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Top 5 Erotic Films

Inspire

There is no place as erotic as a large and dark movie theater, in the right company, to transport us to paradisiacal lands.

Since the first anatomical experiments, through the eyeglass of Muybridge or Edison, until the early days of Hollywood when an ultra-dramatic Von Stroheim strutted his stuff, cinema has always tried to portray, and be part of, human sexuality. After all, it would be impossible for one of the main storytelling tools, cinematography, to not focus on that fundamental nerve of biology and culture.

We present a selection of five movies that impacted the sexual memory:

The Beast (Walerian Borowcyk, 1975) – Borowcyk showed an unusual talent in his approach to cinema as a cult art from the outset. Few like him could present cinema’s oneiric nature through imaginary worlds, giving eroticism a privileged place in his vision. In this film in particular, the sexual metaphor is present through the character of a great 18th century beast that prowls in the woods and provides maidens with unparalleled pleasure.

I Am Curious (Yellow), (Vilgot Sjoman, 1967) – A political film that moves between documentary and fiction and which reminds us of Scandinavians’ keen understanding of the close proximity between the political and the sexual. Through Sjoman’s interesting feminine alter ego, the film curiously examines the natural mechanisms of human organization.

Tokyo Decadence (Ryu Murakami, 1992) – Cult writer Ryu Murakami alternates his career as a novelist with that of film director. The film uses tenacious realism to portray nascent prostitution in Japan as it begins to break away from traditional sexuality.

The Blue Lagoon (Randal Kleiser, 1980) – A kind of Robinson Crusoe story played out with the sexual awakening of two children on a tropical island, a gift from the director of the legendary Grease. Thanks to the direct style of photography, from the hand of Nestor Almendros, and an interesting and tropical location, an endearing romance unfolds as we watch the female protagonist Brooke Shields becoming a woman, barefoot in the sand.

9 Orgasms / 9 Songs (Michael Winterbottom, 2004) – Winterbottom has made films of varying genres and styles and perhaps as a result his erotic film is an incredible close-up in an almost documentary sense. The story deals frankly with a torrid carnal romance between an American exchange student and a glacial scientist in London, with the camera in the midst of it all.

Bilitis (David Hamilton, 1977) – Perhaps the most politically incorrect of the list, this film probably marks David Hamilton’s zenith as a filmmaker after he forged a singular erotic genre during his career with photography characterized by the use of filters, unreal ambiences and melancholic music. The almost cheesy images stand out, brilliantly capturing events within the grotesqueness of life. Bilitis is duality, where nothing is wrong and everything is permitted.

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