Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

The Loss of Sexual Innocence (1998)

Director: Mike Figgis

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Figgis's long nurtured compendium of linked autobiographical stories sees him break for experimental ground. Framed by an inversion of the tale of Adam and Eve set in his childhood home of East Africa, it depicts episodes in the life of Nic (blue-remembered '50s Carlisle streets; Rhys-Meyers having his first sexual experiences in '60s Newcastle; in the present, Sands making documentaries in Tunisia) to weave a tapestry of memories, insights and reflections. It's a fascinating, brave, teeming inventory, notebook and memoir which, despite occasional melancholy episodes, mostly invokes the spirit of Godard in its restless, risk-taking energy. In many ways it reads as a child's lament, something echoed by the emotive use of solo piano and, in the childhood/adolescent sequences, by the saturated colour effects. Style is driven by content. The endgame of Nic's marriage is shot entirely from outside the wintry window of the farmhouse home; and his meeting with enigmatic twin females (Burrows) is imbued with Kieslowskian mystery.

Author: WH 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Mike Figgis

Producer: Mike Figgis, Annie Stewart

Cast: Julian Sands, Saffron Burrows, Stefano Dionisi, Kelly MacDonald, Gina McKee, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Bernard Hill, Rossy de Palma, Red Mullet Mike Figgis full cast

Duration: 106 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.