Steven Spielberg probably doesn’t know this, but he served as an unlikely source of inspiration when it came to editing “Pillion,” the kinky and sexually graphic British sub-dom rom-com getting a limited release with A24 in the U.S. on Feb. 6 (before it expands wide on Feb. 20).
Indeed, should the legendary filmmaker ever watch Harry Lighton’s acclaimed directorial debut — which recently landed three BAFTA nominations — he may notice how it adopts his ethos from “Jaws,” where he was famously frugal about revealing the actual shark.
That said, in the case of “Pillion” the monster from the deep isn’t a pneumatic Great White with notorious mechanical difficulties, but Alexander Skarsgård’s impressively-sized prosthetic penis.
In a pivotal early scene of the film, timid loner Colin (Harry Melling) has his first sexual encounter with hunky biker Ray (Skarsgård) in a dark alleyway. But for the moment when Ray unzips his leather trousers as a wide-eyed Colin kneels before him, the decision was made in post-production to, as it were, “not show the shark,” says editor Gareth C. Scales.
“It’s a good-looking prosthetic penis,” he asserts. “But I think it was really important to see it through Colin’s eyes. You really want to it see it, but this way it makes you go, ‘Oh my gosh.’ You know who he is so you know he’s going to have some sort of incredible member, but it just felt fun to kind of keep it more as a mystery.”
Of course, as anyone who watched the film on the giant screen of the Palais at its Cannes premiere or in the U.K. (where it released last year) will know, the “incredible member” isn’t kept entirely a mystery.
“You do see the shaft coming out, but not the whole penis — we cut right before you think you’re going to see something,” admits Scales.