The Loss of Sexual Innocence

Mike Figgis' tenth and most ambitious film to date, The Loss of Sexual Innocence, is essentially a collection of interconnected short stories charting events in the life of one man from boyhood to a defining moment in his adulthood. Non-linear in structure, it weaves together a seemingly random pattern of narratives, giving glimpses of the protagonist as a five-year-old, a twelve-year-old, a hormonal teenager and as a fully grown man. With the scenes largely involving some kind of physical or sexual theme, Figgis seems imply that this is the sum of who we are. Beyond that, it's an elusive story; just when you think you've grasped it, it escapes on another tangent. Julian Sands is lugubriously handsome as Nic, the documentary director tempted into a disastrous indiscretion, and is surrounded by a fine supporting cast, including Saffron Burrows and Kelly Macdonald. So far so good.

But Figgis has decided to intercut this with his depiction of the story of Adam and Eve, ostensibly to act as an allegory to Nic's life and, as if we hadn't guessed this from the title already, to emphasise the loss of innocence from his life along the way. It's gloriously shot in burnished reds and golds (apparently utilizing cross-processed reversal stock!), with a Nordic-looking Eve and a black Adam who are chased from their Garden of Eden by fascists with dogs to be met by paparazzi at the gates. Yet despite the beauty of these images, this pretentious and patronising section contributes little to the film beyond the obvious parable. The two themes simply fail to gel.

Add to this a near-constant soundtrack of portentous piano sonatas and an intercutting of the already dissected scenes with dream sequences, it becomes apparent that The Loss of Sexual Innocence is a jigsaw-puzzle of a film which, while originally challenging and interesting, is nevertheless full of misplaced self-importance and empty intellectual aspirations.

Reviewed by Monika Maurer