Sex in film

Sex in film is the inclusion of a presentation in a film of sexuality. Since the development of the medium, inclusion in films of any form of sexuality has been controversial. Some films containing sex scenes have been criticized by religious groups or have been banned or the subject of censorship by governments, or both. In countries with a film rating system, films containing sex scenes typically receive a restricted classification. Nudity in film may be regarded as sexual or as non-sexual.

An erotic film is usually a film that has an erotic quality that causes the creation sexual feelings,[1] as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality and romantic love. Love scenes, erotic or not, have been presented in films since the silent era of cinematography. A pornographic film, on the other hand, is a sex film which does not usually claim any artistic merit. Sex scenes have been presented in many genres of film; while in other genres, sexuality is rarely depicted. Many actors and actresses have performed nude/partial nude scenes, as well as dress and behave in ways considered sexually provocative by contemporary standards at some point in their careers.

Terminology

Sex in film can be distinguished from a sex film, which usually refers to a pornographic film and sometimes to a sex education film. It should also be distinguished from nudity in film, though nudity can be presented in a sexualized context. For example, nudity in the context of naturism would normally be regarded as non-sexual. Some people distinguish between "gratuitous sex" and sex scenes which are presented as integral to a film's plot or as part of the character development.

Sex scenes are the main feature of pornographic films. In softcore films, sexuality is less explicit. Erotic films are suggestive of sexuality, but need not contain nudity.

Europe

Pedro Almodóvar of Spain is a prolific director who has included eroticism in many of his movies. Tinto Brass of Italy has dedicated his career to bringing explicit sexuality into mainstream cinema. His films are also notable for feminist-friendly eroticism. French filmmaker Catherine Breillat caused controversy with unsimulated sex in her films Romance (1999) and Anatomy of Hell (2004). In Italy, nudity and strong sexual themes go back to the silent era with films such as The Last Days of Pompeii (1926). Lars von Trier of Denmark has included strong sex scenes in some of his films, such as Breaking the Waves (1996), The Idiots (1998), Manderlay (2005), Antichrist (2009), and Nymphomaniac (2013). He is also a co-founder of film company Puzzy Power, a subsidiary of his Zentropa, with the goal of producing hardcore pornographic films for women. Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013) sparked an international firestorm over its frank depiction of sexuality between two young women, yet managed to win the Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in May 2013. Love (2015) contains many explicit sex scenes.

United States

The inclusion in film of any form of sexuality has been controversial since the development of the medium. For example, The Kiss (1896) contained a kiss, which was regarded as a sex scene and drew general outrage from movie goers, civic leaders, and religious leaders, as utterly shocking, obscene and completely immoral. One contemporary critic wrote, "The spectacle of the prolonged pasturing on each other's lips was beastly enough in life size on the stage but magnified to gargantuan proportions and repeated three times over it is absolutely disgusting."[2] The Catholic Church called for censorship and moral reform - because kissing in public at the time could lead to prosecution.[3] Perhaps in defiance of the righteous indignation and "to spice up a film", the film was followed by many kiss imitators, including The Kiss in the Tunnel (1899) and The Kiss (1900). Other producers would take the criticism on board, or in mock of the standard, and use an implicit kiss, which would be obstructed from view just as the lips would touch, such as shielding a possible kiss by placing say a hat in front of the actors' faces, or fading to grey just as a kiss is to take place, etc.

The selection of actresses for a role on the basis of their breast size is controversial and has been described as contributing to breast fetishism,[4] but has proved to be a draw card. Film producers such as Russ Meyer produced films which featured actresses with large breasts. Lorna (1964) was the first of his films where the main female part, played by Lorna Maitland, was selected on the basis of breast size. The producers and exhibitors of the film were prosecuted for obscenity in several US states. Other large breasted actresses used by Meyer include Kitten Natividad, Erica Gavin, Tura Satana, and Uschi Digard among many others. The majority of them were naturally large breasted and he occasionally cast women in their first trimesters of pregnancy to enhance their breast size even further.[5] Author and director William Rotsler said: "with Lorna Meyer established the formula that made him rich and famous, the formula of people filmed at top hate, top lust, top heavy."[6]

Blue Movie, directed by Andy Warhol,[7][8][9] and released in 1969, was the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States.[7][8][9] Blue Movie is a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn and, according to Warhol, a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film, starring Marlon Brando, and released in 1972, a few years after Blue Movie was made.[9]

In North America, erotic films may be primarily character driven or plot driven, with considerable overlap. Most dramas center around character development, such as Steven Shainberg's Secretary (2002). Comedy films, especially romantic comedies and romantic dramas, tend toward character interaction.

Mystery films, thrillers, drama and horror films tend toward strong plots and premises, such as Last Tango in Paris (1972), Dressed to Kill (1980), Body Heat (1981), Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986), Angel Heart (1987), Basic Instinct (1992), Single White Female (1992), Color of Night (1994), Showgirls (1995), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), Different Strokes (1997), Wild Things (1998), Eyes Wide Shut (1999) and In the Cut (2003).[10] Others, like About Last Night... (1986), Monster's Ball (2001), Chloe (2009), Love & Other Drugs (2010), Blue Valentine (2010), Shame (2011), Compliance (2012) and The Sessions (2012) combine both strong plots and characters.[10][11]

By genre

Thrillers

Erotic thrillers are a popular American erotic subgenre, with films such as Dressed to Kill (1980), Angel Heart (1987), Basic Instinct (1992), Single White Female (1992), Color of Night (1994), The Maddening (1995), Wild Things (1998), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), In the Cut (2003), Chloe (2009), Compliance (2012), and The Boy Next Door (2015).[10] In some films, the development of a sexual relationship (or even a one-night stand) is often used to create tension in the storyline, especially if the people involved should not be sleeping together, such as in Out of Sight (1998), where a U.S. Marshal has sex with the criminal she is pursuing.

Horror

In horror films, sex is often used to mark characters that are doomed to die. Characters that engage in sex acts are often the first to be claimed by the antagonist(s), or will die shortly after their sex scene or (sometimes) in the middle of it. This convention of it being bad luck to have sex in a horror film is notably illustrated in the Friday the 13th film series, where supernatural villain Jason Voorhees takes a special dislike to teenagers and young adults having sex because, as a young boy, he drowned in a lake while the camp counselors who should have been supervising him were having sex.

In some interpretations of this "rule", the sex acts themselves directly cause the character's demise. In Cabin Fever a man catches the deadly illness because a woman who was infected (but not yet symptomatic) seduces and has impulsive sex with him. They don't use a condom because the careless woman believes she is healthy. Ironically, the woman (and the audience) only realize that she is infected because of red welts that are brought out by their rough lovemaking. Species (1995) and its sequels also feature many sexual deaths as virtually every human who mates with an alien in the franchise subsequently dies - female aliens kill human suitors regardless of whether they have poor genes, resist the alien's advances, or mate successfully. Human women who mate with alien men die shortly after sex as their abdomens burst during the unnaturally rapid pregnancy that always follows.

Most times in horror movies the typical survivor is a young girl who is still a virgin. In the film Scream, which satirizes horror movies, this rule is somewhat broken as the character Randy Meeks points out that one of the rules of horrors is to not have sex. In an intersecting scene, the film's main protagonist Sidney Prescott loses her virginity to Billy Loomis. After they finish, Billy is stabbed by Ghostface and Sidney is then chased. Randy himself survives a gunshot wound at the end of the film because, as he explains, he is a virgin. However, he dies in the sequel, Scream 2, after which it is revealed that he lost his virginity sometime prior to his death.

Mexico

In Mexico, many comedy films are based on sex, typically portraying men as unstoppable sex-seeking creatures and women as willing targets. Although the number of such comedies waned during the 1990s, domestic servants, bar workers, dancers and neighbors' wives continue to be depicted as potentially willing sexual partners. The films La Tarea (1991), Miracle Alley (1995) and Y Tu Mamá También (2001) are some of the most important examples of this.

India

The entertainment industry is an important part of modern India, and is expressive of Indian society in general. Historically, Indian television and film has lacked the frank depiction of sex. Kissing scenes, for example, were banned by Indian film censors until the 1990s.[12] Since then the entertainment industry has liberalized but the taboo against them continues well into the 2010s, with many of Bollywood stars refusing to do them, and controversy and debate sparked when actors choose to do them.[13] On the other hand, rape scenes or scenes showing sexual assault were common until approximately the early 2000s.[14] Mainstream films are still largely catered for the masses of India, however, art films and foreign films containing sexuality are watched by Indians. Because of the same process of glamorization of film entertainment that occurs in Hollywood, Indian cinema, mainly the Hindi-speaking Bollywood industry, is also beginning to add sexual overtones.[15] Bollywood films like Ragini MMS 2, Ishq Junoon, Zid, Murder, Jism, Hate Story, Ek Paheli Leela are prime example of expanding market of erotic films in mainstream India, though showing nudity is to uncommon in Indian Cinema.

Television

Many drama series, and daytime soap operas are based around sex. This commonly revolves around the development of personal relationships of the main characters, with a view of creating sexual tension in the series.

Partial nudity was considered acceptable on daytime television in the 1970s but disappeared after 2000, partly due to more conservative morals,[16] and also to the prevalence of cable and satellite subscriptions. Only PBS occasionally features nudity.

In 2008 and 2009, the French TV channel Canal+ featured a series titled X Femmes (English: X Women), which consisted of ten short films shot by female directors with the goal of producing erotica from a female point of view.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Eroticism". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 7 August 2011.
  2. ↑ The Chap-book, Volume 5, Number 5, July 15, 1896
  3. ↑ Sex in Cinema: Pre-1920s
  4. ↑ Latteier 1998, p. 117
  5. ↑ Meyer, Russ (2000). A Clean Breast: The Life and Loves of Russ Meyer (3 volume set). (Under the pseudonym "Adolph Albion Schwartz"). El Rio, TX: Hauck Pub Co. ISBN 0-9621797-2-8.
  6. ↑ McDonough, Jimmy (2005). Big bosoms and square jaws : the biography of Russ Meyer, king of the sex film. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-07250-1., p.138
  7. 1 2 Canby, Vincent (July 22, 1969). "Movie Review - Blue Movie (1968) Screen: Andy Warhol's 'Blue Movie'". New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Canby, Vincent (August 10, 1969). "Warhol's Red Hot and 'Blue' Movie. D1. Print. (behind paywall)". New York Times. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  9. 1 2 3 Comenas, Gary (2005). "Blue Movie (1968)". WarholStars.org. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 Lundin, Leigh (2010-07-25). "Erotic Mystery Thrillers". Sex-n-violence. Criminal Brief.
  11. ↑ Ebert, Roger (March 24, 2010). "Chloe". Rogerebert.com.
  12. ↑ Ray, Arnab (February 25, 2013). "On Kissing, Bollywood and Rebellion". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ Singh, Prashant (August 25, 2014). "What’s the big deal about a kiss, asks Bollywood". Hindustan Times.
  14. ↑ Dias, Muditha (May 15, 2013). "Bollywood's culture of rape". ABC
  15. ↑ "Indians mature enough to handle sex in films: Konkona Sen". The Indian Express. December 3, 2010.
  16. ↑ Siegel, Tatiana (2006-04-03). "Erotic thrillers lose steam on big screen". The Hollywood Reporter. Hollywood. Archived from the original on 2010-07-22.

Further reading


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