History of Sex in Cinema:
The Greatest and Most Influential
Sexual Films and Scenes
(Illustrated)
Part 44
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History of Sex in Cinema: Part 44 |
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) - Part 44 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 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 |
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| Movie Title |
Brief Scene Description | Example |
| Wild Things (1998) |
Director John McNaughton's 'guilty pleasure' erotic, film-noirish thriller with plot twists was a film that featured prominent younger stars in sexy/dirty situations in a South Florida Everglades town, including a wet T-shirt car-wash sequence to the tune of Lauren Christy's "I Want What I Want" after which dripping-wet, rich vixen teen socialite Kelly Van Ryan (Denise Richards) seduced her Blue Bay High School guidance counselor Sam Lombardo (Matt Dillon) in his home; later, rich and trashy Suze Toller (Neve Campbell) and Kelly had an infamous, highly-publicized menage a trois sequence with Sam, and she also celebrated lesbianism with Suze in a swimming pool (extended in the uncut version); toward the film's end, Kevin Bacon (as corrupt cop Sgt. Ray Duquette) provided a full-frontal view of himself in the shower; the film was available in an unrated (or uncut) extended DVD version with more explicit and lengthier scenes not included in the theatrical release |
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| American Beauty (1999) |
Sam Mendes' Best Picture R-rated winning film was his feature film debut; the dark comedy/drama starred Oscar-winning Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham - a cynical, suburban dwelling husband in the midst of a mid-life crisis - signified by his lustful fantasizing about seductive teenaged blonde cheerleader Angela (Mena Suvari) (his daughter Jane's (Thora Birch) friend); when she opened her team jacket during a basketball game to reveal her breasts, in his mind she let loose a cascade of red rose petals; also he envisioned her lying in a bed of rose petals and coyly beckoning him to deflower her, and fantasized touching her as she soaked in a rose-filled bath tub; his actual seduction of the vulnerable and surprisingly-virginal Angela was aborted when she confessed: ("This is my first time...I'm sorry. I still want to do it") and he appropriately declined; in another storyline, Jane intentionally showed herself to next-door videographer neighbor Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) whose angry father Col. Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper) feared that his son was gay |
    
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| American Pie (1999) |
Director Paul Weitz's wildly popular, raucous teen-sex comedy was typical of the late 90s and brought back raunchyness to this genre of film - the extremely 'guilty pleasure' film about losing one's virginity on prom night took three rounds of censorship cuts to satisfy an R-rating; it was about a sex-obsessed, awkward, coming-of-age high school senior named Jim Levenstein (Jason Biggs); in one scene, he masturbated himself with a long athletic sock while watching scrambled porn on TV; its most notorious scene was the one of horny Levenstein humping the family's fresh-baked hot apple pie on the kitchen counter (viewed from behind, his bare buttocks thrust into the pie) and being caught by his father (Eugene Levy) (Dad: "Jim?!" Jim: "It's not what it looks like"), and then later deciding not to tell Jim's mother: "Well, we'll just tell your mother that uh, that uh, we ate it all"); Jim also spied through the Internet with a web-cam on frisky, busty Czech exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth) as she undressed and then viewed his girlie magazines; other scenes included Vicky Lathum (Tara Reid), who was being given oral sex in her bedroom, loudly yelling out: "I'm coming!" while her clueless father stood outside her door, shrugged his shoulders, and then continued downstairs; the film was available in a theatrical R-rated version and in an "Unrated -- The Version You Couldn't See in Theatres" video/DVD version, a burgeoning marketing trend The first gross-out film was followed by director J. B. Rogers' equally sex-oriented sequel titled American Pie 2 (2001) with crude humor, including the simulated sex scene of Amber (Lisa Arturo) and Danielle (Denise Faye) pretending to be lesbians in exchange ("You go, we go") for two horny heterosexual males (Jason Biggs and Seann William Scott) performing homosexual actions (a lip kiss) for them; both films were also released in special unrated versions for the home video and DVD markets with additional footage - a trend that would continue and help moviemakers shed their inhibitions A third film was titled American Wedding (2003) (aka American Pie 3) and featured the same cast of libidinous high-schoolers. A further sequel (a straight-to-DVD release) was director Steve Rash's American Pie Presents: Band Camp (2005) |
    American Pie (1999)   American Pie 2 (2001) |
Audition (1999, Jp.) (aka Ôdishon) |
In director Takashi Miike's horrific romantic drama that satirically commented upon Japanese men's sexist attitudes towards women and relationships (and their misogynistic fear of deadly women), middle-aged lonely widower Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) subjected potential 'perfect' brides-to-be to an "audition" - he selected seemingly-demure, virginal and dutifully-humble 24 year-old Asami Yamazaki (fashion model Eihi Shiina in her debut role), a soft-spoken ballet dancer for his partner; however, after a brief night together, she disappeared but came back to exact painful and sadistic, torture and dismemberment revenge on him (while wearing black rubber gloves) with syringes, acupuncture needles, and razor-sharp piano wire; she made him eat a diet of her vomit fed in a bowl; she also drugged and temporarily paralyzed him (with a syringe), and then terrorized him with acupuncture needles (stuck into his eyelids) and wire (used to amputate or wire-saw off his left foot) to the sound of a Japanese bird: ("Kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri..." or "Deeper, deeper, deeper...") |
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Writer/director James Toback's independent urban drama was about white upper-class teens emulating and exploring the New York hip-hop music scene (with the tagline: "Black and white: what happens when you mix it up?"); the film - filled with profanity and sexual encounters - was originally rated NC-17 before re-editing; the MPAA ratings board specifically objected to the opening scene filmed outdoors in Central Park in which an inter-racial menage a trois sandwiched three people together (Bijou Phillips as plaid-skirted, skinny high-schooler Charlie, classmate Kim (Kim Matulova), and Oliver "Power" Grant as New York gangster/rapper Rich) as they made love while standing up (and partially clothed); a second instance of a threesome involved a white male and two black females |   
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| Body Shots (1999) |
Director Michael Cristofer's and New Line Cinema's edgy and grim date-rape film was filled with strong sexual content including graphic sex-related dialogue (including a detailed discussion of oral sex), language, violence and scenes of alcohol abuse; after an evening of LA nightlife by eight self-obsessed 20-something Generation X-ers (4 males/4 females), Sara Olswang (Tara Reid) claimed she had allegedly been raped by brutish football star Michael Penorisi (Jerry O'Connell); the film followed the events of the previous evening - dubiously imitating classic films such as Rashomon and Citizen Kane for the 'he said/she said' flashback portions of the film (both Michael and Sara provided their own versions of the 'horizontal shuffle' or 'rape'), and other non-traditional techniques such as characters directly addressing the camera with banal conversations; the controversial film, available as R-rated and in a lengthier unrated version, was criticized as being exceptionally vulgar and crudely-made |      |
| Boys Don't Cry (1999) |
Director Kimberly Peirce's feature film debut was a psychological docudrama based on a true story about a 20 yr. old small-town Nebraska boy trapped in a girl's body - Teena Brandon (Hilary Swank in a Best Actress Oscar-winning role); she 'masqueraded' as male Brandon Teena while suffering an identity crisis/confusion and awaiting a sex-change operation; her cross-dressing routine involved stuffing her crotch, taping down her breasts, and wearing a cowboy hat; the film's most controversial scenes were of Brandon's involvement in a heartbreaking covert lesbian relationship and her first sexual encounter with teenaged, white-trash factory worker and love interest Lana Tisdel (Chloe Sevigny in a Best Supporting Actress-nominated role) after confessing his/her true sexual identity; this film included their prolonged and affecting outdoors oral sex scene; the film ran into ratings issues when it was criticized for three sexual issues: the moment that Brandon wiped the 'cum' from his lip after 'going down' on Lana, the lengthy, pleasurable and satisfying female orgasm for Lana, and the revelatory disrobing scene of Teena before being anally raped over a car and then killed |     
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| But I'm a Cheerleader (1999) |
Writer/director Jamie Babbit's feature film directorial debut was this R-rated teen picture (originally rated NC-17, but reduced to R after editorial cuts) - the independent film was a satirical comedy (with stylized production design emphasizing the color pink) about deprogramming (or reprogramming) clinics and sexual disorientation; it starred Natasha Lyonne as a 17 year-old high school cheerleader named Megan Bloomfield whose parents (Bud Cort and Mink Stole) were worried about her lesbian-leaning behaviors (she had bikini pinups in her locker, "vaginal motifs" in her bedroom and a Melissa Etheridge poster on her wall); so they sent her away to a harsh, homosexual-rehabilitation camp named 'True Directions' to make her heterosexual; the camp, where "no inappropriate behavior" was allowed, enforced typical stereotypical behaviors (e.g., fixing a car for males, vacuuming - with the sexual connotation of "in and out" -- and taking care of babies for females); her "cure" had the opposite effect and in fact accelerated her "coming out" as a lesbian -- there she fell for a fellow straight-in-training bad girl college student named Graham Eaton (Clea DuVall); the film's dialogue had to be modified (the line "You ate Graham out" was deleted), and the masturbation scene of prim-looking Megan masturbating up against a wall while whispering to herself -- over her pink nightgown and mostly off-screen!! -- had to be cut short to get an R-rating for the film; in one scene with the 'students' dressed in full flesh-colored body suits with fig-leaf patches over their sexual parts, homophobic True Directions founder Mrs. Mary J. Brown (Cathy Moriarty) - during a simulation of heterosexual love-making - instructed that foreplay was for sissies and totally unnecessary: "Real men go in, unload, and pull out"; in another scene, Mrs. Brown's studly gay son Rock (Eddie Cibrian) fondled/stroked the long handle of a garden implement (in between his legs) in front of a group of gay men |
    
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Coming Soon (1999) |
Co-writer/director Colette Burson's debut film was this expurgated R-rated, mediocre sexual coming-of-age teen comedy (without nudity or explicit sexuality); it was taglined: "It's All About Feeling Good," referring to female-centered sexual pleasure - a concept that usually makes the film industry nervous; the film was poorly distributed and disappeared fairly quickly; the unrated DVD version was threatened with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA in a decision that was accused of being gender-biased; it explored the lives of wealthy Manhattanite high-school preppies, including strawberry-blonde senior Stream Hodsell (Bonnie Root) who finally lost her virginity but still had never orgasmed and felt sexually unfulfilled; while having sex, she had the following conversation with her male partner ("I think I was getting closer, but..." "What are you talking about? You totally came?" "I did?!"); in another scene in a crowded party bathroom, one redhead spit out the results of oral sex into the sink ("I just can't swallow" Other girl: "Well, who can? A mouthful of sperm has, like, seventeen grams of fat?"); the females admitted that sex with a guy was "kind of a drag," and that they felt forced to engage in fellatio with their expectant male partners - usually having their heads pushed down to crotch level |    
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| Cruel Intentions (1999)
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Writer/director Roger Kumble's teenaged version of Dangerous Liaisons (1988), an adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos' novel, used sexually-voracious teens as its main characters; it told about an amoral, bitchy, teen-vamp Manhattan step-sister named Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Geller) who demonstrated her manipulative intentions toward innocent and chaste Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair) to destroy her reputation - she taught her how to slow- and wet-kiss in the park; as they drew their lips apart, a long stringy strand of saliva stretched between their mouths, and Cecile assessed the kiss:"That was cool!" It was followed by Kumble's direct-to-video prequel Cruel Intentions 2 (2000) (compiled from footage originally shot for a FOX-TV show to be called Manchester Prep) with a steamy shower scene in which twin sisters Annie and Alicia Sorell (as Gretchen and Sarah) shared bathing with naked Sebastian Valmont (Robin Dunne); they asked him how he liked the prep school and when he responded: "It's... unbelievably hard," they looked at his member and replied: "Wow! It certainly is. Rock-hard. Down boy." When he asked if they were sisters, they replied that they were "more like kissing cousins" and then incestuously kissed each other, and also suggested that it was "slippery when wet" when Sebastian slipped and fell; they also added how "Manchester Prep's a virtual whorehouse. As the school motto goes, ‘if you don't snort it, suck it'," causing him to squirt shampoo from a squeezed plastic tube; when they left, they said: "See you on campus" and then played "Ring toss" with his erection, tossing their washcloth at him, and announcing: "Score!"; in another sex-related sequence, Manchester Prep's Cherie Claymon (Keri Lynn Pratt) experienced an orgasm during a horse-riding lesson when told to move "up and down, back and forth, faster, faster" in the saddle; after orgasming pleasurably, she fell to the ground and revealed after being asked if OK: "I never felt better" These two films were followed by Scott Ziehl's straight-to-video sequel Cruel Intentions 3 (2004). |
 Cruel Intentions (1999)   
Cruel Intentions 2 (2000) |
The End of the Affair (1999) |
In director/writer Neil Jordan's adaptation of Graham Greene's autobiographical novel, spurned lover and novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) recalled how he was engaged in a torrid affair during WWII (amidst air-raid sirens and bombs exploding in his dusty and dark apartment) with the married Sarah Miles (Oscar-nominated Julianne Moore) - in one scene, they were caught during furtive love-making as her oblivious civil servant husband Henry (Stephen Rea) returned home; Bendrix whispered: "What if he heard?" to which Sarah replied: "He wouldn't recognize the sound"; their affair ended when she thought Maurice was killed by a bomb blast and she vowed to God (who had answered her prayer and allowed Maurice to live) that she had to break up their affair no matter how painful and lonely it would be | 
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| The Escort (1999, Fr/UK) (aka Mauvaise Passe) |
Writer/director Michel Blanc's grim and bleak drama told about a middle-aged, married, French university lecturer and would-be writer named Pierre (Daniel Auteuil), who - in the midst of a mid-life crisis - moved from his family in Paris to London where he lived by himself in a dank apartment and suffered impoverishment and writer's block; through the assistance of Irish cafe owner Tom (Stuart Townsend), he decided to support himself by becoming a part-time professional escort (or gigolo) through an agency; although his lifestyle changed in some ways for the better, his dehumanizing sex-on-demand profession in London's Soho underworld (the film's tagline: "He'll be your friend, he'll be your lover, but it's strictly by the hour") and use of drugs became more complicated when he began to exploit and present false promises to a vulnerable, married regular named Patricia (Claire Skinner) for lucrative motivations; in one scene, while performing oral sex between her raised legs, he suavely, insincerely and reassuringly told her: "Relax, everything's fine"; by film's end, male prostitute Pierre had completely sold out - he wrote a best-selling novel of his degrading experiences that further disintegrated his life |     |
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Director Stanley Kubrick's last film was especially notable for starring the sexy, celebrity real-life (at the time of filming) couple of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman - in one scene narcissistically viewed caressing and kissing each other in front of a mirror; this film was an exploration and confessional of marital infidelity, trust, and erotic desire; the film opened eyes immediately with Kidman's initial undressing sequence in preparation for going to a Christmas party; it told of the sexual misadventures of a social-climbing, wealthy NY physician William Harford (Tom Cruise) who was called away from his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) to attend to a drug overdose of naked Amanda 'Mandy' Curran (Julienne Davis) (sprawled in a chair) by the party's host Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack); during his absence, Alice was propositioned by a suave Hungarian named Sandor Szavost (Sky Dumont) but she rejected his advances; after smoking dope, Alice began to confess her feelings of abandoning her husband and daughter for a naval officer (Gary Goba) (imagined and viewed in bluish images) the previous summer; during a long two-night wandering journey with tempting offers of marital infidelity, Harford was propositioned by Marion (Marie Richardson) - the daughter of a deceased patient, tempted to engage the services of an HIV-positive (later revealed) hooker named Domino (Vinessa Shaw), and offered the underage, bra and panties-adorned daughter (Leelee Sobieski) of a costume shop proprietor; the most talked-about sequence was an upper-class masked, choreographed orgy function that Harford attended in tuxedo, cape, and mask; the function began with incantations by a high-priest, a circle of cloaked figures, and many naturally-endowed, almost-nude, G-stringed, masked females in an inner circle who were there to ritualistically service the masked men in anonymity and isolation; the sequence included tracking shots of Harford roaming through the ornate mansion's rooms filled with emotionless, loveless copulating couples (in a 69 sexual position, in a lesbian three-some, and other mechanical stances of intercourse, while many participants voyeuristically watched); the sexually-explicit images were digitally censored, obscured and obstructed (with computer-generated people) in various releases to prevent an NC-17 rating, angering American audiences; by film's end, the overdosed naked woman at the party who was masked at the orgy and warned him of danger was found dead at the morgue |
       
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| Forever Mine (1999) |
Director/writer Paul Schrader's melodramatic and risqué romantic thriller (a direct to video/cable release) starred Joseph Fiennes as cabana boy Alan overtaken by the beauty of Gretchen Mol (as Ella - a neglected guest married to Ray Liotta) at a Miami beach resort; after a passionate affair (glossily and sensually photographed), things took a turn toward jealousy and deadly retribution and a more violent vendetta years later |   |
The General's Daughter (1999) |
In this often-offensive, misogynistic psychological military thriller, a sexual murderous assault upon the general's daughter Captain Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson), the beautiful daughter of Lieutenant General "Fighting Joe" Campbell (James Cromwell), was investigated by warrant officers Paul Brenner (John Travolta) and ex-wife Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe) - who had a romantic history together; she was staked down with tent poles, spread-eagled, and strangled in the middle of a training compound on her father's command post outside Savannah, Georgia - and presumably raped; during the investigation, secrets about the daughter's dark sexual past were revealed - she was gang-raped as a cadet, and retaliated by flagrant S&M sexual activity with her father's officers (that was videotaped); although the film commented upon the gender inequalities in the military, it was also criticized for leering at the female victim when she was gang-raped by trainees dressed in camouflage, and the horrific image of the murdered victim laid out and then decomposing was often revisited during the film |     
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The Girl Next Door (1999) |
Not to be confused with the romantic comedy The Girl Next Door (2004) with Elisha Cuthbert or the 1999 teen drama of the same name with Polly Shannon and Gary Busey, this documentary film from director Christine Fugate was about adult-film star Stacy Valentine, an ex-housewife from Oklahoma named Stacy Baker who moved to Los Angeles and entered the skin-trade business in San Fernando Valley - after her husband suggested she submit nude pictures for men's magazine Gallery and she won the contest as the magazine's "Girl Next Door" in July 1995. Over the film's two-year period, she endured multiple visits to plastic surgeons for self-mutilating implant work (a gruesome breast-reduction operation from E-cups to D-cups) and cosmetic liposuction, a Hustler Magazine photo shoot in Mexico (for the September 1996 issue), her first sex film Bikini Beach 4 (1996) (shot on Valentine's Day in February 1996, hence her star name), an unstable relationship with sexually-jealous fellow porn star Julian (as Himself), participation in porn industry conventions (where fans groped her) and adult-film awards shows: the AVN awards in Las Vegas, and the Hot D'Or awards in Cannes (where she won the 1998 trophy for “Best American Starlet”), and her excitement over her first D.P. (or double penetration) scene. Divorcee Stacy boasted matter-of-factly: "I never really had anything that I was really good at. I envy those people that, like, play basketball all through high school and through college. They had something that they were really good at and I just never, just never had that. I know I'm good at sex. I can give head really well. I can go down on women really well. Umm, I f--k great. Umm, you know, I'm very confident about my sexual capabilities." She also said: "When I get horny, I go to work and when I need affection, I have my cats." |
   
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Writer/director Davide Ferrario's mainstream erotic biopic drama about the porn industry (two years after Boogie Nights (1997)) was based on the life of Italian X-rated adult movie actress Moana Pozzi, who died of cancer at the age of 33; the film starred Italian mainstream actress Elisabetta Cavallotti as Nina who became involved in a romantic lesbian relationship with Cristiana (Stefania Orsola Garello) - the publicist/editor of a hard-core adult magazine; the film was criticized for its bold and explicit scenes of hardcore and S&M sex |
  
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| Holy Smoke (1999) |
Writer/director Jane Campion's sexual-politics film was a risk-taking, powerful, R-rated drama (for scenes of strong sexuality and language); it starred Kate Winslet as young, earthy Australian religious cultist Ruth Barron who had been to India where she was spiritually enlightened by a hypnotic cult guru named Baba (who renamed her Nazni); upon her return to Australia, she was forced to be deprogrammed over three days in a remote Halfway Hut in the outback by professional "number one exit counselor" P. J. Waters (Harvey Keitel) from Los Angeles - a misogynistic, rough-hewn, mustached man with dyed black hair; confining her and making her captive for the treatment, he first attempted to gain her respect, then strip her of her sari ("remove her props, upset her and provoke her"), but succumbed to her sexual advances; its most notorious scene was the one of full-bodied Ruth - after her sari has been burned - vulnerably standing in the outback, stripped nude and urinating while walking toward him, and then a scene of Waters overpowered by her seductive, vengeful, manipulative sexuality - as he had sex with her; both were mutually deprogrammed in an about-face from their own experiences (him from his misogyny and vanity, her by using her sexuality to humiliate and 'feminize' him); with a reversal of power roles, she convinced him to wear her red dress, lipstick (and one cowboy boot) - and he heat-stroke-hallucinated - seeing her as a Hindu Kali goddess with multiple arms (to the tune of "Baby, It's You"); by the film's end, she had returned to India with her mother for further enlightment, and he had returned to the United States - married (to Pam Grier) and the father of twins, and a letter between them conveyed that something did happen between them in the desert |    
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| Idle Hands (1999)
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Kelly Monaco (fresh from being Playboy's April 1997 centerfold Playmate) had bit parts (both showing off her naked form) in two 1999 films: (1) as Tiffany in the comic horror film Idle Hands - wearing KISS-singer makeup for a Halloween party - her neck was broken by a disembodied hand during a make-out session in the front seat of a car with her boyfriend (2) as Centerfold Elaina in a fantasy scene with Emilio Estevez in the Starz TV and straight-to-DVD off-beat comedy Late Last Night (with box art looking suspiciously like Swingers (1996)), by writer/director Steven Brill The pretty model/actress gained greater public acclaim for her roles on the soaps General Hospital and the spin-off Port Charles, and as the 2005 winner of the first season of TV's popular Dancing With the Stars. |
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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