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 20 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
Party at Kitty and Stud's (1970) (aka Italian Stallion)	To break into the film-making world, many well-known actors and actresses first starred in marginal films, such as this one, originally an 8 mm porn-stag flick; 23 year-old Sylvester Stallone was featured in this low-grade, crude film (originally rated X, but drastically edited for its retitled re-release on 35 mm) in his first acting role as Stud, for which he was paid $100/day for two days' work; he followed this role with a bit part in Woody Allen's Bananas (1971) and a half-dozen more films before his breakthrough with Rocky (1976); then, this little-known film came to light and was renamed and re-released (heavily-edited) with a more provocative title in reference to his nicknamed role in the boxing film, The Italian Stallion; this adult film displayed bestiality, fellatio, lesbianism, a prolonged orgy scene, and light S&M (belt-whipping)
Performance (1970, UK)	Co-director Nicolas Roeg's film (his directorial debut film) was criticized as sleazy and worthless for its homoerotic violence, explicit sex and nudity when released; it was a wild and drug-filled psychedelic, originally X-rated cult film kept out of circulation for two years after production until edited down, and initially loathed by critics; the non-linear film starred Stones' singer Mick Jagger as Turner - a reclusive, androgynous washed-up hippie ex-pop-star in a decaying London (Notting Hill) mansion with his two groupie lovemates: poly-sexual blonde junky girlfriend Pherber (Anita Pallenberg) and her young, androgynous French girl lover named Lucy (small-breasted Michèle Breton); one of the film's most publicized scenes was the shared menage-a-trois bath scene among them; in the film's most erotic scene, Pherber lay down on a bed while talking to London hit-man (or 'performer') gangster Chas (James Fox) and stroked/fondled her fur coat covering her otherwise naked crotch; in another scene of shifting sexual identities, Turner and Pherber dressed macho Chas up in effeminate clothing (and an androgynous curly blonde wig) to give him a "female feel" - and Pherber mirror-reflected one of her breasts onto Chas' chest
Pornography in Denmark: A New Approach (1970 or 1969) (aka Censorship in Denmark, or Sexual Freedom in Denmark); also (Dansk Sexualitet (1969) by M.C. von Hellen)	This full-length, exploitation X-rated feature film from Alex de Renzy was the first successful mainstream film widely distributed with pornography in it and shown in a commercial theatre -- it was vaguely disguised or masqueraded as a serious or educational 'documentary' look (with redeeming social importance and value) at how Denmark became the first country to legalize hard-core pornography in 1969; San Francisco's hardcore pioneer director/producer Alex de Renzy (with his directorial debut) (with reputed sexologists Phyllis and Eberhard Kronhausen) conducted interviews with uninhibited Danes, along with closeups of every detail of conventional sexual intercourse and depictions of lesbianism, fellatio, and cunnilingus; a 90-minute version screened in San Francisco was later confiscated and the film was banned in a number of states Matt Cimber's He and She (1970) was another film with a fake "sex research institute" - and was noted as the first hard-core porn film to get national distribution; in the film, an attractive young couple demonstrated the art of lovemaking while a sex education professional narrated Alex de Renzy's follow-up film was the quasi-historical A History of the Blue Movie (1970 or 1971) - it was an evolutionary survey of pornography with rare vintage erotica from the silent era (stag films) through to the present, to circumvent obscenity laws Sweden's subtitled X-rated pornographic film Kärlekens språk (1969) (aka Swedish Marriage Manual or Language of Love) another educational 'sex documentary' -- was the film that Robert De Niro inappropriately chose for his date Cybill Shepherd in Taxi Driver (1976)	Swedish Marriage Manual (1969)
Song of the Loon (1970)	The first gay-friendly independent film with homoerotic content was this gay frontier romance; it was released with the tagline: "Curious? Have you ever wondered about a love story between two men?", and was based on Richard Amory's 1966 pulp novel of the same title about a homosexual relationship in 1870's California; it provided audiences with one of its first serious representations of homosexuality, although the film was campy and amateurish
The Stewardesses (1970)	This sexploitation film was the first soft-core 3D (Stereovision) feature - it was first shown in 1969 and unique for any film - it was reshot and edited as it was shown for a few more years; it became the most profitable 3-D film in history; it was originally released with a self-imposed X-rating (although it was actually only soft-core), then re-cut for an R, and finally released again later as a porno film with hardcore inserts of completely different actors
Britain's Hammer Studios' Vampire/Horror Films: e.g., The Vampire Lovers (1970) Countess Dracula (1971) Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) Lust for a Vampire (1971) The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974)	Although Britain's Hammer Studios had already defined the period film from the late fifties on with its remakes of Universal horror films, the atmosphere changed with relaxed standards and ratings; they began to produce a series of low-budget, exploitative horror films in the early 70s; these films took advantage of the new morality, and were characterized by deeply saturated color, gothic horror, suggestive soft-core sex and graphic nudity, vampire brides, lesbian overtones, bright-red blood, plunging necklines, and a bevy of 'Scream Queen' stars such as Ingrid Pitt, Joanna Lumley, and Martine Beswick; The Vampire Lovers was a remake of director Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses (1961), and starred Ingrid Pitt as a sexy, erotic and lesbian vampire; its erotic sequel, about a girls school harboring undead female vampires, was titled Lust for a Vampire (1971); Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971) teased with this warning: "The sexual transformation of a man into a woman will actually take place before your very eyes";	The Vampire Lovers (1970) Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971)
Woodstock (1970) (subtitled 3 Days of Peace & Music)	Michael Wadleigh's over 3-hour documentary of the 1969 concert in upper-state NY was originally rated R for three brief images of nudity (mostly skinny-dipping) - and also for rampant drug use and profanity among young concert-goers; it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
Zabriskie Point (1970)	This was Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's first US film, a controversial anti-Establishment work and embarrassing financial disaster for MGM, that starred newcomers Mark Frechette (as a student radical wanted for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot) and Daria Halprin (as an anthropology student - and real estate tycoon's lover and secretary who was helping to build a development in the desert) as two disconnected young people; it ended with a celebrated hallucinatory, fantasy lovemaking orgy sequence in the desert sand dunes (at the lowest point in the United States - Zabriskie Point) during which other couples magically appeared after the couple began making love for a massive 'love-in'
The Beguiled (1971)	Director Don Siegel's psychosexual western-horror drama set in the Civil War period starred Clint Eastwood as injured Union soldier Corp. John McBurney who took refuge in an all-female seminary school for prim and proper Southern girls, led by sexually-frustrated headmistress Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page); the film's tagline descriptively stated: "One man...seven women...in a strange house!" and was criticized as misogynistic; McBurney soon learned that the Gothic atmosphere in this matriarchal society was one of sexual repression, deceit, jealousy, and power struggle between a triangle of females vying for his love, attention, and sexual favors: lesbian-leaning Martha (who had a scandalous past - incestuous relations with her deceased brother), her attraction for virginal Edwina Dabney (Elizabeth Hartman), and both Martha's and Edwina's jealousy toward flirtatious 17 year-old student Carol (Jo Ann Harris) - who offered herself to the entrapped soldier; the manipulative McBurney (known as Mr. McB) was able to charm every one of the women - even 12 year-old Amy (Pamelyn Ferdin); during a menage-a trois fantasy sequence (in Martha's mind?), McBurney was seen making love to Martha with Edwina next to him, and the two females shared a lesbian kiss - abruptly, however, McBurney was viewed making love in a room above with Carol; the hotbed atmosphere of sexual repression, empowered females and vengeful jealousy led Edwina to violently attack him - and later led to further retaliation - a gruesome leg amputation with a hacksaw (and brandy as an anesthetic) and lethal poisoning
Billy Jack (1971)	This martial-arts film with a non-Asian lead title character (actor-writer-producer-director Tom Laughlin), a half-Indian, ex-Green Beret named Billy Jack, was a commercial success as a low-budget independent film; however, it featured a few controversial scenes for its time including the ugly and realistic rape scene of pacifist and idealistic Freedom School founder Jean Roberts (Laughlin's real-life wife Delores Taylor) -- in the scene, she was naked (with a quick full-frontal glimpse) and tied to stakes on a desert floor before being raped by bigoted Bernard (David Roya) with his pal
Carnal Knowledge (1971)	This Mike Nichols film with striking adult subject matter (regarding the fragile male ego and bravado, dysfunctionality, and misogyny), sexual encounters, and profanity further pushed the boundaries of sex in cinema although the film had little in the way of explicit sex - it challenged the ratings system as it chronicled the sex lives of two friends: predatory Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and unsuspecting and naive Sandy (singer Art Garfunkel) as it followed their difficult initiation into sex during college (with among others, Candice Bergen as Susan), including Jonathan's later difficult relationship to voluptuous, big-breasted live-in mistress Bobbie (Oscar-nominated Ann-Margret) who he first felt was his sexual salvation: ("I took one look at the tits on her, and I knew I'd never have trouble again"); it followed Jonathan into his divorced, "ball-buster" burnt-out life in the late 60s, when he found himself dysfunctionally impotent, and resorted to using the services of paid prostitute Louise (Rita Moreno in a cameo) to recite a carefully-worded speech while kneeling between his legs - to massage his ego (and more) in the film's final scene: ("You're getting hard - more strong, more masculine, extraordinary, more robust. It's rising, it's rising. More virile, domineering. More irresistible - it's up, it's in the air!")
A Clockwork Orange (1971, UK)	Director Stanley Kubrick's disturbing and controversial futuristic satire included graphic depictions of three rapes: one to the music of Rossini and a second to the tune of Singin' in the Rain; a third one was conducted in a gallery filled with giant phallic art sculptures and erotic paintings, when he attacked a Catlady (Miriam Karlin) with a over-sized porcelain dildo; a sped-up orgy was performed to the tune of the William Tell Overture; in other segments, lead droog Alex (Malcolm McDowell) experienced an orgy dream (eating grapes with half-naked handmaidens) and was subjected to behavioral conditioning to prevent his violent and sexually aggressive tendencies - although he seemed 'uncured' by film's end (as he enjoyed another explicit final fantasy); Kubrick was forced to withdraw the film from UK cinemas in 1973 after allegations that it was inspiring young people to copy its scenes of violence
The Devils (1971, UK)	Ken Russell's film was a blasphemous, shocking and excessive depiction of the repressive 17th century when sexuality was equated with Satanism - it was an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s "The Devils Of Loudon"; the film was vilified and met with outrage in its story of a womanizing, vain, rebellious activist priest named Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed); when the priest impregnated nobleman's cousin Philippe (Georgina Hale), married wealthy heiress Madeleine Dubroux (Gemma Jones) in secret, and then refused to remove the city walls around his fortified town, he faced questioning and persecution by Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) for witchcraft and sorcery; he was discredited and accused of "diabolic possession" by the local repressed Ursuline nuns who were led by tormented, sexually-hysterical, sexually-obsessed, hunchbacked Mother Superior Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave); in one of the film's most shocking (and censored) scenes of a staged exorcism, the nuns acted as if they were possessed, due to threats of execution from one of the church's accusers - in the orgiastic "rape of Christ" sequence, the crazed nuns, who were whipped into a sexual frenzy of hysteria, displayed full-frontal nudity when they removed their habits, and masturbated with (or raped) a large-sized crucifix or effigy of Jesus that they pulled down from the wall, while Father Mignon (Murray Melvin) watched from afar and committed self-abuse under his robe - (the two and a half-minute scene was excised prior to the film's release)
Friends (1971, UK)	This R-rated romantic teen drama and coming-of-age story directed by Lewis Gilbert told about an idealistic (natural and healthy?) and romantic relationship between a teenaged couple who were both alienated by the adult world and fell in love: an English boy Paul Harrison (Sean Bury) and French girl Michelle La Tour (17 year-old Anicee Alvina) attempted to make it together once a baby arrived in an idyllic cottage; the film was noted for an Elton John soundtrack (and hit title song) and controversial nude scenes and breastfeeding of the baby (whether they were prurient or naively innocent was debatable) between its very young performers; it was followed by the sequel Paul and Michelle (1974)