Sleeping with Strangers

How the Movies Shaped Desire

In this wholly original work of film criticism, David Thomson, celebrated author of The Biographical Dictionary of Film, probes the many ways in which sexuality has shaped the movies—and the ways in which the movies have shaped sexuality. Exploring the tangled notions of masculinity, femininity, beauty, and sex that characterize our cinematic imagination—and drawing on examples that range from advertising to pornography, Bonnie and Clyde to Call Me by Your Name—Thomson illuminates how film as art, entertainment, and business has historically been a polite cover for a kind of erotic séance. In so doing, he casts the art and the artists we love in a new light, and reveals how film can both expose the fault lines in conventional masculinity and point the way past it, toward a more nuanced understanding of what it means to be a person with desires.

Another good read from David Thomson

This is the second audio book I've read by this author. And for true film historians, I can strongly recommend him. Like me, you may not agree with every thought or theory of David Thomson. But he never fails to challenge me or intrigue me with his insights. Some of the best chapters are told from a very personal perspective. I thoroughly enjoyed this read.

Bad book

This is the worst book I’ve read in a long time. Base on the way the book is “promoted” , I expected an insightful review of sexuality in film, and sex itself. I also expected a little more Lynch analysis given that it uses a still from Blue Velvet on the audible cover. HOWEVER, the books is mostly gossip about a who’s who of early Hollywood and who was closeted, who was bi, and not much about their films influence on sex. Also, it feels odd to hav a white cisgender straight presenting man analyzing so much about these celebrities’ sexuality. He also seems strangely comfortable talking about people like Kevin Spacey without denouncing the things he was accused of. Including a director friend of his, who he spends a whole chapter talking about his friendship over decades, and not much detail about the fact that this director sexually harassed at least 50 women(Wikipedia puts accusations in the hundreds). For an author that keeps bringing up the toxic masculinity in someone like Donald Trump, he seems to have a lot of it himself. In the last chapter he even somewhat defends the age gap in “Call my by your Name” by saying the age of consent in Italy is 14….🤮. (which btw, it isn’t) In the book Elio is 17 (movie 18) and Oliver is around 25. The only reason I didn’t DNF this is because I already owned it through audible and I just stuck through it. It is an absolute waste of time.

Not As Advertised And Self Indulgent

The author reads an extremely self indulgent and speculative work that his thesis that repressed homosexuality in movies drives much of the passion. He makes claims without support, and you leave the book feeling unsatisfied that any of the bold claims he makes are ever supported.