I'm slightly obsessed with the prominence of bathtubs in the movies. You'd think the most interesting thing in the world was a woman in a damned bath. "Australia" has the conventional lead actress taking a bath for no good reason. Hmm... 2 characters have to have a conversation. Let's put the woman in the bathtub. Depending on what rating you want, it will either be a bubble bath or it won't. It's embarrassing.Ever since then, Trooper York has had a daily gratuitous bathtub scene. And, really, I'm flattered. But how does he get all those hilarious photographs? I tried a Google image search for "bathtub," and got a lot of empty bathtubs. So I tried a search for "bathtub woman" — yes, I know, not very creative — and this came up first. I mean, come on!
What's the trick? "Bathtub movies"???
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24 comments:
We do seem to have a bathtub fetish. Maybe the best indication of that is the Cialis commercials which always feature couples...in separate bathtubs. Now, I ask you, what is a couple going to do other than hold hands when they're setting in separate tubs? (Which is exactly how the commercials portray couples.) It's almost a visual disclaimer. It's bizarre.
By the way, my favorite all-time bathtub scene: John Lennon in 'A Hard Day's Night.'
He has a knack, that guy.
And he was pretty much ignorant of the whole posting a pic thing when he started.
[puffs up chest] And I was the one who told him how to do it.
'course, he already knew how at that point but....
I don't know why, or how it started, but if we ever lose women-in-bathtub scenes in movies then we will know that the terrorists have won.
As for naked Nicole Kidman scenes, to paraphrase Glenn Reynolds, more please!
What the hell is this blog mind meld going on between Trooper and Althouse? Is it some kind of Vulcan thing? Does Trooper need legal advice? Does Althouse need a dress? What?
I'm telling ya, if Trooper posts a photo of his red shoes and yellow socks........
Trooper has found some kind of treasure trove of photos. He seems to be able to conjure up his hilarious thoughts in random photos at will!
Brilliant. His blog makes me laugh out loud at least once a day.
He's probably searching on the keyword "bathtub" at Mr. Skin. :)
Good one Rev.
Take a bow Althouse. You had a big part in the development of one of the most prolific and funny bloggers on the web.
Those damned Cialis twin-bathtub ads are beyond irritating. I hate them with the power of a thousand suns, plus two.
What about Emilio Estives from "Young Guns"?
Any reason to get Johnny Depp into the tub. Dialogue Shmialogue.
Is the bath tub a womb in a re-birth meme? Oh, never mind. I am an originalist on bathtubs and their original purpose is enough for me. Their steamy penumbras keep life hot. But what do the English do with those shower heads on a hose inside a 2 foot radius circular shower curtain? It looks like James Bond would become trapped.
I searched for "bathtub scene" and got lots of hits.
Maybe the bathtub scene is shorthand for we want to make this character as vulnerable as we can make it while at the same time have it hold it's dignity.
There is a vulnerable dignity in the official act of taking a bath. People do all kinds of private things while they are at it.
Remember the lead character in American Beauty while in the shower?
OK.. it was not a bath.. wahtever.
I had a roommate who used to cry inconsolably while taking a bath. Not everyday but occasionally I could hear her.
Speaking of those Cialis ads, note that if you see an unfamiliar commercial come on TV, and it features a man with even the slightest amount of gray in his hair, you can be almost 100% sure that the ad will be for (1) hair coloring; (2) Viagra/Levitra/Cialis; or (3) Flomax.
Peter
Okay, Depp's a pinhead, but the dude's hot.
Thanks professor for the kind words. And the pimping.
The actual begining of the bathtub scenes was when I posted a photo of Amanda Blake in a bathtub under the title "Blake in the bathtub" just to tease blake a little. Then he snarked about "gratuitous" bathtub photos and a tortured meme was born. If you click on the tag you will get a long list of bathtub photo's with such stars as Doris Day, Jane Russell, Sean Connery, Amanda Blake, the American Beauty girl, the drunk rehab bitch from American Idol and numerous others.
Please be sure to submit your own bathtub photo's.
Once again thanks for the kind words everybody.
Oh and today's gratuitous bathtub scene has the Instapundit playing with himself.
Nice to see that that Cialis image of the couple in separate bathtubs bugs everyone else as much as it annoys me and my girlfriend. (“How did they bring the bathtubs out by the lake? Did they have to extend the plumbing all the way there? Or did they figure a way to schlep them both with the water in them? But wouldn’t that require a forklift? But then wouldn’t most of it get spilled? Or did they just fill it with water from the lake? And if they did, then what about all those pond-dwelling parasites?” Etc., etc.) Ads don’t work too well if their imagery distracts you from their message -- much more so in the case of a product that’s already a source of countless dirty jokes.
The Go-Go’s had a durable enough sense of fun to pose on the back cover of their debut album “Beauty And The Beat” in individual bubble baths. They did it as an homage to the famous cheesecake bathtub shots of Shelley Winters, whose autobiography “Shelley” had just been published. Although they were bedeviled by alternate descriptions as either empowered feminist rockers or girl-group bimbos, the Go-Go’s followed their politically-incorrect hearts, God bless them.
I agree with Mr. Daniels that the funniest bathtub scene was John Lennon’s in “A Hard Day’s Night.”
My personal favorite bathtub scene is from the Buster Keaton short “One Week,” featuring the adorable Sybil Seeley as his new bride. We see her in a surprisingly daring vignette -- the Production Code was still over ten years away -- taking a bathtub break from the construction of their catastrophic build-it-from-a-kit home. The bar of soap slips from her hand and falls to the floor. She starts to emerge from the tub to retrieve it, but then turns directly to the camera as if to say “oh no you don’t.” A hand conveniently appears to cover the camera’s lens as she leans out of the tub and grabs her soap. She returns to the bath with an expression that’s unforgettably playful and sexy. (A close second bathtub scene for sex appeal: Victoria Abril in Pedro Aldomovar’s “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!”)
But the final word on bathtubs should be left to the inimitable Flanders & Swann:
I can see the one salvation of the poor old human race,
In the bath,
In the bath
Let the nations of the world all meet together, face to face,
In the bath,
In the bath
With Verwoerd, and Kenyatta, and all those other chaps,
Nkrumah, Nabbaro, we'll get some peace perhaps,
Provided Swann and Flanders get the end without the taps,
In the bath,
In the bath
-- “In The Bath” by Flanders & Swann
A bigger question is why are all houses in movies equipped with completely impractical bathtubs. (Rhetorical question: the traditional efficient bathtub is pretty unromantic.)
There was a web-show that somehow didn't get picked up a year or so ago called "Bathing with Bierko", which was pretty much the most compelling interview I'd ever seen with John Malkovich in a bathtub.
http://tinyurl.com/dlkoqq
Google "Bono image bathtub". Great picture.
Google "Homo bathtub image" and you get a picture of Titus in the bathtub with his rare clumbers.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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