If you’re wondering whether The Way is the only film in which you can see Eli Jane naked, the answer is no… but really yes. Technically, her titties appear for about a second in The Telling, a 2009 film that I haven’t watched, but from what I know about it, seems like it shouldn’t exist. So what’s the problem? Well, we don’t really see Eli Jane’s face in that movie. No, she doesn’t play an extra. Worse. Her role was as a body double for Bridget Marquardt. Yes, that Bridget Marquardt. Why someone who’s job it is to get completely naked for every photoshoot needs a body double is a conundrum I’ve not been able to unravel, but here we are anyway.
I suppose with prior renowned roles as “Café Waitress,” “Bank teller,” and “Girlfriend,” it’s not difficult to see why doing a nude scene without face and name recognition became a viable option, although to be fair, the last of those mentioned roles was in the music video for Leona Lewis’ Bleeding Love. Said music video was also her second role of all time, the first being as Axis Sally in the TV ad for Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. This eclectic selection of roles is rounded off by the music video for Alice in Chains’ Hollow. Just to be clear, I’m not mocking her career. OK, I am, but I’m not mocking her. On the contrary, I thought her performance in The Way was really good and showed lots of range.
Another thing it showed was a whole lot of Eli Jane nude. I don’t mean in terms of time or quantity of scenes; there were only two of them, and they were quite short. I’m talking more in terms of square inches of skin shown. Now, I don’t know what the number actually is, but I know it’s equivalent to every square inch she has. Yes, in her first nude scene, Eli Jane is completely naked. Full frontal, boobs, ass, legs (if you’re a time traveller from the 1940s), feet (if you’re one of those people) – whatever you want to see, the movie’s got you covered. In the scene, her character, Jane Arcs, a death row inmate with a heart of gold, gets strip searched before her execution because… reasons. Not gonna lie, I’m a bit peeved that there are prison bars between her and the camera, but nothing is concealed throughout, so it’s ignorable.
Later in the film, there’s an Eli Jane sex scene between her character and a prison officer who is also her boyfriend on the sly. No full frontal this time, but we do get a nice close shot of her sideboob across a broad range of arm configurations, which is actually quite important in what angle and shape of boob you get to see. Also, there are no metal bars in the way this time. The scene is a bit dark, but with the eternal magic of color correction, I’ve gotten the material to where it needs to be for visibility.
I do have to say, the setting of the prison, strip search, jailhouse catfights – they all evoke a much earlier era, one where women in prison films were significantly more commonplace. I mean, all this movie was missing was for a fight to happen in the showers, or indeed any shower scene, but on the whole, I am glad to see the women in prison genre slowly coming back. Hopefully we get more offering in the near future, and if they’re from other Iranian directors, then no complaints from me. The Way does not, as I write, have a blu ray release, so in the meantime, enjoy the screencaps from the HD stream of the Eli Jane nude scenes from the film below.
