Comments on: Recommendations for films to improve your sex life?

Question: Recommendations for films to improve your sex life?

Anonymous — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:37:36 -0800

Neither my boyfriend nor I have a particularly high libido, and we make love once every few weeks or so. We've discovered, though, that we really enjoy watching good movies that are also....well....hot. And I do mean good films -- not porn -- that also are sexual. (Sex & Lucia, Shortbus, etc.) We enjoy watching a film, find it arousing, and then we have great sex! I'm curious what other films are out there that tell a good story....have strong character development....and are sexy. Any recommendations?

By: cerebus19

cerebus19 — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:43:47 -0800

Sirens and Don Juan de Marco leap to mind.

By: Ostara

Ostara — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:49:59 -0800

Romance sounds like something you'd enjoy.

By: ourobouros

ourobouros — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:52:51 -0800

Y Tu Mama Tambien.

By: AwkwardPause

AwkwardPause — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:56:58 -0800

Secretary

By: cosmicbandito

cosmicbandito — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 06:57:50 -0800

ditto secretary. fun movie

By: cmiller

cmiller — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:00:15 -0800

I wonder what the subby's "etc" contains.

* Sex & Lucia
* Shortbus

By: dobbs

dobbs — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:01:25 -0800

Well, take my recommendations with a grain of salt as I thought both the films you recommended were terrible, but these are the films I find sexy and/or erotic:

- Girl on A Bridge
- The Hairdresser's Husband
- Mulholland Drive
- Y Tu Mama Tambien
- The Ring Finger
- 9 Songs (I haven't seen it but if you liked Shortbus this also has non-simulated sex as does Intimacy)

By: meerkatty

meerkatty — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:07:23 -0800

Lie With Me

By: Banky_Edwards

Banky_Edwards — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:09:06 -0800

Henry & June.

By: liquorice

liquorice — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:13:17 -0800

I strongly support the suggestion of Y Tu Mama Tambien.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:18:48 -0800

Dreamers, if for no other reason than Eva Green's perfect figure (which they even poke fun at with a Venus de Milo joke).

By: LouMac

LouMac — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:21:21 -0800

Original Sin.

By: wsg

wsg — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:23:34 -0800

I second The Dreamers by Bernardo Bertolucci.

By: kika

kika — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:24:45 -0800

Nine Songs, a film that contains some very hot (and explicit) sex scenes. It also contains really boring scenes of concerts, but you could fast forward those.

By: steef

steef — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:24:53 -0800

I will always have a soft spot for The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, though it's equal parts sexy and horrific.

By: matteo

matteo — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:27:20 -0800

Nosferatu

By: veronica sawyer

veronica sawyer — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:27:39 -0800

I really like Last Tango in Paris. And Betty Blue.

Two movies that I also enjoyed for their sex(iness), but have a high kink/artsy pretension factor (ie, YMMV) are Crash (the Ballard one from '96, not the Oscar winner) and Pola X (which is based on Melville's Pierre, ou Les Ambiguites).

By: Wink Ricketts

Wink Ricketts — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:34:39 -0800

Some qualifications: I haven't seen it in a while so it may have grown in my imagination, plus it is mostly a comedy (so maybe good for a change up from the others people are recommending), but...I swear to POG that the sexiest scene I've ever witnessed is from The Tall Guy

Does that make me weird?

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:36:43 -0800

In Age of Innocence and Remains of the Day people keep their clothes on, but the sexual longing is palpable. After seeing these movies, you'll want to make love just to have some sense of closure.

If you like older movies, here are some that sizzle:

Double Indemnity
Picnic
Singin' In The Rain's "Broadway Melody" number (Cyd Charrise!)

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:37:10 -0800

The Piano. Crash. Amateur. The Unbelievable Truth. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Desert Hearts. Betty Blue. The Thomas Crown Affair.

There's a Spanish movie about where a guy ends up in a wheelchair, becomes some sort of wheelchair basketball star. Can't remember the title, but hopefully someone else will. Pretty hot, despite the lame description.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:39:19 -0800

Cyd Charisse image from "Singin' in the Rain"

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:41:50 -0800

Wink Ricketts, I don't think you're weired. I'm not a fan of "The Tall Guy," and if you asked me to picture Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson having sex, I'd probably decline. But that scene IS hot. To me, it's mostly because Emma is so smart and funny in bed.

By: teleskiving

teleskiving — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:45:41 -0800

Wink Ricketts, I love that scene in The Tall Guy too. Sex and Lucia has a bunch of scenes with that same kind of sense of fun as well, which for me is a big part of why it's so hot. Most movies with explicit sex are about pretty joyless relationships.

By: COD

COD — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:48:07 -0800

Didn't see anybody mention Unfaithful above. Diane Lane got an Oscar nomination for her role.

By: unknowncommand

unknowncommand — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:08:28 -0800

Even though it's fairly tame, I find Out of Sight to be surprisingly hott.

By: Salvatorparadise

Salvatorparadise — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:23:48 -0800

"Don't Look Now" is sexy as hell, but freaky

By: markovich

markovich — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:25:10 -0800

Savage Sisters.

By: JanetLand

JanetLand — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:31:36 -0800

Body Heat.

By: nataliecay

nataliecay — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:32:05 -0800

Unfaithful

By: tristeza

tristeza — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:37:16 -0800

Belle Epoque

By: donpardo

donpardo — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:44:20 -0800

Seconding Out ot Sight. It's tame, but the trunk scene ...

/fans self.

By: Caviar

Caviar — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 08:47:19 -0800

Do any of these movies not involve someone dying? I often get the sense that the creators of these movies feel like they have to kill someone in order to be considered "not porn", and frankly, that's a bit of a downer.

By: buxtonbluecat

buxtonbluecat — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:05:01 -0800

There's a Spanish movie about where a guy ends up in a wheelchair[...]

Pedro Almoldovar's "Carne trémula" a.k.a. "Live Flesh"

Great movie.

By: esilenna

esilenna — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:05:35 -0800

L'Amant.

It took multiple viewings before I saw the entire film in one go...

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:06:21 -0800

O
Nine ¹/₂ weeks

By: esilenna

esilenna — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:10:43 -0800

I got so hot and bothered thinking about it I forgot to write that it's the 1992 film (aka The Lover) based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Marguerite Duras I mean, *not* the japanese one from 2004

By: horsewithnoname

horsewithnoname — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:30:31 -0800

High Heels
Silk Stockings
In Her Shoes
Peau du Foot
My Left Foot
Footloose
Happy Feet

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:40:05 -0800

Out of Sight and Secretary get a hearty seconding/thirding from me.

History of Violence is not a sexy movie but has two very erotic and quite realistic sex scenes. Inspite of its coldness, I think Eyes Wide Shut is sexy.

Yeah, I'm weird.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:53:58 -0800

Nerve's Screengrab blog recently listed its picks for the Kinkiest Films ever made (part 2's just above part 1).

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 09:57:06 -0800

The Pillow Book.

By: ArchBr

ArchBr — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:04:00 -0800

Joining the people cheering for Secretary.

By: ClaudiaCenter

ClaudiaCenter — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:05:01 -0800

Um, Betty Blue is sexy but may ultimately traumatize the viewer rather than encourage love-making. Maybe watch the first half?

By: ottereroticist

ottereroticist — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:18:44 -0800

The Hunger. Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon have luscious lesbian vampire sex to the strains of the Flower Duet from Lakme. Hotcha!

For more hot girl-on-girl action, Bound had some good parts too.

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:25:35 -0800

Y'know...I'm in the camp that finds a bit of the right kink sexy...but Secretary just did not do it for me. I would not recommend it as a good sexy movie. I just found it excruciatingly boring and long, with very little payoff.

Perhaps it's that I'm just not into that sort of ascetic/self-denying/mind-games-playing kind of S&M...

By: scody

scody — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 10:57:48 -0800

Count me in as someone firmly in the Secretary camp.

Haven't seen it mentioned, but there's some good hot sex in Nora (biopic on James Joyce and Nora Barnacle). For more nude Ewen McGregor (and who doesn't want more of that?!), there's also The Pillow Book.

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:02:53 -0800

My top three reco's here are Bound, Secretary and Dangerous Liaisons.

By: krark

krark — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:07:40 -0800

Henry and June is far and away my recommendation here.

By: LeeJay

LeeJay — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:50:59 -0800

La Fille Sur La Pont (The Girl on the Bridge). That movie always gets my juices flowing. Vanessa Paradis is gorgeous and the chemistry between the two main characters is out of this world. It's that chemistry that makes it truly hot as there really isn't too much hardcore sex going on. But who needs sex when you have erotic knife-throwing against the side of a shed in a train yard? I'm getting a little turned on just thinking of it.

I'm another one who adores Secretary. Although to be honest, even though it deals with kink, I found it more sweet and romantic than erotic.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:04:08 -0800

I'm not a fan of "The Tall Guy," and if you asked me to picture Jeff Goldblum and Emma Thompson having sex, I'd probably decline. But that scene IS hot.

Don't Look Now has a similarly unexpectedly sexy (though not funny) sex scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. The rest of the the movie, though, is decidedly not sexy.

Incidentally, my g/f met Jeff Goldblum and promptly declared him to be one of the sexiest men she'd ever met. Go figure.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:46:10 -0800

Like Water for Chocolate can be either really hot or really depressing, depending on the viewer.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 12:49:56 -0800

Incidentally, my g/f met Jeff Goldblum and promptly declared him to be one of the sexiest men she'd ever met. Go figure.

Just about every woman I know gets all hot over Goldblum. I've never understood it either.

By: spec80

spec80 — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:23:23 -0800

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!
Seconding The Lover
Stealing Beauty
A History of Violence
TEAM AMERICA WORLD POLICE - That puppet sex scene was HOT - don't deny it... :P

By: ourobouros

ourobouros — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:27:47 -0800

Another: Tampopo.

The Goldblum factor: see jolie laide. For another example, Beatrice Dalle, of the aforementioned Betty Blue.

By: santojulieta

santojulieta — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:17:58 -0800

OMG Secretary, the piano scene from Pretty Woman, Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Secretary! Did I say that?

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:20:56 -0800

Ooooh, see I love Jeff Goldblum. So much so in fact that this list also gets Earth Girls Are Easy.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:02:21 -0800

Goddamn! I'm all het up to post Tampopo, and I get down to the bottom and there it is!

By: paulsc

paulsc — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:24:48 -0800

To Have and Have Not. 19 year old Lauren Bacall plays a girl of easy virtue who runs out of money on her way back to America, in Martinque. Old salt fishing charter captain played by Humphrey Bogart, meets Bacall, gets enmeshed in WWII anti-Vichy smuggling intrigues, but decides to help Bacall. Her first movie. She does the famous "Got a match?" scene, which ends with her telling Bogart that if he wants her to come over, all he's got to do is whistle.

"Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall fell in love during production. Director Howard Hawks afterward said that it was actually Bacall's character Marie that Bogart had fallen for, "so she had to keep playing it the rest of her life." However, it has also been said that Hawks - who was something of a womanizer, and who had a fling with Dolores Moran during the shooting of the film - was jealous and frustrated that Bacall had fallen for Bogart and not for Hawks himself."

There's sex in almost every frame of this movie. Except the ones with Walter Brennan in them. Bacall even sings a Hoagy Carmichael tune!

Major kink, but Blue Velvet has some hotness, built around Isabella Rossellini and Laura Dern.

Nobody put Boogie Nights in this thread yet, so here it is.

By: sdn

sdn — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:30:02 -0800

i remember really loving the big easy when it first came out ...

By: frogan

frogan — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:53:22 -0800

the piano scene from Pretty Woman...

... is NOTHING compared to the piano scene from The Fabulous Baker Boys.

By: claudiadias

claudiadias — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:02:08 -0800

my g/f met Jeff Goldblum and promptly declared him to be one of the sexiest men she'd ever met

Seconding the secretary, body heat and mkultra's girlfriend.

Maybe a bit too explicit but a great movie: Realm of the Senses

Malle's Damage.

By: nekton

nekton — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:56:58 -0800

Note on the Pillow Book (without spoiling it)...most of the hot stuff is toward the beginning and middle, and the end is a bit of a downer, so don't feel bad if you get overwhelmed with lust and don't finish watching it.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:46:50 -0800

I second Tampopo.
But not Betty Blue - terrible depressing movie. If movies like THIS pass for erotica then watch The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea... great sex scenes. But do not watch the last 20 minutes. HINT: If the children in the story catch a cat... turn off the TV IMMEDIATELY if you actually wish to ever have sex again.

The problem is that "sexy" movies become dated very quickly. 9 1/2 Weeks and Last Tango in Paris are spoofs now.

So approach it from a tangent. Like...

If you watch The Little Mermaid with a twisted attitude it's waaay HAWT! Damn those animators.

I think I have reveled too much about myself.

By: rtha

rtha — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:17:47 -0800

Kinda late to the thread, but nthing Bound. Sonia Braga is (whew!) hot in The Milagro Beanfield War, though I don't remember if there's actually any sex in the movie. And I don't care what anybody says, but the scene where Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt beat each other up in Mr & Mrs Smith is smokin'.

By: allterrainbrain

allterrainbrain — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:31:49 -0800

Caviar makes the point I came in to make: there's an epidemic of directors killing off characters (almost always the female characters) who have explicit sex in movies. Luckily, the success of Shortbus will probably help a lot with encouraging people to make sex movies that are actually sex-positive and don't involve death...

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 20:17:42 -0800

Emanuelle. All the Emanuelle movies. Jamon Jamon. The Story of O. Quills. The Piano. Swimming Pool.

Seconding 9 1/2 Weeks, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Don Juan de Marco, Boogie Nights, Earth Girls Are Easy, Unfaithful and Like Water for Chocolate. Loved Tampopo, didn't think it was sexy though. Love, Actually is a bit sugary but I thought it was romantically sexy. Against All Odds. Flashdance. Exotica. 9 Songs.

Sex, Lies and Videotape, Crash, White Palace, all with delectable James Spader. Wild Orchid. La Femme Nikita. Shall We Dance? (the Japanese version). Kama Sutra.

Jungle Fever. The Bridges of Madison County is excellent and has some nice undercurrent of sizzle. Shakespeare in Love.

Stander has some nice sex scenes.

Before Sunset is erotic to me. Loved Before Dawn too...both are conversational, romantic-emotional-intellectual with sexual yearning.

Cool erotic movies at Amazon.

By: greta simone

greta simone — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:17:11 -0800

The Piano Teacher (French)
The Auditon (Korean I think? Or Japanese)
Videodrome
Secretary
Velvet Goldmine (although mainly gay sex)

But all these are pretty kinky. And the first three are just kinda fucked up. But ya know... whatever gets you off...

By: TayBridge

TayBridge — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:40:00 -0800

Dangerous Beauty

By: brujita

brujita — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:45:50 -0800

Angels and Insects
Notorious

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:46:55 -0800

Realm of the Senses is pretty good, as is Belle De Jour. this might also be helpful.
There's also the Satyricon, Prospero's Books, Calligula and 120 Days of Sodom, from most sexy to least (at least to me). Fellini's actually pretty good for sex scenes, at least to my mind, and those were all movies that couples seemed to like when I was working at the video store (though I actually know more about recommending actual porn than just sexy movies). Take a warning, though, 120 Days of Sodom can be pretty hard to stomach. It's a better movie than Calligula or Prospero's Books though.

Oh, there's also the Alice in Wonderland from 1976 or the Fritz the Cat movie, but now we're moving more into cult movies (did I mention Alice in Acidland?)
Or you could try any number of the '80s sex comedies.
And stay away from the Emmanuelle movies! They're almost universally terrible!

By: Flamingoroad

Flamingoroad — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 06:10:49 -0800

Basic Instinct is a classic for me :)

By: mkultra

mkultra — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:41:42 -0800

Nobody put Boogie Nights in this thread yet, so here it is.

I love Boogie Nights. There's a lot of sex in Boogie Nights. There's a lot of dialogue in Boogie Nights that uses the word "sexy". Boogie Nights, however, is not what I'd call a sexy movie.

By: rjs

rjs — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:46:15 -0800

The Draughtman's Contract (may be a bit of an acquired taste, since it's directed by Peter Greenaway).
8 femmes (Catherine Deneuve and - Annie Girardot, if memory serves - not quite doing the dirty. This is a movie by Francois Ozon, and might be a bit of an acquired taste as well).

By: widdershins

widdershins — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 12:40:11 -0800

nickyskye's summary above is right on, IMO.

Surprised no one has mentioned When Night is Falling - lush, beautiful, romantic lesbian movie.