FILM sex scenes have been the subject of heated debate since cinema began and can leave viewers speechless for all the wrong reasons.
Martin Freeman and Jenna Ortega are the latest to find themselves at the center of a firestorm for their steamy scenes in Miller’s Girlfriend, dubbed “disgusting” due to their 31-year age difference.
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The age difference affair is at the center of Miller’s girlfriendCredit: AP
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Lively scenes between the actors were criticized as ‘disgusting’Credit: Lionsgate
The 52-year-old Sherlock star plays teacher Jonathan Miller, who has a complicated relationship with an 18-year-old student, played by Jenna, who is 21.
Viewers took to X, formerly Twitter, to vent their anger, with one saying they felt “uncomfortable” about the intimate scenes between the two.
But the film’s intimacy coordinator, Kristina Arjona, insisted that Jenna was very comfortable in the scenes and “very determined and very sure of what she wanted to do.”
And the scenes have none of these raunchy messes that have caused controversy in the past…
nymphomaniac (2013)
The title is a bit off-putting, so it’s no surprise that Lars von Trier’s 2013 film, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Uma Thurman and Shia LaBeouf, has plenty of sexual content.
In one shocking scene, Gainsbourg’s sex-addicted character Joe sympathizes with a self-confessed pedophile and gives him oral sex.
The sex scenes were so explicit in the film that many believed that the actors actually performed them on camera.
Shia LaBeouf seems to have confirmed this when he told an American chat show: “There’s a disclaimer at the top of the script that basically says we’re doing this for real.
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Shia LaBeouf, seen with Charlotte Gainsbourg, suggested the sex was real Credit: Rex Features
“Everything that is illegal, we will shoot in blurred images. Besides, all kinds of things happen.”
In fact, von Trier used porn stars as doubles, digitally superimposing images of their genitalia onto the actors’ bodies.
Benefits of watching sex scenes on TV – Fab Exc
Crash (1996)
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James Spade and Holly Hunter reunite after accident Credit: Alamy
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Rosanna Arquette, Holly Hunter and James Spader star in Credit: Alamy
James Spader stars as a car accident survivor who develops gruesome fantasies and meets a group of fetishists who are turned on by violent car accidents and horrific injuries.
In one graphic scene, his character, James Ballard, has sex with an open wound on the leg of a disabled woman, played by Rosanna Arquette.
The film, directed by David Cronenberg, was banned in parts of the UK but was released in the US, with an NC-17 rating – meaning no one under 17 could see it.
Critics slammed the sex scenes, and Cronenberg claimed that Francis Ford Coppola, who was president of the jury at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, tried to prevent Crash from winning the much-coveted Palme d’Or.
However, the committee awarded him the Special Jury Prize, and the director was booed by the audience as he stood up to receive it.
Pink Flamingos (1972)
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Divine and Danny Miller played mother and son Credit: Entertainment Film Distributors
John Waters’ cult film features trailer park mom Babs, played by Harris Glenn Milstead – better known as Divine – as she fights to keep her title as “dirtiest person in the world”.
One scene, banned by the British Board of Film Classification, shows a chicken killed during sex between Danny Miller’s character, Cracker, and a girl.
And in another disturbing scene, Divine performs a sexual act on Cracker – who is her on-screen son – as he declares his affection for her.
The film was banned in Australia, Norway and parts of the US and was not submitted to the BBFC until 1989.
It was then released with these two scenes – and another, in which a man artificially inseminates a woman after masturbation – cut out.
Intimacy (2001)
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Mark Rylance now regrets Credits: Rex
British actor Mark Rylance starred in the erotic drama Intimacy alongside Kerry Fox, which featured full frontal nudity and very raunchy sex scenes.
In one, Kerry gave Mark unsimulated oral sex. Many believed that the other sex scenes were also real, with one critic claiming that after the encounter between the couple that opens the film, “the viewer has no doubt that penetration has taken place”.
Rylance later said that tabloid talk of the film’s unsimulated sex scenes put additional strain on his marriage and “made his life miserable” for months.
He added: “It’s my fault, but I felt it [director] Patrice [Chéreau] put unnecessary pressure on me on set to do it. And at that moment I didn’t have the confidence as a film actor to say no.”
He now says he regrets the film, recently telling the Guardian: “I find the making of the film and the subsequent publicity and personal attacks very, very painful. I wish I hadn’t done it.”
Brown Bunny (2003)
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Chloe Sevingny and Vincent Gallo in the movie Credit: Alamy
Chloe Sevigny was dropped by her agent after appearing in this arty road movie with Vincent Gallo.
Gallo plays a motorcycle racer who travels across the US in search of his long-lost love, ending with Sevigny’s character performing unsimulated oral sex on the actor.
After the film received a hostile reception at Cannes, Sevingny compared it to an Andy Warhol film, but soon after she parted ways with the William Morris talent agency and her career faltered.
In 2011, she told Playboy that she might one day seek therapy for the role, adding, “The movie is tragic and beautiful, and I’m proud of it and of my performance.
“I’m sorry that people feel one way about the movie, but what can you do? I did a lot of explicit sex scenes, but I’m not that interested in it anymore.
“I’m more self-aware now and I couldn’t be as free, so why do it at all?”
Blue is the Warmest Color (2013)
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The film revolves around a love affair between two women
In this film, Lea Seydoux plays an art student who has an affair with a teenager, played by Adele Exarchopoulos.
The film contains long and graphic sex scenes between two women.
Critics accused director Abdellatif Kechiche of including unnecessary mayhem, with New York Times critic Manohla Dargis noting that the steamy scenes felt “far more about Mr. Kechiche’s desires than anything else.”
There were also claims that the sex was real, but Seydoux later revealed that the women used prosthetic molds of their vaginas to make them look realistic.
The Cannes jury awarded the Palme d’Or to Kechiche and both actresses, which had never been done before.
But Seydoux later claimed that the director’s methods were “humiliating” and made her “feel like a prostitute”.
Blue Velvet (2008)
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Dennis Hopper’s sex scene with Isabella Rossillini has been described as misogynistic Credit: Alamy
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The riot was sparked by a scene in which Dennis Hopper breathes oxygen and then has violent sex with Isabella Rossellini while Kyle Maclachlan looks onCredit: Warner Bros
David Lynch’s Blue Velvet divided opinion, received both Oscar approval and a wave of protests.
There was an uproar over a scene in which Dennis Hopper inhales oxygen and then has violent sex with Isabella Rossellini while Kyle Maclachlan looks on.
The scene was criticized as misogynistic, with critic Roger Ebert saying Rossellini was “degraded, slapped, humiliated and undressed on camera”.
Devils (1971)
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Devils featured nuns in orgies Credit: Sportsphoto Ltd./Allstar
Ken Russell’s film was deemed so blasphemous that the full version is still not available 50 years later.
The most controversial scene, known as the “Rape of Christ”, was a two-and-a-half-minute sequence in which naked nuns were seen sexually defiling a statue of Christ while a priest watched and masturbated.
Warner Bros cut the scene before sending the film to the BBFC.
Another, which sees a nun fondling the burnt bones of a martyred saint, is also cut.
Don’t Look Now (1973)
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Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland starred in Don’t Watch Now Credits: Rex
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It was rumored to contain real sex. Credit: Paramount
The classic thriller, set in Venice, centers on a couple played by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland, who are grieving the death of their daughter in a tragic drowning.
But the scene in which the couple had sex proved to be a talking point for decades afterward, with many believing it was so realistic that the actors were doing it for real.
Speculation had been rife for years and was reignited in 2011 when producer Peter Bart wrote in his memoirs: “My eyes fell on the actors and I was hooked.
“After changing positions, it was clear to me that they weren’t just acting anymore: they were fucking in front of the cameras.”
A furious Donald Sutherland denied the claims, saying Bart wasn’t even in the room when the scene was filmed.
Cinematographer Anthony B. Richmond confirmed that he, the actors and director Nicolas Roeg were the only ones present.
9 songs (2004)
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9 Songs is the most sexually explicit mainstream film
The film depicts a 12-month love affair between a British climatologist and an American student, with a soundtrack of nine rock songs.
Widely regarded as the most explicit mainstream film to date, it includes several scenes of actual sex between the two leads, Margo Stilley and Kieran O’Brien.
The sexual exchanges between the two, clearly shown on film, include mutual masturbation, extreme close-ups of genitalia and oral sex, on-screen ejaculation, and long-shot penetration.
Despite causing outrage, the film was released with an 18 certificate, prompting MP Ann Widdecombe to appeal to the UK House of Commons and call on the Home Secretary to reverse the decision to release the uncut film.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education