University of Virginia Library

CINEMA

Ready For A Change? Try 'Sex'

By JEFFREY RUGGLES

If you go to Woody Allen's.
"Everything You Always
Wanted To Know About Sex
But Were Afraid Ask"
expecting horselaughs, you'll
be disappointed. His humor is
too brainy: Go to be amused
by his absurdities, and you'll
be rewarded.

Dr. Reubon's best-seller of
the same title was a child of
the new openness of the
sixties. The style is very
"up-front" and frank-spoken, to
the point where it's almost a
self-parody. Dr. Reubon takes
himself too seriously in his
mission to educate the public
which was "afraid to ask"
before.

Woody Allen scored a coup,
both commercial and artistic,
when he acquired the rights to
the book. He doesn't rely on
the text at all, except for the
title and a few questions, the
movie is a series of his own
invention. Each is headed by a
question about sex from the
book, such as "Are
transvestites homosexuals?" or
"What happens during
ejaculation?" These questions
only provide a rough
justification for using the title
of the book; but he's also
borrowed the mystique from
Dr. Reubon the campish
appeal to the middle-class
dealing with sex with
bright-eyes, all-smiles, no-secrets.

The scenes vary in quality,
though all have the air of farce
to them. In the first, Allen
plays a jester who's fallen out
of favor with his king; he gets a
potion from a sorcerer to turn
the queen on to him, but runs
into her locked chastity belt. A
typical touch of Allen humor
in this scene is a version of the
ghost scene from "Macbeth",
with various under-the-breath
references about Banquo, etc.
It's not the kind of jokes which
are going to make you guffaw,
but you might titter.

In other scenes, there are
caricatures of movie standards:
the mad professor, living in a
huge, dark mansion, with a
hunchback for a servant; the
Italian couple, in large empty
rooms; and the touching story
of a man so in love that he
gives up everything, his home,
his wife, his job, for his dear
one. The thing is, his love is a
sheep. Finally he loses the
sheep, and he's down in the
Bowery drinking Woolite. In all
these sketches, mock
Hollywood music sets the
mood; us the couple embraces
against the sunsetting sky,
they're surrounded by
harmonies reminiscent of the
Kuchar Brothers.

For films of depth and
character, you'll have to stick
to Wilson Hall; but if you're
ready for a change, Woody's
O.K.