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 \| Part 51 \| Part 52 \| Part 53
Sex in Cinema: Part 51 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
American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile (2006)	An inferior direct-to-video release (in both R-rated and unrated versions), this gross-out teen sexploitation comedy (the fifth film in the long-running series franchise) was filled with scatological humor -- and of course, nudity, especially in its title event: a 10-minute sequence of a Michigan university night-time streak-run in the all-together (with about 100 naked extras); the pseudo-sequel also featured an innocently sappy love story about two virgins (Erik Stifler (John White) and Tracy (Jessy Schram)) who eventually discovered that they were right for each other
Another Gay Movie (2006)	Writer/producer/director Todd Stephens' unrated (to avoid an NC-17 rating), outrageous coming-of-age gay comedy, a take-off of American Pie (1999) although taken to another level, told about 4 gay friends, boy-next-door Andy Wilson (Michael Carbonaro), school jock Jarod (Jonathan Chase), flamboyant Nico (Jonah Blechman) and nerdy Griff (Mitch Morris), who planned on losing their "anal virginity" during the summer after San Torum high-school graduation; in one raunchy comedic scene, Andy had sex with a warmed-up quiche, at the same time that he had a cardboard TP roll up his butt with a twirling gerbil tail sticking out; the film featured various forms of anal and oral sex, bodily functions and defecation, nudity, an explosive electronic genital stimulator, and graphic language
Ask the Dust (2006)	Writer/director Robert Towne's noirish drama, filmed beautifully in sepia-tones by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, was adapted from John Fante's 1939 Depression Era novel, with bad-boy Colin Farrell as aspiring, inhibited, and virginal Italian-American writer Arturo Bandini in 1933 Los Angeles, and Salma Hayek as fiery, dope-addicted Mexican Camilla Lopez, a free-spirited, illiterate waitress in a diner/coffee shop where they first met and started showing contempt and antagonism for one another; their romance blossomed on a deserted beach where both went skinny-dipping at night in the rough ocean surf (and showed full-frontal nudity) and in a rented beach bungalow in Laguna Beach where they participated in a lengthy and erotic love-making scene; by the film's tragic ending, Camilla died a lingering death of tuberculosis while coughing up blood; the film was dubiously honored as having the "Best Nude Scene" in a 2006 film by the MrSkin.com website
Babel (2006)	In this Best Picture-nominated film composed of parallel tales, 26 year-old Oscar-nominated Best Supporting (Japanese) Actress Rinko Kikuchi was featured as isolated, depressed, distraught and troubled 16 year-old deaf-mute Tokyo teenaged student Chieko; the actress was challenged with numerous scenes of nudity to express her budding sexuality; in one of the film's scenes, she portrayed full-frontal nudity when as an exhibitionist school girl in uniform, she flirtatiously flashed her "real hairy monster" to a nearby table of boys in the cafeteria, and in another scene, she was disrobed fully nude and seductively threw herself at a handsome young policeman investigating her mother's suicidal death in her father's apartment
Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction (2006)	This critically-lambasted, belated sequel by director Michael Caton-Jones (originally subtitled Risk Addiction) found the now 47 year-old Sharon Stone character (ice-pick suspected murderess and novelist Catherine Tramell) living in London where she was being treated by a psychiatrist (David Morrissey) - who fell for her game of seduction; the R-rated US version was full of sexy (mostly vulgar) dialogue, an orgy scene, a nude rooftop hot-tub scene, and an over-hyped rough sex scene involving erotic asphyxiation; fifteen minutes of footage was edited out of the film (including a menage a trois scene) to avoid an NC-17 rating
Black Book (2006) (aka Zwartboek)	Director/co-writer Paul Verhoeven's dramatic war-time thriller told, in flashback, about a Jewish singer named Rachel Stein (29 year-old Dutch actress Carice van Houten) who was able to seek revenge for the ambush-trap massacre of her family by vicious Nazi officer Gunther Franken (Waldemar Kobus); she infiltrated into the Gestapo's WWII headquarters in Nazi-occupied Netherlands while involved with the Dutch Resistance movement; she changed her name to Ellis de Vries and disguised herself as a blonde to appear more German - even dying her pubic hair with blonde hair-dye in front of a full-length mirror; she orchestrated her meeting of Gestapo SS officer Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch) on a train and in his office provided him with some stamps for his collection, and asked seductively: "If you see anything you like, you can take it"; she became his mistress and slowly fell in love with him, although at one point when he suspiciously accused her of being Jewish, she defused his allegations by putting his hands on her breasts and then on her hips and asking twice, teasingly: "Are these Jewish?" - when he first viewed her blonde pubic hair, he complimented her, noting: "Also blonde. You're a perfectionist"; while taking a pee break down the hall after having sex with Muntze, her lusty, opportunistic, fun-loving compatriot Ronnie (Halina Reijn) showed off Ellis' breasts to her fat German sex partner Franken, bragging: "Now that's what I call healthy" but added: "Reserved for Hauptsturmfuhrer Muntze"; while sleeping with the enemy, Ellis gradually fell in love with Muntze, although he still questioned whether she was a spy or not - at one point, holding a gun on her under the sheet at crotch level, prompting her to smile and ask: "What have we got here?" - when he held the gun barrel next to her nipple, she convinced him of her sincerity by informing on Franken's duplicity; in the film's climax, a stripped Ellis/Rachel was whipped, disgraced and humiliated when a large bucket of human excrement was poured down onto her by the victorious resistance movement that thought she was a traitorous "Nazi bitch"; the film's graphic nudity spurred an R-rating
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)	The film's centerpiece was the lengthy sequence in which title character Borat (Sacha Baron Cohen) wrestled naked with his own overweight and hairy producer-documentary cinematographer Azamat Bagatov (Ken Davitian), because the jealous Borat caught him masturbating over a picture of Baywatch's Pamela Anderson; their epic fight eventually left the hotel room, entered the hallway and elevator, and then emerged into the lobby and ended on the stage of a mortgage insurance brokers' seminar/convention; this film's scene was the humorous precursor to the lengthy naked fight scene in Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (2007)
The Break-Up (2006)	A lot of hype was generated over this PG-13 romantic comedy starring one-time couple Vince Vaughn (as ex-love and Chicago bus tour host Gary) and 38 year-old Jennifer Aniston (as art-gallery curator Brooke); the film was most noted for Aniston's implied nudity scene in which she walked from their downtown condo's bedroom to the kitchen and back while naked to show off her newly-waxed genital area after a 'Telly Savalas' beauty treatment; Vaughn's head and other objects purposely blocked the view or the shots were blurry; however, a full-frontal topless shot emerged from the film that was first available from the French magazine Choc; the studio (and law firm) claimed that the photo was an unlawfully appropriated out-take and threatened lawsuits against any further distribution of the photo, although it may still be found on the Internet
Cashback (2006, UK)	The first feature film of writer/director Sean Willis was this low-budget British romantic comedy with lots of nudity (some criticized as gratuitous); it was based upon his own 2006 Oscar-nominated live-action short film from 2004 about art student Ben Willis (Sean Biggerstaff) who was dumped by his girlfriend Suzy (Michelle Ryan) and developed insomnia; his ability to freeze time (in his rich fantasy world), was put to good use when he took a job as a late-night clerk in a Sainsbury's supermarket; in a flashback, he explained how his fascination with beauty began when he was a young boy and observed a pretty, unprudish, late-teenaged Swedish foreign student (model Hayley-Marie Coppin) in his home who walked naked from the shower up the stairs (in slow-motion) and then opened her door when he returned her panties ("You dropped these"); in voice-over, he described his idea of love: "You just have to see that it’s wrapped in beauty and hidden away in between the seconds of your life. If you don’t stop for a minute, you might miss it"; so he would undress pretty female market shoppers in frozen poses so that, unnoticed, he could observe them artistically as "still life" figures and then sketch their portraits, while he pursued a romantic connection with checkout clerk Sharon (Emilia Fox); the women who were erotically undressed were flawless, perfectly proportioned and fashion-magazine model-types (including Irene Bagach, Christine Fuller, and Keeley Hazell - a famous British Page 3 Girl and natural glamour model); also included in the film was a scene during check-out with a "Busty Customer" (Natalie Denning) who bought suggestively-shaped shampoo bottles
Casino Royale (2006)	In stark contrast to the previous James Bond films, this "reboot" was sexually exploitative of the new James Bond (Daniel Craig), rather than of the archetypal "Bond Girls". Bond revealed far more flesh than his fully-clothed female foils, including an obvious reference to Ursula Andress' entrance in Dr. No (1962), with Bond emerging from Bahama's waters in skimpy bikini briefs while ogled by women; and the infamous sexual torture scene in which villain Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) strapped Bond naked to an open-bottomed cane chair and swung a heavy, knotted rope to strike Bond's testicles, in order to extract a password; Bond defiantly taunted Le Chiffre while in excruciating pain: "I've got a little itch, down there. Would you mind?... No! No! No, no, no, to the right. To the right, to the right! Aargh! Yeah! Yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes, yes...! Now the whole world's gonna know you died scratching my balls!"
Crank (2006)	Gratuitous nudity was prominent in this foul-mouthed R-rated action-thriller; in one memorable scene, poison-injected professional hitman Chev Chelios (Jason Stratham) proposed making love to his astonished and initially-resistant girlfriend Eve (Amy Smart) on the pavement of a crowded Chinatown street in Los Angeles (in front of a crowd of onlookers), in order to keep his heart pumping ("Save my life!") -- she finally assented encouragingly: "Take me right here in front of everyone...Come on, get it up!" as he forcibly placed her over a newspaper vending machine and took her from behind while crying "I'm alive!" -- but their sexual encounter was broken off when he received a phone call, alerting him to the whereabouts of his rival; in another high-speed car chase sequence, Eve delivered oral sex (off-screen) to Chev as he was driving and combating rivals, to keep him revived
Destricted (2006)	Composed of a patchwork of seven different short erotic arthouse films (of varying lengths and video/film formats) about pornography and how sex is represented, this explicit portmanteau film included the works of directors Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noe, Richard Prince, and Sam Taylor-Wood; the film premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival; segments include Barney’s Hoist about a man masturbating while strapped under a fifty-ton deforestation vehicle with a rotating lubricated drive shaft, Abramovic’s Balkan Erotic Epic - a contemporary look at the ancient Balkan belief that masturbation keeps away evil spirits and promotes fertility, Prince's House Call - a reinterpretation/reshooting of a 70s pornographic film of sex acts, Brambilla's Sync - an assaultive, fast-moving 3 minute collection of 'money shot' clips from mainstream and adult porn, Clark's Impaled - including audition-interviews with prospective males to appear in a short film with a porn actress of their choice, Taylor-Wood’s Death Valley - a single-take depiction of a man struggling to pleasure himself in the arid locale, and Noé 's We F--k Alone - a hallucinatory fantasy segment with strobe lighting and a pounding soundtrack combining sex and violence that involves a young man with an inflatable doll masturbating to a TV sex scene (a woman pleasuring herself with a giant teddy bear)	Balkan Erotic Epic Impaled House Call Death Valley We F--k Alone
Final Destination 3 (2006)	One of the ingenious ways in which survivors of a rollercoaster ride accident were killed, one by one, was in a tanning bed salon freak accident; blonde, head cheerleader Ashley Freund (Chelan Simmons) and beauty queen Ashlyn Halperin (Crystal Lowe) were positioned topless next to each other in two tanning beds, where due to Rube Goldberg circumstances, they were literally barbecued and electrocuted when trapped inside by a falling CD shelf/board
The Hottest State (2006)	Writer/director and actor Ethan Hawke helmed this quasi-autobiographical coming of age, love-struck romantic drama, an adaptation of his own 1996 novel. It told about an aspiring and intense 20 year-old Texas actor named William Harding (Mark Webber), who while living in New York, became mired in a quickly-developing, often idealized, and intense first-love relationship with gorgeous singer/songwriter Sara (Catalina Sandina Moreno); their relationship quickly disintegrated into a painful breakup for him when she told him she didn't want a boyfriend, leading to anger and recrimination; although she resisted sex at first, they consummated their love during a whirlwind, sweaty, week-long Mexican tryst, with the scenes of Sara sensually photographed in golden light
Kisses and Caroms (2006)	Director and cowriter Vince Rocca's quickly and cheaply-made independent film (shot on digital video), a sexy comedy about relationships, was remarkably similar to Kevin Smith's Clerks (1994), although it was set inside a billiards supply store rather than a video store; the movie followed the romantic dilemmas and aftermath of an ill-advised threesome that occurred the night before between Zack (Drew Wicks), his fellow employee and ex-girlfriend Jennifer (Nikki Stanzione) (who had suggested the idea), and pretty blonde bisexual hedonist Tara (Nicole Rayburn), Jennifer's friend and another co-worker
Little Children (2006)	The Alliance for Women Film Journalists awarded Kate Winslet the Best Depiction of Nudity or Sexuality Award for this film during the EDA 2006 awards; she received the honor for her nude portrayal that was "tastefully filmed and in service of the story, rather than feeling tacky, sensational or exploitative"; in her Oscar-nominated performance, Kate Winslet took the role of bored suburban wife and mother Sarah Pierce who had an adulterous affair with her neighbor Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson) - in one scene, on a laundry room sink; remarkably, Winslet has appeared naked in more films than any non-porn star of her generation (previously, she was also nude in Heavenly Creatures (1994), Jude (1996), Titanic (1997), Hideous Kinky (1998), Holy Smoke (1999), Quills (2000) and Iris (2001))
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)	In the conclusion of this quirky, Best Picture-nominated light comedy/road movie about an oddball, dysfunctional New Mexico family, 7 year-old daughter Olive (Oscar-nominated Abigail Breslin) competed in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in Redondo Beach, California; the film satirically portrayed the pageant as a sexually-provocative event for the pre-pubescent contestants (who wore garish makeup, styled hair, and raunchy clothing along the lines of Jon-Benet Ramsay); the other young competitors performed sexy night-club songs and dances - but the plumpish, sweet and bespectacled wannabee Olive performed an over-sexualized dance to Rick James' Superfreak , a cringe-inducing pretend striptease routine (taught to her by her rakish but loving grandfather (Oscar-winning Alan Arkin)); even though she kept her clothes on, she crawled like a cat in heat, and threw articles of clothing off the stage - horrifying the audience and repulsing the contest organizers who were forced to admit the actual sexual sub-text of their exploitative event
The Lives of Others (2006, Germ.)	The juxtaposition of scenes to show how sexual relations were seriously affected in 1980s East Germany during a time of Stasi (secret police) surveillance on its citizens before the fall of the Berlin Wall: including the scene in which Cultural Department head Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) forced himself in the back seat of his limousine on beautiful actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) - the devoted lover of successful Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), in order to protect him and as a way to procure prescription drugs for herself; she cleansed herself of the filth (both physically and emotionally) afterwards in the bathtub/shower; also the following scene in which Christa-Maria, curled up in a fetal position on their bed, tenderly asked Dreyman: "Just hold me"; and the desperate, unfulfilling scene of sympathetic "guardian angel" Stasi survelliance agent Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) who vainly attempted to emulate what the couple's closeness was like by asking an overweight prostitute (Gabi Fleming), on a rigid schedule, to "stay awhile" with him after having impersonal sex with him in his barren and drab apartment
Notes on a Scandal (2006)	Director Richard Eyre's heated British melodrama was rife with sexual politics, in an unusual love triangle between bohemian bored housewife and North London high school art teacher Bathsheba "Sheba" Hart (Oscar-nominated Cate Blanchett), her sexually-aggressive under-aged student Steven Connolly (Andrew Simpson) with which she became enmeshed in an affair, and blackmailing tenured, older, spinster lesbian co-worker Barbara Covett (Oscar-nominated Judi Dench); Sheba at one point exclaimed with sneering incredulity at Barbara's girl-crush on her: "You think this is a love affair?!" during a tense climactic confrontation
Rampage: The Hillside Strangler Murders (2006)	In this fictionalized, straight-to-video crime drama thriller based upon the 1978 Los Angeles area strangulations by serial killer Kenneth Bianchi, Brittany Daniel played loose-living Samantha Stone; her completely fabricated role was a speculative, composite of five different mental health professionals from the original case; in one scene in this wildly creative film that tried to create the atmosphere of late 70s sex and drugs, Bianchi (Clifton Collins, Jr.) was involved in a lesbian threesome with his own blonde-haired psychiatrist (Brittany Daniel) and dark-haired Nicole (Michelle Borth) in a red-lighted bedroom (filmed with a circulating hand-held camera)