Catherine Millet: galleries by day. Orgies by night. Only in Paris, kids

Interview, July, 2002 by Brad Goldfarb

For any individual to write a memoir of their sex life with the candor and precision demonstrated in The Sexual Life of Catherine M. (just out from Grove Press) would be reason enough to sit up and take notice. But when that individual is a 53-year-old woman, a well-regarded art critic and a prominent French intellectual, it's likely that interest will border on awe. Such has been the case with Catherine Millet, the editor of the respected art journal Art Press for the past 30 years and author of eight books on art, whose frank, unapologetic account of her sexual adventures over the past three decades (from gang bangs in public parks to orgies in opulent country houses) was published in France last year by the venerable publisher Seuil. Millet's book, a best-seller in France, has been called the most pornographic work to be published by a Frenchwoman in the past 50 years, and while she has become something of a household name in her native country (something she clearly never anticipated or intended) there ha s been virtually no outcry from the growing farces of conservatism there--something which leaves even Millet struggling for an explanation. Only time will tell what the reaction will be on this side of the Atlantic.

BRAD GOLDFARB: The word that seems to come up most often in discussions of your memoir is "shocking," both for its graphic sexual content and because of who wrote it. So my first question is, Why did you write this book?

CATHERINE MILLET: Because I don't think people tell the truth about sex. I wanted to write this book because I was annoyed by everything I was hearing and reading about la liberte sexuelle. For me, there was a gap between the philosophy expressed by these individuals and their personal experience. I wanted to say to the world, "Sexual freedom is not the paradise portrayed in your writing, it's something else." I just wanted to do something realistic around the subject, as opposed to this idealized version.

BG: As news of your book began to trickle into our offices over the past year, one of the things we kept hearing was how amazing it was that this prominent intellectual had lead a kind of double life for so many years.

CM: Everybody has a double life. [laughs] The difference is that not everyone chooses to talk about it. Yes, of course I was aware that many people I know in the art world would be surprised by the things I describe. Not about my life so much, but about the fact that I chose to share it publicly.

BG: Reading your book one has the impression that here is someone who doesn't care if the world has issues with the choices she has made. Were you completely free of those concerns in the writing?

CM: The only thing that I was careful about was mentioning other people. I felt completely free to share everything about myself, but about the others, that's different. That was the only thing I struggled with.

BG: I gather from interviews I've read that many, if not most, of the experiences recounted here took place 20 or 30 years ago.

CM: Yes. All the group sex stopped in the '80s.

BG: Why?

CM: Well, I didn't stop to wonder at the time. I never reached a moment where I said to myself, "Now it's finished. Now I'm living with a man. I really love him. This is enough." I stopped progressively because I understood what it all meant for me, what I was looking for in the experience.

BG: Which was?

CM: [laughs] A family, or something like it. And when you understand something well you don't need it anymore. And maybe I also began to understand something about relationships and about what makes good sex.

BG: You talk in the book about your early shyness. Would you say that reaching an increased level of comfort with other people as a result of these experiences contributed to your decision to stop?

CM: No, The shyness ended because my professional life was going OK and I was more confident as a result of that.

BG: Along with your candor, one of the most remarkable aspects of The Sexual Life of Catherine M. is your precision with language, something that's all the more striking when one considers that descriptions of sex are typically imprecise and filled with cliche--pitfalls you manage to avoid. Did your experience as an art critic help in this?

CM: When I decided to write this book I decided to approach it exactly as I would a piece of art criticism. I think I write on this subject as clearly as I do about art, at least I hope I do.

BG: The great irony, of course, is that many writers who cover art are criticized for how obtuse their writing is.

CM: [laughs] Yes, I know.

BG: So how did you avoid that?

CM: I've written a lot of articles or essays on theory which are not for everybody, but I've also written a number of paperback books on art that are designed more for mass distribution. Some years back I did one called simply l'Art Contemporain for [the French publisher] Flammarion--it is an encyclopedic collection designed for the general reader, and it works very well. I like to do things like that, writing for a larger, less specialized audience. I took the same approach with this project.