1969 Film, "Age of Consent"

"Wrath of God"

"I think we're going to the moon because it's in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It's by the nature of his deep inner soul... we're required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream."

~ Neil Armstrong

Taking a break from the nudes for a spell. Thought I'd post some other work I got to play with the other night. Friends, Joanie, Darryl, and I went out for a night shoot, back out to the dry lake bed. I really didn't feel like going but since Joanie and Darryl had to pass by my place to get there, she decided to just pick me up. I hadn't been out of the house in a while or away from editing photos for quite some time, so I figured, oh well. Joanie had her son with her and the two of them had been shooting for the better part of the day already. As it turns out, the kid's got some skills slingin' lenses around and he learns quick. The two of them were doing their own thing while I played around with a couple of Darryl's lenses to play with the moon.

We were deep into a dry lake bed, but you could still see a steady stream of traffic along the highway. I decided to play with the wide-angle and get some hand-held long exposures. I knew I'd get light trails from the traffic, but since the moon was low enough, I moved the lens around a bit and these are the shots I ended up with. As my first one came out fairly interesting, I decided to play some more and came up with some interesting designs and light play. This is painting with light from the moon.

On another note, I got to watch a movie that I wasn't all that sure about, but sounded interesting and it had Helen  Mirren in it. I know...'nuff said! "Age of Consent", 1969 which also starred, James Mason. I don't know him from too many movies, but there was something I recalled him from. I looked him up and it was from the 1977 hit, "Jesus of Nazareth" that I recognized him.

This is the Wikipedia plot summary:

"Bradley Morahan (James Mason) is an Australian artist who feels he has become jaded by success and life in New York City. He decides that he needs to regain the edge he had as a young artist and returns to Australia. He sets up in a shack on the shore of a small, sparsely-inhabited island on the Great Barrier Reef. There he meets young Cora Ryan (Helen Mirren), who has grown up wild, with her only relative, her difficult, gin-guzzling grandmother 'Ma' (Neva Carr-Glynn). To earn money, Cora sells Bradley fish that she has caught in the sea. She later sells him a chicken which she has stolen from his spinster neighbor Isabel Marley (Andonia Katsaros). When Bradley is suspected of being the thief, he pays Isabel and gets Cora to promise not to steal anymore. To help her save enough money to fulfill her dream of becoming a hairdresser in Brisbane, he pays her to be his model. She reinvigorates him, becoming his artistic muse."

"Hands of God"

There were lots of things I liked about this movie. Let me just wrap up the first three,

1. Helen Mirren, 

2. Helen Mirren nude, 

3. Helen Mirren nude often. 

Beyond that, I'd say I totally relate to the movie's theme of artist and muse. I won't go as far as to say OLD artist, teen-age muse; just artist and muse. The movie was shot on Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the artist goes there and makes a home out of a raggedy old shanty of a cabin. Its perfect. He doesn't have much in terms of comfort, just the minimal sustenances in supplies and has canvas, paint, and other art materials shipped to himself. He also has the company of his dog, Godfrey. I couldn't help but to continuously imagine myself in the same situation with my long gone Doberman, Keenan. This was a beautiful setting with so many places to shoot and just be at peace with no one around except your muse.

The only part I was having a difficult time trying to wrap my brain around is the title, Age of Consent. This is usually connotated with a legal determination of whether or not consensual sex involves a minor or not, but a young person, nonetheless, which may be different from one jurisdiction to the next. Sex wasn't the theme of this story. At one point the artist is accused of the girl's grandmother of paying her granddaughter to have sex. And a few times the point is made that the girl is under-aged. So then the issue isn't one of sexual nature, but rather the moral ethics of using a minor as a nude model. This, in and of itself is not technically illegal, (but I don't want to get into that), so there really isn't a Age of Consent issue in that regard. Its not until the very end of the movie that Helen gets pissed that he is only interested in her as a model. To which she runs into the ocean and he chases after her pledging that its not true. They embrace after the artist confesses how much she means to him for giving him back his passion. That is the only time the issue of Age of Consent pops up in my mind because you're instantly reminded of the grandmother's haggling voice yelling that she's under-aged. You are led to believe that they get together, even though in  his repentant rant, he never says, I love you or pledges a commitment.

"Binary"

Good movie. I am fairly certain, I've posted this 10 minute short film here before, but I came across it again and well, here it is for your enjoyment one mo' gin, "The Perils in Nude Modeling"

Okay, I'll throw in one nude...Brittany Sutton, folks.