Sex in Cinema:
T
he 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.

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 34
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

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

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Martin Scorsese's film, a profound adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis' novel, was confronted and condemned with charges of blasphemy for its one "last temptation" sequence and its portrayal of a very-human Jesus Christ figure (Willem Dafoe); he experienced a tempting earthly hallucination caused by Satan (portrayed as a guardian angel) - while suffering crucifixion - of a 'normal' sexual relationship and mortal happiness with harlot-prostitute Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey), who was seen entertaining various clients in a brothel; in the film, Jesus' relationship included marriage and children; in the scene, Jesus was brought down from the cross, taken to wed Mary Magdalene, and then laid naked in her arms and made tender, physical love to her; she appeared partially naked when at full-term pregnancy; ultimately however, after an intervention by Judas, he returned to the cross and its suffering for humanity's sake with his triumphant dying words: "It is accomplished"; this film attracted protests and boycotts from religious groups even before it reached the theatres, although Scorsese received a Best Director nomination



Masquerade (1988)

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In this R-rated, plot-twisting sex-filled thriller about murder, greed, deception and betrayal that was named after the film's yacht anchored off the Hamptons, TV's Sex and the City's Kim Cattrall starred as Brooke Morrison opposite Rob Lowe as playboyish sailing instructor Tim Whalan; in one passionate sex scene, Tim had sweaty sex with his wealthy boss' sex-crazed, bored and lustful wife Brooke; after their love-making in the film's most quoted scene, as he stood there bare-assed, he gave her a birthday present - a pair of black-lace panties, about which she asked: "Do you want me to put these on?" to which he responded: "I can't bite 'em off if you don't"


Not of This Earth (1988)

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This Roger Corman produced sci-fi/horror B-film by director Jim Wynorski, a remake of Corman's earlier 1957 film (with Beverly Garland), starred ex-porn star queen Traci Lords in her first legal and legitimate (non-X-rated) role, as a sexy private-care clinic nurse named Nadine Story; once hired, she unwittingly assisted an extra-terrestrial space vampire alien scientist (portrayed as an eccentric millionaire) from the planet Davanna named Mr. Johnson (Arthur Roberts) in draining blood (for his blood transfusions) from various specimens; in the film, she appeared in various outfits: a nurse costume, a shiny blue bikini, a black strapless evening gown, lacy lingerie, and briefly topless to show off her large breasts (while drying off and tossing back her hair)


Patti Rocks (1988)

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This low-budget, independent adult comedy initially received an X- or NC-17 rating (changed to R after an appeal) for its many extreme vulgarities, frank sexual language and obscenities; one of the main protagonists, a mid-30s, blue-collar, sex-obsessed Midwesterner named Billy Regis (Chris Mulkey) delivered a smutty, gross, scatological, foul, demeaning and misogynistic discourse during a lengthy, all-night car ride to the apartment of his pregnant mistress Patti Rocks (Karen Landry)

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

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Director Krzysztof Kieslowski's compelling film was originally an episode (Dekalog 6: Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery) from his Dekalog series of ten hour-long films (for Polish television) derived from the Ten Commandments - and expanded to a feature length film, but with a markedly different ending; it told about a lonely and shy 19 year-old postal worker named Tomek (Olaf Lubaszenko) who developed a voyeuristic, romantic obsession with older, pretty, and promiscuous artist named Magda (Grazyna Szapolowska) whom he could spy at (by telescope from his bedroom) into her neighboring apartment; after stealing her mail, interfering with her romantic liaisons, playing cruel tricks and making prank phone calls to her, he confessed his feelings and mischief - prompting her to eventually seduce him in her place with taunting words: "I have nothing underneath. You know that, don't you? When a woman wants a man, she becomes wet inside. I'm wet now"; after causing him to prematurely ejaculate in his pants when he stroked her thigh, she told the sexually-humiliated and embarrassed lad: "That's all there is to love...Wash in the bathroom" - after which he attempted to kill himself by slitting his wrists; following the shocking incident, the perspective changed and the tables were turned when the guilt-ridden Magda turned her obsessive, infatuated attention toward him (with a pair of binoculars) and lamented his loss of innocence

Two Moon Junction (1988)

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This well-photographed, soft-core erotica drama (with a double entendre title) was produced by director/writer Zalman King (of Red Shoe Diaries fame); its cliche-filled tale was about the sexual awakening of Southern belle heiress April Delongpre (Sherilyn Fenn), soon to be married, in numerous well-orchestrated, hot tryst scenes with a lusty, long-haired carnival worker Perry (Richard Tyson); it even featured a quick nude glimpse of Kristy McNichol (as painted, truck-driving floozie Patti Jean); it was followed by a sequel in 1994




The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)

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Philip Kaufman's erotic epic was set in the late 60s in Prague, Czechoslovakia, with open and liberated adult sexuality, many erotic scenes (it was regarded by Rolling Stone as "the most openly sexual American film in ages"), and an intriguing love triangle displayed by playboy surgeon Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), his shy and timid provincial wife Tereza (Juliette Binoche), and liberated Sabina (Lena Olin); it included a photographic nude romp scene between photographer Tereza and Sabina (in which they exchanged roles), and an extended love-making scene in front of a mirror between bowler hat-wearing Sabina and Tomas; it was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography (Sven Nykvist)



Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

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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)

Fred Olen Ray's drive-in masterpiece was this sleaze-horror film that was advertised with the tagline: "They Charge an Arm and a Leg" - it even featured the character Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) as the Strangler - the leader of an Egyptian hooker chainsaw death cult composed of prostitutes; the film opened with Michelle Bauer (as Elvis-loving Mercedes) stripping, donning a shower cap and covering her favorite Elvis painting with plastic, and then engaging in some bloody chainsaw action with an unsuspecting client; the film's climactic highlight was the scene of a striped body-painted and drugged teenaged runaway named Samantha (Linnea Quigley) doing the "Virgin Dance of the Double Chainsaws!" and then her ferocious catfight/chain-saw battle with red-robed Bauer (who was slashed to death); the director's prologue stated: "The CHAINSAWS used in this Motion Picture are REAL and DANGEROUS! They are handled here by seasoned PROFESSIONALS. The makers of this Motion Picture advise strongly against anyone attempting to perform these stunts at home. Especially if you are naked and about to engage in strenuous SEX. My Conscience is Clear Fred Olen Ray"





Always (1989)

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Steven Spielberg's romantic fantasy, a remake of A Guy Named Joe (1943), featured Holly Hunter (as Dorinda Durston) in one memorable scene in which she danced around her living room in white, skin-tight clothing to the tune of her and her late lover Peter Sandich's (Richard Dreyfuss) favorite song - "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" - she was unknowingly accompanied by his ghost
 

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

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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)

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Director Steve Kloves' romance drama has always been remarked upon for its seductive scene of red-dressed, high-heeled former escort girl Suzie Diamond (Michelle Pfeiffer) writhing semi-recumbent and draped atop a grand piano as Jack Baker (Jeff Bridges) accompanied her while singing a sultry rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" during a New Year's Eve gig at a rural hotel

The Little Mermaid (1989)

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Representing family-friendly values, Disney executives were continually worried about sexual imagery or subliminal messages conveyed in their animations, whether they were actually visible, coincidental, accidental, or just urban legends (i.e., the dust clouds spelling out the word SEX in The Lion King (1994)); more scrutiny was brought to bear on this film when they feared (implausibly) there was a disgruntled Disney artist who had deliberately drawn an erect penis nestled among the towering spires of the castle on The Little Mermaid's video box cover; another fear was that an animated male character, a priest, had a bulging penis, but it turned out to be the character's knobby knee!

Sea of Love (1989)

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Director Harold Becker's Hitchcock-like who-dun-it included a tense, torrid tryst scene between 20 year veteran cop Frank Keller (Al Pacino), acting as a decoy, and a mysterious lonely-hearts killer suspect: a carnal seductress, femme fatale and wicked single mother Helen (Ellen Barkin), who dangerously aroused both his suspicions and lust

Two years earlier, Barkin had starred in the plot-twisting and odd film Siesta (1987), opening with the intriguing scene of the red-dressed star waking up in Spain with amnesia and covered in someone's blood, and then washing off next to a stream



Sea of Love (1989)


Siesta (1987)

sex, lies and videotape (1989)

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Writer/director Steven Soderbergh's landmark independent film used explicit dialogue in videotaped discussions and revelatory confessions filmed by reclusive Graham Walton (James Spader) as his "personal project" - a substitute for his own emotion-less, impotent and dispassionate life ("I'm impotent - I can't get an erection in the presence of another person"); during his visit to his college buddy-turned egotistical yuppie lawyer named John Millaney (Peter Gallagher) and his neglected, sexually-squeamish, repressed and frustrated wife Ann (Andie MacDowell), infidelity was revealed between womanizing and philandering John and Ann's sexually-adventurous bartender sister Cynthia (Laura San Giacomo); in one of the film's memorable scenes, Ann reversed roles and turned the videocamera on Graham, asking him "How does it feel?," and then approached to tenderly and lightly caress and kiss him ("Keep your eyes closed") as he laid unresistant on a couch - surprisingly, he decided to shut off the camera; the film was the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes; although it contained considerable discussion of sexual topics, it was without nudity



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 |


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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.