September 6th marks National Sex Day — a date that, even with a certain air of irreverence, invites us to reflect on how sexuality is still treated as taboo. Cinema, a mirror of society, has always been at the center of this debate. From the suggested kiss in Hollywood classics to the boldness of European film, through Brazil’s *pornochanchada*, eroticism in movies has never been just about naked bodies: it speaks to power, desire, pain, coming of age, and identity.
Over the decades, sex in cinema has taken on different forms: repressed, exploited, aestheticized, or humanized. Today, audiences are asking if we even need sex scenes on screen anymore. Gen Z seems to consume less of this type of narrative, while Hollywood has increasingly sanitized its portrayal. But when filmed well and handled with respect, on-screen eroticism can add complexity to characters and open up debates about our own relationship with our bodies and pleasure.
Check out the trailer for the new film by Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher, Night Stage, which will screen at the Rio Festival and promises to be one of the hottest films of the year.
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How cinema has portrayed sex over time
For much of the 20th century, sex was a forbidden topic in Hollywood. The Hays Code (1934-1968) restricted long kisses, intertwined bodies, and any suggestion of nudity, in addition to prohibiting depictions of LGBTQIA+ relationships. Pleasure was only hinted at through visual metaphors: a door closing, a curtain blowing in the wind, a lit cigarette after the cut.
In the 1960s and 70s, with the collapse of censorship, the first major explosions of eroticism in Western cinema emerged. Films like Last Tango in Paris (1972), by Bernardo Bertolucci, shocked audiences by showing sex in an explicit and disturbing way.
Around the same time, the Emmanuelle saga became a symbol of European softcore, combining nudity and suggestive sex with the idea of sophisticated and exotic eroticism. The story has now gotten a remake by director Audrey Diwan, starring actress Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire).
In Brazil, the pornochanchada brought its own version of cinematic eroticism. A popular genre, it mixed humor, social critique, and the exploitation of desire. Films like The Lady on the Bus and works by directors like Carlo Mossy explored nudity in an irreverent way, though often marked by the objectification of women. Decades later, Brazilian cinema revisited the theme with contemporary perspectives: Motel Destino (Karim Aïnouz, 2024) connects the pornochanchada tradition to the modern erotic thriller, using the motel as a space for desire, tension, and provocative storytelling.
Meanwhile, Hollywood saw its heyday of the erotic thriller in the 1980s and 90s, with films like Basic Instinct and Indecent Proposal. The subgenre fell into decline in the 2000s, swallowed up by conservatism and an industry that became risk-averse. Today, the paradox is clear: while the mainstream sanitizes sex, independent and European cinema continues to explore eroticism as an aesthetic, philosophical, and political language.
Europe, USA, and Latin America: Different Perspectives on Eroticism
USA: The North American industry has always oscillated between repression and spectacle. While the erotic thriller peaked in the 80s and 90s, contemporary mainstream cinema tends to avoid explicit scenes, limiting itself to innuendo or chaste kisses. Still, recent works explore eroticism in a narrative and complex way: Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) combines mystery and sexuality to discuss desire and power; Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) brought BDSM into the mainstream; Anora (Sean Baker, 2018) follows sex workers, exploring body, desire, and survival; and Babygirl (Halina Reijn, 2022) investigates intimate relationships and the sexuality of mature women, showing pleasure, tension, and emotional complexity. These films show that, even in a cautious context, eroticism continues to be used as a narrative tool in the US to discuss desire, power, and human relationships.
Europe: The old continent embraces transgression, exploring the body as a territory of pain, pleasure, and narrative experimentation. Directors like Lars von Trier, Gaspar Noé, Julia Ducournau, and Joachim Trier use eroticism in provocative and symbolic ways. In Nymphomaniac, von Trier discusses compulsion and female pleasure; Gaspar Noé, in Climax, mixes sex, music, and violence in intense sensory experiences; Ducournau, in Raw and Titane, associates desire and cannibalism in narratives of body horror; Joachim Trier, in Thelma, connects eroticism and the protagonist’s unexplained powers; and Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (J-P Valkeapää, Finland) combines grief, pain, and sadomasochistic practices to explore pleasure and physical limits. These films show that contemporary European eroticism remains audacious, philosophical, and central to character and narrative construction.
Brazil and Latin America: Latin American eroticism is intertwined with social, cultural, and political issues. In Brazil, Neon Bull (Gabriel Mascaro) uses the body and desire as an extension of work and identity; Hard Paint (Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher) shows online sexual performance as a form of queer resistance; Baby (Marcelo Caetano) explores power dynamics and affection in the urban context of the working-class sex trade. In Mexico, Y Tu Mamá También (Alfonso Cuarón) mixes friendship, desire, and the passage into adulthood; Battle in Heaven (Carlos Reygadas) unites eroticism with existential and social issues; and Rule 34 (Julia Murat) follows a young lawyer who sells sexual content online, exploring female autonomy and desire. Latin American eroticism goes beyond pleasure, functioning as a narrative tool to discuss identity, power, class, and social norms.
These differences show that eroticism is not reduced to nudity, but reflects how each society understands the body, desire, and pleasure.
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Directors and filmmakers who use eroticism in cinema as a language
Cinema has found ways to link sex to extreme experiences, showing that eroticism goes far beyond provocation: it is language, metaphor, and philosophy. In Dogs Don’t Wear Pants, for example, orgasm is conflated with the near-death experience, uniting pain and pleasure; while in Escort and Antichrist, the presence of animals symbolizes instinct, danger, and unpredictability, making the eroticism visceral. Julia Ducournau, in Raw and Titane, mixes desire and revulsion, reminding us that pleasure can be both bodily and destructive. Films like How to Have Sex explore teenage sexual discovery, while Secretary shows the negotiation between submission and power, revealing different forms of maturation through sex. In Anora, Baby, and Hard Paint, the body functions as a means of survival, but also as a space for resistance and artistic expression.
David Cronenberg – Crash
Explores morbid desire, transforming sex into a metaphor for the fusion of body and technology. The film reveals how the violence of car crashes becomes an erotic trigger, broadening the discussion on alienation and fetishism in contemporary society.
Lars von Trier – Nymphomaniac, Antichrist
Questions pleasure, guilt, and grief, using eroticism as a catalyst for pain and transcendence. Von Trier puts tension on the viewer by intertwining sex with suffering and spirituality, creating radical narratives about human limits.
Luca Guadagnino – Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All and Challengers
The director transforms eroticism into a sensory and narrative experience. In Call Me by Your Name (2017), desire emerges as a rite of passage, delicate and intense, exploring the discovery of passion. In Bones and All (2022), he unites romance, cannibalism, and eroticism, showing how pleasure and destruction can walk hand in hand. And in Challengers (2024), Guadagnino uses a love triangle in the world of tennis to explore sexual tension, power, and betrayal, connecting desire and emotional conflict in an elegant and provocative way.
Gabriel Mascaro – Neon Bull
A political and affective look at bodies that work, desire, and reinvent themselves. Eroticism emerges in contrast to the harshness of the backlands and imposed masculinity, revealing delicacy and freedom in characters that escape stereotype.
Karim Aïnouz – Motel Destino
The filmmaker from Ceará transforms the motel into a space of desire and tension, where sex, betrayal, and secrets intertwine. The film connects the tradition of Brazilian *pornochanchada* to the contemporary erotic thriller, showing that eroticism can be provocative, sophisticated, and narratively intriguing.
Steve McQueen – Shame
A standout performance by Michael Fassbender shows compulsive sex as a symptom of loneliness, depression, and existential emptiness. The director exposes the cold, mechanized life of an executive, turning intimacy into a field of alienation, control, and self-destruction.
Julia Ducournau – Raw, Titane
Winner of the Palme d’Or in 2021 for Titane, Julia challenges, in her works, the boundaries between instinct, desire, and revulsion, mixing eroticism and body horror. Her narratives place the body as a territory of metamorphosis, where pleasure mixes with the grotesque and the animal. In Titane we also see the relationship of the erotic-machine.
J-P Valkeapää – Dogs Don’t Wear Pants
Associates pleasure, grief, and near-death experiences. BDSM appears as a ritual for confronting pain, revealing sex as a language of survival and emotional catharsis.
Lukas Nola – Escort
Eroticism linked to animals and nature, suggesting instinctive and wild desire. The film reflects on basic drives, deconstructing sex as something civilized and bringing it closer to animality.
Steven Shainberg – Secretary
Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader, the film reconfigures power and pleasure through submission and eroticism. The game between boss and secretary subverts traditional hierarchy, presenting sexuality as a space for self-discovery.
Sophie Hyde – Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Starring Emma Thompson, the film presents mature female sexuality, following a retired teacher who decides to experience sexual encounters with an escort. The film values pleasure, discovery, and acceptance of the body.
Agnès Varda – Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
The core of Agnès’s work is female pleasure. In Cléo from 5 to 7, the French director explores vulnerability, desire, and female autonomy with sensitivity and poetry, anticipating discussions about the body and subjectivity.
Helena Ignez – Everyone’s Woman (1969), The Red Light Bandit (1968)
An icon of Brazilian underground cinema, Helena Ignez challenged social norms and censorship in the 1960s and 70s, becoming a reference for transgression and artistic freedom. In The Red Light Bandit (1968), her body and presence reinforce the film’s bold and contesting aesthetic, while in Everyone’s Woman (1969) she transforms eroticism into an instrument of social, political, and gender critique. Throughout her career, Ignez established herself as a symbol of cultural resistance and the expressive power of the female body in cinema. She currently directs and writes projects that discuss female pleasure.
Chantal Akerman – Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
It portrays the meticulous routine of a woman who maintains paid sexual encounters to support her family. With near-documentary precision, the film exposes how desire, work, and alienation intertwine in everyday life, revealing tensions between the body, obligation, and autonomy. Chantal turns the banal into the political, showing that eroticism and sexuality can be analyzed through the lens of repetition, control, and social invisibility, making her cinema reflective and contemplative.
Jane Campion – The Piano (1993), In the Cut (2003)
In her filmography, eroticism is traversed by layers of power, vulnerability, and emancipation. In The Piano, the female body becomes a territory of negotiation between silence and desire; while in In the Cut, the director dives into urban and realistic eroticism, exploring female intimacy without concessions to the male gaze.
These examples show that sex on screen can be as multiple as the human experience itself.
Backstage controversies: When the set invades privacy
Not all on-screen eroticism is the result of conscious aesthetic choices. Often, the behind-the-scenes stories reveal abuse and exploitation.
Last Tango in Paris
The allegation that the sex scene involving Maria Schneider and Marlon Brando was performed without the actress’s consent is well-documented. In later interviews, Schneider stated she was not informed about the scene’s content, which left her deeply traumatized. Director Bernardo Bertolucci admitted in interviews that he decided not to inform Schneider to capture a more genuine reaction from her, though he later expressed regret. Check out the film that talks about these behind-the-scenes events.
Blue Is the Warmest Color
During the filming of the film, winner of the Palme d’Or in 2013, the intense sex scenes between Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux were marked by long hours of shooting and multiple takes, generating discomfort and emotional exhaustion. The actresses reported humiliating and invasive situations, highlighting the lack of care on set and reinforcing the importance of intimacy coordinators to ensure consent, clear boundaries, and emotional safety during intimate scenes.
The case of Blue Is the Warmest Color underscores the urgent need for specialized professionals to ensure safe and respectful intimate scenes in cinema. Intimacy coordinators play a crucial role in choreographing sex and nudity scenes, establishing clear boundaries, and ensuring mutual consent among those involved. They act as intermediaries between the direction and the actors, promoting an ethical and professional work environment.
The implementation of these professionals has been increasingly recognized in the film industry, especially after movements like #MeToo, which highlighted the importance of protecting artists’ rights and well-being. The presence of intimacy coordinators not only prevents abuse and discomfort but also contributes to the creation of more authentic and impactful scenes, respecting the integrity of everyone involved.
Critical look: Sex on screen today
The concept of the male gaze, by Laura Mulvey, exposes how the camera often transforms women into objects of visual desire. Female pleasure is still a taboo, portrayed unequally compared to male pleasure.
Recent research, such as that from UCLA (2023), shows that Gen Z is less interested in sex scenes, preferring narratives focused on dialogue and emotional intimacy. Hollywood, fearing controversy and conservative pressures, has become increasingly timid in its approach to eroticism.
Eroticism in cinema was never just about “showing too much.” It’s about translating into images what it means to be human: to desire, to love, to suffer, to lose, and to resist. Ethics on sets, with the presence of intimacy coordinators, paves the way for a new era, where pleasure can be represented without abuse. Yet the challenge remains: why does on-screen sex still provoke so much discomfort? Perhaps because the moral debate around sexuality continues to be seen as something pejorative, ignoring that pleasure exists for its own sake, without needing any utility beyond the subject themselves.
We no longer need films that portray pleasure—especially female pleasure—in a caricatured way. In When Harry Met Sally…, Meg Ryan’s character fakes an orgasm in an iconic scene and was praised for her performance. Yet in In the Cut, by Jane Campion, when she played a teacher and presented realistic pleasure on screen, the actress was harshly criticized.
In the end, eroticism in cinema remains a question of courage—from artists who defy conventions, from audiences who accept confronting desire, and from an industry that needs to understand that sex is not the enemy of narrative. If sex is central to our lives, why do we still hide it on screen?
