History of Sex in Cinema:
The Greatest and Most Influential
Sexual Films and Scenes
(Illustrated)
Part 51
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History of Sex in Cinema: Part 51 |
Key to Icon Symbol:
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| Greatest and Most Influential Erotic / Sexual Films and Scenes (chronological order, by film title) - Part 51 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 | Part 54 | Part 55 |
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Brief Scene Description | Example |
Head in the Clouds (2004, UK/Can.)
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Writer-director John Duigan's WWII melodrama was noted as the post-Oscar 'glam' film for Charlize Theron after winning Best Actress for Monster (2003) - it was a romantic (and erotic) melodrama set in 1930s England, Paris, and Spain in which she played the part of a young American heiress, photographer and hedonistic libertine named Gilda Bessé who shared her Parisian apartment with idealistic Anglo-Irish schoolteacher Guy (Charlize Theron's real-life love Stuart Townsend at the time) and limping Spanish model, ex-stripper, nursing student and refugee Mia (Penelope Cruz); the film included scenes of bisexuality in a hot two-girl tango sequence in a Parisian nightclub during a romance with Mia (a scene paying homage to the famous dance in Bertolucci's The Conformist), threesomes (in which Gilda bedded both roommates in one scene), S & M, and a sexy topless bathtub scene in which Gilda wore only a hat and a man's tie |    
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Jersey Girl (2004)
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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") |
    
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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 |
  
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Mango Kiss (2004)
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Director Sascha Rice's debut feature was this acclaimed but quirky romantic comedy set in the year 1993 - it was a love story between two lesbian friends: butchy Lou (Michelle Wolff) and femme blonde Sassy (Daniele Ferraro), and their permissive experimental delvings into the San Francisco lesbian subculture; they became intimate and then overindulged by developing a non-monogamous, open relationship with daddy/princess role-playing (as Daddy Lou and Brat Princess Sassafrass), including S/M, kinkiness and multiple-partner sex | 
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Maverick British director Michael Winterbottom's ultra-graphic love story of a romance was composed of the recollected memories of a male's affair while flying over the snowy wastes of Antarctica; artistically shot in digital chiaroscuro and released unrated, it consisted almost entirely of real-time, unsimulated sex scenes of sexual intercourse (often in closeup), including oral sex (both male and female), masturbation, penetration, and ejaculation; 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, attractive 21 year-old American vagabond exchange student Lisa (Margo Stilley) in London, interspersed with nine live-concert songs (the film's title); this sexually-explicit mainstream British film brought up the main question: "Is this porn or cinematic art?" |
     
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The Notebook (2004)
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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" |
   
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Seed of Chucky (2004)
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This horror/black comedy film (titled with a reference to the evil doll's ejaculate, and the fifth in the long-running series) featured an outrageous series of scenes; it was noted as the first doll masturbation scene in film history, when Chucky used the visual aid of Fangoria Magazine to produce sperm, that was then placed in a large turkey baster to impregnate an unconscious Jennifer Tilly (Herself); the doll Tiffany also lowered her blouse to reveal large, very anatomically correct breasts, and it also had an opening credits sequence with animated sperm swimming down a vagina to fertilize an egg; the film heavily referenced Tilly's lesbian scene with Gina Gershon in Bound (1996) |    
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Taking Lives (2004)
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In this Warner Bros' thriller, Angelina Jolie starred as Illeana Scott - a psychic FBI profiler sent on special assignment to Montreal, Canada during a serial killer investigation; the serial killer (named Martin Asher) assumed the identity of each of his victims to avoid capture; in the film, she was first introduced with a close-up of her famously-pouty lips while lying in a grave to sense the feelings of the latest victim; predictably, in an erotic scene, Jolie passionately romanced murder witness and local art dealer James Costa (Ethan Hawke) by exposing her bare chest to him when he backed her against a wall; as he laid her down on a table, he broke glassware behind her as she steadied her balance by extending her foot for leverage; he then carried her over to the nearby bed where they finished having sex with their clothes on; he was improbably discovered by film's end to be the actual murderer; in the climactic confrontation scene about seven months later, she pretended (as a decoy) to be pregnant with twins with a huge belly (due to having had sex with Costa earlier) - and stabbed her attacker to death in the heart with a pair of scissors during a fierce struggle |   
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South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) director Trey Parker's puppet comedy satire ran into censorship problems and a possible NC-17 rating; in order to secure an R-rating, the puppet defecation scene had to be cut, but was restored on the DVD version; it contained a humorous scene of intensive sex between puppets/marionettes Gary and Lisa (without genitalia) in various sexual positions (starting out with regular missionary positions, but then including oral sex from behind, hardcore '69' sex, and an offensive scene of a golden shower onto the female's face and defecation onto the male's face!) |     
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When Will I Be Loved (2004)
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This post-feminist, mostly-improvised James Toback-directed film, an Indecent Proposal tale, contained four very sexual scenes, one of which occurred during the opening credits; it was an extended erotic, unself-conscious nude hot shower sequence by beautiful, independent -minded Manhattanite debutante Vera (Neve Campbell) - supposedly an introduction to how she would later demonstrate her sexual and intellectual powers; later, Vera videotaped her lesbian tryst with a lover, had sexually frank discussions with her potential employer - a college professor (Toback), and was pimped for $100,000 to a visiting Italian count billionaire (Dominic Chianese) | 
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| 2005 Academy Award Nominees | The 2005 Academy Awards were dominated by films with non-mainstream, challenging sexual roles and identities; two Best Picture nominees had themes with homosexual/bisexual protagonists: Best Director-winning Brokeback Mountain (2005) (see below), and Capote (2005) - with a Best Actor Oscar for Philip Seymour Hoffman as the squeaky-voiced, effete homosexual writer title character; also, Felicity Huffman was nominated for her gender-bending role in Transamerica (2005) (see below) |  |
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Co-produced by Innocent Pictures and Dogma 95 proponent Lars von Trier's Zentropa Productions, this foreign film (released in different versions with varying degrees of sexuality) was directed by Jessica Nilsson; it skirted the boundaries of pornography (as a crossover hardcore adult film with explicit unsimulated sex performed by mainstream stars - including a full episode of fellatio to a messy climax (performed by Eileen Daly), penetrative sexual intercourse (with two different male stars), female masturbation, and lesbian oral sex/cunnilingus performed by French porn icon Ovidie); in its story of sexual relationships, it told about an independent, attractive single woman named Anna (Danish actress and singer Gry Bay) who worked as a theatrical costume designer, while being torn between her ex-lover boyfriend Johan (Mark Stevens) and a current lover/painter Frank (Thomas Raft) |     
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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 first in which rich, 20s-something general's daughter and sexy part-time prostitute Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz) was straddled atop passive middle-aged unattractive working class Mexican driver/bodyguard Marcos (Marcos Hernandez), and in another scene, Marcos made love from behind to his morbidly overweight wife; there were also two extended male oral sex scenes (one with a condom, one without - with the use of a prosthetic penis) |
   
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Bloodrayne (2005)
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In notorious director Uwe Boll's video game adaptation, a vampire sword-and-sorcery action film, Rayne was the title character in 18th century Eastern Europe -- a beautiful but vengeful half-human, half-vampire Dhampir (Kristanna Loken), whose patriarchal father was evil ruler Lord Kagan (Ben Kingsley); in the film's sex scene, she aggressively seduced Sebastian (Matthew Davis), one of three vampire hunters from the ancient Brimstone Society; she opened up her top, stripped down below, and grabbed iron cell-bars that Sebastian was backed up against - and proceeded to have sex with him, standing up - similar to the scene in The Last Seduction (1994); the film also featured a blood and sex orgy/harem scene among vampires |   
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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 |
    
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Broken Flowers (2005)
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Writer/director/producer Jim Jarmusch's film starred Bill Murray as Don Johnston (with a t), who, during a cross-country search, visited four possible mothers (all former girlfriends) of a 19-year-old son he had supposedly fathered; one visit was to Sharon Stone (as closet organizer Laura) - who had a 'jailbait' nubile daughter named, unsurprisingly, Lolita (21 year-old Alexis Dziena), who non-chalantly and seductively walked around the living room naked (without her pink robe) while talking on the telephone in front of deadpan-faced and unamused Don; this film won the Grand Prix at the year's Cannes International Film Festival | 
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Dirty Deeds (2005)
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This typical high school teen comedy (although rated PG-13) bombed at the box office, but did better when released to DVD as unrated with the nudity (from three anonymous actresses) reinstated (and featuring a special nude outtakes feature); the film's title referred to the completion of a set of ten challenging "dirty deeds" or pranks (10 Dares in 12 Hours) in the form of a scavenger hunt performed at the time of a high school's homecoming; in two unfunny scenes in the unrated version, the hero Zach (27 year-old Milo Ventimiglia as an 18-year old) used a loaf of wheat bread as a masturbatory tool while fantasizing about a nude girl, and there were two topless lesbians to top it off |  
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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