Sex scenes (not “chaste”)

The above is obviously true and pretty self-evident. Question is, are there exceptions worth seeing.

But when it comes to porn you can find on the internet it's almost always amateur and very poorly put together compared to what a big budget movie can to do. Isn't that like saying why bother to watch a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road, when people can just watch any car chase captured by the news?

A note as we’re back to the question of porn once again: the thread wasn’t/isn’t about porn. Porn is by definition designed to help/enable people to get off. Sex scenes in films serve a different function: to illustrate how characters relate to each other. See also why people have sex in terms of plotting: revenge, spite, coping mechanism, it’s much broader than getting off.

Well, how about…..



Oh…never mind… 🤨😒

I don’t know. Not surprising if I can’t explain it or am just wrong. But I remember sex scenes being more graphic and actually having narrative purpose in the 80s/90s - in my view.

My post was just messing around anyways…I don’t have much to add to here to be honest

Oh wait! Do home videos count??

No??

Ok, I’ll shut up 😳

My view on sex scenes from the 80s and 90s is that a lot of them come off as rather formulaic and choreographed (show some boobs for a count of five, use any possible means to avoid a glimpse of male genitals). I also don't feel like they were more graphic than what I associate with sex scenes in an R-rated film these days. I rarely walk away from a good film thinking that it would have been better if I'd seen a graphic sex scene between the leads.

I agree with you that sex scenes can advance plot and develop a sense of the relationship between two people, though I'm not sure that I think 80s/90s films did that better than movies these days. Folding Ideas (yeah, I talk about him a ton--I really like his videos!) has an episode about an episode of Tuca and Bertie involving the use of a sex scene to develop the relationship dynamics between two main characters. It's not graphic, but I don't think that being explicit/graphic is always necessary to convey the point.

Yeah, or they otherwise try to downplay whatever male nudity they do display; I mean, I watched Basic Instinct earlier this year while researching a discussion I was having on another forum, and Sharon Stone was naked throughout it constantly, whether it be a gratuitous close-up of her *ss in the first minute, or the infamous upskirt shot (which was obtained when Verhoeven straight-up lied to Stone about what would be visible in that scene), but the only nudity I can remember seeing from Michael Douglas was one brief medium shot of his rear as he was casually walking away from the camera. Such equality! And that's not me trying to say it would've been a good movie if we'd gotten an equal amount of male objectification in it; just try to make a good movie where the sexual content is essential to the story (like with The Handmaiden), and the movie itself doesn't just feel like an excuse to cram in a bunch of obvious, titillating moments, you know?

Sex scenes in films can also get people off.

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Indeed, but I feel it’s increasingly rare. Maybe I’ll discover some new ones here.

There was a very steamy rape scene between Del Henney and Susan George in the middle of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs (1971). It started as forcible rape but soon turned consensual. And it certainly spoke to the relationship between the two characters.

Oh! Last years 365 days might fit this

Yes! It certainly did. That’s exactly what I was talking about. Thank you for understanding. And to me this sort of thing is unique to the ‘70s/‘80s/‘90s.

The last movie I can think of that did that was A History of Violence, but haven't seen anything like that since then.

Actually, good point. Forgot that one entirely.

Well, I did say bonus points for something that is not an abject disaster on every other level…

And I think that was close to soft porn in spirit.

But I guess it does count, can’t argue with that!

Have you seen the show You're The Worst? It uses sex as a key linchpin in terms of the relationship between the two main characters, if that's more what you're interested in.

(I'm still a little unclear about whether we're trying to crowdsource explicit sexual content or sex scenes that are used to develop character relationships).

Nope. Never heard of it. Will check out, sounds enticing.

We need something that combines the two.

I'll somewhat second You’re the Worst. Mostly for Aya Cash, who’s great in it.