Sex in Cinema: Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes

Sex in Cinema: In the following collection, excerpted from the Mini-History of Sex in the Cinema at this site, here are some of the most significant milestones, and most influential and memorable sexual/erotic scenes and films on the big screen through cinematic history. Most of these films, with portrayals of sex and/or nudity, were considered quite erotic, groundbreaking, unique and/or controversial at the time.

Sex in Cinema: In the following collection, excerpted from the Mini-History of Sex in the Cinema at this site, here are some of the most significant milestones, and most influential and memorable sexual/erotic scenes and films on the big screen through cinematic history. Most of these films, with portrayals of sex and/or nudity, were considered quite erotic, groundbreaking, unique and/or controversial at the time. HISTORY OF SEX IN CINEMA - INDEX (chronological by film title) Intro \| Part 1 \| Part 2 \| Part 3 \| Part 4 \| Part 5 \| Part 6 \| Part 7 \| Part 8 \| Part 9 \| Part 10 \| Part 11 \| Part 12 \| Part 13 \| Part 14 \| Part 15 \| Part 16 \| Part 17 \| Part 18 \| Part 19 \| Part 20 \| Part 21 \| Part 22 \| Part 23 \| Part 24 \| Part 25 \| Part 26 \| Part 27 \| Part 28 \| Part 29 \| Part 30 \| Part 31 \| Part 32 \| Part 33 \| Part 34 \| Part 35 \| Part 36 \| Part 37 \| Part 38 \| Part 39 \| Part 40 \| Part 41 \| Part 42 \| Part 43 \| Part 44 \| Part 45 \| Part 46 \| Part 47 \| Part 48 \| Part 49 \| Part 50 \|
Sex in Cinema: Part 18 Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes (chronological by film title) Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous
Movie Title	Brief Scene Description	Example
Greetings (1968)	Director Brian DePalma's second feature film was an episodic anti-war (and anti-military) satire of late-1960s events, manners and mores among the 'under-30' counter-culture (topics included draft-dodging, free love and computer dating, voyeuristic and amateurish 'peep art' film-making, the JFK assassination and conspiracy theories, Vietnam and politics embodied by LBJ); it was originally rated X (it was the first film in the US to receive the 'new' X rating, predating I Am Curious - Yellow by a few months) but later was re-rated to R; in one scene, Lloyd Clay (Gerrit Graham) drew diagrams of bullet paths on the nude body of his sleeping girlfriend to prove that the doctors provided the Warren Commission with false information
Hugs and Kisses (1968, Swe) (aka Puss & Kram (1967))	Director Jonas Cornell's notorious parody of Swedish sex comedies was noted for breaking more nudity barriers - it was the first extended full frontal view of female genitalia (actually pubic hair); the film's heroine Eva (Agneta Ekmanner) undressed in front of a mirror, wandered around the room and looked at her reflection
if... (1968, UK)	This British coming-of-age social drama from Lindsay Anderson was one of the first films to mix color and black-and-white footage in an impressionistic way; it was originally X-rated and most noted for its controversial finale - a violent, vengeful bloody revolt, uprising and shoot-out from the roof of the school building at a conformist British public school (a symbolic microcosm of a repressive Establishment-oriented society) during Founders' Day, led by rebellious, anti-authoritarian anarchist Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell in his debut film role) - earlier, he had said: "one man can change the world with a bullet in the right place"; it was notorious and controversial for its frontal male nudity (in a shower scene), sex, and homosexuality; in one scene in the film, Mick and friend Wallace (Richard Warwick) went joyriding on a stolen motorcycle during a truant day from school; in a graphic scene in a coffee-shop, Mick animalistically flirted with the waitress (Christine Noonan) who taunted him: "Go on, look at me. I'll kill you. Look at my eyes. Sometimes I stand in front of the mirror and my eyes get bigger and bigger. I'm like a tiger, I'm like a tigress" - their ritualistic mating (using the metaphor of two tigers) was accompanied by growls, sniffs, clawing, hissing, and biting - and suddenly they appeared naked as they rolled around and wrestled each other on the floor (in a ten-second sequence)
Inga (1967, Sw., US release in 1968) (aka Jag - en oskuld (I, a Virgin))	Director Joe Sarno's daring soft-core film (and box-office smash) for the late 60s was a pretentious foreign film art-house import that was a milestone in erotic cinema, although most of its sexuality was implied through facial expressions and cut-aways to off-screen; it was a sexual coming-of-age, soap opera tale that starred beautiful ex-ballerina and star Marie Liljedahl (in her film debut) as an orphaned, nubile 17 year-old virgin named Inga Frilund; the film told how the orphaned teenager was forced to live with her scheming 36 year-old Aunt Greta Johansson (Monica Strömmerstedt) in Stockholm - and eventually stole away her expensive, live-in young lover Karl Nistad (Casten Lassen) for her own love-making; its scenes of nudity, masturbation, and intercourse are considered tame today; due to its successful exploitation, a color sequel was made, The Seduction of Inga (1969) (aka Inga 2), and released in the US in 1972; Liljedahl also starred in director Jess Franco's Eugenie (1970) (aka Eugenie...the Story of Her Journey Into Perversion), based on one of Marquis de Sade's novels titled Philosophy in the Boudoir, in which she was systematically degraded (drugged, raped, and tortured) and corrupted by her father's mistress/older lover Madame Marianne de St. Ange (Maria Rohm)	Inga (1967) The Seduction of Inga (1969) Eugenie (1970)
The Killing of Sister George (1968, UK)	Director Robert Aldrich's milestone X-rated 'lesbian' film included a lengthy scene in a real-life lesbian bar (the Gateways Club in London), and the film's most notorious love-making scene that caused the film to be banned in several locales; it was an extended, raw lesbian encounter between closeted TV producer/executive Mercy Croft (Coral Browne) and a younger, doll-collecting and passive, girlish-acting Alice (nicknamed 'Childie') McNaught (Susannah York) who was the live-in lover of aging, often drunk, bull-dyke actress June 'George' Buckridge (Beryl Reid) (she played the 'killed-off' BBC soap-opera character of Sister George in the film's title); in the scene in Alice's apartment bedroom, Mercy opened Alice's blouse to expose her breasts, further caress her and kiss her nipple, and have her experience an orgasm - until they were both discovered in a mutually-seductive position by an enraged June who argued with Mercy: "The 'poor child' you've got there is a woman. She's 32 -- she had an illegitimate child at 15. She's got an abandoned daughter who's almost old enough to be of interest to you, Mercy dear"; Aldrich's film was noted as the first X-rated film by a respected director and actors, and the first film to openly depict a lesbian love scene in a mainstream feature film (before this film's release, the German Maedchen in Uniform (1958) was the only lesbian film seen publicly in America, although it wasn't released in the US until 1965); this film was re-rated a few years later as "R", like most X-rated films in the late 60s
Romeo and Juliet (1968, UK/It.)	This Franco Zeffirelli-directed Shakespearean adaptation featured the unequivocal sexuality of young teens and star-crossed lovers, Romeo (17 year-old Leonard Whiting) and Juliet (16 year-old Olivia Hussey), who spent one honeymoon night together in the nude in this updated version; there were a few long-held shots of Leonard Whiting's nakedness as he lay in bed with Juliet and then stood by a sunlit window, and a split-second scene of Juliet hastily rolling out of her shared bed; the film appealed to the youthful, counter-cultural generation of the late 60s with its realism, the passion of the lovers, the brief nudity of the couple on their wedding night (morning), and its contemporary feel
Rosemary's Baby (1968)	Roman Polanski's definitive horror film contained some nudity - especially Rosemary's (Mia Farrow) nightmarish "dream"/sex-rape ritual, in which her nude form was painted with runes, while she was surrounded by overweight, elderly bystanders (of the Satanists' coven) - who watched her having sexual intercourse with the Beast ("This is no dream! This is really happening!")
The Sergeant (1968)	Director John Flynn's controversial, sexually-frank debut film was set on a US military base in rural France in the early 1950s, and told about self-despising, predatory closeted homosexual Master Sergeant Albert Callan (Rod Steiger) who planted a forceful kiss on the lips of handsome young heterosexual recruit PFC Tom Swanson (John Philip Law) - this led to the tortured title character's alcohol abuse and eventual suicide with a bullet to his head
Therese and Isabelle (1968, W.Ger./Neth./Fr.)	Radley Metzger's atmospheric, soft-core German language tale of self-discovery was based on the memoirs of French author Violette Leduc; this was the first and still one of the most realistic treatments of an adolescent lesbian love relationship; it featured two French schoolgirl classmates (Essy Persson and Anna Gael) in love in a boarding school
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)	Norman Jewison's caper plot abounded with sexual chemistry and was noted for its over 6-minute, erotic, sophisticated, almost wordless chess game (a metaphor for seduction) between bank heist mastermind and Boston millionaire-playboy Thomas (Steve McQueen) and insurance investigator-sleuth Vicky Anderson (Faye Dunaway) who wore a backless dress; the scene was filmed with a circling and overhead camera (representing her investigative circling of him), capped with a closeup of her slow fingering of the length and tip of the phallic-shaped bishop chess piece during the exciting game - with obvious sexual imagery; the scene ended with a 70 second kiss that dissolved into a blur of colors, although they eventually double-crossed each other The original film was explicitly remade by director John McTiernan featuring art thief Thomas Crown (Pierce Brosnan) and a renamed Catherine Banning (40+ Rene Russo) - without the chess game but with a sexy society ball scene between the two as they danced to a rumba; Catherine appeared in a slinky, black see-through cocktail dress with a red sash - the scene merged into a montage of their sweaty love-making in locations (including in the hallway, on the marble staircase and on Crown's book-covered office desk) throughout Crown's luxurious townhouse	The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)
Vixen! (1968)	This over-the-top, definitive Russ Meyer ("King of the Nudies") sexploitation skin-flick was typical of his independent underground films with aggressive, big-breasted starlets; it featured Erica Gavin as the sexually-voracious title character; this profitable film was one of the first films to receive the newly-formed MPAA's 'X' rating