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Love in Films - Love Scenes -
Famous Love Scenes
In 1922 Postmaster General William H. Hays was appointed to clean up the motion picture industry before the public's anger at declining morality depicted in films hurt the movie business. "The Hays Code"
also sought the use of morality clauses in the standard actor's contract, to control the conduct of performers, and assured state and local censorship boards that he would properly regulate the industry
Restrictions to regulate the content of films in "The Hays Code"
was a list of eleven "Don'ts" that included prohibition of profanity, suggestive nudity, use of illegal drugs, sexual perversion, white slavery, miscegenation, sex hygiene and venereal diseases, childbirth, children's sex organs, ridicule of the clergy, and
wilful offense to any nation, race, or creed. The twenty-six "Be
Careful" were only cautionary, such as the elimination of the depiction of criminality, excessive brutality, murder and rape, excessive (over 3 seconds) and lustful kissing, and the depiction of men and women sleeping together in the same bed.
Most studios ignored the regulatory restrictions, because there was no enforcement that was effective, and they knew that film-going audiences wanted to see
such scenes as sex and crime that were being blacklisted. A number of notable films produced in the early 30s before 'The Hays Code" showed women using their sexuality to get ahead, such as in the taboo-breaking comedy Red Headed Woman (1932) starring Jean Harlow
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Showgirls 1995 The crown jewel of Paul Verhoeven's salute to Vegas sleaze features Elizabeth
Berkley (Nomi) and Kyle MacLachlan (Zack)
locking lips and various other appendages for two and a half minutes of pure
eroticism. Set in the tackiest backyard
pool Nomi goes for a skinny dip, marvelling at Zack's mildly disturbing water-puking dolphin statues and then jumping him for a brief
violent lovemaking session.
To MacLachlan's credit, he can barely keep the "What
is this crazy chick doing?" look off his face as she repeatedly throttles him in the chest. Not to insult
Berkley's sex life, but either she's been doing it wrong, or the rest of
the human race is. Verhoeven's underwear ripping, finger sucking and love scenes
that teeter
on the edge of parody.
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Irréversible 2002
Gaspar Noé wants us to see the loathsome side of the human
condition. The notorious French provocateur's follow-up to 1998's "I Stand Alone"
this movie is set in backwards chronology à la "Memento," with literally dizzying
camerawork and featuring, in its disgustingly violent half hour, nearly inaudible
soundtrack that's known to cause vertigo. "Irréversible" is an audacious battering of the senses, especially near its midpoint.
Alex (the beautiful Monica Bellucci) has just stormed out of a party after fighting with her boyfriend Marcus (Vincent
Cassel, Bellucci's real-life husband) when she accepts a streetwalker's advice to
take the scary, red-lit underpass. Alex is assaulted by a man who's lost interest in
a hooker he's been beating up. Threatened with a knife and thrown to the ground, Alex is beaten into a coma
for nine
minutes, as she screams into her attacker's hand.
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Ma Mère 2004
With the whipping of a hooded slave to within an inch of his life, it's hard to single out
just one sex scene in Christophe Honoré's, shocking "Ma Mére," an adaptation of Georges Bataille's
infamous novella in which a whorish widowed mother (Isabelle Huppert) turns her devout son (Louis Garrel) into a
deviant headcase by introducing him to the Canary Islands' world of
Euro trash.
Despite this French erotica's numerous scenes of limp carnality which features Garrel's
still reeling from the fact that his mom just killed herself with an knife while staring at her corpse as "Happy Together" plays
in the background. Garrel's self-gratification is intended to be a desperate, primal scream.
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Myra Breckinridge
1970 "I shall ball you Rusty. It's very simple," says transsexual Myra Breckinridge (Raquel Welch) as she bends over her
unsuspecting student on an operating table. As her counterpart Myron (film critic Rex Reed) giddily looks on in an
empty movie theatre. Then Welch straps on a dildo and rapes Rusty whilst wearing a red, white and blue bathing suit.
There's a lot going on in this unforgettable scene,
including cutaways to everything from Clark Gable and
Marilyn Monroe headshots to Welch dressed in a flowery
dress while yelling "Hooray for Mickey Mouse and Donald
Duck! Uncle Sam, here I come!" Novelist Gore Vidal
went on record not only disowning this big screen
adaptation of one of his best-selling novels, but calling
it one of the worst movies ever made.
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Eyes Wide Shut
1999 If you've ever been to an orgy, you know it can be a fun yet awkward, ridiculous affair. In fact, the awkward
ridiculousness is exactly what makes it fun, which is why this particular orgy is no fun at all.
It looks as if it were
choreographed by Larry Flynt all nuance and spontaneity has been carefully extracted and destroyed, each pair or
threesome is either thrusting mechanically or rubbing each other in congruous circles. It's enough to drive even Tom
Cruise to antidepressants.
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Miami Vice
2006
Jetting fast across the Caribbean in a high-powered drug dealer speedboat,
while blasting Patti LaBelle song then a quick round of Mojitos at a cool harbor bar in Havana, a
little dancing and then gloomy love scene
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