Graham is One of My Favourite Characters

Maeve 2021-12-22 08:01:17

"One Key Theory + Car's Important"

Graham: No, I just… Right now I have one key, you know, everything I own is in the car. I like that. If I get an apartment, that's two keys. If I get a job, you know, I might have to open or close. That's more keys. I buy some stuff, I'm afraid it's gonna get ripped off, and I get more keys. I just like having the one key. It's clean. You don't have to worry about losin''em.

John: Get rid of the car when you get the apartment. Still one key.

Graham: I like having the car. You know? The car's important. You gotta be mobile. In case you have to leave someplace in a hurry? Yeah, or go to someplace in a hurry.



"'Advice' Theory"

Ann: You're in therapy? Aren't you?

Graham: No. I... No, I'm not. I was a miserable failure in therapy.

Ann: So you don't believe in therapy?

Graham: No, I believe in it for some people. I don't know, it was, you know, silly for me. I was confused going in. So I just formed my own theory, that you should never take advice from someone that doesn't know you intimately.

Ann: Well, I know my therapist intimately.

Graham: You've had sex with your therapist?

Ann: No! No. No.

Graham: Oh, no, I'm sorry. That's what I meant. Somebody you've had sex with.

Ann: Oh. I'm … I don't understand. I mean, how would you know? I mean, you know. How…?

Graham: Oh, no. I wasn't always impotent.

Ann: Oh. Oh, OK. So, let me see. You said, um…you said that I should never take advice from someone that I haven't had sex with, right?

Graham: Basically.

Ann: Right. And, uh, we haven't had sex. Right?

Graham: No.

Ann: So I guess from your own advice, I shouldn't take your advice.

Graham: I wouldn't.

Ann: You wouldn't? OK.



" The …Organ"

Graham: When did you finally see a penis?

Cynthia: When I was 14.

Graham: So, what'd you think? Was it what you expected it to be?

Cynthia: No. Not really. I…I didn't… I sorta pictured it, um…I didn't think it would have veins or ridges or anything. I just thought it would be smooth, like a test tube. It's weird , thinking about it now. The… organ itself seemed like a separate thing, a separate entity to me. I mean, when he finally pulled it out and I could look at it and touch it. I forgot that there was a attached guy to it. I remember literally being startled when the guy spoke to me.

Graham: What did he say?

Cynthia: He said my hand felt good.

Graham: Then what happened?

Cynthia: And…Then I started movin' my hand, and then he stopped talkin'.



"Why + My Problems Belong to Me"

Graham: What? What do you want me to tell you? "Tell me why?" Why? Ann, you don't even know who I am. You don't have the slightest idea who I am. Am I supposed to recount all the points in my life leading up to this moment and just hope that it's coherent, that it makes some sort of sense to you? It doesn't make any sense to me. You know, I was there. I don't have the slightest idea who I am, and I'm supposed to be able to explain it to you? And why? You tell me why. Why do I have to explain myself to you?

Ann: Because maybe I can help you.

Graham: Help me with what?

Ann: Your problem.

Graham: My problem? Do I have a problem? I look around me in this town and I see John and Cynthia and you, and I…I feel comparatively healthy.

Ann: You've got a problem.

Graham: You're right. I've got a lot of problems. But they belong to me.

View more about Sex, Lies, and Videotape reviews

Extended Reading
  • Verda 2022-03-21 09:02:12

    Trivial to the point that your whole world is in pieces.

  • Iliana 2022-03-26 09:01:07

    CC.Sex is the pretense, lies and videotape is the focus of Soderbergh (it is said that he only spent eight days to write the script, but in the interview he said that it takes a year to collect material), the narration comes before the image, the narrative quartet is a bit like a wave In Locke's hourglass painting (interior decoration in the film), one paint is already in mid-air before it has landed on the canvas. The psychological complexity of the characters is layered, and although it is expressed as a quick dialogue, it evaporates the essence of desire and its repression. This is a description of a class that is indifferent to life, but who worries about its way of life all day long. This class is also indifferent to itself and its desires, focusing only on layer upon layer of videotape. The sexual repositories hidden there are sites of seduction and language. And each person's interaction with his own life, from an existential point of view, is meaningless. Likewise, the director's interaction with his film is, from a theatrical point of view, meaningless. The image comes out of the drama and enters the psychodrama of the image, which makes the image lose its charm and is tiresome. The film itself falls into the same cold video.

Sex, Lies, and Videotape quotes

  • Cynthia: If Ann got freaked out by these, there must be something sexual: are these tapes of you having sex with these girls?

    Graham: No, not exactly.

    Cynthia: Well, either you are or your aren't; which is it?

    Graham: Why don't you let me tape you?

    Cynthia: Doing what?

    Graham: Talking.

    Cynthia: About what?

    Graham: About sex... your sexual history, sexual preferences.

    Cynthia: What makes you think I'd discuss that with you?

    Graham: Nothing.

    Cynthia: Hmm. And you just want to ask me questions?

    Graham: I just want to ask you questions.

    Cynthia: That's all.

    Graham: That's all.

    Cynthia: Is this how you get off or something? Taping women talking about their sexual experiences?

    Graham: Yes.

  • Ann: I want out of this marriage.

    John Mullany: What?

    Ann: I. Want. Out. Of. This. *Marriage.*