Hollywood, put some clothes on

Americans don’t know how to use nudity. It is not about being erotic or to exploit a horny youth, which seems to be the mentality of Hollywood. It does not matter if the movie is incredibly intellectual or a cheesy teenager movie from the 80’s, the nudity portrayed on those movies is just, shallow. In “In the heat of the night,” the scene where the police officer stops by the house of a very attractive girl who seems to not like to wear clothes because of the heat and attention does not praise the aesthetic beauty of nudity. It just praise for shame in some sense. My entire opinion could circulate on how that scene to be randomly allocated for some egotistical reason. But lest assume that it was important for the story that have been told as a hint of character of that officer that would put everything together by the end. But even if all made sense, there is still a sense of awkwardness in this sense that gives me chills? Does it truly represent America? And that is one of the greatest differences between American and European movies.
In Truffaut’s “Shoot the piano Player,” the piano player in question has an affair with his neighbour, and coincidently a prostitute. In one of the scenes, after a long day, they go to bed and in that moment my heart stopped. I saw the most perfect breasts I could never imagine it was possible. Nicole Berger takes the entire motif of the movie in put in middle of her breasts and does not really care about anything. How can they be that pretty? And it was not vulgar, nor inappropriate. It was there, so natural, so beautiful, as it was the most common thing to do. And it seems to be the case for Europe.
The whole point about nudity is that the culture and mood of the actress was influential to the final product. In the American movie, where the character suppose to be provocative and erotic, I could just see a why young actress doing that because that makes her a more respectful actress of some sort. For the European movie, the actress was in her environment. To show her breasts is to show how proud she is about herself. This is and passion of the France, or any other Latin country, exacerbated on the screen in just one part of the body.
And this converges into Sydney Poitier. Not the boobs, but the ways of acting. He is a powerful actor that goes beyond personal culture or disposition. His character in “In the heat of the night,” a homicide specialist police officer, when inserted in a deep racist south, tries to use that racism in his favour. Being a police officer, earning good money, well educated, or any other opposition for the stereotype of a black man in that time is his way to deal with the world. He will defy everyone that gets in his way. And if anything goes wrong, he can claim the racist excuse for anything! It is brilliant! But that is the surface. His character is boiling inside after each event which puts him down back as a common “negro.” He knows if he does anything, he will lose all his power over those white men, and this conflict creates a huge tension inside of his own mind. You could see in his eyes all the anger and killing feelings frizzling within his blood flow.
How amazing is Sydney Poitier! It was an easy character for him, as it would be for any black man, as it was easy for Nicole Berger to be a luxurious woman because that is what European women know the better. Nevertheless he created a new level of expression that surely put him in a new perspective of acting. And he played the same game as his character. He showed what an actor could be where it was expected not to. It is especially true when it comes from an American actor.
As a director, how to cope with brilliant acting without removing the shine of your own movie? My hint is that you should worry. Let the start shine because that their role. The story is already written, so whatever happens to develop will coincide perfectly. So it the actor/actress has to show breasts or repress anger, it will happen in the most gracious way. And only then, we won’t have to deal with shy American actresses anymore.