The Best Three Films Featuring Real Sex Scenes
There are many films with sex scenes so convincing that we’re left wondering if the act actually happened. Over the last ten years or so, thanks to more lenient censorship and some daring filmmakers, we don’t always have to wonder anymore. Here are the top three boundary pushing films that feature real-life coupling.
9 Songs (2004)
The UK’s Michael Winterbottom is well-known for being a prolific and varied filmmaker and in 2004 he tried his hand at artistic erotica with 9 Songs. Starring Margot Stilley and Kieran O’Brien as a pair of committed gig-goers, it combines scenes of them at concerts (including Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Franz Ferdinand) with scenes of them having un-simulated sex. The film’s more committed to showing sex in its occasionally grotty realism than making its leads seem sexy. There’s a certain sweetness to it, although if you’re looking for sweet and sexy you’re better off with our second pick.
Shortbus (2006)
You may be familiar with writer/director John Cameron Mitchell’s debut film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, about a transsexual rock star. For his second movie, he spins a tale of a group of sexually adventurous New Yorkers, some frustrated, some blissfully happy, all of them wonderfully odd, who come together for one big, friendly, happy orgy at the end of the film. It’s a surprisingly warm, very funny film that shows that just because a film pushes boundaries it doesn’t have to be gritty. The on-screen sex in the film shows the characters for who they really are.
Baise-Moi (2000)
But if you do want gritty, this controversial French film is the way to go. It’s one of the most notorious films of its type: a violent, confrontational road movie about two prostitutes who snap, murder their pimps, and embark on a spree of sex and violence (often one after the other). Starring two real-life porn actresses, Baise-Moi (which literally translates as “Fuck Me”) got a great deal of attention from audiences and critics for its no-holds-barred attitude. The violence got the film as much attention as the sex, but both are certainly memorable.