at one point Lazlo says faking and playing are alike. You are playing with the audience too. Why?
Playing with the expectations of the audience rewards its intelligence; it is not an attack. Instead of entertaining and keeping the spectators alienated they attend a play of shadows and mirrors. The shadow far more genuine than trying to defend the great truths.
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Photos: Director Jo Sol (first picture) and some contestants at the Fake Orgasm Contest at Næsti Bar, September 25.
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