I love this topic so much! I’ve been thinking of all these things since seeing Top Gun Maverick and wondering if there might be a new kind of Hays Code that has sprung up for the sake of the international market. There was a certain beauty in the clever innuendo used in the Hays Code days. It is entertaining to spot once you are aware of it. I would love to see modern films that tame thing down for international sales explore more of those kinds of things again.
There are certainly issues that come up for me with horrific stories like Last Tango in Paris where that certain director predilection to surprise actors while in production to capture the most real emotions possible collided with a non consensual sex scene. And pick any story revolving around Miramax that is full of horrible misogyny. This is where I am glad there are now more and more intimacy directors (albeit 40 years too late) on sets.
As long as these scenes are treated with respect and recognize everyone on set is working and not merely a puppet of the auteur, sex scenes can bring us in to the emotional depths (or even lack thereof) of a story.
I’m gonna get pretentious with my favorite sex scene as a short film fully dedicated to one. It is funny, clumsy, honest. It still exists as ultimately a male fantasy but I think it also gives agency to both parties in a fun way. It always charms me when I revisit it.
My parents are very much cinephiles and were very lax about what I could watch when I was growing up. One of my most embarrassing moments as a teen was watching Five Easy Pieces with my parents and the sex scene with Jack Nicholson and Sally Struthers comes on. I’m VERY embarrassed having to watch this very tame sex scene with my parents. To cut the tension my dad says “This isn’t a very realistic scene. He doesn’t even have his shirt off!” Thanks Dad!
My mother is an interesting example of this phenomenon. Politically and socially she is quite liberal, and she loves horror movies and crime shows. She will watch all manner of violence and gore and depravity and not bat an eye, but as soon as there is sex or nudity, she loses her mind. Two cases in point: Her primary takeaway from Midsommar was the penis scene and how she thinks any full-frontal nudity, no matter the context, should warrant an X rating. She hated the movie, and the nudity was a large part of why. She rewatched The Shining recently and was also appalled at the nude woman in the bathtub and seems to have an ahistorical memory because she said she didn't think nudity was allowed in movies back then (!!), and literally told me the nudity in that scene had bothered her for days. Days!! Not the ax-chopping and murder and psychosis. The nude lady. It's so bizarre. This has become one of her old-lady obsessions the last few years, and these are but just two examples.
Best memory of watching a sex scene was “Enemy at the Gates.” My friends and I (drunkenly?) argued if the guy sleeping next to them in the bunker was an actor portraying a sleeping soldier or an actor portraying a soldier pretending to be asleep.
the ocean scene in sex & lucia has stayed with me a long time, it's so overwhelmingly JOYOUS, and beautifully-filmed!
I love this topic so much! I’ve been thinking of all these things since seeing Top Gun Maverick and wondering if there might be a new kind of Hays Code that has sprung up for the sake of the international market. There was a certain beauty in the clever innuendo used in the Hays Code days. It is entertaining to spot once you are aware of it. I would love to see modern films that tame thing down for international sales explore more of those kinds of things again.
There are certainly issues that come up for me with horrific stories like Last Tango in Paris where that certain director predilection to surprise actors while in production to capture the most real emotions possible collided with a non consensual sex scene. And pick any story revolving around Miramax that is full of horrible misogyny. This is where I am glad there are now more and more intimacy directors (albeit 40 years too late) on sets.
As long as these scenes are treated with respect and recognize everyone on set is working and not merely a puppet of the auteur, sex scenes can bring us in to the emotional depths (or even lack thereof) of a story.
I’m gonna get pretentious with my favorite sex scene as a short film fully dedicated to one. It is funny, clumsy, honest. It still exists as ultimately a male fantasy but I think it also gives agency to both parties in a fun way. It always charms me when I revisit it.
https://vimeo.com/15704652
My parents are very much cinephiles and were very lax about what I could watch when I was growing up. One of my most embarrassing moments as a teen was watching Five Easy Pieces with my parents and the sex scene with Jack Nicholson and Sally Struthers comes on. I’m VERY embarrassed having to watch this very tame sex scene with my parents. To cut the tension my dad says “This isn’t a very realistic scene. He doesn’t even have his shirt off!” Thanks Dad!
My mother is an interesting example of this phenomenon. Politically and socially she is quite liberal, and she loves horror movies and crime shows. She will watch all manner of violence and gore and depravity and not bat an eye, but as soon as there is sex or nudity, she loses her mind. Two cases in point: Her primary takeaway from Midsommar was the penis scene and how she thinks any full-frontal nudity, no matter the context, should warrant an X rating. She hated the movie, and the nudity was a large part of why. She rewatched The Shining recently and was also appalled at the nude woman in the bathtub and seems to have an ahistorical memory because she said she didn't think nudity was allowed in movies back then (!!), and literally told me the nudity in that scene had bothered her for days. Days!! Not the ax-chopping and murder and psychosis. The nude lady. It's so bizarre. This has become one of her old-lady obsessions the last few years, and these are but just two examples.
Best memory of watching a sex scene was “Enemy at the Gates.” My friends and I (drunkenly?) argued if the guy sleeping next to them in the bunker was an actor portraying a sleeping soldier or an actor portraying a soldier pretending to be asleep.