By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Flesh and the World: making plans with Nigel
I’ve read too much during and after Sundance and still have a wrap-up piece I want to write; in the weekend FT, Nigel Andrews does a bang-up job considering the omniporn omnibus Destricted and Kirby Dick‘s This Film Is Not Yet Rated and then a casual run-in sends him another way: “The most educative encounter I had in Park City—simultaneously charming and chastening—summed up the whole business. For whom should I run into near the festival’s close but Harry Reems. The Deep Throat star, once the biggest male porn actor in the world, is now a Park City realtor…. “I’m married now, I own my own business, I converted to Christianity. I’m a trustee of my church, I’m seventeen-and-a-half years clean and sober of alcohol, and it’s not a part of my life to speak now and I don’t think I have anything of value to add to what you’re doing… I’ve stepped back from that, it’s been good for me to retreat into a private life.” He adds that he didn’t settle in Park City… in order to be near a film festival. “I first came up here with skiing friends. It seemed such a quiet, quaint little town 30 years ago. I said to myself, this is the place I’d like to hang my hat and live the rest of my life. And I’ve made my dream come true.” As he says, he also found God, conquered alcoholism and settled into family life. For half a second I almost envy him. He makes me wonder why I spend half my life gallivanting around film festivals courting encounters with the world, the flesh and the devil. Then I come to my senses. I realise that chaos is where I want to be and where every self-respecting film critic should be. Not for the first time I think of St Augustine’s prayer and offer up my own paraphrase. Give me a chaste and contrite life, Lord, away from the feverish task of monitoring screen freedom. But not yet.” [Photo: Ray Pride]