Eternal Returns #10, Extreme NSFW Edition

Don’t worry, it’s not hardcore or anything. Still. Below the jump.

Irm Hermann (top) and Karl Scheydt (bottom), Handler der vier Jahreszeiten (The Merchant of Four Seasons), 1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Cynthia Nixon (top) and David Eigenberg (bottom), Sex and the City, 2008, Michael Patrick King

My Lovely Wife and I were watching the Blu-ray of SATC the other night, more out of rank curiosity than anything else, and about five hours in, I was asking, “Where’s the much-vaunted nudity that was from what I understand a regular feature of the TV series as it played on HBO?” Sure enough, I was very soon sorry I asked. This is not a dis of Ms. Nixon, mind you—the nudity started coming in a bit before the unforgettable and yet, I would say, unnecessary image reproduced above. Still, when the above-reproduced image did appear, I was staggered, and thought, “Where the hell have I seen that before?” And, yes, it was in the Fassbinder. Only, of course, minus the awesome Jesus painting. (Over to the right in that room is a big crucifix, which we see in the shot after the little girl playing Hermann’s daughter walks in on her mom having sex with that guy who’s not her husband. Tasty.) Although I understand that Fassbinder has a substantial gay following, I insist that the resemblance here is completely coincidencidental. Although I’m from hereon in only ever referring to Cynthia Nixon as “the American Irm Hermann.”