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.

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:

- Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous

Example

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Masquerade (1988)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Not of This Earth (1988)

Patti Rocks (1988)

A Short Film About Love (1988, Pol.) (aka Krótki Film o Milosci)

Two Moon Junction (1988)

This well-photographed, soft-core erotica drama (with a double entendre title) was produced by director/writer Zalman King (of Red Shoe Diaries fame; he also directed Wild Orchid (1989) and was the writer for 9 1/2 Weeks (1986)); its cliche-filled tale was about the sexual awakening of Southern belle heiress April Delongpre (platinum-blonde Sherilyn Fenn), soon to be married, in numerous well-orchestrated, hot tryst scenes with a lusty, long-haired, white-trash carnival worker Perry (Richard Tyson); during one of the explicit, steamy sex scenes April had with the carny, her fiancée (Martin Hewitt) was at a bachelor party (presided over by the Sheriff (Burl Ives)) watching a stripper dressed as a sheriff; the R-rated film even featured a quick topless-nude cameo by Kristy McNichol (from the TV series Family) as nipple-painting, bourbon-drinking, truck-driving floozie Patti Jean who hinted at being bisexual; it was followed by a sequel in 1994 called Return to Two Moon Junction, with Melinda Clarke (as a New York fashion model from Georgia who fell for a sculptor) substituting as the sister of Sherilyn Fenn&'s character in the first film

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

Philip Kaufman's erotic epic was set in the late 60s in Prague, Czechoslovakia, with open and liberated adult sexuality and many erotic scenes (it was regarded by Rolling Stone as "the most openly sexual American film in ages"); it included an intriguing love triangle displayed by Czech playboy brain surgeon Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) who repeatedly entreated: "Take off your clothes", initially to a Tall Brunette (Consuela De Haviland), and with his shy, bookish and timid provincial wife Tereza (Juliette Binoche) and free-spirited, liberated lover Sabina (Lena Olin); it also included the extended love-making scene in the film's opening in which philandering Tomas was with longtime partner Sabina when she told him: "I really like you, Tomas. You are the complete opposite of kitsch. In the kingdom of kitsch, you would be a monster", to which he responded by turning her around on top of the bed so that her head hung off the side, and by placing her great grandfather's bowler hat on his own head while coupling with her spread-eagled. He made her view themselves in that pose in her dressing-mirror reflection and then asked: "What am I now? A monster"; the film also included a sensual photographic session between erotic friends Tereza and Sabina - initially, Tereza photographed a nude Sabina who afterwards ordered a reluctant and initially-hesitant Tereza: "Now it's my turn...Take off your clothes" as they switched roles between photographer and subject, culminating in a hide-and-seek nude romp; it was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist)

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

Sexy, animated, femme fatale Toon Jessica Rabbit (voice of Kathleen Turner), the absurdly curvaceous bombshell wife of Roger Rabbit, made a dramatic entrance at the Ink and Paint Club; her sexy leg and some of her ample breasts appeared first from behind the curtain, and then she emerged wearing a slinky, high-cut shimmering pink dress; she looked very little like a rabbit and more like a statuesque, cartoon-animated movie star -- a combination stacked Playboy bunny, Lauren Bacall and 40's peek-a-boo blonde actress Veronica Lake; the buxom, red-haired chanteuse swept out onto the stage and sayshayed into the audience singing Why Don't You Do Right? (voice of Amy Irving) - the patrons hooted and whistled at her; she later cooed the immortal line: "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way."

Animators at Disney were accused of inserting dirty visual humor into this film - in particular, a panty-less Jessica Rabbit when she was flung to the side of the road from Bennie the Cab -- only visible in the laser-disc version of the film and cleaned up for subsequent video releases; also controversial was the never-edited shot of Baby Herman drooling while inappropriately grabbing at a secretary.

See also The Little Mermaid (1989) entry below

The "Scream Queens" of the Late 80s and Early 90s, part 1

Sorority Babes in The Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (1988)

Brinke Stevens, Michelle Bauer (an ex-Penthouse Pet sometimes billed as Michelle McClellan or Pia Snow), and Linnea Quigley, known colloquially as "Scream Queens", starred in many low-budget, straight-to-video B-films in the late 80s.

David DeCoteau's nudity-filled comedy-horror sex film was a parody about college sorority coeds who discovered a bowling trophy with a vengeful genie inside; it included a scene of Michelle (as Lisa) and Brinke (as Taffy) being paddled as an initiation, and another scene of Brinke being peeped upon while showering and washing whipped cream off her body

The "Scream Queens" of the Late 80s and Early 90s, part 2

Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988)

Always (1989)

Do the Right Thing (1989)

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989, UK)

Peter Greenaway's cruel, over-the-top, metaphoric, and allegorical truth-telling film established linkages between gastronomy and bodily functions, and sex and death; it was set mostly within a huge trendy haute cuisine London restaurant (Le Hollandais) with evening banquets every night over a nine-evening period and featured four main characters: (1) gluttonous, uncouth, and maniacal boss Thief Albert Spica (Michael Gambon), (2) his desperate and much-humiliated Wife Georgina (Helen Mirren), (3) the kitchen's French chef Cook Richard Borst (Richard Bohringer), and the Wife's bookwormish patron diner/Lover Michael (Alan Howard); histrionic conversations were about food, excrement and sex; after discovering his adulterous wife's unfaithfulness and hungry trysts with the Lover (during visits to the ladies' room stall, kitchen and bakery pantry and refrigerated meat freezer in the back of a truck, filmed with unflattering lighting), the brutal Albert decided upon savage, cannibalistic revenge upon the man (ironically stating and foreshadowing: "I'll cook him! And I’ll eat him!"); Michael was killed by force-feeding him with pages from a book - to retaliate, Georgina had the Cook bake up her lover's corpse for her husband and then headed a procession bringing in the veiled body for a surprise dinner; she forced her husband at gunpoint to eat the warmed-up cadaver - "Try the cock -- it's a delicacy. And you know where it's been"; stunned, Albert took a bite and vomited, as The Wife encouraged him to eat more ("Bon appetit, Albert. That's French") - and then shot him to death - condemning him as a "Cannibal"; the sensational film's putrescence, debasement and excesses (sadism, cannibalism, torture, fornication, puke, and rotting fish and meat) and scatological themes (force-feeding of excrement (termed coprophagy), urination on victims) forced the Motion Picture Association of America to give the film an "X" rating, so the film (after being denied an appeal) was released unrated by the producers, and then given an NC-17 rating by the time of its video release; an alternative R-rated version cut out about 30 minutes of footage

The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989)

Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

The Little Mermaid (1989)

My Nights Are More Beautiful Than Your Days (1989, Fr.) (aka Mes Nuits Sont Plus Belles Que Vos Jours)

Scandal (1989, UK)

Oddly, this docu-melodrama from first-time feature director Michael Caton-Jones about a British government tabloid scandal in 1963, was originally rated X for its notorious orgy scene (since re-edited), although it didn't warrant a hard-core rating. It told about how working-class, model-showgirl Christine Keeler (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) had provided sexual favors to British War Minister John Profumo and high-ranking Russian spy Eugene Ivanov (Jeroen Krabbe). One of her best friends was blonde Mandy Rice-Davies (Bridget Fonda). In one of the film's most memorable scenes, to the sounds of Apache by The Shadows, the two beautiful playthings (in a series of extreme closeups) prepared and dressed for a night on the town - they hooked their garters, applied eye makeup, nail polish and glossy lipstick, and fastened their bustiers. Later after a cut, they were seen in a bed, making very vocal, orgasmic sounds together. It was revealed that they were pretending to be lesbian, when they burst into laughter to tease their male pick-up or john, who was watching their arousing performance

Sea of Love (1989)

Director Harold Becker's Hitchcock-like erotic, who-dun-it crime thriller told about 20 year, feisty veteran workaholic NYC cop Frank Keller (Al Pacino) who was investigating a series of 'lonely-hearts' murders by a suspected female serial killer; the film opened with a close-up of a spinning 45 rpm record ("Sea of Love") on a turntable, as a naked man named James Mackey (Brian Paul) appeared to be making love, but then was shown to have a gun pointed at him by an unseen assailant before he was shot dead; acting as a decoy, Keller placed his own ad in New York Weekly magazine and had dinner (expecting to retrieve matching fingerprints) with a mysterious killer-suspect -- a carnal seductress, femme fatale and wicked single mother named Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin); in their first meeting, she told him: "I believe in animal attraction. I believe in love at first sight"; ultimately, Keller fell for the female, who dangerously aroused both his suspicions and lust; they experienced a tense, torrid tryst scene together in his bedroom at 3 am after having drinks; she ripped off her red jacket, revealing a bra-less white T-shirt as they passionately kissed each other; when she went to the bathroom, grabbing her bag with a gun (a "starter's pistol") in it and commanded "Get in bed," he was both excited and fearful; when she appeared in a white bathrobe, he threw her against the wall and frisked her and then tossed her in his closet -- they soon struggled on his bed together as she screamed: "Get off of me," but afterwards he apologized for his violent reaction and she acquiesed; their rough foreplay led to her frisking him from behind (and lingering at his crotch) as he asked: "What are you looking for, huh?"; she removed her bathrobe to reveal her nakedness, and then they began love-making against the wall as the scene faded to black; later when kissing her, he murmured: "You're killing me"; by morning, he queried: "Are we still alive?"; a few days later after she learned that he was a cop, they met at a grocery store aisle where she was naked under her black trenchcoat - in the very sexy scene set to a jazzy score, she fondled hot peppers as he touched her bare leg, before another night of love-making at her place; when he suspected her of the killings after learning that she had dates with the murdered men, he taunted her with his own gun: "Let's get it over with, right now, Bingo...Want to f--k first and get me face down?" - and then ordered her: "Tell me you did it. Tell me why you did it?" but she was speechless; in the film's twist ending, Helen's angry 'creep' ex-husband Terry (Michael Rooker) lunged at Frank at his apartment door, screaming: "You f--king swinging dick! You got in deep, man. She throws a f--kin' court order at me" -- he was the cable TV man that Frank had questioned earlier as a witness - he had killed all of his ex-wife's 'lonely-hearts' acquaintances; in the film's final scene, Frank and Helen were reconciled on a NY street and went to have a cup of coffee together

sex, lies and videotape (1989)