| Investigating Sex | |
| Director: | Alan Rudolph |
| Screenplay: | Alan Rudolph |
| Based On: | Recherches sur la sexualite archives du surealisme by Jose Pierre |
| Starring: | |
| Music: | Ulf Skogsbergh |
| Cinematography: | Florian Ballhaus |
| Editing: | John Helde |
| Distributor: | UGC Distribution |
| Runtime: | 108 minutes |
| Country: | Germany United States |
| Language: | English |
Investigating Sex is a 2001 comedy-drama film written and directed by Alan Rudolph, starring Neve Campbell, Til Schweiger, Nick Nolte and Dermot Mulroney. The film is based on Investigating Sex: Surrealist Research 1928-1932, a book of Surrealist writers' discussions about sex led by André Breton and compiled by Jose Pierre.[1]
After Rudolph received a copy of Pierre's book from actor Wallace Shawn, he and Michael Henry Wilson adapted it as a screenplay. They created fictional characters for the dialogues and moved the setting to New England.[2] Campbell, who played a stenographer, described the film as a "no money, no nothing film, but a really great acting exercise."[3]
After a long delay, the film was released on DVD in the U.S. on December 23, 2007 with a different title, Intimate Affairs.
Set in the year 1929 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Edgar Faldo is a young professor who decides to assemble a group of friends at his family mansion to discuss the topic of sex and its advantages. Edgar hires two young women to work as stenographers to record the daily debates that his friends discuss to scientifically study sex. The two women, the sexually active Zoe and the frigid-plain Alice, have mixed feelings being around as Edgar brings over three of his friends, who include oddball English artist Sevy, German writer and novelist Monty, and fellow professor Peter. Edgar's father, Mr. Faldo, shows up with his new trophy wife, Sasha, to oversee the events as others who are Lorenz, Oscar, Sevy's wife Janet, and Edgar's disapproving French girlfriend, Chloe, all turn up during different meeting sessions to talk and interact with everyone on the taboos spoken for the "experiment" as Edgar puts it.
The film received mixed reviews. Film Comment called it "one of the most enjoyable movies of the year," praising Rudolph's screwball comedy-like dialogue. Variety panned it as "too dated, and far too timid, to spark any real exploration of mind or body."[4] Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club, reviewing the DVD release, called the film a "pleasant surprise," likening it to "Kinsey re-imagined as a goofy sex comedy."[5]