Movie Takes
Lust, Caution
Ang Lee's superb new picture is easily the finest of 2007.
p>There’s a wonderful poem about adultery called “Story of a Hotel
Room” by the mysterious English poet, Rosemary Tonks, which ends
like this:
br>
/p>
blockquote>
em>… someone should have warned us
br>
That without permanent intentions
br>
You have absolutely no protection
br>
If the act is clean, authentic, sumptuous,
br>
The concurring deep love of the heart
br>
Follows the naked work, profoundly moved by it.
/em>
/blockquote>
br>
Miss Tonks disappeared from public view some 30 years ago. Some say
she joined a fundamentalist Christian cult. But she left behind
this rebuke to sexual “liberation” that, for our world, is the
dirty secret sex used to be. Occasionally other artists give us a
glimpse of it, but the last place we might expect to see one is at
the movies — for which sex “without permanent intentions” has
become the stock in trade. That’s why
Lust, Caution
(
About the Author
James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.
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