THE GOLDEN POSITIONS (US, 1970, James Broughton)
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"A lovely, poetic, humorous and crystal investigation of mankind standing, sitting and lying down." —John Wasserman, San Francisco Chronicle
Three years into the exhilarating second act of his filmmaking career, James Broughton made THE GOLDEN POSITIONS (1970). Described by Broughton himself as “a series of naked tableaux vivants that glorify the human body,” THE GOLDEN POSITIONS once again finds the artist embracing nudity and human sexuality in a style distinct yet not dissimilar from his comeback piece, 1967’s erotic countercultural classic THE BED.
In 1979, Jon Gartenberg programmed THE GOLDEN POSITIONS in the MoMA exhibition James Broughton, Cinema Poet, and delineated the film as follows: “In THE GOLDEN POSITIONS, two nude figures, holding an apple between them, represent Adam and Eve. They symbolize the flow of human activity which follows in tableau form. The film demonstrates the three positions of the body (sitting, standing, lying) in the performance of all human activities (dressing, eating, sleeping, and lovemaking) with wit and irony. For example, the most striking image is that of two well-to-do ladies sipping tea, wearing only hats, necklaces, gloves, stockings and shoes, but no other clothing. This image, like others in the film, affirms that beneath the social convention of tea time lies hidden sexuality.”
THE GOLDEN POSITIONS was greeted with less controversy than THE BED when it was first released. Howard Thompson of The New York Times dubbed the film “funny and ever so wise” and praised Broughton’s “adroit blend [of] anatomical tableaus and pantomime, simulating everything from sexual harmony to plain everyday desk slump.” The film screened successfully at a number of major venues, including the Bellevue Film Festival, where it won Grand Prize, and the First International Erotic Film Festival, where it won First Prize. There, Broughton’s film was acclaimed by jurors Bruce Conner, Maurice Girodias, and Arthur Knight for possessing “a superb control of the cinema medium with a visual richness and an elegance approached by no other film viewed by the judges.”
"THE GOLDEN POSITIONS is a rich, warm, clear statement of humanism. There is no angst, no fragmentation, no overt experimentation. It stands apart from most of the films of the past two decades by its feeling of certainty, positiveness, and completeness. And, most importantly, THE GOLDEN POSITIONS gives us a deep and restful pleasure in the viewing.” —Sheldon Renan
THE BED
(US, 1967)
Director: James Broughton
Music: Warner Jepson
- 20 minutes
- 16mm
- Color
- Sound
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server
Published By: GME
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