Sex film
As the sexual conservatives used to warn us, once you allow one nude, a second (usually of the other sex) will soon join it leading to inevitable trouble. Beginning with the (albeit tentative) victory of nudity in film, this last decade has indeed for the first time raised the possibility of sexually explicit cinema as a mass phenomenon. Previously confined to brothels, stag parties, or illegal exhibitions, a series of court decisions in Scandinavia and America has now made public presentation of sex possible. -- Film As a Subversive Art (1974) - Amos Vogel
mainstream erotic film - pornographic film - sex comedy - sex education film - sex hygiene film - sex report films - sexploitation - sexy mondo film - simulated sex - unsimulated sex - softcore film
Soundtrack to
The Schulmadchen Report/Schoolgirl Report (1970) - Gert Wilden & Orchestra
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Intro
The story of sex in the movies is really two stories. For all practical purposes, they begin at the same moment - the invention of motion pictures - but take off running in parallel universes. One is the story of a very public debate over how much of the reality of human sexuality can be shown, discussed or even implied in movies meant for general audiences; the second is the story of an entire industry thriving along underground yet rarely even mentioned in polite company until the 1970s. -- David Hudson http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/adult1.jsp [Sept 2004]
In the US, these two strains (public/underground) collide in 1972 with Deep Throat.
Another defining moment in the history of sex in the movies is the advent of VCR technology in the mid eighties.
Sex film landmarks (UK)
Sex in early film [...]
The history of erotic films began with The Kiss (1896) and Douche après le bain (1897). The first erotic film star and also sex symbol was Theda Bara.See also blue movie, stag film.
The story of sex in the movies is really two stories. For all practical purposes, they begin at the same moment - the invention of motion pictures - but take off running in parallel universes. One is the story of a very public debate over how much of the reality of human sexuality can be shown, discussed or even implied in movies meant for general audiences; the second is the story of an entire industry thriving along underground yet rarely even mentioned in polite company until the 1970s. --http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/adult1.jsp [Sept 2004]
In the days before the film industry's stringent Hays Code was established and strictly enforced after 1934 to regulate "morally offensive" content, many silent and 'Pre-Code' taboo-breaking films contained adult-oriented material. In addition to nudity, sexuality and violence, they included candid depictions of drug use, prostitution, lawlessness, and religious blasphemy. --http://www.filmsite.org/sexualfilms.html [Sept 2004]
see also Cecil B. DeMille, Erich von Stroheim
Extase (1932): Though known primarily for its then daring and unprecedented nude scenes, the film effectively attacked still another taboo in its lingering portrayal of Hedy Lamarr's orgasm (seen in her face only) during cunnilingus. Amos Vogel, Film As a Subversive Art (1974)
Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu Créa la Femme (1956) - Roger Vadim
By Year (1900-1999)
Sex in film, theatrically released or with a clear connection to the mainstream. Sex in this list does not necessarily mean nudity nor eroticism. In short, films that tell something about our cultural morals via our sexual morals.
The Kiss (1896) - William Heise
Douche après le bain (1897) - Louis Lumière
Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker
Damaged Goods (1914)
A Fool There Was (1915) - Frank Powell
A Free Ride (1915)
Inspiration (1915) - George Platt
The Sex Lure (1916)
The Tiger Woman (1917), Cleopatra (1917) both starring Theda Bara
Male and Female (1919) - Cecil B. DeMille
Opium (1919) - Robert Dinesen
The Tree of Knowledge (1920)
The Sheik (1921) -starring Valentino
Blood and Sand (1922) -starring Valentino
The Merry Widow (1925) - Erich von Stroheim
Son of the Sheik (1926) -starring Valentino
It (1927) - Josef von Sternberg, Clarence G. Badger, Hula (1927) (both It and Hula starred Clara Bow
Un Chien Andalou - Dali/Buñuel
Pandora's Box (1928), starring Louise Brooks
Haxan (Witchcraft Through the Ages) (1929) Benjamin Christensen
Queen Kelly (1929) - Erich von Stroheim
L'Age d'Or (1930) - Luis Bunuel
The Blue Angel (1930) - Josef von Sternberg
Madam Satan (1930) - Cecil B. De Mille
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) - F.W. Murnau
Extase (1932) - Gustav Machatý
Queen Christina (1933) - starring Greta Garbo
42nd Street (1933)
The Devil is a Woman (1935) - Josef von Sternberg
Damaged Goods (1937) - Phil Goldstone
Mom and Dad (1945) - William Beaudine
Anger 1 (1947) - Kenneth Anger
Un Chant d'Amour (1950) - Jean Genet
Summer With Monika (1953) - Ingmar Bergman
Garden of Eden (1955) - Max Nosseck
...And God Created Woman - (1956) Roger Vadim
I Vampiri (1957) - Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda
The Immoral Mr. Teas (1959) - Russ Meyer
Peeping Tom (1960) - Michael Powell
The Virgin Spring (1960) - Ingmar Bergman
Victim (1961) - Basil Dearden
Jules and Jim (1962) - François Truffaut
Knife in the Water (1962) - Roman Polanski
Lolita (1962) - Stanley Kubrick
Flaming Creatures (1963) - Jack Smith
Tystnaden/The Silence (1963) - Ingmar Bergman
Contempt (1963) - Jean-Luc Godard
The Servant (1963) - Joseph Losey
Sexus (1964) - José Bénazéraf
The Dirty Girls (1964) - Radley Metzger
I, A Woman (1965) - Mac Ahlberg
Repulsion (1965) - Roman Polanski
Faster Pussycat Kill Kill (1965) - Russ Meyer
The Alley Cats (1965) - Radley Metzger
Persona (1966) - Ingmar Bergman
Hugs and Kisses (1967) - Jonas Cornell
Blow-Up (1966) - Michelangelo Antonioni
Belle de Jour (1967) - Luis Buñuel
Jag är nyfiken - en film i gult / I Am Curious ... Yellow/Blue (1967) - Vilgot Sjöman
Teorema (1968) - Pier Paolo Pasolini
Barbarella (1968) - Roger Vadim
Histoires Extraordinaires aka Spirits of The Dead (1968) - Louis Malle, Roger Vadim, Federico Fellini
If.... (1968) - Lindsay Anderson
Therese und Isabell (1968) - Radley Metzger
Easy Rider (1969) - Dennis Hopper
Femina Ridens - The Frightened Woman (1969) - Piero Schivazappa
The Libertine (1969) - Pasquale Festa Campanile
Camille 2000 (1969) - Radley Metzger
Kärlekens språk/Language of Love (1969) - Torgny Wickman
Performance (1970) - Nicolas Roeg, Donald Cammell
The Lickerish Quartet (1970) - Radley Metzger
Trash (1970) - Paul Morrissey
Women In Love (1970) - Ken Russell
Pornography in Denmark (1970) - Alex de Renzy
Why? (1970) Eberhardt and Phyllis Kronhausen
Stille dage i Clichy/Quiet Days in Clichy (1970) - Jens Jorgen Thorsten
Mona (1970) - Bill Osco
A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Stanley Kubrick
Klute (1971) - Alan J. Pakula
The Devils (1971) - Ken Russell History of the Blue Movie (1971) - Alex de Renzy
Deep Throat (1972) - Gerard Damiano
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Deliverance (1972) - John Boorman
Behind the Green Door (1972) - Mitchell Brothers
Last Tango in Paris (1972) - Bernardo Bertolucci
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask (1972) - Woody Allen
The Canterbury Tales (1972) - Pier Paolo Pasolini
La Grande Bouffe (1973) - Marco Ferreri
Score (1973) - Radley Metzger
The Mother and the Whore (1973) - Jean Eustache
Le Fantôme de la liberté - (1974) Luis Buñuel
Going Places (1974) - Bertrand Blier
The Night Porter (1974) - Liliana Cavani
Wife To Be Sacrificed (1974) - Masaru Konuma
Ilsa - She Wolf of the SS (1974) - Don Edmonds
Caged Heat (1974) - Jonathan Demme
Sweet Movie (1974) - Dusan Makavejev
Emmanuelle (1974) - Just Jaeckin
Il Fiore delle mille e una notte/Arabian Nights (1974) - Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Story of O (1975) - Just Jaeckin
The Image/The Punishment of Anne (1975) - Radley Metzger
The First Nudie Musical (1975) - Mark Haggard, Bruce Kimmel
Salo (1975) - Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Beast (1975) - Walerian Borowczyk
Ai No Corrida/In the Realm of the Senses (1976) - Nagisa Oshima
Maitresse (1976) - Barbet Schroeder
Je t'aime moi non plus (1976) - Serge Gainsbourg
Ugly Dirty and Bad (1976) - Ettore Scola
Inserts (1975)- John Byrum
Bilitis (1977) - David Hamilton
Una Giornata Particolare (1977) - Ettore Scola
Outrageous (1977) - Richard Benner
La Cage Aux Folles (1978) - Edouard Molinaro
Pretty Baby (1978) - Louis Malle
The Brood (1979)- David Cronenberg
Caligula (1979) - Tinto Brass, Bob Guccione
Dressed to Kill (1980) - Brian De Palma
Spetters (1980) - Paul Verhoeven
Beau Pere (1981) - Bertrand Blier
Taxi Zum Klo (1981) - Frank Ripploh
Pixote (1981) - Hector Babenco
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) - Marco Ferreri
Cafe Flesh (1982) - Stephen Sayadian
Querelle (1982) - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Videodrome (1983) - David Cronenberg
Woman in Flames (1983)
Special Effects (1984) - Larry Cohen
Tightrope (1984) - Richard Tuggle
Crimes of Passion (1984) - Ken Russell
The Company of Wolves (1984) - Neil Jordan
Body Double (1984) - Brian De Palma
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) - Hector Babenco
Tampopo (1985) - Juzo Itami
Blue Velvet (1986) - David Lynch
Betty Blue (1986) - Jean-Jacques Beineix
Something Wild (1986) Jonathan Demme
She's Gotta Have It (1986) - Spike Lee
9 1/2 Weeks (1986) - Adrian Lyne
Angel Heart (1987) - Alan Parker
Story of Women (1988) - Claude Chabrol
Tetsuo: The Ironman (1988) -- Shinya Tsukamoto
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) - Stephen Frears
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) - Pedro Almodóvar
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) - Peter Greenaway
Mr. Hire (1989) - Patrice Leconte
sex, lies, and videotape (1989) - Steven Soderbergh
Henry & June (1990) - Philip Kaufman
¡Átame!/ Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) - Pedro Almodóvar
My Own Private Idaho (1991) - Gus Van Sant
Bitter Moon (1992) - Roman Polanski
Tokyo Decadence (1992) - Ryu Murakami
Damage (1992) - Louis Malle Basic Instinct (1992) - Paul Verhoeven
Boxing Helena (1993) - Jennifer Chambers Lynch
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) - Stephan Elliott
Wild Side (1995-98) - Donald Cammell
Bound (1996) - Larry Wachowski
Conspirators of Pleasure (1997) - Jan Svankmajer
Fucking Åmål/ Show Me Love (1998) - Lukas Moodysson
L' Ennui (1998) - Cédric Kahn
Romance (1999) - Catherine Breillat
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) - Stanley Kubrick
Baise-Moi (2000) - Coralie, Virginie Despentes
Intimacy (2001) - Patrice Chéreau
Lucía y el Sexo/Sex and Lucia (2001) - Julio Medem
Y Tu Mama Tambien/And Your Mother Too (2001) - Alfonso Cuarón
The Center of the World (2001) Wayne Wang
Irréversible (2002) - Gaspar Noé
Ken Park (2002) - Larry Clark, Edward Lachman
In the Cut (2003) - Jane Campion
The Dreamers (2003) - Bernardo Bertolucci
Swimming Pool (2003) - François Ozon
Ma Mère (2004) - Christophe Honoré
Bibliography
- Hollis Alpert-Arthur Knight Playboy series (series, 20 issues), “Sex in the Cinema.” (1965-1969)
- Eros in the Cinema (1966) - Raymond Durgnat [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] [...]
- Ado Kyrou, Amour - érotisme et cinéma, Le Terrain Vague, 1957 [...]
- Immoral Tales: European Sex & Horror Movies 1956-1984 - Cathal Tohill, Pete Tombs [Amazon US]
"I urge you: learn how to look at 'bad' films, they are so often sublime." This remark by Ado Kyrou heads up the introduction to Immoral Tales, from which horror and exploitation film fans, especially Americans, can learn much indeed. Not so much a movie guide as an insightful critical overview of European sex/horror films (there is much overlap between the two genres), this book is elegantly organized into a sequence of essays proceeding from general themes (the history of horrific art, the surgical metaphor), to regional styles (Italian, German, French, Spanish), to individual directors (Jesus Franco, Jean Rollin, José Larraz, José Bénazéraf, Walerian Borowczyk, Alain Robbe-Grillet). The writing is intelligent, engaging, and packed with fascinating historical and technical details. The book includes plenty of photos and poster art (including many in color), a useful appendix covering miscellaneous actors and directors, an index, and a bibliography. Immoral Tales was a finalist for the 1995 Bram Stoker Award in Nonfiction. - Necronomicon: The Journal of Horror & Erotic Cinema (1996) Andy Black [Amazon.com]
Necronomicon: Book one continues the singular, thought-provoking exploration of transgressive cinema begun by the much-respected and acclaimed magazine of the same name. The transition to annual book format has allowed for even greater depth and diversity within the journal's trademarks of progressive critique and striking photographic content. Includes:
* Jean Rollin: The surreal and the sapphic
* Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Exploitation or modern fairytale?
* Barbara Steele: Icon of S/M horror
* Frightmare: Peter Walker's psycho-delirium classic
* Marco Ferreri: Sadean cinema of excess
* Deep Throat: Pornography as primitive spectacle
* Dario Argento: Tortured looks and visual displeasure
* Last Tango in Paris: Circles of sex and death
* H P Lovecraft: Visions of crawling chaos
* Witchfinder General: Michael Reeves' classic of visceral violence
* Herschell G. Lewis: Compulsive tales and cannibal feasts
* Evil Dead: From slapstick to splatshtick [...] - Babylon Blue: An Illustrated History of Adult Cinema 1960-1998 - David Flint [Amazon US]
Babylon Blue examines the '60s roots of global modern-day erotic cinema – from naturist films to the "nudie-cuties" of Russ Meyer – through to various incarnations of Europorn and hardcore, charting the rise, decline and resurrection of the genre since the early '70s. Finally, author David Flint, expertly chronicles the so-called New Porn Generation – the New Wave of adult movies, as epitomised by the stylist and sophisticated films of Andrew Blake, Michael Ninn and the Dark Brothers.Visually loaded with profuse and daring illustrations, Babylon Blue is the last word on sex cinema, featuring profiles of key directors, producers and performers, and detailed critiques of the finest adult movies of all time. The book contains interviews with sexploitation producer David Friedman, screenwriter Antonio Passolini, director Lindsay Honey and porn acress/producer Jane Hamilton, and includes a stunning eight-page full-colour section.
- Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood - Mark A. Vieira [Amazon US] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Prudes and the faint-of-heart shield your eyes! The stunning Sin in Soft Focus contains some of the most breathtaking black-and-white stills ever taken, all from the debaucherous decade before the Hollywood production code was established. With chapters devoted to "The Warners Grit," "The MGM Gloss," and "The Paramount Glow," and to horror films, gangster movies, and the sexy scandal of Mae West, Mark A. Vieira illustrates the story of classic Hollywood's most delightfully lascivious period--brought to a stop when Joseph Breen began enforcing the puritanical production code of 1934.The text of this book is fascinating even for those familiar with the films of the era, but the mesmerizing photographs are what will keep readers glued to the pages. Oversized and abundant stills capture stars like Clara Bow, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, William Powell, Mae West, Joan Blondell, James Cagney, and Greta Garbo in striking clarity, dashing poses, and of course, shockingly revealing outfits. Voyeurs seeking more on this naughty era will also want to read Thomas Doherty's Pre-Code Hollywood. --Raphael Shargel --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
- X-Rated: Adult Movie Posters of the 60s and 70s (2004) - Tony Nourmand (Editor), Graham Marsh (Editor) [Amazon US] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Sex sells! It's no secret that since moving pictures were invented, distributors and theater owners realized that nothing really promotes a movie better than blatantly sexual advertising. X-rated adult movies reached their peak in the 1960s and 70s, with films like Debbie Does Dallas and Deep Throat. While some films were hard-core and left nothing to the imagination, most enjoyed the art of innuendo, which is to say, you couldn't tell whether the participants who were getting it on were faking it--or doing it for real. Even though most of the adult movies of the 60s and 70s have faded into cinematic history--and their stars have retired into elderly care homes for the well-endowed (giving new meaning to the term "nursing home")--what remains, as a lasting legacy, are the posters. If the poster art in this book evokes those far-off days of suspender belts, stockings, and eye-popping, gravity-defying brassieres, not to mention outsize Y-fronts, then that alone is worth the cover price. It's practically cheaper than a movie these days, anyway. Featuring posters from such not-so classic films as The Love Robots, Call Girls of Frankfurt, Blackmailed Wives, The Pro Shop, Flesh Gordon, Kiss Me Mate, Space Thing, Slaves of the Sin-dicate, Girls That Do, Come Play With Me, Depraved!, Hot Lunch, Danish Pastries, Maid in Sweden, and Oh! so many more. --amazon.com - Sex in Films (1974) Parker Tyler [Amazon.com]
It's good to see this fascinating book still in print after all these years. I believe the original 1974 edition went up to 8 or 9 printings. Where Parker Tyler found his material is anyone's guess. Jammed-full of photographs from obscure and well-known films, both Hollywood produced and from foreign countries, this book is casually laid-out which makes it great for thumbing through. Everytime I open the pages I find new and interesting facts I didn't know. Each picture carries a short caption identifying the film and the book is divided into chapters of sexual preference or deviation, like "Bedroom and Bath", "The Bosom and the Bottom" and "The Gay Sexes." (Hollywood didn't miss a thing!) The chapters describe every era of filmmaking and the fight with censors, eventually bringing us to 70's and Black Exploitation Films. Highly Recommended! --Tom Hopkinson , amazon.com
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