Sex on screen

11:00 Thu 06 March 2008

Some actors do their own stunts and it seems some do their own sex. Throughout cinematic history, we’ve enjoyed a few films in which directors felt that an oh-so integral sex scene needed to be a little bit grittier, a little bit sexier in other words, a little more real.

But we’re not talking about pornography here – we’re delving into the realms of art-house cinema. Prepared to do anything for their art – the actors don’t just strip off, they get it on.

One of the first films to bring in some real action into a non-pornographic film was Japanese film In The Realm Of The Senses in 1976. This featured a close-up scene of fellatio, followed by a woman inserting a hardboiled egg into her vagina and then laying it. Riiiiight…

Later there was the famously controversial 9 Songs where the couple go to rock concerts and then have sex after each one. (Pretty standard, no?)

Then we have actress/fashion designer Chloe Sevigny and then boyfriend Vincent Gallo having real sexual relations. Vincent did not just play the lead role, but was also director and, funnily enough, he thought the protagonist receiving a blowjob was crucial to the film’s plot...

Most recently we had Shortbus where a group of people explore their deepest and darkest sexual desires and you know, you gotta keep it real, so they threw in a few “un-simulated” sex scenes for good measure!

So are these films pornography or do we need to see real sex, as opposed to the choreographed version? Well, the former certainly creates more reaction. But is that the point – cause a bit of a stir and get a film noticed that otherwise wouldn’t have been?

Who knows? But hey, going to the arty-farty section of the video store to get your porno fix is certainly less embarrassing than heading for the hardcore...

(Image: from SkyChen’s flickr stream)