History of Sex in Cinema:
The Greatest and Most Influential
Sexual Films and Scenes
(Illustrated)
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History of Sex in Cinema: |
See also the multi-part Sexual and Erotic Films in Cinema, The Most Controversial Films of All-Time and the Best and Most Memorable Film Kisses of All Time in Cinematic History. Key to Icon Symbol:
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| Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes (chronological order, by film title) - 1973 Intro | Pre-1920s | 1920-1928 | 1929-1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934-1937 | 1938-1943 | 1944-1946 | 1947-1952 | 1953-1954 | 1955-1957 | 1958-1959 | 1960-1961 | 1962-1963 | 1964 | 1965-1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992-1 | 1992-2 | 1993 | 1994-1 | 1994-2 | 1995-1 | 1995-2 | 1996-1 | 1996-2 | 1997-1 | 1997-2 | 1998-1 | 1998-2 | 1999-1 | 1999-2 | 2000-1 | 2000-2 | 2001-1 | 2001-2 | 2002-1 | 2002-2 | 2003-1 | 2003-2 | 2004-1 | 2004-2 | 2005-1 | 2005-2 | 2006-1 | 2006-2 | 2007-1 | 2007-2 | 2008 | 2009 | |
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Brief Scene Description | Example |
Breezy (1973)
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In the first directed film that he didn't also star in, director Clint Eastwood cast Kay Lenz as a troubled hippie and liberal, guitar-strumming free spirit named Edith Alice "Breezy" Breezerman; in this R-rated, May-December romance story, she became involved in an intergenerational affair opposite William Holden as Frank Harmon who took the role of a middle-aged, divorced businessman - a conservative real-estate broker in the LA area |
 
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Coffy (1973)
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After the success of the blaxploitation action film Shaft (1971) that was targeted at inner-city black male audiences, this violent soft-core female follow-up version starred Pam Grier (in her first lead role) as an anti-drug vigilante-heroine vengeful against despicable Vegas drug-dealers - using her oversized revolver or sawed-off shotgun; she was one of the first female action stars in this gritty yet formulaic film that was more palatable than Melvin Van Peebles‘ breakout film Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (1971); this film included heavy doses of sex and nudity, low-cut clothing, and for some viewers a confirmation of the stereotyped societal perception that blacks were sexual animals; director Quentin Tarantino judged it to be one of the top 10 greatest films ever made, and brought back Grier to star in his tribute film Jackie Brown (1997) |
 
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Deadly Weapons (1973)
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Doris Wishman's notorious and off-beat sexploitation film was advertised as featuring Polish burlesque stripper and star Chesty Morgan's (real name Lillian Wilczkowsky) 73-inch enormous and grotesque bustline (her measurements: 73-32-36), with the tagline: "See the mob get busted when Chesty takes her revenge"; Chesty (billed as Zsa Zsa) starred as Crystal, who performed an unsexy and lethargic striptease in a Las Vegas club to lure a cold-blooded hitman (one eyed 'Hook' Larry played by Gaylord St. James) to her room where she drugged and then smothered him with her mammoth 'deadly weapons' on the sofa -- the first of two such murders (to the sound of ten-pins falling); in another Chesty film titled Double Agent 73 (1974) (with the tagline: "Watch out for the booby traps...They're explosive"), she used a spy camera implanted in her left breast to photograph enemy agents |   
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Director Nicolas Roeg's intense mystery/drama told the story of a vacationing married couple Laura (Julie Christie) and John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) who were in Venice after the tragic accidental drowning demise of their daughter in England; the film was most known for an explicit, frank, and honest three-minute love scene for its time, with the couple in their Venice hotel room (bathroom and bedroom) expressing their intimate and honest love for each other and reconnecting emotionally; the scene was creatively edited - intercut and juxtaposed with their showering-bathing-dressing and preparations for going out to dinner; as they relaxed languorously together, she stated: "You've got toothpaste all over your mouth" to which he replied: "Eat if off" - she responded with a kiss, and a playful stroking of his naked backside as they both stretched out on a bed to make love; the scene was so explicit (and seemingly real) that it had to be edited before the film's US theatrical R-rated release |
  
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Academy-Award winning director William Friedkin created a frightening, horror film masterpiece about a young 12 year-old girl entering puberty and womanhood, who also became possessed; besides its sensational, nauseating, horrendous special effects (360 degree head-rotation, the projectile spewing of green puke, etc.), it also included scenes of Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) forcefully grabbing a psychiatrist's crotch, urinating on the floor during a party, using obscene language, self-mutilating and masturbating herself with a crucifix, and making inappropriate sexual advances; there was also a controversial and lengthy excruciatingly-torturous medical examination sequence with markedly sexual overtones |
  
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The Grande Bouffe (1973, Fr/It.) (aka La Grande Bouffe, or "The Big Feast (or Blow-Out)")
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Co-writer/director Marco Ferreri's decadent black comedy-drama of group sex and unbridled gastronomic indulgence (as a satirical critique of western capitalism and affluence) told the improbable tale of four middle-aged, over-privileged individuals in a villa in the French countryside for a weekend: chef Ugo (Ugo Tognazzi), TV anchorman/executive Michel (Michel Piccoli), an airline pilot Marcello (Marcello Mastroianni), and a judge Philippe (Philippe Noiret) who decided to commit suicide by eating themselves to death during a bacchanalian feast (with extravagant gourmet food, flatulence and scatological implications from an exploding toilet); they were accompanied by three prostitutes, one of whom was a debauched, liberal-minded, and sexually-voracious local schoolteacher Andrea (Andrea Ferreol); in one of the film's scenes, one of the prostitutes was stripped naked and pelted with pieces of cake; in another profligate scene of engorgement, the judge stuffed food into the dying chef's mouth as the schoolteacher masturbated him |  
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The Harrad Experiment (1973)
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Ted Post's film was based upon Robert H. Rimmer's 1962 best-selling book published in 1966; it was made during the sexual 'free-love' revolution of the 70s - a story about non-existent Harrad College run by Professor Philip Tenhausen (James Whitmore) and his wife Margaret (Tippi Hedren) for "a controlled group experiment in pre-marital relations"; for one year in the experimental co-ed institution, two incompatible and mismatched young student couples: open-minded Stanley Cole and shy and reluctant brunette Sheila Grove (long-haired Don Johnson and Laurie Walters) and alluring blonde Beth Hillyer and inexperienced and insecure Harry Schacht (Victoria Thompson and Bruno Kirby) were encouraged to have "sexual intimacy" - to practice what they had learned about pre-marital sex and anti-monogamous behavior; this infamous R-rated film included lots of full-frontal nudity (including brief glimpses of Don Johnson), outdoor 7:30 am nude yoga in a large circle, group indoor swimming pool skinny-dipping, and a memorable scene in which Tippi Hedren proposed to studly Don Johnson that they "do it" right out on the open lawn to "exemplify the real freedom of Harrad", but then instructed him that "real people make love with their minds and their understanding and not just their bodies"; many versions of the film were severely edited and cut; it was one of the first films of young 16 year-old Melanie Griffith (as an extra), daughter of Tippi Hedren, who after meeting him on the set, went on to marry star Don Johnson (in a short-lived one year marriage in 1976; she later re-married him in 1989 and divorced again in 1996); this film was followed by the sequel Harrad Summer (1974) (aka Love All Summer) with only Victoria Thompson and Laurie Walters reprising their roles |      
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The Naked Ape (1973)
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This box-office and critical disaster (executive produced by Hugh Hefner) was an experimental, pseudo-docudrama and semi-animated Playboy magazine adaptation of the popular 1967 anthropological Desmond Morris book of the same name; it starred Johnny Crawford as Lee - a college student facing the draft who was interested in classmate Cathy (mini-skirted, pre-Dallas Victoria Principal) in his "Erotic Poetry and Prose" class; this PG-rated sex comedy cult film attempted to explain, in hip 70s fashion, the history of man's sexual urges | 
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In Woody Allen's science-fiction satirical comedy classic and screwball comedy about the dystopian future, nerdy Miles Monroe (Woody Allen) - who found himself in the year 2173, was accidentally trapped in a large cylindrical "Orgasmatron" - a substitute experience for sex; the film ended with the famous "sex and death" line: "Sex and death. Two things that come once in a lifetime. But at least after death you're not nauseous"; in another funny scene at a party when disguised as a domestic servant robot, he passed around a silver metal orgasm-inducing "Orb" from guest to guest |  
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Turkish Delight (1973, Netherlands) (aka Turks Fruit)
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Director Paul Verhoeven's frank, provocative, and controversial film about love, sex, intimacy and loss/death was nominated for an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film (defeated by Truffaut's Day For Night) , and in 1999 was voted as the "Best Dutch Film of the Century" in the Nederlands Film Festival; Rutger Hauer (in his screen debut) starred as promiscuous and rebellious bohemian Dutch sculptor Eric Vonk involved in a fateful, tempestuous relationship two years earlier (told in flashback) with uninhibited, highly-sexual partner/wife Olga Stapels (19 year-old Monique van de Ven), culminating with a reunion and tragic Love Story ending (a brain tumor); in this sexually-explicit yet non-exploitative film, Eric boasted: "I f--k better than God" and proved his prowess and one-track mind for sex with numerous partners (including a pre- There's Something About Mary incident with his zipper) but could not forget the real love of his life - Olga - during a tumultuous relationship; controversial elements included Eric's violent revenge-fantasies (he fantasized two murders), his collection of sexual mementos (pictures and pubic hair souvenirs), full frontal nudity of both sexes, raw sexuality (masturbation toward a photo on a wall moaning: "I'll lick the s--t from your ass!" as he climaxed), feces defecation and examination for evidence of blood, maggots on Olga's naked breasts, the deathbed scene of Olga's father, and harsh language |    
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War Goddess (1973) (aka The Amazons or Le Guerriere Dal Seno Nudo - (The Warriors with Naked Breasts))
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This was an early low-budget, exploitative campy Spanish/French/Italian sword-and-sandal feature from famed director Terence Young (known later as the director of three Bond films and Wait Until Dark (1967)); the costume drama was released in 1974 in the US by American International Pictures; it featured unclothed Amazonian lesbians (brunette French actress Sabine Sun - wife of the director - and buxom blonde Alena Johnston as butchy Oreitheia and Queen Antiope, respectively) who wrestled topless (and then fully nude with a liberal application of sacred oil) in a contest to determine the society's next queen leader; also, to provide progeny for the tribe, Antiope was forced to dutifully mate with Greek king Theseus (Angelo Infanti) - and uncharacteristically fell in love |   
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The Wicker Man (1973, UK)
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Director Robin Hardy's mysterious horror/thriller included the much-discussed scene of the innkeeper's sensual daughter Willow MacGregor's (Britt Ekland) singing, dancing, writhing naked and pounding against the wall of repressed, self-denying, devoutly-religious Christian, and virginal Scottish policeman Sgt. Neil Howie (Edward Woodward) to entice him; he was conducting an investigation on the remote island of Summerisle inhabited by pagans who worshipped older gods and practiced open sexuality (couples copulating in a graveyard, women dancing naked in a circle around a bonfire, fertility rites, frank discussions in school about phallic symbols, etc.), in a case about the alleged kidnapping of a 12 year-old school-girl; he learned about virginal fire sacrifices inside a giant, hollow wicker-constructed figure of a man, where he suffered his own fate - after not having succumbed to the fleshly temptations provided by Willow |      
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Introduction: In the following illustrated compilation are some of the most significant films in the history of sex on the screen. The influential film milestones and their memorable sexual/erotic scenes are thoroughly described. Including portrayals
of sex and/or nudity, these films were often considered quite erotic, groundbreaking,
unique and/or controversial at the time. The following listing of these influential, memorable and classic
sex scenes and films takes into account all of
the available surveys of this type of material, and attempts to provide
an informed, detailed, unranked, chronological (by film title) grouping of the
most influential and groundbreaking films and scenes. Some of the most notorious (or infamous) films are quite
mediocre, usually made as an excuse to display nudity or eroticism of a star performer.
- Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous