Incest on Lifetime Network

[sweetnpetite]

I remember the longest thread discussing the fascination with incest. ONe astute poster noted that 'while none of us are interested in the least about incest itself (most posters denying interest) we are obviously all interested in discussing why other people are interested in it' --or something to that effect.

which brings me to:

I saw a movie today on Lifetime about a woman who falls in love with her step-brother. She didnt' grow up with him and actually starts off hating him [naturally]

Clueless also features 'step sibling' incest. Can any one else think of other mainstream movies that feature an incest angle?

Before anyone else says it, I will- 'Cruel Intentions'

 

[Weird Harold]

Can any one else think of other mainstream movies that feature an incest angle?

'My Chaufer' has a plot that hints at incest but then backs away from it.

She discovers His father is really her father, and His father confirms it. Shock and dismay ensue, until he rveals that He is not her (newfound) father's son.

I'm not all that sure that it's really a "Maintstream" movie though -- it's a pretty silly bit of fluff that lasted about two days in theaters before going to video release.

 

[Icingsugar]

The Royal Tenenbaums

kind of

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The movie Chinatown.

---dr.M.

 

[whispering_surrender]

Star Wars

Whisp

 

[Guest]

Film, Director

Murmur of the Heart, Louis Malle
Sister My Sister, Meckler
The Conformist; Luna - Bertolucci
An Awfully Big Adventure, Mike Newell
The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan
Psycho; Shadow of a Doubt - Hitchcock *
Scarface, de Palma *
Priest, Antonia Bird
Lolita, Kubrick *
Angels and Insects, Hass
House of Yes, M. Waters
Happiness, Solondz
Queen Margot, Patrice Chereau
Phaedra, Jule Dassin
The Grifters, Frears
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, P. Care
Spanking the Monkey, D.O. Russell
The Cement Garden, A. Birkin
A Thousand Acres, Jocelyn Moorhouse
Back to the Future, Zemeckis *
The Cider House Rules, Lasse Hallstrom
Excalibur, John Boorman
The Piano Teacher, Michael Haneke
_________
* implied or hinted incest

edited to add films.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

After the contributions of the Encyclopedia Perdita and others, I can only think of one more with a strong incest theme:

Savage is Loose w/George C. Scott 1974

Father, mother, and young son are castaways. Then the young son grows up.

RF

 

[Sabledrake]

Gladiator.

Sabledrake

 

[Vincent E]

Not to be picky or anything, but is "step sibling incest" really incest? Doesn't incest have to do with blood relations rather than step or in-law relations?

 

[Icingsugar]

Not to be picky or anything, but is "step sibling incest" really incest? Doesn't incest have to do with blood relations rather than step or in-law relations?

As they say in the only movie I volunteered to this list:
"It's still frowned upon."

IMO rightly so. Family is more than just blood.

 

[Black Tulip]

As they say in the only movie I volunteered to this list:
"It's still frowned upon."

IMO rightly so. Family is more than just blood.

I second that.

 

[Weird Harold]

Not to be picky or anything, but is "step sibling incest" really incest? Doesn't incest have to do with blood relations rather than step or in-law relations?

Incest: Sexual relations between persons who may not legally marry.

At different times and places throughout history, any given couple may or may not be committing incest. For example, relationships between godchildren of the same person was once considered incest.

 

[BlackSnake]

Movie/Year

Blood Relatives (1977)
The House of Yes (1997)
Little Boy Blue (1997)
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Ringmaster (1998)
The Sweet Hereafter (1996)
A Thousand Acres (1997)
U-Turn (1997)
'Tis a Pity She's a Whore (1973)
Against the Wind (1990)
I Stand Alone (1998)
Innocent Lies (1995)
My Sister, My Love (1978)
Sitcom (1997)
Spanking the Monkey (1994)
The Cement Garden (1993)
The Fishing Trip (1998)

A few for kicks and giggles...

 

[sweetnpetite]

Incest: Sexual relations between persons who may not legally marry.

At different times and places throughout history, any given couple may or may not be committing incest. For example, relationships between godchildren of the same person was once considered incest.

I'm pretty sure that's not the *only* definition.

Hamlet is commonly considered incestuous- even though the queen is legally married to her late husband's brother.

IMO, for me personally, it would be incestious (or at least have overtones) to have sex with *anyone* who had already slept with my mother (whether they had been married or not) and perhaps to a lesser extent, the same with my sister. (posibly, I'm not as sure on the sister think.)

But then, I don't define relationships soley though marriage or blood, I have quite a bit of inlaw type relationships going on in my family, despite the fact that I am not married and never have been. When a person is in your life for an extended length of time, there comes a point were they become a part of your family and you become a part of theres. Especially if you have children together OR they help take care of yours. Sometimes sharing a household is a contributing factor but not always.

 

[sweetnpetite]

heres one definition I found:

Sexual relations between persons who are so closely related that their marriage is illegal or forbidden by custom.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition


Seems slightly more open ended.

Also my Random House Websters says "forbidden by law or religion"

 

[Boxlicker101]

heres one definition I found:

Sexual relations between persons who are so closely related that their marriage is illegal or forbidden by custom.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition


Seems slightly more open ended.

Also my Random House Websters says "forbidden by law or religion"

I don't think the "Lifetime" movie would be considered incest even by the definition you gave. If a man and a woman have never known each other, and a parent of one maries a parent of the other, and they have no real relationship, but start meeting sometimes at famiy gatherings, and have an affair, I wouldn't think that could be called incest. How about Woody Allen with his stepdaughter? He always claimed he had no fatherly relationship with her, so it was not incest, and I am inclined to agree with him. I believe they actually got married so it wasn't legally incest either.

 

[Weird Harold]

heres one definition I found:

Sexual relations between persons who are so closely related that their marriage is illegal or forbidden by custom.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition


Seems slightly more open ended.

Also my Random House Websters says "forbidden by law or religion"

Yours is the more accurate definition, I forgot to type the "so closely related" clause -- which is what makes it incest instead of adultery or fornication.

The point is, though that incest is a legal definition that changes from place to place and over time depending on the laws and customs regarding marriage and consanguinuity.

IMO, for me personally, it would be incestious (or at least have overtones) to have sex with *anyone* who had already slept with my mother (whether they had been married or not) and perhaps to a lesser extent, the same with my sister. (possibly, I'm not as sure on the sister think.)

Your personal definition doesn't match any current laws and/or customs that I'm aware of, but it comes close to how incest was defined in the 12th through 14th centuries in the parts of Europe controlled by the Holy Roman Church.

As far as Lit is concerned, "Incest" is what each individual author decides it will be in their story -- but it seems to come closer to your personal definition than the legal realities in most places around the world.

 

[Sarastro]

Two more mainstream incest themed movies:

Hotel New Hampshire. Rob Lowe has sex with his sister, Nastassja Kinski.

Sin of Innocence (1986) - Megan Follows (Anne of Green Gables) falls in love with her step-brother, and they consummate it.

I also once saw a TV movie about a brother and sister who grew up apart, and fell in lust/love when they were reunited as adults. The brother left his wife for the sister, and sterilized himself in a successful attempt to get the court's approval of a continued incestuous relationship.

~Sarastro

 

[raphy]

Out of all the movies mentioned in this thread, I think I've heard of maybe 5 of them.

I figure that means incest doesn't appear in very many mainstream movies.

edit: That said, incest is not going to be a large theme in the sort of movies I watch. There's not much time for incest between the guns, fast cars, explosions and pithy one-liners

 

[Pure]

I'm surprised the enclopedists and others have not mentioned the one really hot, excellent incest movie that sticks in my mind:

Close My Eyes, with Alan Rickman (1992)

(bro and sis).

 

[Guest]

... Hamlet is commonly considered incestuous- even though the queen is legally married to her late husband's brother. ...

Incest or near-incest was common among royals (don't know if it has utterly stopped, don't keep up with royals). What made the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius at the very least distasteful was the fact that Claudius killed his brother (Hamlet's father). What made it repugnant to Hamlet (before he found out the full truth from his father's ghost) was that Gertrude and Claudius seemed to "love" each other (i.e., were passionate and carnal about it), vs. having married for political need, and that the marriage took place so soon after his father's death.

That can all be shown through the text. What is not in Shakespeare's words, but has been implied at least since Olivier's film, is that Hamlet and Gertrude had a sexual or near-incestuous relationship. I think it was merely a normal Oedipal phase complicated through grief, the new arousal of the queen, and the truth of the first king's death.

Perdita

 

[Singularity]

An Excellent Movie

Angels and Insects is very well done. Telling you here that it has an incest theme is really giving away a bit of shocking-explanation that doesn't occur until late in the plot.

An excellent and sexy story, overall, in many different dimensions.

I saw it on Perdita's list, as well.


S.

 

[pussicat]

Flowers in the Attic.

bad movie lol pretty good series of books though. I think I read them all.


I have seen a bunch of lifetime movies involving incest, well fathers molesting daughters and the like.



I loved the movie cruel intentions!

 

[Dirt Man]

I have seen a bunch of lifetime movies involving incest, well fathers molesting daughters and the like.

Lifetime movies, eh. Now why do I think that the Lifetime channel is only about female empowerment. Not that I mind so much, but why does it have to be to the point where all males are: Super intelligent the second they are born but turn Stupid the moment they hit puberty until they die. Make great pack animals, but are little good for anything else. And all in all pretty worthless unless they are wealthy, and even then only for buying women what they want.

I guess I'm just ticked off that every father is labeled as a possible molester of his daughters, or anyone's daughters in his care. Do you women really think that we are such animals as that? And if you do, why even bother to associate with us in any way?

As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man

 

[Boxlicker101]

Lifetime movies, eh. Now why do I think that the Lifetime channel is only about female empowerment. Not that I mind so much, but why does it have to be to the point where all males are: Super intelligent the second they are born but turn Stupid the moment they hit puberty until they die. Make great pack animals, but are little good for anything else. And all in all pretty worthless unless they are wealthy, and even then only for buying women what they want.

I guess I'm just ticked off that every father is labeled as a possible molester of his daughters, or anyone's daughters in his care. Do you women really think that we are such animals as that? And if you do, why even bother to associate with us in any way?

As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man

This is a gripe I have always had. On most "women's movies", men are portrayed strictly negatively, as lechers or idiots or insensitive cads. On sitcoms, men are usually total idiots and lacking in any good qualities. Women are not usually portrayed all that well but at least there is usually something to like besides their tits.