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The
car isn't an effective private space. It provides privacy only for those with a
voyeuristic streak. The car gives us a private soundstage, where our words are
contained and held back, while at the same time opening up the walls for others
to glance inside, even at high speed. It’s an illusion of secrecy, with the
sense separated out. In the world of Crash, this isn’t a negative; it’s almost
part of the celebration of new found freedoms.
Driving to
the airport garage seems to simply be the nearest place where Ballard and
Remington can get off the road. However, note the opening scene of the film
also takes place in an airport hangar. Planes are eluded to several times in
the movie, representing another piece of vehicular technology where you can have
accidents and live dangerously.
This first
sexual encounter is by far the most adventurous and violent. In later scenes we
see Ballard and Remington having sex in a car where neither of them seem much
interested in having an orgasm, and they just stop, looking bored, in order to
talk.
Here however
they tear at each others clothes. Ballard is sitting in the driver’s seat, and
Remington straddles him as he pulls off her panties and tights. This shot was
used, extensively, as theatrical art for the film.
Significantly it is Ballard that makes the first move, finally ready to embrace
whatever is to follow. At no point does Remington do the seducing, although she
has been flirting for quite some time. It is the clearest example yet that
Ballard has come to accept these new feelings. After all, having sex in a car
with the widow of a man you killed in a head-on crash isn't exactly standard
behaviours.
The sex act
itself is fevered and brief, with Ballard climaxing early. It is, after all,
his first time. Still, neither of them are disappointed.
People walk
around the car, going to and from flights. This helps us appreciate that they
were not seeking out a secretive copulation, but rather, just needed to get off
the road to afford opportunity, playing with the car as both a place of privacy,
and one for public performance.
Finally we
note the sexual position they take. On the surface it must have been quite
uncomfortable for Ballard since his leg was recently broken. However, he
remains in the driving seat, with Remington straddling him. He is in the same
car, in the same seat, with the same woman he had shared an accident with.
However, this time he is cognisant of this, and is able to pull her into the
driver’s compartment with him.
In the next
scene, Ballard makes love with his wife. She has taken up the same position,
only this time in their apartment.
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