Arnav Srivastav
Sex is a very private thing for a person but cinema’s juxtaposed fetishes unflinchingly change the answer. Even though for the actual action to transpire, there has to be an imminent requirement of the script. This is something that the great Italian stallion Bernardo Bertolucci was a master of. His bold and daring approach has often attracted criticism and the highest praise. Creating a path for others to tread on, Bertolucci’s flawless implications of sex and its significance have never failed to mesmerize. Other directors, too, have gone a step ahead and decided to shoot movies with un-simulated sex scenes. Keeping that in mind, here we bring you movies that have real unsimulated sex.
25. Wetlands (2013)
Directed by David Wnendt, ‘Wetlands’ is based on Charlotte Roche’s 2008 novel. It stars Carla Juri as Eighteen-year-old Helen and concentrates on feminist issues, sexuality, and trauma and how these contribute to her coming-of-age. She is anti-hygiene and sexually adventurous, and both of these contribute to the film’s explicit nature, making you wonder what is real and what’s not. There is also a love angle wherein she falls for her nurse, Robin (Christoph Letkowski), whom she met after ending up in the hospital due to a shaving accident.
24. Don’t Look Now (1973)
The Nicolas Roeg directorial is an adaptation of the 1971 short story by Daphne du Maurier. The thriller is known for a single sex scene explicit as per the then-contemporary standards. The MPAA got rid of nine frames while the BBFC left things untouched. The story follows a married couple, John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura (Julie Christie), who lose their daughter in a drowning accident and subsequently shift to Venice, where they come across two sisters, one of whom is a clairvoyant and claims to be able to able to communicate with their daughter. The critically acclaimed drama was nominated for 7 BAFTAs and won one.
23. Immoral Women (1979)
‘Immoral Women’ is a French drama directed by Walerian Borowczyk. It is divided into three exclusive stories, each with a separate female protagonist whose name starts with the letter ‘M.’ All three use their sexuality to take control of situations. We have Margherita (Marina Pierro), a baker’s daughter in Renaissance Rome, Marceline (Gaëlle Legrand), a Belle Époque teenager, and Marie (Pascale Christophe), a married woman in modern-day Paris. Among the three, Marceline is shown having sex (unsimulated) with a guy.
22. Anatomy Of Hell (2004)
Directed by Catherine Breillat, based on her 2001 novel Pornocratie, ‘Anatomy Of Hell’ offers unsimulated sex in the form of art, following a woman and a man, both unnamed, as they break all boundaries of sex while exploring sexuality in a manner that is explicit and dark while separated from the rest of the world. The French erotic drama stars pornstar Rocco Siffredi and French-British actress Amira Casar. Before deciding to watch it, know that it has disturbing graphic visuals.
21. Starlet (2012)
The independent drama is directed by Sean Baker and won the Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award for Best Ensemble Cast at the 2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Set in California’s San Fernando Valley, the story explores the unlikely friendship between Jane (Dree Hemingway), a porn actress, and an elderly woman named Sadie (Besedka Johnson). Jane approaches Sadie after she finds a stash of cash inside the flask she bought from the old woman. What she does with the money and how it affects her relationships, including with her roommates, are what we find out in this film. There is an unsimulated sex scene involving Jane. After all, she is an adult film star.
20. The Raspberry Reich (2004)
Directed by Bruce LaBruce, ‘The Raspberry Reich’ follows a contemporary group of radicals who call themselves the Sixth Generation of the Baader-Meinhof Gang and The Raspberry Reich. The numerous unsimulated sex is not style but substance as it is used by Gudrun (Susanne Sachsse), leader of the group, to stress the importance of breaking sexual norms for the sake of revolution. A brilliant satire on “terrorist chic,” AKA radical chic (the fashionable practice of upper-class people to be associated with radicals as long as it adds to their social position), ‘The Raspberry Reich’ is an explicit propagandistic drama. It also has an uncensored version titled ‘The Revolution Is My Boyfriend’ that has even more sex.
19. Caligula (1979)
The Tinto Bras directorial follows the rise and fall of controversial Roman emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, AKA Caligula. Starring Malcolm McDowell as the titular emperor alongside Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy, and Peter O’Toole, the film showcases, among all the violence (including necrophiliac incest) and corruption during Caligula’s reign, lots of unsimulated sex scenes, courtesy of Bob Guccione, founder of the adult magazine ‘Penthouse,’ who served as a producer.
18. Cruising (1980)
Starring Al Pacino, Paul Sorvino, and Karen Allen, ‘Cruising’ is a crime thriller directed by William Friedkin. It is loosely inspired by the eponymous novel by The New York Times reporter Gerald Walker about a serial killer targeting gay men in the 1970s leather scene. Pacino plays undercover detective Steve Burns, who searches for the psychopath in leather bars while slowly identifying with the culture more than he expected. There is explicit gay sex and an indication that Walker, too, gets involved in it. Co-starring in the film are Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen, and Joe Spinell.
17. Romance (1999)
The French arthouse film, AKA Romance X, is directed by Catherine Breillat. It follows a woman named Marie (Caroline Ducey), who looks for sexual satisfaction elsewhere after failing to find it in her boyfriend Paul (Sagamore Stévenin). Her journey thus involves multiple sexual encounters, including a sadistic one, all of which are unsimulated and are considered groundbreaking in arthouse cinema, paving the way for films to incorporate explicit sex. Pornstar Rocco Siffredi also stars, posing as one of the men Marie has sex with.
16. All About Anna (2005)
Directed by Jessica Nilsson, ‘All About Anna’ has intercourse, fellatio, and ejaculation. The film follows Anna (Gry Bay), whose urge to maintain an active sex life goes beyond the need to have an emotional involvement, thanks to her ex, Johan (Mark Stevens). Now, she is all about sex and finds it in many ways, in both men and women, including her flatmate, Camilla (Eileen Daly). The film won three Scandinavian Adult Awards and was nominated for two EroticLine Awards.
15. Enter the Void (2009)
Directed by Gaspar Noe, ‘Enter the Void’ is a psychological fantasy flick shot from shot from a first-person viewpoint. It follows an American guy named Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a drug dealer who is fatally shot and has an out-of-body experience while searching for her sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta), in neon-lit Tokyo. It features actors who take part in real, hardcore sex. The film can easily be described as a hallucinatory/psychedelic experience, thanks to Noe, who clearly wanted to take cinema beyond the realm of story and characters with the venture. ‘Enter the Void’ won the Special Jury Award and Best Cinematography award at the 2009 Sitges Film Festival.
14. Pasolini (2014)
Directed by Abel Ferrara, ‘Pasolini’ is a biographical drama that explores the final days in the life of Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), including his brutal murder. Willem Dafoe stars as the titular personality who is hated for his homosexuality and impulsiveness. While working on his next film, he gets into a relationship with a boy but it doesn’t turn out well for him. The explicit sex scenes in the film stress Pasolini’s obsession with matters of sex, as we can tell from ‘Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom,’ his last film that was posthumously released. ‘Pasolini’ was competed for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.
13. 9 Songs (2004)
A passion for live music unites two longing souls, Matt (Kieran O’Brien), a glaciologist, and Lisa (Margo Stilley), an exchange student, to embark on a journey of unsimulated intercourse and oral sex in this Michael Winterbottom directorial. The film flows at a glacial pace, letting the racy intimacy (and much more) take over the story. The visceral representation of the physical expression of love between the leads is refreshing and distinctive but isn’t able to serve as the story’s motivation as much. ‘9 Songs’ was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival.
12. The Center of the World (2001)
Before Peter Saarsgaard shot to fame with roles in ‘Jarhead’ (2005) and ‘An Education’ (2009), he lit up the screen in Wayne Wang’s candid documentation of mutual desires coming together. Prima facie, a sexual arrangement (unsimulated) between a millionaire, Richard Longman (Saarsgaard), and his hired escort (Molly Parker) for three wild days of partying and sex emotionally disintegrates into something real for the two leads. The film is a haranguing reality check of what conspires when our sexual fetishes and longing pleasure collide with the messy, eccentric reality of human emotions.
11. Love (2015)
Gasper Noe’s erotic 3D venture follows the lives of three eligible bachelors with a perennial penchant for adventures. The titillating drama opens up with a racy and sensual threesome, including the experienced ex-lovers Murphy (Karl Glusman) and Electra (Aomi Muyock) and a fledgling novice exchange student from Denmark, Omi (Klara Kristin). The casual event of pleasure and sex quickly becomes problematic, as Murphy and Omi have sex behind Electra’s back, and the former mistakenly impregnates the latter. The two get married, and Electra absconds into the wilderness, far away from her life. Her worried mother reignites and presents us with a non-linear sequence of flashbacks of the relationship between Murphy and Electra. ‘Love’ received high praise for its stylistic elements and features some of the most sensual, passionate, unsimulated sex scenes you’ll ever see.
10. The Brown Bunny (2003)
The Vincent Gallo directorial follows professional motorcycle racer Bud Clay (Gallo), whose journey from New Hampshire to California becomes a sex-filled adventure as he meets many women. However, his separation from his former lover, Daisy, seems to be only adding to his isolation and sexual vacuum. Will a chance encounter bring back his lost sense of belonging? An A-list star at the time, Chloe Sevigny, who plays Daisy, takes on explicit fellatio and unsimulated sex in the film. It won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2003 Vienna International Film Festival.
9. Lie With Me (2005)
The meeting of two promiscuous lovers, Leila (Lauren Lee Smith) and David (Eric Balfour), burning with animalistic sexual energy, become insatiable to each other and engage in a casual yet intense carnal relationship in this Clement Virgo directorial. The sexual fling rapidly escalates into a cluttered and clustered life for Leila as David becomes an ever-growing presence, and she herself struggles with her crippling fear of emotional intimacy. Full of unsimulated sex scenes involving the two actors, ‘Lie With Me’ is a must-have in any real-sex-in-movies list.
8. Dogtooth (2009)
Delving deep into the controversial issue of incest, ‘Dogtooth’ is a Greek psychological drama directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. It is an eviscerating presentation of a father’s (Christos Stergioglou) blinding love for his daughters (Angeliki Papoulia and Mary Tsoni) that ultimately goes too far and proves to be their undoing. The manipulative and controlling father locks away his three adolescent children in the sprawling confines of the compounding, trapping them in their perpetual childhood. Sucked out of life’s zeal and onto the threshold of insolvency, the older sister devises a plan to escape. The film is noted for its disturbing exploration of incestuous relationships, featuring un-simulated sex scenes, using which Lanthimos made sure that the film’s bizarre, realistic tone is never compromised. ‘Dogtooth’ won the Prix Un Certain Regard and the Prix de la Jeunesse at the Cannes Film Festival and many other awards.
7. The Idiots (1998)
A Lars von Trier film, ‘The Idiots’ stars Bodil Jørgensen, Jens Albinus, Anne Louise Hassing, and Troels Lyby. It was made in compliance with the rules of the famous Dogme 95 movement and tells the story of a group of strange people in Copenhagen who decide to break the limitations of civilization and act like idiots as a means of catharsis. As customary with any Lars von Trier venture, this film too has a scene that depicts unsimulated sex- penetration and group sex, to be precise. ‘The Idiots’ received high praise for its comic tone and unconventional style. It was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival and won three Bodil Awards, among other accolades.
6. Antichrist (2009)
Directed by Lars von Trier, ‘Antichrist’ tells the story of a woman who is devastated by the death of her child and is taken to the woods for treatment by her husband, who’s a psychiatrist. The couple make wild, passionate love while their toddler climbs up to the window of the bedroom and falls to death. Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, who play the parents, engage in unsimulated sex scenes in the film. However, body doubles were used as well. The scenes are filled with passion, repressed sadness, and rage, adding to the surreal narrative. The Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics awarded it with the Grand Prix. It also won five Bodil Awards, seven Robert Awards, and a Palme d’Or nomination at the Cannes Film Festival.
5. In the Realm of the Senses (1974)
Nagisa Oshima’s 1974 classic features several scenes of unsimulated sex that triggered controversy at the time. The story of the film itself is quite shocking and provocative: a former sex worker gets involved in a wild, tumultuous sexual relationship with her employer. The two lead actors involved, Tatsuya Fuji and Eiko Matsuda, poured their hearts out in every scene. Despite the explicit style and shocking portrayal of violence, the film, over the years, has grown tremendously in stature and is now widely regarded as a classic psycho-sexual tale. One of the most striking things about the film is how well it has aged over the years. In the age of overly polished, stylized flicks like ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ this one still stands out as a brutally powerful exploration of violent sexual practices.
4. Shortbus (2006)
‘Shortbus’ uses unsimulated sex in a completely different manner. The film follows Sofia (Sook-Yin Lee), whose urge for an orgasm brings her to the titular sex salon that opens her up to the myriad ways of sex and orgasm. By intercutting the sex scenes with a narrative that addresses the emotional side of the characters, director John Cameron Mitchell paints a realistic landscape of a love-sex terrain that is more relevant now than when it was released. The film won multiple awards at the Zurich, Athens, and Gijon film festivals.
3. Nymphomaniac (2013)
Lars von Trier’s two-part, five-hour film explores self-discovery, capitalistic greed, and addicted nymphomaniacs. Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Joe recounts her sexual experiences in adolescence (younger version played by Stacy Martin) and young adulthood to Stellan Skarsgård’s Seligman, a bachelor, who found her badly beaten in an alley. What follows is an explicit revelation of Joe’s encounters that von Trier depicts with utmost frankness. The film co-stars Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Willem Dafoe, and Jamie Bell. It got 13 nominations at the 32nd Robert Awards, winning eight.
2. Je Tu Il Elle (1974)
‘Je Tu Il Elle’ is a cult classic drama renowned for its depiction of queer sexuality. Directed by Chantal Akerman, the film follows Julie (Akerman), a recluse bisexual woman. It explores her sexual encounters with a stranger (male, played by Niels Arestrup), followed by one with her ex-lover (female). It is the latter that set a benchmark for lesbian sex scenes in films. The 14-minute-long unsimulated sex scene between Akerman and Claire Wauthion is considered among the first true-to-form explicit sex scenes.
1. Intimacy (2001)
Directed by Patrice Chéreau, ‘Intimacy’ won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival. It follows two strangers, Jay (Mark Rylance) and Claire (Kerry Fox), who have sex regularly. Neither knows the other’s name. However, Jay soon develops feelings for Claire although a relationship is impossible for her. The film features many unsimulated sex scenes and is the first erotic drama to show hardcore sex that passed the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) censors without any cuts.
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