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.

Key to Icon Symbol:

- Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous

Example

Head in the Clouds (2004, UK/Can.)

Jersey Girl (2004)

Writer/director Kevin Smith's uncharacteristic PG-13 comedy-romance received mixed reviews; it starred Ben Affleck as NYC music publicist Ollie Trinke who was recently widowed and devastated by the death of his lover/fiancee Gertrude Steiney (Jennifer Lopez) during childbirth, and left caring as a single parent for their precocious daughter Gertie (Raquel Castro); after moving to Jersey and taking a job as a streetcleaner, his first-grader (after the fast-forward) was fast learning about the birds and the bees with a young neighbor boy with his pants pulled down: (Gertie: "That's what it looks like?" Bryan: "I guess. What does yours look like?" Gertie: "Not like that." Bryan: "Yeah? Let me see." Gertie: "All right"); she encouraged her father to rent movies (often in the adult section), and he met video-store clerk/graduate student Maya Harding (Liv Tyler) - an amazingly-frank, free-spirited and appealing young woman; in a diner scene over coffee (that originally gave the film an R-rating, but on appeal was reduced), "tight-ass" Ollie was embarrassingly confronted by Maya about why he rented porno films, presumably to masturbate to, and then to calm him, she freely admitted with frank dialogue that she masturbated twice a day herself, with a "healthy sexual appetite": ("If it makes you feel any better, I mean, I do it, like, twice a day...What can I tell ya. I get bored easily," and when he exclaimed: "Good God!" and cautioned against carpal tunnel, she quipped back: "Don't get all judgmental with me. You're no slouch yourself"; when he confessed that he'd rather hang out with his kid than get laid, she divulged: "l'm kinda crushin' on you right now, Trinke"; then when he told her that he hadn't had sex in seven years since his wife died, she replied: "You gotta get back on the horse, man!"; she flirtatiously encouraged him with a forward invitation to go to his place "for some sex..really short casual sex" -- "l'm just talking about two consenting adults having some casual sex" - and then logically tried to persuade him: ("You rent porn and touch yourself, right?...lf you're not sweating how your wife would feel about you and porn, then you shouldn't sweat what l'm proposing 'cause it's the same thing. Only somebody else is doing the touching and you're saving a $2 rental fee. Come on, stud. Man cannot live on porn alone")

Kinsey (2004)

Bill Condon's biopic of controversial, Midwestern human sexuality researcher Dr. Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson) (its tagline: "Let's talk about sex") stirred up protest about the impact of his pioneering work, interviews and publications on morality and behavior - including his Kinsey Report (aka Sexual Behavior in the Human Male) in 1948 and its follow-up Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953); the non-erotic, non-exploitative, and non-prurient film was attacked by morality extremists for its candid and frank drama about the famous Indiana University doctor's obsessive life-work; it illustrated how Kinsey's own wife Clara McMillen (Oscar-nominated Laura Linney) had painful sexual problems with her inexperienced husband during their honeymoon, and then later was engaged in an extra-marital affair with her husband's bi-sexual assistant Clyde Martin (Peter Sarsgaard) - who also had a homosexual encounter with Kinsey and appeared nude in a full-frontal scene

Mango Kiss (2004)

9 Songs (2004, UK)

Maverick British director Michael Winterbottom's ultra-graphic, 69-minute romantic love story was composed of the recollected memories of a male's affair while flying over the snowy wastes of Antarctica; the film was told from a single viewpoint, recalling the adventurous physical encounters over time between the young couple: 31 year old young glaciologist Matt (Kieran O'Brien) and slim, flat-chested yet attractive 21 year-old American vagabond exchange student Lisa (Margo Stilley) in London, interspersed with nine live-concert songs (the film's title) which supplemented the story line with their lyrics; the film followed a traditional romantic arc, from initial infatuation, to passionate love, and then disenchantment and the end of a relationship; it was artistically shot in digital chiaroscuro and released unrated, and consisted almost entirely of real-time, unsimulated sex scenes beginning with commonplace sex - and then culminating with more experimentation; the explicit scenes included sexual intercourse (often in closeup), including oral sex (both male and female), masturbation, penetration, bondage, anal and ejaculation; in the bathtub scene, she played with his genitals between her feet, and in the bedroom blindfold scene, he told her to fantasize that she was pleasuring herself and being watched as he massaged her body and delivered cunnilingus: "You're on a beach in Thailand. Your eyes are closed so you can't see anything. You feel them watching you" -- she continued the narration as she was orally pleasured by him: "There's a couple behind me to my right. I can feel them looking at me. I put my hand between my legs. Oh, I'm so wet. Then she slides down her boyfriend's body. She has the most amazing breasts. Oh, god. And she's rubbing them. (Deep breath) And she's covered with oil. And she leans over to her boyfriend, grabs his balls, and puts his cock in her mouth. F--k me, man! Come up here and f--k me. Come up, come up here and f--ck me. F--k me. (He entered her, wearing a condom) F--k me faster. F--k me." Later, she confessed to him, "Sometimes when you kiss me, I just wanna bite you and not in a nice way. Like I want to hurt you, like I want to bite your lip really f--king hard and make you bleed"; after a table-dance experience in a night-club/club where she was the lesbian-esque recipient (not him!), she intensely masturbated to a buzzing dildo/vibrator by herself - and shortly later laid back limply on the bed and allowed him to watch her self-love, although he appeared disinterested and returned to the kitchen -- the turning point in their loss of intimacy; during their love/power struggle, however, they continued to have make-up sex as things fell apart -- she reversed positions with him and gave him fellatio, to completion - the film's most explicit scene; she gave him a book on Antarctica for his birthday, and read portions to him, possibly deeply symbolic of their own demise: "The ice is everywhere and everything. It spreads to all sides, an unbounded void of alien whiteness and geometric rigor. Antarctica is the highest, windiest, driest continent..."; [earlier, he had prophetically said this about his explorations in Antarctice: "Claustrophobia and agoraphobia are in the same place - like two people in a bed"]; eventually, she told him that she was going back to America - and had added: "Sometimes, you have to have faith in people" - and in narration, he said: "She was happy to be leaving"; the day she flew from London was the first time she invited him to her apartment - "She didn't want any goodbyes." This sexually-explicit, naturalistic mainstream British film brought up the main question: "Is this porn or cinematic art?"

The Notebook (2004)

In this old-fashioned, tearjerking, sentimental romantic story of separation and return, it followed the unfolding, star-crossed relationship between 17 year-old Charleston South Carolina society girl Allie Hamilton/Calhoun (Rachel McAdams) and 19 year-old local mill worker Noah Calhoun/Duke (Ryan Gosling), from the 1940s to decades later; when the two lovers met after a seven-year separation, they enjoyed a rain-soaked kiss after an idyllic afternoon row-boating through a spectacular duck-filled setting, as she learned for the first time that he had written her 365 love letters (one each day for a year) - although her domineering mother had intercepted them; Noah professed on the dock: "It wasn't over. It still isn't over!" and they passionately embraced and kissed. He carried her back to the mansion (now renovated by him as a tribute to his lost-love) where they had first attempted to make love, but were interrupted. They progressively stripped off their clothes as he brought her upstairs and placed her on the bed for passionate sex. When they were finished, she exclaimed: "You gotta be kidding me. All this time, that's what I've been missin'? (pause) Let's do it again" as she mounted him again. Later, as they reclined in front of a fireplace drying their wet clothes, he told her as she showered him with more kisses: "You're trying to kill me, woman... I need rest, I need food, so I can regain my strength"

Seed of Chucky (2004)

Taking Lives (2004)

Team America: World Police (2004)

When Will I Be Loved (2004)

All About Anna (2005, Denmark)

Battle in Heaven (2005, Sp.) (aka (Batalla En El Cielo)

Mexican writer/director Carlos Reygadas' Palme d'Or-nominated film with non-professional actors told "about the mystical erotic pleasure of lost souls in the megalopolis of Mexico City"; it caused controversy wherever shown, with its two major scenes of sexual content - the act of fellatio - in the film's beginning and end dream sequences: at the film's start, middle-aged, unattractive, inexpressive, overweight ("fatso") working class Mexican driver/bodyguard Marcos (Marcos Hernandez) was being given oral sex by his boss' daughter whom he had known since she was a child - she was named Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz) - a rich, sexy, 20s-something general's daughter with dread-locks and tattoos who worked part-time as a prostitute in a "boutique" (brothel); kneeling in front of him at crotch level, she was slowly pleasuring him orally, in extreme close-up; when she opened her eyes, a single tear ran down each cheek; later, Marcos unwisely confessed to her that he and his wife Berta Ruiz (Esposa De Marcos) had kidnapped a baby, but it died before the ransom could be collected (never shown in the film); later, Marcos made love from behind to his morbidly obese wife - and then told her that he had confided to Ana - she cautioned: "Now you'll have to make sure she keeps her mouth shut. We can't have the princess talking...You f--ked up, you idiot!"; during another sexual rendezvous, Ana straddled atop the passive Marcos and made love to him as he laid under her, while the camera panned away from them and backed up through an open window to survey the surrounding buildings, rooftops and neighborhood (with children playing); the camera slowly returned to them after coming 360 degrees full-circle, where they had finished having sex, and she dismounted from being on top of his semi-erect (and fading) penis, and laid next to him -- both completely full-frontal; she told him: "You'll have to turn yourself in, Marcos"; then, there was a close-up full-frontal view of her genital area (full-screen), after which she took his hand in hers; the scene ended with a view of the two side-by-side bodies from above; in the film's tragic ending, he left her place, urinated in his pants outside her door, re-entered, and then abruptly stabbed her in the arm and body with a long butcher knife; he held her bloody corpse in his arms, and then left the building (she died soon after); he joined a religious pilgrimage to the Basilica, where he repentantly walked on his knees with his head hooded, and died at the altar; the film's final scene returned to the one in the opening, in which Marcos was again receiving fellatio from Ana as he stood in front of her (now more explicitly filmed with a prosthetic penis, without a condom) - he said: "I love you so, Ana" - to which she replied: "I love you too, Marcos" - and the film cut to black before the end credits.

Bloodrayne (2005)

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

This was the first mainstream gay/bi-sexual romance film, heavily-promoted by the media, to receive multiple awards and critical/public acclaim; it had eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and three wins; it was made by major A-list film-maker and Best Director-winning Ang Lee, and featured major stars in a story about a secret lifelong bond and longing for love (forbidden) between two young men in the early-mid 1960s: ranch-hand Ennis del Mar (Oscar-nominated Heath Ledger) and rodeo cowboy Jack Twist (Oscar-nominated Jake Gyllenhaal); the two grew close while herding sheep in the summer on an isolated Wyoming mountain, including scenes of them skinny-dipping, sharing a hungry kiss, and having an under-one-minute sexual encounter in a shared sleeping bag in a two-man tent -- and years later in a motel bed; also there were scenes of both men having sex with their girlfriends/wives: Jack in Texas with rodeo queen Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway) and Ennis in Wyoming with sweetheart Alma (Oscar-nominated Michelle Williams); the plotline was based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx and an Oscar-winning adaptation for the screen by the team of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana; Gustavo Santaolalla's original music score accounted for the film's third and final Oscar win

Broken Flowers (2005)

Writer/director/producer Jim Jarmusch's film starred Bill Murray as perennial bachelor, and wealthy early-retiree Don Johnston (with a t), an "over-the-hill Don Juan" who was being dumped by another girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpy); he went on a cross-country search after receiving an unsigned, mysterious pink letter that informed him about a 19-year-old son he had supposedly fathered; he visited four possible mothers (all former girlfriends); the first visit was to Laura Daniels/Miller (Sharon Stone), a self-employed, widowed "professional closet organizer"; at her front door, he met her 'jailbait' nubile daughter named, unsurprisingly, Lolita (or Lo/Lola) (21 year-old Alexis Dziena): "So my name's Lola. Well, sometimes people call me Lo, but my really real name is Lolita!"; she was wearing a pink bathrobe, heart-shaped earrings, and pink platform shoes; as he waited in the living room, she offered him a popsicle! ("Do you want something, 'cause I've got popsicles"); then suddenly, when her pink sparkly cellphone rang, the young nymphet exhibitionist came out of her bedroom, and non-chalantly and seductively walked into the living room fully naked (without her pink robe) in front of deadpan-faced and unamused Don; she was talking on the home phone and also picking up on her cellphone, deliberately flaunting herself and flirting with him; he abruptly left the house, just as Laura drove into the driveway; later that night after sharing dinner with them, he slept in Laura's bed, and when he drove off the next morning, the two both bid him goodbye - one in the bathrobe and the other in a bikini; this film won the Grand Prix at the year's Cannes International Film Festival

Dirty Deeds (2005)