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) - 1995 - 1 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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| Movie Title |
Brief Scene Description | Example |
Beyond the Clouds (1995, Fr./It./Ger.) (aka Al di là delle nuvole, or Par-delà les nuages)
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This multi-part drama (by 83 year-old master director Michelangelo Antonioni with Wim Wenders) was an artsy, erotic and pretentious group of four interconnected vignettes or short stories, each about the romantic obsession of male-female relationships between strangers coming together under chance circumstances; it was a box-office hit in Europe, but made little impact in the US; in the first story, Kim Rossi Stuart (as city water pump technician Silvano) and Ines Sastre (as schoolteacher Carmen) starred as a couple who had a non-touching 'perfect' and unconsummated sexual encounter after a chance meeting two years earlier - he moved his hand over her naked body without physically touching her and then inexplicably left her apartment without following through; in the second episode, John Malkovich (as a film director) made love in his hotel room to a seaside Portofino shop clerk credited as The Girl (Sophie Marceau) as she admitted that she stabbed her father to death 12 times |   
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Delta of Venus (1995)
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This was another of the many Zalman King-produced, soft-core, sensually-filmed and soft-focused erotic dramas (previously he helmed Wild Orchid (1990) and Two Moon Junction (1988), and produced 9-1/2 Weeks (1986) and Siesta (1987)); it was rated NC-17 for theatrical release, but then modified for an R-rated video release; it was loosely adapted from Anais Nin's post-humously published erotic novel, about an American writer of erotic novels abroad in 1940s Paris named Elena (Audie England) who thoroughly researched her subject matter by exploring her sexuality, while narrating in voice-over |  
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Desperado (1995)
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Robert Rodriguez' action film featured a smoldering love scene between Mexican soap-star actress Salma Hayek (in a breakthrough role as bookstore owner Carolina) and Antonio Banderas (as vengeful guitarist El Mariachi) in a candle-lit room - shot with original camera angles and flash-cuts | 
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Fair Game (1995)
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This mediocre action-thriller film garnered considerable press for having supermodel Cindy Crawford in her feature film debut as sexy civil law attorney Kate McQuean - often running away from the bad guys in a form-fitting T-shirt - but it was a less-than superlative acting performance; director Andrew Sipes got as much mileage as he could out of one long and unbelievable blow-'em-up pursuit sequence with time-out for one obligatory nude scene from Cindy (or body-double?) in a dirty freight train car (with annoying flickering shadows) alongside co-star William Baldwin as cop Max Kirkpatrick |  
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Forbidden Games (1995) (aka Games)
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The only reason for this R-rated, bargain basement-priced, soft-core film's existence was to capitalize on its rampant sexuality and gratuitous nudity, offering this enticing tagline on its poster: "Fantasy was the start. Murder was the finish." It had a thinly-veiled, erotic-thriller plot about ex-Justice Department detective Michael Brandon (Jeff Griggs) with psychic powers who was attempting to solve a mystery, the murder of the head of a haute couture modeling agency -- all the while being bedded down by a string of beautiful women. The film included a traditional lesbian love-making scene in a jacuzzi between Shauna (ex-WWE Diva, TV-series show actress and Playboy model Amy Weber) and Amber (Aleksandra Kaniak) while surrounded by large candles and a roaring fire, various scenes of kinky sex, and one outdoor pool scene set at a Playboy-style mansion. Not to be confused with the 1952 French-language film, aka Jeux Interdits, of the same name |  
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GoldenEye (1995, UK)
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The fictional femme fatale character of Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) exhibited sexual sadism in her physically-lethal, sociopathic role in this James Bond film; in several memorable scenes, she displayed her 'orgasmic' pleasure in murdering others - either with a gun or with her muscle-bound thighs used as a body scissors-vice; during a love-making scene on a yacht with Canadian Admiral Chuck Farrell (Billy J. Mitchell), she achieved orgasm while suffocating him with her long legs; and in a Turkish bath scene in a Russian (St. Petersburg) hotel while draped in only a robe, she battled James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) by crushing and squeezing his ribs between her bare thighs; in the film, they also engaged in playful double-entendre lines of dialogue: Onatopp: "You don't need the gun." Bond: "Well, that depends on your definition of safe sex." |  
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Haunted (1995, UK)
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After an appearance in Uncovered (1994), Kate Beckinsale also appeared in this R-rated, poorly-received haunted house mystery film by director Lewis Gilbert from an adaptation of James Herbert's novel of the same name; in the story, guilt-ridden, skeptical parapsychologist professor David Ash (Aidan Quinn) - following the accidental drowning of his twin sister years earlier - investigated the supposed 'haunting' by tormented spirits of the upper-class Mariell's family country estate called Edbrook Manor; there he met lovely, free-spirited, flirtatious "It" girl Christina Mariell (Kate Beckinsale) who often appeared nakedly indifferent (posing nude, skinny-dipping, making love, although often with a body double) and observed the pseudo-incestuous behavior displayed between the three Mariell siblings (all discovered to be ghosts by the film's twist ending); this film was only released on DVD following Beckinsale's later prominence in films such as Pearl Harbor (2001) |   
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Director Larry Clark's much-criticized, semi-improvised cinema verite film with lots of raunchy talk and simulated sex was considered bordering on sleazy child pornography and voyeurism (disguised as a cautionary documentary) although it was also one of the most truthful films ever made about teenage (and pre-teen) sexuality; it followed a group of teenagers and preteens during 24 hours of a hot Manhattan summer; the main characters were a 17-year-old skateboarder named Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) - a self-proclaimed "virgin surgeon" (with HIV) (quoted as saying: "Virgins. I love 'em. No diseases, no loose as a goose pussy, no skank. No nothin'. Just pure pleasure") whose goal was to deflower as many new girls as possible, and a young Chloe Sevigny as Jenny who was an AIDS-infected HIV-positive teen from contact with Telly; in an early scene, Telly also had damaging sexual contact with Girl # 1 (Sarah Henderson) (pictured) after he told her: "You know what I wanna do?" with the girl's blunt answer: "You wanna f--k me"; the film ended with the controversial scene of Casper (Justin Pierce) undressing and forcibly raping an unconscious Jenny at his house party where Telly had also taken his latest female victim Darcy (Yakira Peguero); it was released unrated to avoid the stigma of an NC-17 rating |    
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Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
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Director Mike Figgis' critically-acclaimed film was shot on Super 16 film and was notable for Nicolas Cage's Best Actor Oscar win, and a Best Actress nomination for Shue; it told about a romantically-involved tragic couple: a failed, out-of-control Hollywood screenwriter and self-destructive, doomed alcoholic named Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) with a needy street-walking Las Vegas prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue) who had been degraded by her profession with abusive Latvian pimp Yuri (Julian Sands); Ben's plan was to drink himself to death over a five-week period in Las Vegas while enjoying the company of the high-class hooker; in their first encounter in a hotel room during oral sex, Ben suffered impotence (due to his drinking) although that afforded them time to talk and develop a relationship (after she offered: "So for $500 bucks, you can do pretty much whatever you want. You can f--k my ass...you can come on my face...whatever you want to do - just keep it out of my hair"); later in a scene by a motel pool (to Don Henley's singing of "Come Rain or Come Shine"), Sera straddled Ben's lap, removed the top of her one-piece black swimsuit, and enticingly nuzzled a bottle between her breasts and then poured alcohol over them for him to enjoy; the film also included a brutal gang rape by a group of drunken football jocks after which she washed away the blood and memory in the shower; by film's end in a touching final scene, Ben was dying in his hotel room, where she asked: "Do you want my help?" and then coaxed and readied him to be erect for a last loving act of intercourse (Ben: "See how hard you make me, angel...You know I love you") before he expired, with her final thoughts: "I loved him, I really loved him" |
    
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Malicious (1995)
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This straight-to-video, formulaic romantic thriller (similar to Fatal Attraction) was justly famous (and received most of its publicity) for featuring the only nude scene (her debut one) from red-headed, ex-Brat Pack sweetheart star Molly Ringwald - a break-the-stereotype kind of role; Ringwald played the part of an obsessed, demented medical student named Melissa Nelson, who pursued (stalked) her college's star baseball player Doug Gordon (Patrick McGaw) - who already had a girlfriend named Laura (Sarah Lassez); while on a boat with him, Melissa tied her partner's hands and kissed his chest down to his groin area while straddling him; she then removed her own yellow sweater to reveal her firm, bare breasts as she hungrily kissed him repeatedly as they made love; after he rebuffed her and returned to his girlfriend, she psychotically sought "malicious" revenge and accused him of rape, as well as terrorized the couple in the predictable conclusion |  
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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