"Intimate Therapy" may be the most important movie you can see this year in dealing with sex and polio. ——The
film "NPR" finds humor and elegance in seemingly impossible themes and plots. —— "Variety
Show Magazine" In this film about the sex problem of people with disabilities, the director finds a completely candid and very cute approach. ——The
structure of the "Hollywood Reporter" film is traditional, even stylized; but the details and bursts of small emotions in the film are extremely charming. ——The
continuous growth of the protagonist of "ScreenCrush" is full of dramatic quietness , elegance and humor-these are the killer features of this movie. —— "Guardian"
behind the scenes production
adapted from a true storyThe story of the
film is not made out of nothing, but is adapted from a true story. In the film, the names of the roles played by the actors are the names of these real people in life. Mark O'Brien, played by John Hacks, is a journalist and poet. When I was young, because I didn't get good medical insurance, I contracted polio and caused high paraplegia. In order to maintain his own life, O'Brien uses an external ventilator to assist breathing to maintain his own life. At the age of 38, O'Brien decided to find a sex worker, a prostitute, to end his virgin career and turn himself into a man.
The sex worker he found was Cheryl Cohen Green, a woman who had been in sex work for some years. After having sex with O'Brien and getting paid, he left O'Brien and never had any contact with him again. O'Brien wrote about his sexual experience in his article "On Seeing a Sex Surrogate" (On Seeing a Sex Surrogate) and published it in a 1990 issue of "Sun Magazine." Later, Mark O'Brien published his biography, "How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence" (How I Became a Human Being: A Disabled Man's Quest for Independence). In addition to describing the daily life of Mark O'Brien, this book also introduces his views on life, life and the meaning of life in detail. The "breakthrough experience" of searching for sex workers has also become a milestone in Mark O'Brien's transformation from a boy to a man, seeking the meaning of life.
In 1996, Chinese filmmaker Yu Linmin filmed a documentary "Marc O'Brien's Life and Work" for O'Brien, which recorded the story of O'Brien working and living with a ventilator, and she was still in the film Discussed the sexual life of people with disabilities and so on. This documentary short film received a lot of applause as soon as it was released, especially O'Brien's jokes about his body in the film, and his optimistic and positive spirit has infected many people. At the 1997 Oscar, the film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film.
After this movie, O'Brien has almost become a role model for Americans with disabilities, especially his optimistic attitude towards life and ignoring physical obstacles, has become the most American-styled role model for a period of time. Three years later, in 1999, O'Brien died at the age of 49 due to long-term physical weakness.
Director
The editor and director of this film, Ben Lewin, may have a better understanding of O'Brien's life and experience, because he also suffered from polio when he was a child. However, fortunately, he survived, escaped, and is very healthy. It was also by accident that Lewin learned of O'Brien's story. At that time, Lewin was looking for information about the sexual behavior of people with disabilities, and he wanted to make a movie on this topic. Just searching on the Internet, he saw the famous article "Experiential Therapy" by O'Brien. After reading the article, Lewin was deeply moved. He felt that O'Brien's article could be made into a complete film. Lewin said: "For me, O'Brien's text is full of emotion and very complete. It is enough to make a big movie. The content he writes is wise and witty, full of wisdom and humor. What I can do is to strengthen these emotions in the film to form the power of drama. "In the process of writing the script, Lewin put his own experience of fighting polio and his own experience of this disease into it. The story and the characters. Moreover, in the process of writing the script, he also found O'Brien's last-year partner Susan Finbach, the sex practitioner Cheryl Cohen Green, who broke O'Brien's life, from their Look for available material on your body.
In order to find suitable actors, Lewin met with many disabled actors, but he felt that these actors were not suitable for this role. Later, John Hacks walked into Lewin's sight. To prepare for this role, Hacks read all the articles written by O'Brien, every poem, watched documentaries, and studied the script in depth. Hacks said: "These words are the true expressions of O'Brien. Whenever he writes about emotional places, he chokes and pauses. I think this is the best entry point to portray this character. Moreover, The director has also suffered from polio, and feels the same for his experience. I can appreciate this in the script, because the content written by the director is also full of emotions. Although there are elements of humor, these emotions But it won’t die because of it." Regarding the starring role of Hacks, Lewin said:" I originally wanted to find a disabled actor to play this role, but then I found out that it makes more sense for a healthy actor to play the disabled. Because in the process of acting, he will compare and contrast the two states of health and disability, so as to show more levels of performance. "
Highlights
· movie formerly known as "agency" (The Surrogate). It was later changed to the current The Sessions.
·The film is based on the true story of Mark O'Brien.
· In order to show O'Brien's curved spine, Hax put a football-sized foam on his back during the performance to allow the spine to bend. In addition, Hacks also learned to make a phone call with a stick in his mouth.
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