The 50 Greatest movie sex scenes of all time (with clips)

August 23, 2007 2:55 PM

The 50 Greatest movie sex scenes of all time (with clips)
posted by Roach (105 comments total)

If Team America isn't in here, I'm gonna be upset.
posted by the_bone at 2:56 PM on August 23, 2007 [4 favorites]

Can anyone read that grey-on-red? I had to select-all to get close.
posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 2:59 PM on August 23, 2007

Nerve is still around?
posted by bardic at 3:04 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Not now honey, your text gives me a headache.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:04 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Wow. I've seen exactly 1 of those 50. The writing does not make me feel as if it's much to my detriment, the ones I haven't seen.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:05 PM on August 23, 2007

Jesus fuck that is totally impossible to read.
posted by dersins at 3:05 PM on August 23, 2007

Something must not be rendering correctly. I'm seeing dark grey text on a light grey background, with red only near the edges of the page. This is in Firefox.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:07 PM on August 23, 2007

In Firefox, View / Page Style / No Style does wonders for the readability.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:07 PM on August 23, 2007

Hmmm, I see the grey-on-red during pageload, but when it loads all the way it's a black-on-grey and plenty readable. This in Firefox 2.0.0.6.
posted by Roach at 3:10 PM on August 23, 2007

Risky Business #4?
Aghhhh.......
posted by caddis at 3:16 PM on August 23, 2007

Hellooooo, where's Last Tango in Paris
posted by Viomeda at 3:16 PM on August 23, 2007

I can't beelieeeeeeeve they forgot Cock Swallowing Ass Bangers 3.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 3:20 PM on August 23, 2007 [17 favorites]

Why are half of these on one site and half on another?
posted by jacquilynne at 3:20 PM on August 23, 2007

I only checked out the top 10, no Postman Always Rings Twice, no Last Tango, this is a joke (and my personal honorable mention goes to the Getaway remake)
posted by matteo at 3:23 PM on August 23, 2007

Don't Look Now at #1? That really is one crazy movie sex scene....I'd have to agree with that.
posted by PHINC at 3:23 PM on August 23, 2007

Actually I've seen about half of those - not so much the foreign films. Yes Team America is in there, and probably gets the medal for funniest sex scene ever.

Sorry they missed Aria. The scene with Bridget Fonda and whomever in the bathtub before they slit each other wrists to the music of Tristan and Isolde might be top 3 tragic/erotic cinema scenes of all time. Just awesome.

I would have put the scene(s) from The Unbearable Lightness of Being first though... You can totally leave your hat on, baby.
posted by elendil71 at 3:24 PM on August 23, 2007

If Team America isn't in here, I'm gonna be upset.

Team America made it. Be happy.
posted by linux at 3:24 PM on August 23, 2007

Your favourite actress sucks. Really, really hard.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 3:25 PM on August 23, 2007

Is Enemy at the Gates in there? I always cite that sex scene as my favorite.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:30 PM on August 23, 2007 [2 favorites]

Seconded, Pope Guilty.
posted by brundlefly at 3:39 PM on August 23, 2007

49. Laurel Canyon (2002)
This film's much-ballyhooed threesome isn't as pitch-perfect as Kate Beckinsale and Christian Bale's opening sex scene, all awkward and tender and on the verge of a possibly ill-conceived marriage. Bale's character is going down on Beckinsale's, following her highly specific verbal instructions in what we can assume to be a foreshadowing of their lopsided wedded dynamic. It's great when a sex scene can actually say something about the characters' inner lives and not just steam up the passenger window of a Model-T in cruise ship cargo hold. Beckinsale finally orders her fiancé to "fuck me," only to be interrupted by an answering machine from her future mother-in-law. In the end, she orgasms and then asks Bale if he came too, to which he sighs and responds, "I'm okay." — Will Doig

Ok... so it's not best SEX scenes, it's best sex SCENES. I get it.
posted by psmealey at 3:40 PM on August 23, 2007

Didn't really want to click through all those links (which would pop up in a new tab rather than opening in the same page...and had rendering problems), but if they don't include the sex scene in The Remains of the Day, then the list is shit.

Remains of the Day, you say? There's no sex in that! Watch it again. And pay careful attention to the scene when Ms. Kenton tries to pry the book out of Mr. Stevens' hands. Hot!
posted by snwod at 3:45 PM on August 23, 2007 [3 favorites]

This is a pretty good list! Breaking the Waves? High Fidelity? Bound? Storytelling? The End of the Affair? Awesome diversity of emotional effect. White Palace could be here too, which would give my man James Spader the triple crown.

...I wish The Notebook had a better sex scene, because lately I'm sort of into the fucking Notebook. *shakes head, sighing*
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 3:50 PM on August 23, 2007

What? No Blue Velvet?
posted by Brainy at 3:56 PM on August 23, 2007 [4 favorites]

Have sex scenes added anything of value to films? They seem pointless beyond pointless.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 3:58 PM on August 23, 2007

Gnostic Novelist, is that a serious question?
posted by Roach at 4:02 PM on August 23, 2007

Yes. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. I just can't see what value they add to non-porn films. They seem to be mostly filler scenes even when well done (ex: Monster's Ball).
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 4:04 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

This is on Nerve? I'd be willing to watch almost every single one of the scenes listed with my grandmother!

C'mon. Sex is cinema is much more riskier than Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay. Of course, the riskier it becomes, the more likely it is to be dismissed as porn.
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:05 PM on August 23, 2007

into the fucking Notebook
paper cut danger level red!
posted by edgeways at 4:10 PM on August 23, 2007

GN,

Sex scenes portray one of the most intense aspects of human relationships. Done right, they can add much value, as many on this list do.
posted by Roach at 4:12 PM on August 23, 2007

Echoing snwod, I'm sure the whole "let's share the feature between our two websites" sounded great in the committee room, but did any of them actually try browsing through it before they put it live?
posted by kowalski at 4:16 PM on August 23, 2007

I'd be willing to watch almost every single one of the scenes listed with my grandmother!

Which scenes were listed with your grandmother?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:17 PM on August 23, 2007 [5 favorites]

Have sex scenes added anything of value to films? They seem pointless beyond pointless.

You'll have to define "filler." Many scenes are just moving the plot along and some are extraneous.

Why are we watching this guy walk down the street? It moves the plot along. We see him moving so that the transition to where he appears next is not too abrupt.

Why are we watching this couple having sex? We're establishing the depth of their affection. Also this is a climactic moment in the film and so it deserves more time to give it that prominence.

I'm just wildly guessing that perhaps on-screen sex makes you uncomfortable for some reason and so it tends to be particularly long and extraneous compared to most other scenes.
posted by vacapinta at 4:19 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

It's a pretty good list, actually, much better than I expected. But "Don't Look Now" at number 1? That's a pretty shitty sex scene in a fucking horribly shitty movie. I have nothing but hate for it. Both the sex scene and the movie is pretentious 70s pseudo-experimental crap.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:20 PM on August 23, 2007

These several dozen clips of sex are brought to you by IFC. IFC: Dear God, Someone Watch Our Channel!
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 4:27 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've seen very few of these, but I can say that the ones I did see were nowhere near as ... er, interesting, as certain scenes from the Bertolucci's PG-13 The Last Emperor. Especially the bit with the Japanese spy and the Empress. Golly.
posted by darksasami at 4:31 PM on August 23, 2007

Yup, barely anything there that's hot at all. Where's the butter scene from Last Tango? Where's the scene where Eminem does whatsername on the factory floor in 8 mile? Where's the hillbilly rape scene from Deliverance?

Ooops. Too much information with that last choice, I suspect.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:31 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

I really haven't read it carefully (passing from a site to another is annoying) but wait, no Clockwork Orange?
posted by darkripper at 4:31 PM on August 23, 2007

Keitel's acting in The Piano is eclipsed only by his solo performance during the traffic stop scene in Bad Lieutenant.
posted by Tube at 4:31 PM on August 23, 2007

Astro Zombie : I'd be willing to watch almost every single one of the scenes listed with my grandmother!

To be fair though, your grandmother is a complete freak in the sack. Nothing would shock that lady.
posted by quin at 4:36 PM on August 23, 2007 [6 favorites]

You'll have to define "filler." Many scenes are just moving the plot along and some are extraneous.

And very few sex scenes are integral to the plot, save rape scenes in which the scene itself is paramount to the movie. Otherwise more is said with less (such as Gone with the Wind). Even in psychological or erotic thrillers, much can be said by two people waking up in bed together. It isn't as if most viewers don't know that two people in bed usually implies something sexual. Forrest Gump is a modern example of handling sexual matters brilliantly.


I'm just wildly guessing that perhaps on-screen sex makes you uncomfortable for some reason and so it tends to be particularly long and extraneous compared to most other scenes.

They are inauthentic and mainstream sex scenes call to much attention to themselves and away from the film. They don't have sex like real people do most of the time, and the lack of focus on genitalia just screams "this is artistic" and to hell with the fourth wall.
posted by Gnostic Novelist at 4:40 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Where's the hillbilly rape scene from Deliverance

You thought that was hot? Please don't come canoing with me.
posted by caddis at 4:41 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Bad Lieutenant, the OTHER movie where Keitel makes a kind of NNNNNNNGGHH noise a lot.
posted by athenian at 4:43 PM on August 23, 2007

Astro Zombie: You'd watch "9 Songs" a movie that is basically one long sex scene with gram gram?!?

that's weird!
posted by Megafly at 4:47 PM on August 23, 2007

I really haven't read it carefully (passing from a site to another is annoying) but wait, no Clockwork Orange?

I believe that was a rape scene, not a sex scene...

I'm just pleased that My Beautiful Laundrette was on the list. On the other hand, I suppose I reveal too much when I say that I fully expected Crash to be in there, with the carwash scene. Oh well.
posted by jokeefe at 5:18 PM on August 23, 2007

iFC: Always, uncut
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:19 PM on August 23, 2007

Wow- Storytelling? That's a ballsy choice.

I thought I'd hate this list, expecting predictable overrated het crap like LAST TANGO IN PARIS. It didn't even make the list- hooray for originality!

And plenty of gay, too, including that stunning one from Mulholland Drive.

This link gives me faith in "best of" lists- thank you, Roach. I'd have included the wrestilng scene from Women in Love as one of the most erotic moments in film, but I like what I see here anyway.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 5:19 PM on August 23, 2007

Any list that includes "Shortbus" is a good list.
posted by ColdChef at 5:23 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

As a film, "Shortbus" was tedious and stupid, but the sex was hot, granted.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:27 PM on August 23, 2007

That list definitely makes my top 10 list of sites with the worst page navigation schemes ever.
posted by psmealey at 5:41 PM on August 23, 2007

I really haven't read it carefully (passing from a site to another is annoying) but wait, no Clockwork Orange?

I believe that was a rape scene, not a sex scene...

Good lord. The threesome, not the rape.
posted by goo at 5:46 PM on August 23, 2007

I didn't see Bull Durham there either. That pretty much fits the criteria of the other scenes selected; something of an extended, joyous romp after an entire film's worth of mounting (heh) sexual tension.

I can't agree with the Risky Business choice, but I guess that's because Tom Cruise creeped me out even back then. His creepiness almost completely eclipsed the hotness of Ms. de Mornay.
posted by psmealey at 5:53 PM on August 23, 2007

THIS IS NOT WHAT THE INTERNET IS FOR!!!

oh, hang on, wrong thread.
posted by UbuRoivas at 5:53 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

I can't beelieeeeeeeve they forgot Cock Swallowing Ass Bangers 3.

Yeah, but that series went downhill after the donkey stepped on the chicken.
posted by kid ichorous at 6:22 PM on August 23, 2007

Er, rooster.
posted by kid ichorous at 6:22 PM on August 23, 2007

I was going to call Nerve out for being full of shit (which it usually is) for not having Betty Blue on there but surprise surprise there it was at # 6. The opening sequence of that is the sexiest movie moment I've ever seen.
posted by Skygazer at 6:23 PM on August 23, 2007

Seconding the Betty Blue choice. That would have been in my top 5, but I can live with number 6.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:37 PM on August 23, 2007

I would've included the food/sex scene from Tampopo, with the live lobster, raw eggs, oyster etc.
posted by bashos_frog at 6:43 PM on August 23, 2007

caddis writes "You thought that was hot? Please don't come canoing with me."

Metafilter is always discriminating against us hillbillies and our sexual orientation, just because it differs slightly from the rest of you. You're all just a bunch of piggies, the lot of you.

Now lets just see you drop them pants.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:45 PM on August 23, 2007

Good lord. The threesome, not the rape.

My apologies, I was typing without thinking. Of course the speeded up threesome should have been on the list. (And on this list of the "funniest sex scenes", too. )
posted by jokeefe at 6:50 PM on August 23, 2007

kid ichorous:

why did the chicken cross the road?

because it was stuck on the tip of the don-

oh, never mind. carry on with whatever you were doing.
posted by UbuRoivas at 6:56 PM on August 23, 2007

GN struggles with the meaning of sex. Metafilter, you serve up such gems.
posted by mek at 7:13 PM on August 23, 2007

No Pink Flamingos?!?

List fails.
posted by kafziel at 7:19 PM on August 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

Happy to see Madeline Kahn and Peter Boyle made it into the Top 10 for Young Frankenstein -- their, uh, climactic scene isn't just wildly funny, it's hot. Maybe it's the way she says, "Woof."
posted by Kinbote at 7:23 PM on August 23, 2007

No Brown Bunny? Damn.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:28 PM on August 23, 2007

Wow, glaring omission - Sea Of Love with Ellen Barkin and Al Pacino. Coolest sex scene ever. Barkin oozes sex out of ever pore.
posted by any major dude at 7:32 PM on August 23, 2007

Like others who have commented, I haven't read the whole list. Is The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover on there? Because if it isn't, I'm not gonna read it.
posted by Sailormom at 7:33 PM on August 23, 2007

69.
posted by itchylick at 7:39 PM on August 23, 2007

Cock Swallowing Ass Bangers 3

Wait, so are the cock-swallowers doing the ass-banging or are the cock-swallowers being banged in their asses?

This could potentially change the entire makeup, nay, genre of the movie.
posted by Avenger at 7:41 PM on August 23, 2007

In addition to Enemy at the Gates, I was disappointed that the sex scene from I Heart Huckabees wasn't on there. It's quite dirty.
posted by eclectist at 7:51 PM on August 23, 2007

Ten pages to click through? That's the definition of delayed gratification. I was hoping for Thelma and Louise (the "helloooo Brad Pitt" part) or maybe Crash (Cronenburg) or Tetsuo the Ironman or Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Royal Tennebaums or Natural Born Killers?
posted by jessamyn at 8:05 PM on August 23, 2007

That's the definition of delayed gratification.

Or of being gratified ten times over.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:14 PM on August 23, 2007

I usually do pretty good on movie lists, but I've seen very few of these. I'm not one to comment on web site designs, but that is one fucked up web page.
posted by marxchivist at 8:31 PM on August 23, 2007

Office Space. Lumburgh. Coffee mug in hand.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:40 PM on August 23, 2007 [2 favorites]

What, no Salo? The second sex scene in El Topo? No Road House? Just kidding! Bookmarked, spanks!

(The scene in The Name of the Road probably has a place on there... mostly because there just aren't enough sex scenes featuring tonsures out there.)

Enemy at the Gates
That and the scene with the mirror are the only parts I caught one night channel surfing... always meant to watch it in full, so thanks for the reminder!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:03 PM on August 23, 2007

Name of the Rose, dammit. Damn you, Dalton! And you too, Burhanistan!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:07 PM on August 23, 2007

No Delicatessen. Travesty. Travesty!
posted by jessenoonan at 9:09 PM on August 23, 2007

I agree 110% with psmealey. The bounce-between-two-websites-list-with-different-navigation-schemes is an atrocity.

Besides which, anything that isn't from my homemade video collection cannot, by definition, be a "greatest movie sex scenes of all time."
posted by moonbiter at 9:34 PM on August 23, 2007

As a film, "Shortbus" was tedious and stupid, but the sex was hot, granted.

Er, exchange "sex" and "film" in your comment, and you more or less have my opinion of Shortbus.
posted by treepour at 9:34 PM on August 23, 2007

Er, exchange "sex" and "film" in your comment, and you more or less have my opinion of Shortbus.

As a sex, "Shortbus" was tedious and stupid, but the film was hot, granted.
posted by nasreddin at 11:10 PM on August 23, 2007 [3 favorites]

I agree.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:12 PM on August 23, 2007

28. Henry and June

I first saw this movie with some friends a year or so after it was released. One of those friends summed it up best when, on the way out of the theater, he said "I never knew sex could be so boring."
posted by Clay201 at 11:59 PM on August 23, 2007

Actually, Fast Times at Ridgemont High had two memorable scenes. One was the horrible, awkward premature ejaculation scene which pretty much captured the essence of what sex was really like in high school, in the way few other movies did, and the other... well... Phoebe Cates, Moving in Stereo and "doesn't anybody ever knock anymore?"
posted by psmealey at 3:10 AM on August 24, 2007

Nobody knows Sweet Movie any more?
posted by fcummins at 4:46 AM on August 24, 2007

What, no Fog of War?
posted by kcds at 4:52 AM on August 24, 2007

For the benefit of those who don't want to deal with bouncing back and forth between two different websites (and I don't blame you), here's the bare list:

50. Ken Park (2002)
49. Laurel Canyon (2002)
48. Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2007)
47. The Dreamers (2003)
46. Sex Lies and Videotape (1987)
45. Breaking The Waves (1996)
44. Poison (1991)
43. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)
42. High Art (1998)
41. High Fidelity (2000)
40. The Lover (1992)
39. The Piano (1993)
38. Shortbus (2006)
37. Shaft (1971)
36. Boogie Nights (1997)
35. Network (1976)
34. The End of the Affair (1999)
33. The Last Seduction (1994)
32. Being John Malkovich (1999)
31. Storytelling (2001)
30. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
29. 9 Songs (2004)
28. Henry and June (1990)
27. Boys Don't Cry (1999)
26. Out of Sight (1998)
25. Female Trouble (1974)
24. The Cooler (2003)
23. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
22. The Wayward Cloud (2005)
21. The Kiss (1896)
20. Bound (1996)
19. Sex and Lucia (2002)
18. Unfaithful (2002)
17. Body Heat (1982)
16. Coming Home (1978)
15. Get Carter (1971)
14. Team America: World Police (2004)
13. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
12. The Night Porter (1974)
11. Ecstasy (1933)
10. Young Frankenstein (1974)
9. The Big Easy (1987)
8. Secretary (2002)
7. My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
6. Betty Blue (1985)
5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
4. Risky Business (1983)
3. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
2. A History of Violence (2005)
1. Don't Look Now (1973)

Sure, there are some oversights, but that's inevitable. As these things go, this is actually a pretty good list. I was very happy to see that The Cooler made the cut. My favorites that didn't make the list are the aforementioned threesome from A Clockwork Orange and-- bear with me here-- Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldblum in The Tall Guy. It's silly and sexy at the same time, and the entire bedroom gets wrecked. Who could ask for more?
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:58 AM on August 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Agreed! That bouncing giggling goofy sweet sex scene from The Tall Guy made the whole movie for me. Real bodies, soft and yielding, doing absurd things together. It's delightful.
posted by Elsa at 6:04 AM on August 24, 2007

Not that Gnostic needs my two cents, but I'm pretty much with him on this one. Artistry comes from communicating sexual tension in suggestive ways- check out Les Enfants du Paradis, e.g. The Tall Guy might make an argument for explicit in comedy, but for laugh value, it falls far short of the pub scene in Tom Jones. (Interesting to note as well that the list is overwhelmingly from from the past twenty years.)

The problem with any (explicit) sex scene is that it's a shortcut, and one that runs the risk (to be generous) of gratuitiousness. How would the box office on a given film have been affected if there had not been a lingering shot of Phoebe Cates's breasts? I mean, there's a reason that a startlet's claim to doing a nude scene "because it's important to the story" is a laugh line.

Could someone do a similar list for violence in film, I wonder? And would Mefites react similarly? Similar issues are raised, of course. It's worth noting that Greek drama was as explicit as it comes, but kept all the actual sex and violence firmly off stage.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:14 AM on August 24, 2007

I'd love to see a similar list for violence. There are fight scenes that are just gratuitous, sure. But then there are fight scenes that really give you a glimpse into the minds of the characters and the way they handle anger and pain.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:06 AM on August 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

Not that Gnostic needs my two cents, but I'm pretty much with him on this one. Artistry comes from communicating sexual tension in suggestive ways- check out Les Enfants du Paradis, e.g. The Tall Guy might make an argument for explicit in comedy, but for laugh value, it falls far short of the pub scene in Tom Jones. (Interesting to note as well that the list is overwhelmingly from from the past twenty years.)

No. Making blanket statements like "artistry comes from x" sets you up to be wrong. Sex in movies is often done badly (partly because many movies are bad), but it's an essential part of human experience and there's just no fucking (ha!) way you can say that it's automatically filler.

To take one example from this list, Y Tu Mama Tambien would be horribly neutered (ha again!) without the sex scenes. Exploration and sexual maturity's what the movie's all about.
posted by COBRA! at 7:18 AM on August 24, 2007

Many of the movies above are about sex.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 8:46 AM on August 24, 2007

Enemy at the Gates

Most intense aspects of human relationships," yeah -- Life During Wartime, indeed. That, and the intense kiss a dying Roy Schieider gives that suffering woman in the hospital in All That Jazz -- my all-time favorite screen kiss.
posted by pax digita at 9:31 AM on August 24, 2007

Even in psychological or erotic thrillers, much can be said by two people waking up in bed together. It isn't as if most viewers don't know that two people in bed usually implies something sexual.

Like in Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:01 AM on August 24, 2007

Many of the movies above are about sex.

Sex Lies and Videotape and Sex and Lucia are about sex? I never imagined such a thing!
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:22 AM on August 24, 2007

This list is shockingly bereft of sci-fi movies. More sex in space, godammit!
posted by DenOfSizer at 12:26 PM on August 24, 2007

Am I the only one who thinks the scene from Bent should be included? They're in a concentration camp and they don't even touch each other but it's definitely the sexiest sex scene I've ever seen.
posted by hypervenom at 12:28 PM on August 24, 2007

I would also nominate the chess match between Faye Dunaway and Steve McQueen in the original (and best version) of The Thomas Crown Affair. No clothes come off,not even one kiss, but incredibly sexy. Really proves the idea that sex is all in the head anyway. Great heist movie too. Highly recommend it.
posted by Skygazer at 2:56 PM on August 24, 2007

More sex in space, godammit!

Boring. In space, nobody can hear you scream.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:39 PM on August 24, 2007

In space, nobody can hear you scream.

Also:

In space, nobody can hear you scream.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:50 PM on August 24, 2007

No clothes come off,not even one kiss, but incredibly sexy.

Well, if you wanna play that way, I'll see you the Thomas Crown Affair and raise you the train scene in North by Northwest.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:44 PM on August 24, 2007

THanks for the list, and now I know...........
NO "NINE AND 1/2WEEKS" ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????????
posted by haikuku at 5:14 PM on August 24, 2007

Class?
posted by yoyo_nyc at 6:46 PM on August 24, 2007

I sort of agree with Gnostic Novelist. The old Hayes code forced people on both sides of the screen to use their imaginations. Today there are many more bad sex scenes than good ones....Example: The chemistry between Bogart and Bacall in To Have and Have Not is smokin' hot. I don't remember them getting naked or having sex, but I will never forget that movie.
posted by RussHy at 7:55 PM on August 24, 2007

To be fair, people are still perfectly able and welcome to make movies without sex scenes if they feel that way. And many do.
posted by hermitosis at 1:36 PM on August 30, 2007

my favorite sex scene is in bertolucci's stealing beauty when liv tyler finally loses her virginity. it's probably the only movie portrayal i've seen where losing one's virginity doesn't suck, but is rather a nearly spiritual social-yet-intensely-personal/private epiphany, and is positive without being gratuitously explicit or cheesy. i think the nerve write up about emily watson's performance in breaking the waves sort of explains what i mean, but i think stealing beauty hits home more deeply for me.
posted by ifjuly at 8:31 PM on September 10, 2007