History of Sex in Cinema:
The Greatest and Most Influential
Sexual Films and Scenes
(Illustrated)
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History of Sex in Cinema: |
Key to Icon Symbol:
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| Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes (chronological order, by film title) - 1996 - 2 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 |
Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996, India/UK)
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Indian director Mira Nair's lush romantic melodrama about love and betrayal was set in pre-colonial, 16th century India; it told of two girlhood friends who as adults became competitive rivals for power and love in a love triangle; the two females were lower-caste, seductive, and sensual servant girl Maya (Indira Varma) and her handmaiden princess Tara (Sarita Choudhury); Maya succeeded in arousing the lustful affections of the powerful, playboyish King Raj Singh (Naveen Andrews) on the eve of Tara's wedding day to the King and was then exiled from the palace by her mother for being a whore - she also inflamed the jealousy of Tara when the King called out Maya's name during the sexual consummation of their vows; soon afterwards, Maya became part of the King's harem as his courtesan after being trained in love-making by Rasa Devi (Rekha) through the Indian book of love (the Kama Sutra); she also fell in love with long-haired stone sculptor Jai Kumar (Ramon Tikaram) for whom she posed as a nude model for his life-sized statues, but he was ultimately killed by the rival King after they fought in a near-naked wrestling contest; in one lesbian-tinged sexual scene, Maya taught Tara how to be a better lover; because of the film's sexual content and frequent nudity, it was threatened with an NC-17 rating and therefore released un-rated in the US; while being filmed in India (where it was ultimately banned), its release title was changed to "Maya & Tara" and its controversial content was kept secret |     
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Kingpin (1996)
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In this Farrelly Brothers ribald, gross-out comedy, down-and-out, middle-aged ex-bowling star Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) was so broke that he was forced to have sex with his landlady (Lin Shaye) to pay the rent; after the scene of sex (implied), he was seen kneeling and puking into the toilet, and the decrepit old woman was smoking in bed and telling him: "Oh stop it! It wasn't that bad. Oh, my little Roy toy. What is it about good sex that makes me have to crap? I guess it's all that pumpin'. Pump and dump! (Roy puked) You really jarred something loose, tiger. (In a pose that resembled The Graduate (1967), she pulled her socks up over skinny, varicose-veined legs) Oh, boy! I've got two bits of advice for you, Munson. Number one, why don't you forget about this bowling business and get yourself a real job. (More puking) Two, you still owe me another month's rent, so if I were you, I would start doing some tongue exercises before Friday" - she made the sign of cunnilingus - her spread fingers in a V shape with her tongue wagging in between |
 
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Lynne Stopkewich's debut film was a controversial and provocative limited-release independent film about the taboo subject of necrophilia; it was originally rated NC-17, but two minutes were cut to make it R-rated for commercial video release; the non-exploitative film was advertised with the tagline: "A Film to Really Die For" and had one of the few depicted instances of actual necrophilia in a film; it starred Molly Parker as the sympathetically-portrayed Sandra Larson - an assistant at the Wallis Funeral Home, where she exercised her obsession with finding spiritual calm and erotic attraction to the dead by kissing corpses; in the film's most talked-about scene, she had sex with the corpse of an accident victim under harsh and glaring flourescent lighting in the embalming room - she circled the table with the corpse, stripped her clothes off, and then moved onto the end of it and straddled the pallid body; by the film's grim ending, her romantically-obsessed student boyfriend Matt (Peter Outerbridge) learned of her love of death, so he hung himself in order to be with her |
   
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Soft-Core B-Film Movie Queens of the 90s and Beyond 1 - Shannon Tweed
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Shannon Tweed acquired her notoriety as Playboy's Playmate of the Month in November 1981, and then went on, as many did, to star as the ageless queen of a series of soft-core erotic thrillers during the 80s and 90s with nude appearances, including Night Eyes and Indecent Behavior (1993) and other lesser-known, sexually-charged, often direct-to-video films (i.e., Sexual Response (1992), Cold Sweat (1993), Possessed by the Night (1993) (pictured), Body Chemistry 4 (1994), Illicit Dreams (1994) (pictured), Victim of Desire (1995), Shadow Warriors II: Assault on Devil's Island (1997), Naked Lies (1998), The Rowdy Girls (1999)). |  Hot Dog: The Movie (1984)  Possessed by the Night (1993)  Illicit Dreams (1994) |
Soft-Core B-Film Movie Queens of the 90s and Beyond 2 - Kari Wuhrer
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Kari Wuhrer originally gained fame as a VJ for MTV's game show, Remote Control. She then put together an extensive career list of B-film credits in dozens of sometimes memorable films and straight-to-video releases, including Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991), Boulevard (1994), The Crossing Guard (1995) (pictured), Hot Blooded (1995), Sensation (1995), Sex and the Other Man (1995) (pictured), Beyond Desire (1996), Luscious (1996) (pictured), An Occasional Hell (1996) (pictured), Thinner (1996), Kate's Addiction (1999), Lip Service (2000), Poison (2000), Spider's Web (2001), King of the Ants (2003) (pictured, with implants removed), and Hellraiser: Deader (2004). She was often voted one of the sexiest women in film by various film polls, although she never took a starring role or became a major star. Others who could have been mentioned in the same context include: Brinke Stevens, Linnea Quigley, Michelle Bauer, Cheryl Rainbeaux Smith, and Candice Rialson. |
 The Crossing Guard (1995)  Sex and the Other Man (1995)  An Occasional Hell (1996)  Luscious (1996)  King of the Ants (2003) |
Norma Jean and Marilyn (1996)
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Director Tim Fywell's innovative biopic feature film from HBO displayed two conflicting sides of the split schizophrenic personality of young, love-seeking, tragic star Marilyn Monroe; the blonde bombshell was portrayed by two cast members: Ashley Judd (in the actress' earlier years as Norma Jean Dougherty) including a dream sequence of imagining herself naked in church as she walked up the center aisle, and Mira Sorvino (as the drugged-up actress Marilyn during her Hollywood sex star years) in a scene where she flashed her breasts by a swimming pool; in some scenes, Judd appeared as Marilyn's alter-ego by her side, especially as the star deteriorated due to drug addiction; the film included a recreation of the famous nude Playboy calendar shoot against a red backdrop |   
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The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
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Director Milos Forman's critically-acclaimed and provocative docudrama told the story of trashy adult Hustler magazine publisher/editor Larry Flynt (Best Actor-nominated Woody Harrelson) and his series of confrontations with the authorities over anti-pornography laws and his claim of First Amendment rights; he was portrayed as a womanizer and strip-club manager in Ohio, who became involved with (and later married) one of his dancer/strippers - bisexual and free-spirited Althea Leasure (pop singer Courtney Love in her first major acting role) seen performing an awkward strip routine; she boldly told Flynt: "You are not the only person who has slept with every woman in this club"; later she was part of a threesome lesbian scene and a hot-tub scene (which Flynt joined) where she proposed marriage; during a powerful speech before a gigantic backdrop of images of sex and violence/murder, Flynt asked why photographing sex and nudity was criminally pornographic, but violence and murder was not - he illustrated his point with famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photos of extreme violence and gore, and offered his thoughts on the free speech after his 1987 victory: ("...If the First Amendment will protect a scumbag like me, then it'll protect all of you -- 'cause I'm the worst..."); during one scene of a photo-shoot, the photographer and Flynt argued over whether to show the woman's vagina; the film's ending portrayed AIDS-stricken Althea dying from a drug overdose and/or drowning in a bathtub with a heartbroken Flynt embracing her; in the concluding frames, Flynt watched old videotapes on multiple monitors of his deceased Althea |        
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The Pillow Book (1996, UK, Fr/Nether.)
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Peter Greenaway's NC-17 rated erotic drama about sex, death and revenge told of a young girl named Nagiko (Vivian Wu as an adult) whose father gave her a special birthday gift every year -- a face-painted poem done by a calligrapher (Ken Ogata) while her aunt (Hideko Yoshida) read from the classic 10th century Japanese book of love called The Pillow Book; when she reached maturity and became a model, she realized she was still fond of having expressive verses inscribed on her naked body (calligraphy on skin) as a prelude for sex and erotic attraction from lovers who were expert calligraphers; when she met British expatriate and English translator Jerome (Ewan McGregor), he allowed her to write her manuscript on his skin, but he betrayed her trust by returning to his old lover (Yoshi Oida) - setting up the film's tragic conclusion; one of the film's most expressive images was one of the lovers bathing in a tub together; the film was noted for full-frontal male nudity and erotic scenes of the two lovers |   
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Stealing Beauty (1996, It./UK/Fr.)
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Bernardo Bertolucci's R-rated film was a sex-drenched character study with gorgeous cinematography and visually-stunning settings (in Tuscany, Italy); it starred lovely Liv Tyler (daughter of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler) as 19 year old American Lucy Harmon on vacation, looking for her father and grieving after the suicide of her poet mother - with some artist friends (including Donal McCann as sculptor Ian Grayson and Sinead Cusack as Diana Grayson) of her late mother, and also attempting to lose her virginity with a lover; although she rejected a former love named Niccolo (Roberto Zibetti), she found lyrical love and true romance with a young shepherd named Osvaldo (Ignazio Oliva) in a very gentle, non-explicit erotic scene before the glow of a nearby campfire; the film's director often objectified the seductively innocent actress in shooting her beautiful sexuality and rebelliousness as an erotic fantasy of his own; at one point in the film, Lucy allowed herself to pose with one breast exposed; 'virginal' Lucy's "beauty" was stolen as the idealized young female was eventually deflowered; the arty, soft-focus film also featured hedonistic lifestyles and free-spirited nudity (also of Rachel Weisz); the film had full frontal male and female nudity, sex, drug usage, and some bad language |   
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Striptease (1996)
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Director Andrew Bergman's R-rated feature film was one of the least unsexy of all films about the stripper profession and Florida political corruption involving star Burt Reynolds as sex-crazed Congressman David Dilbeck; it starred surgically-enhanced and in-shape Demi Moore as Florida mother Erin Grant 'reluctantly' earning $15,000 in six weeks as an Eager Beaver Club dancer-topless stripper, to raise funds for an appeal to win back her 7 year-old daughter lost in a custody battle with her ex-con husband Darrell (Robert Patrick); in one scene while standing on his coffee table, she stripped out of her black bra as the perverted Congressman promised: "Darlin', if you just come into Davie's life, good things will happen. You just don't know how much I worship you" - he also told her about his perverted obsession over her "fresh hot lint" obtained from her laundromat - confessing "I'm afraid I made love to it"; the video release of the film contained an additional two minutes of footage that was not in the theatrical version |  
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2 Days in the Valley (1996)
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This intricately-told episodic, Southern California crime caper melodrama by director John Herzfeld (his directorial debut film) was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994) and noted for its sexy scenes of gorgeous, statuesque blonde sexpot and hitman's girlfriend Helga Svelgen (future Oscar-winner Charlize Theron in her feature film debut); in one bedroom scene after a shower with wet hair, she appeared with a Basic Instinct style, open-legged, long-legged pose wearing lacy lingerie (a white teddy and silk robe) to entice sociopathic boyfriend Lee Woods (James Spader), who cooled things with ice cubes; the film was also memorable for her catfight with co-star Teri Hatcher (as ex-Olympic skier Becky Foxx) that led to her death on the street - earlier in the film she was pictured topless and dead in a faked photo to fool Roy Foxx (Peter Horton) into believing that she had been murdered |    
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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