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 35 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
Skin Deep (1989)	Writer/director Blake Edwards' R-rated sex farce-comedy contained a famous (or notorious), memorable glow-in-the-dark 'dueling' condoms scene (the first of its kind), in which star John Ritter's character, womanizing alcoholic author Zachary 'Zach' Hutton, encountered a woman's jealous rock-star boyfriend also wearing an iridescent glow-in-the-dark condom -- their frantic fight scene showed their two erect, colored, and luminous condoms moving about within the pitch-black dark scene like two radiant Star Wars' light sabers
The Tall Guy (1989)	This satirical romantic comedy by director Mel Smith told about an off-beat tall American actor Dexter King (Jeff Goldblum) who was struggling to make it on the London stage in a musical version of The Elephant Man, and his relationship with lovely but eccentric allergy clinic nurse Kate Lemmon (Emma Thompson, in her film debut); it was noted for their outrageous, comical, and imaginative - plus messy and destructive - first-date love-making scene in her apartment, with burst milk cartons, dislodged picture frames on the wall, squished oranges, rolled-over stale Wheetabix cubes, and broken furniture
Warm Summer Rain (1989)	This odd and pretentious R-rated, erotic art film (similar in part to Last Tango in Paris) starred Kelly Lynch and Barry Tubb as two troubled and dysfunctional individuals: suicidal Kate with bandaged wrists and a hospital gown and wayward vagabond drifter/stranger Guy who ultimately confronted each other (now married) in an abandoned house in the desert, where they searched for meaning in their lives through wild and graphic sexual encounters and dialogue; in one scene while they were coupled together, they challenged each other to name as many euphemisms for male and female genitals as they could; in another, they tenderly sponge-bathed each other on the kitchen table
When Harry Met Sally... (1989)	Rob Reiner's romantic comedy has probably the most famous (or infamous) orgasm scene ever filmed, without nudity, sex, or a partner, proving that women can easily fake an orgasm; in a crowded New York deli during lunchtime, Sally Albright (Meg Ryan) convincingly demonstrated for friend Harry Burns (Billy Crystal) that women can (and often) can be more devious than men during love-making with her display of a loud and long series of pants, groans, gasps, hair rufflings, caresses, table poundings, and ecstatic releases -- she yelled: "Yes, Yes, YES! YES! YES!"; the punchline was delivered by another female customer (Estelle Reiner - director Rob Reiner's mother) to the waitress: "I'll have what she's having"
The Ages of Lulu (1990, Sp.) (aka Las Edades de Lulú)	Writer/director Bigas Luna's (known for Jamon, Jamon) explicit and erotic film (that caused great controversy and censorship) starred Francesca Neri as the title character Lulu, who followed a depraved sexual rites-of-passage odyssey from her naive teenaged high-school years onwards; in one of the film's earlier scenes, she surrendered her virginity to her older boyfriend Pablo (Óscar Ladoire) and allowed him to shave her pubic region; after marriage to him, her sexual cravings brought her to a darker underworld of experience - she shared a blindfolded incestual threesome with her brother (preceded by the scissor-opening of her panties), and pursued/explored further kinky sensual experiences, including group sex, gay sex, trans-sexual sex, porno films and S&M
Frankenhooker (1990)	Longtime B-horror director Frank Henenlotter's blood-and-breasts spoof was one of the most notorious, silliest, and over-the-top horror/comedies ever made, and a spoof of the classic Bride of Frankenstein (1935); it told about electrician-mad scientist Jeffrey Franken (James Lorinz) whose pudgy blonde girlfriend Elizabeth Shelley (August 1986 Penthouse Pet of the Month Patty Mullen) was killed by his invention - a runaway remote-controlled lawnmower; he then stole her head to use for his "perfect woman" (composed of the body parts of streetwalkers soaked in a purple preservative bath); the reconstructed purple-bikinied female monster, with purple patchworked parts including purplish areola, was dubbed 'Frankenhooker' since she only wanted to turn tricks on Times Square streets ("Want a date?" and "Looking for some action"); the film featured a famous, sickly-twisted ending when Jeffrey himself was decapitated, and had his head grafted onto the body of a large-breasted female body in order to be rejuvenated ("Boobs? Elizabeth, what did you do to me?...Where's my johnson?"); it was also noted for the "Exploding Prostitutes" scene in which bare-breasted prostitutes spontaneously exploded in a hotel room after smoking super-crack cocaine, and the final disgusting revenge scene upon sadistic pimp Zorro (Joseph Gonzalez) by the female body parts
Ghost (1990)	Jerry Zucker's old-fashioned romance fantasy was noted for its non-nude, seductive sequence (symbolic of mutual masturbation) of co-creating molding clay on a pottery wheel, between the shared, wet hands of Molly (Demi Moore) and shirtless Sam (Patrick Swayze) (with the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody"); he wrapped his arms around her from behind, as they both morphed the grayish, oozing clay from one phallic shape to another; this scene was later spoofed in Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991)
The Grifters (1990)	Stephen Frears' R-rated adaptation of Jim Thompson's novel of the same name was a seedy and tense film noir about three 'grifter' con-artists and their worlds of treachery and double-cross; (1) two-bit small-time hustler/con named Roy Dillon (John Cusack), son of (2) experienced horse-gambler and estranged mother Lilly (Anjelica Huston), and (3) his romantic interest for another deceitful individual - a high-stakes sexual swindler and corporate scam artist scheister named Myra Langtry (Annette Bening), who enticed him with a naked doorway seduction to become his affectionate floozy girlfriend
Henry & June (1990)	Philip Kaufman's frank and bold treatment of sex was based on the diaries of author Anais Nin; it was the first major studio feature film to be released with the new and revised NC-17 rating by the MPAA (due to an explicit yet simulated scene of lesbian oral sex) - a rating designed to distinguish erotic-and-serious adult films from pure hard-core X-rated pornography; the sexually-provocative biodrama with themes of voyeurism, partner-swapping, three-way sex, and both hetero- and homo-sexuality told about a love triangle between petite sexually-liberated writer Anais Nin (Maria de Medeiros), American writer and 'Tropic of Cancer' author Henry Miller (Fred Ward), and Henry's bi-sexual wife June (19 year old Uma Thurman) in 1930s Bohemian Paris; the controversial film included scenes of Anais slow-dancing (and deep lesbian kissing) with June in an underground lesbian club, Anais' many passionate and eager couplings with Henry during their affair together and simultaneously with her lover/cousin Eduardo (Jean-Philippe Écoffey); also the exhibition of lesbian love-making in a private show in a mirrored brothel room between Henry's blonde whore (Brigitte Lahaie) and another frail prostitute (Maïté Maillé) - when Anais advised the aggressive female: "Stop pretending to be a man"; the scene of Anais' descriptive and hallucinatory dream-fantasy of sex with June in an upper loft, experiencing 'abnormal pleasures' ("I begged her to undress. I asked her to let me see between her legs. As she lay over me, I felt a penis touching me..."); also Anais' climactic love-making with Henry after he had finished his novel 'Tropic of Cancer' while Eduardo was downstairs; and the concluding scene of Anais and June getting together for love-making (while Henry was asleep in another room of the house) when June confronted Anais about her manipulative and self-serving affair with Henry ("You just want experience. You're a writer. You make love to whatever you need. You're just like Henry...I can see exactly what you're doing. You're so slippery, so slippery. You bitch. Liar, trickster. You bought his love...You both robbed me blind. You stole everything.')
The Hot Spot (1990)	Actor Dennis Hopper directed this contemporary, sexy film noir (based on Charles Williams' 1952 novel "Hell Hath No Fury") about a troubled but sweet and soft-spoken 19 year-old Texas car dealership office secretary named Gloria Harper (future Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly) who was blackmailed over a dark secret, and a scheming bank robber/drifter-used car dealer Harry Madox (Don Johnson) engaged in a torrid affair with used car lot owner's hot-blooded wife Dolly Harshaw (Virginia Madsen); the financially-failing film became known mostly because of Jennifer Connelly's scene of a bare skinny-dip with a friend (Debra Cole) as she was being spied upon, and for the sizzling performance of Madsen as a Lana Turner-like femme fatale seductress
Longtime Companion (1990)	Screenwriter Craig Lucas and director Norman René's independent ensemble film told about the impact of AIDS (regarded first as a mysterious "cancer") on seven gay New Yorkers; the film's title referred to the way that obituaries would list a gay man's lover; it was the first major feature film to deal explicitly with AIDS - two earlier limited release films that also dealt with AIDS were Buddies (1985) and Parting Glances (1986); it featured the Oscar-nominated, poignant performance of homosexual, AIDS-stricken David (Bruce Davison, nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) and his 'let it go' speech to a dying friend, and also was notable for the heartbreaking ending Fire Island beach fantasy, almost a decade later, in which three surviving loved ones reunited with all of the AIDS dead for a few moments
Miami Blues (1990)	Director George Armitage's black comedy-drama was set in the Miami area, and told about ex-con psychopath Frederick J. Frenger, Jr., aka Junior (Alec Baldwin) and the sweet but dense room-service hooker in his life - southern-accented Susie Waggoner, aka Pepper (Jennifer Jason Leigh) -- who was a student enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College, with dreams of acquiring middle-class stability; the vulnerable female naively trusted Junior and played house and 'marriage' with him at Coral Gables during their love/hate relationship
1001 Nights (1990, Fr/It/Swiss) (aka Sheherazade or Les 1001 nuits)	20 year-old Catherine Zeta-Jones made her film debut in director Philippe de Broca's obscure and low-budget Arabian nights fantasy, a retelling and weird adaptation of the original tale; in a non-sexual performance, she appeared as semi-naked Sheherazade, falling from the sky and having her clothes blown off while she rubbed a genie lamp to deploy a parachute, and landing in the lap of a startled turbaned man, emerged from the ocean in a seashell bikini, and performed a seductive strip-tease dance down to a skimpy thong bikini
Pretty Woman (1990)	This was Hollywood's morally-corrupt and sanitized version of what a Hollywood Boulevard hooker and prostitution would look like with a fairy-tale Cinderella and My Fair Lady ending; this popular treacle from director Gary Marshall starred actress Julia Roberts in her breakthrough role as beautiful independent hooker Vivian Ward (quoted as saying: "I want my fairy tale") hired for $3,000 and additional amenities by Wall Street corporate raider Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel; the turning point in their relationship occurred when Vivian consented to being kissed on the mouth
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990, Sp.) (aka ¡Átame!)	Director Pedro Almodóvar's offbeat black comedy told of a strange courtship between dull-witted, obsessively love-sick mental patient/handyman Ricky (Antonio Banderas) and his kidnapped, tied up favorite ex-porn star and junkie Marina Osorio (Victoria Abril), and his unusual attempts to win her affection; it was noted most for its infamous masturbatory bath scene with the aid of a vibrating toy diver that swam straight into Marina's crotch, and her gradual loosening of resistance to being his captive after freshly-wounded Ricky was beaten up by drug dealers; it was the last film to receive the MPAA's X-rating - however, it was released unrated due to its depiction of forced bondage and rape