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Isabella Rossellini's 'Green Pornos' Explores Insect Sex

Isabella Rossellini's short film series "Green Pornos" is probably one of the most talked-about movies at this year's Berlinale film festival. The actress and director plays eight different insects in the 8 one-minute episodes of "Green Porno," a series made for mobile phones.

"If I were a dragonfly," says Isabella Rossellini, "I would have compound eyes and could look up, down, back and forth at the same time. I would have a very skinny body and transparent wings." This simple statement marks the beginning of eight stories dealing with the sex lives of insects.

For example, houseflies have little time for physical love, as their lives are so short. Fireflies glide in loneliness through the night, hoping to attract a partner with their light. Snails are pretty much hermaphrodites, so whoever comes by tends to work out, while earthworms are fond of the so-called "69 position." Male honey bees seemingly have nothing to do but wait for their lucky chance. And the female praying mantis gives unsafe sex a whole new twist, as she tends to rip off her partner's head during the act of copulation.

The film has the look of puppet theater, with its sets and costumes made from material and paper. For example, Rossellini dresses up in a green tube to play the role of the dragonfly or she glues six paper eyes to her face and spins a net out of hemp to create a spider's web in which the object of her desire can be trapped.

"Green Pornos" was commissioned by the Sundance Film Festival based in Salt Lake City.

Rossellini's "Green Pornos" is being shown as part of the "Forum Expanded" section of this year's Berlinale. Three glass cabinets contain three mobile phones each, showing the insect sex. The screens are embedded in tree trunks or in the mouth of a frog. Visitors can look through a magnifying glass to observe the details more closely.

Interview of Isabella Rossellini at the Sundance festival with film extracts:

Via Der Spiegel.

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