10 great films about sex

In the era of Nymph()maniac and Fifty Shades of Grey, we survey sex at the movies with a list of some of cinema’s naughtiest classics. Warning: this feature contains explicit imagery!

Sex at the movies has been there from the start, with peep show titillations part of the illicit sideshows of early silent cinema. But censorship quickly became a buzz kill in the world of mainstream, commercial cinema, with the naughty suggestiveness of early 1930s Hollywood films soon snuffed out by the introduction of the Hays Code. Henceforth, if a man and a woman were seen in bed, at least one of their feet needed to be planted firmly on the floor thank you very much.

Not all national cinemas were so restrictive, but it wasn’t until the wave of liberation in the 1960s that nudity, let alone intercourse, became more widely seen in cinemas. This new licentiousness led to sex films both softcore (Emmanuelle, 1974) and hardcore (Deep Throat, 1972) becoming box-office smashes, with ‘respectable’ middle-class couples queuing up with the dirty macs for a sneaky peek. In this period, arthouse sensations such as Last Tango in Paris (1972) and In the Realm of the Senses (1976) also used loosening censorship laws to explore eroticism on screen with a new frankness.

 

The evolution of sex in cinema reflects broader societal changes and the ongoing struggle between artistic expression Porn2all Models and censorship. From the early days of peep shows to the liberating 1960s and beyond, these films have continued to challenge viewers and provoke discussions about sexuality and its representation on screen.