Film series: Nude and naked 9 November 2016 – 5 February 2017

Art historians and critics have ventured to make a distinction between the nude and the naked. In his 1956 book The nude: a study in ideal form, Kenneth Clark suggests that the naked human body is often self-conscious and may even be an embarrassment to the onlooker – shy, exposed and unprotected. ‘The word “nude”, on the other hand, carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenceless body, but of a balanced, prosperous and confident body.’ In his 1972 book Ways of seeing, John Berger wrote a rejoinder to Clark: ‘To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not be recognised for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become nude… Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display’.

Twentieth-century movies portray the unclad body in significantly different ways. Nakedness may help to define a character, suggesting his or her authenticity, lack of guile or pretension, or intense vulnerability. Candid nudity may signal spontaneity, daring and desirability, implying that a character is carefree, uninhibited, manipulative or something of an exhibitionist. However it is an undeniable fact that in the majority of movies partial or complete undress is exploited for sheer box-office value.

This film series explores nudity and nakedness in cinema – actual or implied – and registers the shifting moral, social and political forces that defined the limits of on-screen ‘states of undress’.

Screening at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in conjunction with the exhibition Nude: art from the Tate collection, from 9 November 2016 to 5 February 2017, Nude and naked encompasses world cinema, showcasing some of the key films of the 20th century which dared break with moral convention, challenging, polarising and scandalising their audiences.

Films

• 9, 13 November – The blue angel (director Josef von Sternberg, Germany, 1930, 35mm)

• 16 November – Age of consent (director Michael Powell, Australia, 1969, 35mm)

• 16, 20 November – Tarzan and his mate (director Cedric Gibbons, US, 1934, 35mm)

• 23, 27 November – Summer with Monika (director Ingmar Bergman, Sweden, 1953, 35mm)

• 30 November, 4 December – La dolce vita (director Federico Fellini, Italy, 1960, 35mm)

• 7, 11 December – Who’s that knocking at my door? (director Martin Scorsese, US, 1968, 35mm)

• 10 December – Un chant d’amour (director Jean Genet, France, 1950, 16mm) + Mala noche (director Gus van Sant, US, 1985, 35mm)

• 14, 18 December – In the realm of the senses (director Nagisa Oshima, Japan, 1976, 35mm)

• 17 December – Nitrate kisses (director Barbara Hammer, US, 1992, 16mm) + History lessons (director Barbara Hammer, US, 2000, 16mm)

• 4, 8 January – That obscure object of desire (director Luis Buñuel, France, 1977, 35mm)

• 11, 15 January – Blue velvet (director David Lynch, US, 1986, 35mm)

• 18, 22 January – Law of desire (director Pedro Almodóvar, Spain, 1987, 35mm)

• 25, 29 January – The cook, the thief, the wife and her lover (director Peter Greenaway, US, 1989, 35mm)

• 1, 5 February – Beau travail (director Claire Denis, France, 1999, 35mm)