The cringe cock of "Angels and Insects"

 I don't usually use the contemporary term "cringe" as an adjective.  It's from a later generation, so it feels weird, but it is completely appropriate to describe the famous penis scene in Angels and Insects (1995).

Everyone in West Hollywood saw Angels and Insects when it premiered, due to the rumor of the penis.  Male frontal nudity was vanishingly rare in mainstream movies in the 1990s, and rumor had it that this guy was actually aroused!

After 30 years, I've forgotten everything about the movie except for the cringe penis and people actually being insects, so I looked up a plot synopsis.

In Victorian England, entomologist William Addison (Mark Rylance, top photo) gets a job cataloging the insect collection of baronet Sir Harold Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp).  

The name Alabaster makes me cringe.

When you search for n*de photosof Jeremy Kemp, this pops up.  I doubt that it's the same one.

Yes, I'm stalling.

William, of course, falls in love with Sir Harold's daughter Eugenia, an insect-obsessed young lady who dresses like a bug.  Actually, all of the women do, for a symbolic reason that I don't quite understand, but the movie won an Oscar for best costumes.

Eugenia and William get married and have some kids, but he is bewildered by her bedroom behavior, coldly rejecting him one moment and being voracious the next, so he starts an affair servant girl named Matty.

Left: Mark Rylance has shown his d*k on screen several times, but in this movie he just gets aroused under the sheets.

More after the break, including the cringe p*enis

Meanwhile, William spars with Eugenia's brother Edgar (Douglas Henshall), a bigot and all-around sleazebag.

 

One day William comes home unexpectedly to find Edgar in bed with Eugenia.  His sister!

He jumps up and displays his cringe p*enis.

In an interview Douglas Henshall said that the arousal was not part of the script.  He just happened to be aroused because he was in bed with an attractive lady, and the director decided to go with it.

This makes the penis even more cringe.

Eugenia explains that she has been sleeping with her brother for years.  In fact, their children are Edgar's, not William's.

William decides to leave her and go to the Amazon to catalog insects with servant girl Matty, who has an interest in entomology.

So, a movie about incest and insects.  I still don't get it, but we left the theater feeling slightly nauseous.  Sometimes a penis is not enough. 

See also: Big Boys: A gay university freshman tries to make friends, get laid, and find his tribe

No Good Deed: Four lesbians, a gay son, Oedipus, some murderers, and Phoebe from "Friends"

Johnny Berchtold: I have good news and bad news.  The good news is his cock