Infidelity please, we're British...

• The minister will ask the congregation to stand and says to the groom:"(...), will you take (...) to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live?"The groom answers "I will".
  
• The minister then says to the bride:"(...), will you take (...) to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?"The bride answers "I will"..........BOLLOCKS!

Adultery, infidelity, extra marital affairs, two timing- doesn't matter what we call it, it causes grief, hurt, misery and sometimes death of bunnies, to thousands of people everyday. Why are we so fascinated by cheating and why does it bring the voyeur in all of us?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/08/29/nosplit/ftinfidelity129.xml

This link examines adulterous processes and interpretations of the different definitions of infidelity including research statistics and quotes from people affected in one way or another by adultery.


My interest lies in the interpretations of infidelity in film. The subject has fascinated film makers from the earliest silent films (Pandora's Box 1929) to recent explorations of the genre in such films as The Painted Veil (2006). In the 1940s Film Noir examined the sexual power of women and the introduction of the 'Femme Fatale'. In 1945 David Lean directed Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in a very British interpretation of infidelity in Brief Encounter. This film examines the fear and revulsion faced by each of the characters as they struggle to contain their feelings for each other and keep their marriage vows. The resulting film is an exquisite, painful and poignant portrayal of fidelity winning the day :(

Does this study of restraint appeal to today's audience or do we now prefer to see the whole dirty business from initial attraction to the nitty gritty and the demise of the bunny? Fatal Attraction (1987) does just this. Do we like to see the sex or are we turned on by other peoples suffering? Do we watch films about adultery as a talisman to protect us from the grim reality of it happening to us or to justify our own actions?

I was quite shocked by the number of people in our seminar discussion (Being Bad Week 1) who admitted to either having or wanting an affair. Could this be in anyway influenced by the way in which adultery is depicted in film?


This link lists films covering the topic.


http://www.listal.com/search/movies/1/?tag=adultery

Gandalf