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Since mid-1996, an award-winning, unique resource for classic film buffs and all who are interested in films. Includes interpretive and detailed plot synopses, review commentary, an unparalleled wealth of film reference material, and historical background for hundreds of classic Hollywood/American and other English-language films in the last century. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this site has a "rich collection of commentary and information about masterpieces of American cinema." In mid-2003, Variety featured the site in an article titled: "Filmsite has unique spin on top pix." --http://www.filmsite.org
Sexual or Erotic Films focus on themes with either suggestive, erotic or sensual scenes or subjects, sometimes with depictions of human nudity and lovemaking, but not always of an extremely explicit, gratuitous or pornographic nature. These kinds of films often appeal to the emotions of the viewer, with their emphasis on pleasure, physical desire, and human companionship. Films of romance with heart-throb sexy lead characters may have sexual elements, but these are often secondary to the main plot goal - the search and attainment of love.
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.
Since the abandonment of the Hays Code in the late 60s, and the fairly recent establishment of various rating systems, sexual or erotic films with even small amounts of nudity have become more abundant. They often include frank adult content, violence and explicit language, or just suggestions of eroticism or sensuality. Teen sex comedies, erotic dramas or thrillers, sexploitation films, and other films dealing with sexual content are included in this wide-ranging category.
The Earliest Films:
Less than a year after the Lumieres conducted the first public screening of a film (in December 1895), legend has reported that actress Louise Willy stripped for the French film Le Bain (1896) (aka The Bath). The very first kiss on film was between a Victorian couple seen in the Edison kinetoscope The May Irwin Kiss (1896) (aka The Kiss, or The Irwin-Rice Kiss in a filmed scene from the stage play The Widow Jones). This titillating short 20-second film, with a close-up of a kiss, was denounced as shocking and pornographic to early moviegoers and caused the Roman Catholic Church to call for censorship.
And Eadweard Muybridge's primitive motion studies (from 1884-1887) included test footage with cinematic glimpses of naked men and women. Lois Weber's and Paramount's 4-reel silent film Hypocrites (1914) featured full female nudity in the guise of an unclad lady (Margaret Edwards) - 'the Naked Truth' - who occasionally appeared as a transitional plot element between scenes. Another silent film, Rea Burger's 7-reel Purity (1916) included a dual role for the lead actress - as a spirit figure and as an artist's nude model named Purity/Virtue (Audrey Munson). --http://www.filmsite.org/sexualfilms.html [Sept 2004]
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