Angels & Insects (1995, US/UK)

Director/co-scripter Philip Haas' controversial, visually-striking costume drama, an adaptation of A. S. Byatt's novella titled Morpho Eugenia, was set in Victorian England. The film was the first to be slapped with an NC-17 rating (later released unrated or R) for one brief scene of male genital nudity (with a semi-erection). It occurred when actor Douglas Henshall left the bed of a woman and pulled on his pants with his penis remaining semi-stiff.

It was the tale of lower-class, penniless entomologist-naturalist William Adamson (Mark Rylance) who had returned (after a decade) in 1858 from the Amazon in South America with an invitation to reside with his high-class wealthy patron-benefactor - a gentrified country minister and amateur insect collector named Sir Harald Alabaster (Jeremy Kemp), his fat wife Lady Alabaster (Annette Badland) and his large family of seven girls and one son. Shipwrecked, he was able to bring back the only thing saved -- a rare species of butterfly, the Morpho Eugenia. Inevitably, although he was an outsider to the world of privilege, William fell in love with Alabaster's lovely, other-worldly, and enigmatic eldest daughter Eugenia (Patsy Kensit), drawn to her like a moth to light, although she was entirely in a different social stratus.

William wooed her into marriage at the same time that a younger sister became engaged. The only opposition to the marriage, presumably for class reasons, was from Eugenia's wastrel, spoiled brother Edgar Alabaster (Douglas Henshall), the estate's heir ("You are under-bred, sir, and you are no good match for my sister. There is bad blood in you, vulgar blood"). It was unusual that the five quickly-produced offspring of their marriage looked nothing like William. At the same time that Eugenia was withdrawing her affections, gentlemanly William partnered with his poor but talented artist/writer Matty Crompton (Kristin Scott Thomas), a governess to the younger Alabaster children. They worked together on an ant colony research project taking many months - she was much wittier and smarter than William's wife (causing Eugenia jealousy and dissatisfaction). [There were clear parallels between the insect world and the Alabaster family - Lady Alabaster was the Ant Queen, while her children were her larval offspring.]

The story's revelation by the conclusion involved the dark, hidden, and shocking sexually-transgressive secret of incest (an anagram of insect!) between deceitful Eugenia and her perverted brother Edgar, who was also promiscuous with young female servants. William left to return to the Amazon, accompanied by Matty.

Beyond the Clouds (1995, Fr./It./Ger.) (aka Al di là delle nuvole, or Par-delà les nuages)

This multi-part drama (by elderly, speech-impaired 83 year-old master Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni with German/Dutch co-director Wim Wenders) was an artsy, erotic, puzzling and pretentious group of four interconnected vignettes or short stories (based on Antonioni's own book "That Bowling Alley on the Tiber"). Each one was about the romantic obsession of male-female relationships between strangers coming together under chance circumstances, with plentiful female nudity. It was a box-office hit in Europe, but made little impact in the US.

The film was set up by having a wrap-around device to frame the stories. John Malkovich (as a wandering, imaginative American film director akin to Antonioni), was searching for locales for stories and filming. He pretentiously spoke:

"..we know that behind every image revealed, there is another image more faithful to reality, and in back of that image there is another, and yet another behind the last one, and so on, up to the true image of that absolute, mysterious reality that no one will ever see...."

In the first story, the film's couple had a chance meeting in a small Italian town of Ferrara at a hotel where they were both staying - they were city water pump technician Silvano (Kim Rossi-Stuart) and slender, beautiful schoolteacher Carmen (Ines Sastre). She waited for him in her room, but he fell asleep while waiting for the right moment. Then the two reconnected three years later after they ran into each other at the cinema. They had a non-touching 'perfect' and unconsummated sexual encounter. Silvano moved his hand tantalizingly over willing Carmen's naked chest, especially over her too-perfect breasts - without physically touching her and then inexplicably left her apartment (with her lying in only her panties and physically untarnished on the bed) without following through on their mutual attraction.

The First Story: "Story of a Love Affair That Never Existed"

In the second episode, "The Girl, the Crime..." the director met a shapely seaside Portofino shop clerk credited as The Girl (Sophie Marceau), stalked her through narrow alleyways, and then made love to her in his hotel room as the murderess (although acquitted) admitted that she stabbed her father to death 12 times.

The third story set in Paris combined "The Wheel" and "Don't Try to Find Me," about married New Yorker Roberto (Peter Weller) caught in a three-year relationship between his drunken wife Patricia (Fanny Ardant) and his Italian mistress Olga (Chiara Caselli) whom he met in a cafe.

Delta of Venus (1995)

This was another of the many Zalman King-produced, soft-core, sensually-filmed and soft-focused erotic dramas (previously he helmed Two Moon Junction (1988) and Wild Orchid (1989), 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.

The film 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 Martin (Audie England) who thoroughly researched her subject matter by exploring her sexuality, while narrating in monotonous voice-over.

She encountered fellow American expatriate Lawrence Walters (Costas Mandylor), another novelist and rower on the Seine River, who told her when they first met at a party: "I know you. This morning and the morning before that, and the morning before that, on the bridge..." She confirmed: "I write at night, and at sunrise, I take a walk along the river before I go to sleep." He responded: "I know...(You're) Elena Martin, American. You came to Paris four months ago to be a writer. Works hard, keeps to herself. Could be shy, could be a recluse." Afterwards, she thought to herself after they danced: "Time stood still. We could have been on the dance floor for ten minutes or two hours. I don't know."

Shortly later, she wrote: "Before tonight, I was growing sad with restlessness and hunger. I felt that nothing would ever happen to me. I felt desperate with desire to plunge into living" - before plunging into a torrid, intimate, sexually-awakening affair with him. After he left for America, she also modeled nude for a life-drawing class ("Everyone's modeling nude, it's the rage").

To earn money at 200 francs/page, she took an assignment from her publishing agent to write pornographic stories (erotically unfolding on screen) for a wealthy benefactor (predictably mysterious) who wished to remain anonymous, thereby justifying her numerous sexual encounters in hedonistic Paris: she watched as a red-headed hooker (Markéta Hrubesová) was ravished by a bald, black man. She attended an opium den where there was a naked lesbian orgy, and she saw a blind-folded man having sex with an exhibitionist (Eva Duchkova).

Desperado (1995)

Robert Rodriguez' cartoonish action film was the English language quasi-remake of his low budget cult classic El Mariachi (1992), a spoof of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns.

It featured a smoldering love scene in a candle-lit room, shot with original camera angles and flash-cuts, between the two popular and attractive stars:

• bookstore owner senorita Carolina (Mexican soap-star actress Salma Hayek in a breakthrough role)
• vengeful guitarist and gunslinger El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas in his action-film debut)

El Mariachi had come to the Mexican border town Ciudad Acuna, to avenge the death of a previous lover, targeting drug lord kingpin Bucho (Joachim de Almeida) for killing his first love and for taking the use of his right hand in a gunfight.

Fair Game (1995)

This mediocre action-thriller film from director Andrew Sipes garnered considerable press for having supermodel Cindy Crawford in her feature film debut as sexy, overachieving Miami civil law attorney Kate McQueen (or McQuean).

She was targeted by a group of ex-KGB agents led by madman Colonel Ilya Kazak (Steven Berkoff), often on the run in a form-fitting T-shirt, or pulling herself up onto a dock with a wet T-shirt, or a teasing view of her changing her top - but it was a less-than superlative acting performance. She was involved in the action because she was in the process of impounding the Tortuga, a cargo ship that served as the bad guys' headquarters.

In the film's conclusion, there was one long and unbelievable blow-'em-up pursuit sequence with time-out for one obligatory (and illogical in terms of plot) sex scene from Cindy (undoubtedly with all nude appearances of Crawford performed by a body-double) in a dirty freight train car (with annoying flickering shadows) alongside co-star William Baldwin as flirtatious, cigar-smoking cop Max Kirkpatrick.

Forbidden Games (1995) (aka Games)

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 was not to be confused with Rene Clement's 1952 French-language film, aka Jeux Interdits, of the same name.

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 Charles Douglas (Jefferson Wagner), 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 34C 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.

Full Body Massage (1995)

This 93 minute made-for-cable TV film, directed by Nicolas Roeg, was memorable for having the most unforgettable role of full-busted (38D) actress Mimi Rogers - she starred as Nina, an art dealer and gallery owner.

The film consisted mostly of her weekly topless massage appointments with a new replacement masseur named Fitch (Bryan Brown), during which time they philosophically discussed relationships, life, art and various massage techniques. At one point, Nina mused: "Massage is sexual...very sexual," but Fitch countered: "Can be, doesn't have to be, shouldn't always be..."

A Full Body Massage Session

Both of the characters also experienced flashbacks of their previous encounters, in which other individuals appeared naked (Gabriella Hall as a younger Nina, and Elizabeth Barondes as Alice, Fitch's most recent relationship although she suffered a tragic death).

GoldenEye (1995, UK)

The fictional femme fatale character of Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen) in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995) exhibited sexual sadism in her physically-lethal, sociopathic role.

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 steam 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."

Haunted (1995, UK)

After an appearance in Uncovered (1994), Kate Beckinsale also appeared in this R-rated, poorly-received haunted house mystery film (similar to Henry James' The Turn of the Screw) by director Lewis Gilbert from an adaptation of James Herbert's novel of the same name. Its tagline was unconvincing: "You will Believe..."

The film, executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola, was only released on DVD following Beckinsale's later prominence in films such as Pearl Harbor (2001).

In the story, guilt-ridden, skeptical American parapsychologist Oxford professor David Ash (Aidan Quinn) - after the accidental drowning of his twin sister Juliet (Victoria Shalet) years earlier in 1905 - investigated the supposed 'haunting' by tormented spirits of the upper-class Mariell's family country estate (Edbrook Manor).

In the midst of trying to debunk ideas of the supernatural, he met lovely, free-spirited, flirtatious "It" girl Christina Mariell (Kate Beckinsale) who often appeared nakedly indifferent (posing nude for her brother's painting, skinny-dipping off a dock, making love, although often with a body double).

He also observed the pseudo-incestuous behavior between Christina and her older brother, artistic and aristocratic Robert (Anthony Andrews) and wild younger brother Simon (Alex Lowe), but on one occasion was able to bed down Christina himself.

In the film's twist ending, it was discovered that the house was frozen in time. The three Mariell siblings were all ghosts - as confirmation, David was led by the ghostly vision of his dead sister to the graveyard where he viewed the tombstones of the three Mariells, who died in 1923 in a fire (set by their elderly mother Nanny Tess Webb (Anna Massey)).

Although he eventually was able to escape from the haunted mansion when led away by his dead sister Juliet, upon his return home, he was still being stalked by Christina.

Kids (1995)

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 was released unrated to avoid the stigma of an NC-17 rating.

The film followed a group of sex-obsessed teenagers and preteens during 24 hours of a hot Manhattan summer, in which they partied at a friend's flophouse, shoplifted beer at a convenience store, watched skateboarding videos, smoked dope, got into a fight in the park, and bragged about deflowering as many new girls as possible.

In the opening scene, skinny 17 year-old skateboarder Telly (Leo Fitzpatrick) easily seduced 12 year-old Girl # 1 (Sarah Henderson). He asked: "Know what I want to do?" with the girl's blunt answers: "You want to f--k me. But you can't f--k me...You know why...'Cause I don't want no baby." He reassured her that he loved her before deflowering her:

"'Cause I like you. I think you're beautiful. And I think if we f--ked, you'd love it. You wouldn't believe it....I don't know. I just think you would love it, that's all... I just want to make you happy, that's all. You know it won't hurt. I'll be gentle, I promise."

In voice-over, as they made love amidst moans and grunts - and her complaints that it hurt, he stated:

"Virgins. I love 'em. No diseases, no loose as a goose pussy, no skank, no nothin'. Just pure pleasure."

Afterwards, he crudely bragged to his slacker pal Casper (Justin Pierce):

"I'm the motherf--kin' virgin surgeon....Once it was on, we f--ked for like a good half an hour. I had to keep taking it out and putting it back in. It hurt the first time. Didn't want to come too quick either...That bitch was so clean, dude...I think I'm getting addicted to this s--t...It's all I think about now."

Casper asked: "Hey Telly, she suck your d--k, man?" Telly answered:

"A little bit, but I really didn't want her to...Having a virgin suck your d--k, that's so basic, man. It's simple, it's easy. But like, if you deflower a girl, man, ah, man, you're the man! No one can ever do that again. You're the only one. No one has the power to do that again."

In a parallel scene of girlfriends, 16 year-old Jenny (young Chloe Sevigny), who had been devirginized earlier by Telly (her only instance of unprotected vaginal intercourse), told her promiscuous 17 year old friend Ruby (Rosario Dawson) that she was upset that she had been insensitively used, like so many others. Ruby stated the obvious:

"There's a difference between making love, having sex, and then f--king."

From experience, Telly explained how he had to give a sweet-talk spiel to his female victims: "You got to be smooth. Girls like it slow and romantic." Both groups talked about foreplay, orgasms, blow-jobs, and condom use, and it was mistakenly thought that making love with virgins would keep one safe from becoming HIV-positive and AIDS-infected. However, results of a blood test determined that Jenny's sole sexual contact with Telly was damaging, and that she was HIV-positive, while Ruby was found to be "clean."

Distraught, Jenny was determined to track down the predatory Telly, who had gone out with his friends - bringing along his latest female victim 13 year-old Darcy (Yakira Peguero). The group snuck into a fenced swimming pool area to go swimming in their underwear, before ending up at Steven's house party where kids were making out, smoking dope and drinking beer. At a rav party, Jenny was given an "euphoric blockbuster" pill before arriving at the house party, where Telly was already seducing Darcy in the parents' bedroom with the same familiar lines. She came upon them having sex, with Darcy moaning in pain, and then passed out on a living room sofa.

The film concluded with a controversial rape scene in which hung-over Casper fondled, kissed, undressed, and then forcibly raped the unconscious, helpless Jenny (with her legs held up in the air) - possibly infecting himself. Although she weakly pleaded "no," he shushed her ("It's me Casper, don't worry"). Later, the camera panned over the many wasted teenaged bodies littering the floor of the house, including Telly in the arms of his latest conquest, as his voice spoke off-screen:

"When you're young, not much matters. When you find something that you care about, then that's all you got. When you go to sleep at night, you dream of pussy. When you wake up, it's the same thing. It's there in your face. You can't escape it. Sometimes when you're young, the only place to go is inside. That's just it. F--kin' is what I love. Take that away from me, and I really got nothing."

Casper sat up the morning after and spoke directly toward the camera: "Jesus Christ, what happened?" as the film ended.

Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

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 Elisabeth Shue.

It told about a romantically-involved tragic couple:

• a failed, out-of-control Hollywood screenwriter and self-destructive, doomed alcoholic Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage)
• a needy street-walking Las Vegas prostitute Sera (Elisabeth Shue)

Sera had been degraded by her profession associating 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.

During 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. At first, she had offered the typical spiel:

"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."

Malicious (1995)

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.

Money Train (1995)

It was a rare phenomenon to see Jennifer Lopez nude in a film, and this one provided that unusual glimpse.

In this action-thriller - and buddy comedy - she starred as Latina love-interest and co-worker Grace Santiago, providing the romantic spark between two foster brothers who were NYC transit police co-workers:

• Charlie (Woody Harrelson)
• John (Wesley Snipes)

Although Charlie was interested in her, it was John whom she bedded.

Their love-making was a respite from the film's plot - the two brothers planned to rob a "money train" - the armored collection vehicle (with armed guards) of the subway's daily revenue from the city's token booths.