Most sexually explicit erotic films ever made

written by Souranath Banerjee

Most sexually explicit erotic films ever made: ‘The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting.’ – Gloria Leonard.

The above quote may be true to a certain extent but it needs a lot more than just lighting to create beautiful erotic Cinematic moments.

There is a thin line that separates erotica from porn; often indeed a difficult task to specifically define their boundaries.

Lust, desire, urge, passion – cinema has the capability to arouse all these powerful emotions in the audience but only a handful of directors have actually used erotica to its full potential.

It’s not about simply showing sexual content but about creating the mood, the flavor, the drama and enhancing the emotions of the characters through it. The best sex scenes in a movie (no matter how explicit they are) serve their true purpose only if they justify the story-line.

And then, of course, how sensually they are enacted and dramatized is directly proportional to the audience’s excitement!

Here are some of the most sexually explicit erotic films made by the very finest directors from across the world.

Hope you enjoy the list.

20. Ken Park (2002)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IeRBVFcEhU

A unique portrayal of the lives of a handful of teenagers who has two things in common – dysfunctional families and skateboards.

Oh! and Sex too.

Directed by Larry Clark and Edward Lachman, this movie tries its best to bring-out the messed-up dilemmas of young suburban minds specially in regard to their sexual desires. Both experimental and explicit, definitely worth a watch.

19. Shame (2011)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24cjqfVv1fs

A man who can’t seem to maintain a steady relationship because he is always looking for sex! The complexities of the twisted mind of a sex addict and the burden of ‘shame’ he has to shoulder have never been so accurately shown before.

Director Steve McQueen and actor Michael Fassbender join hands after Hunger (2008), creates something so emotionally complex, controversial and yet so alluring.  

18. Shortbus (2006)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z_K1tDkEa4

“So you’re a sex therapist and you’ve never had an orgasm?”

No sex therapists needed, if you are a New Yorker and having problems in your sexual relationships you visit to this exclusive club ‘Shortbus’.

Opened at 2006 Cannes Film Festival – director John Cameron Mitchell takes us through an explicit and exclusive journey of fun and sensuality.

17. Don’t Look Down (2008)

No mires para abajo (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtSp0mi4twA

A disturbed teenager while sleepwalking falls on the bed of a sensual girl who teaches him all about the ‘birds and the bees’ and much more!

Directed by Eliseo Subiela, a highly underrated film that speaks about death and sexuality, love and pleasure.

Definitely the most erotic coming of age movie ever made!

16. Sexual Chronicles of a French Family (2012)

Chroniques sexuelles d’une famille d’aujourd’hui (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmcwW5VQNX0

A young teenager boy is caught masturbating in biology class and gets suspended from school. But before he eventually gets some real action his entire (French) family open up about their sexual experiences and desires!

Directed by Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr, a film that treats sex as a basic human necessity as sometimes it’s difficult to digest the fact that everyone (including our family members and relatives) enjoy the act of sex and there is nothing wrong about it.

15. En la cama (2005)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV92axPOADM

Two strangers meet up at a party and end up in a hotel room to have sex – casual sex. But can such a random encounter between two unknown people mean anything more significant than just a night of passion?

Directed by Matías Bize, the entire film is shot in one location with only two actors who share their fears, desires and emotions while having sex in regular intervals!

14. Lie with Me (2005)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_lZsadY9XE

A nymphomaniac girl finally meets her equal – an aggressive artist with whom she soon starts a steamy relationship but then he is a possessive man who demands commitment and she seems to be not ready for that yet.

Directed by Clement Virgo, one of the most sexy and well-shot film with abundance of explicit content through which the central characters are sketched and defined.

13. The Exterminating Angels (2006)

Les anges exterminateurs (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJYmQcgx8-o

A filmmaker is keen on making a project about ‘female pleasure’. And so he starts taking multiple auditions of females – some pleasuring themselves and others pleasuring each-other.

Directed by Jean-Claude Brisseau, this is one underrated voyeuristic film that not only has many explicit scenes but it also successfully portrays a genuine and sensual side of love-making which is rare.

12. Bitter Moon (1992)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3EMSHqkbfI

‘Everyone has a sadistic streak, and nothing brings it out better than the knowledge you’ve got someone at your mercy.’

Directed by acclaimed Roman Polanski, and Emmanuelle Seigner at her sexiest – this film has some of the most sensual scenes wrapped by a brilliant story of revenge and betrayal. Obsessive lust can often work the other way and doom a relationship for ever.

11. Love (2015)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrLwFw7kFI8

A couple who invites another girl into their bed but soon their threesome fun seems to misbalance their emotional relationship equilibrium.

Plenty of explicit sex scenes, stylishly shot and 3D too (a market strategy I guess), but overall there is an honesty about the characters which you can’t ignore.

Directed by Gaspar Noé, this is his unique and trippy take on sentimental sexuality. Go figure!

10. Stranger by the Lake (2013)

L’inconnu du lac (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgcEGKn7waI

The lake – a secluded spot for the strangers to become lovers. But what if one suspects his lover to be a murderer?

Directed by Alain Guiraudie, a suspense thriller that contains graphic gay sex. The sex scenes in this French film are natural yet non apologetic.

Not a single woman (actor) is used in the film!

9. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

Ai no korîda (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP46wzCt-DA

This Japanese cinema was the first ever non-pornographic film to show some of the most unconventional sexual obsessions.

Directed by Nagisa Ôshima, the film is about the affair of a possessive woman and her master which leads to a wild climax.

Censored in most of the countries during it’s world-wide release; even the director was charged with obscenity on publishing the screenplay of the film in Japan itself. (Even its trailer in youtube is age-protected!).

8. Nymphomaniac: Vol. I & Vol. II (2013)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdxzno5Xp2Y

The brilliant Danish director Lars von Trier came up with his most recent and probably his most sexually exhaustive film ever.

Edited in two parts, the film accounts for a self-claimed nymphomaniac and her innumerable erotic experiences. 

Charlotte Gainsbourg is as bold as ever but according to many critics the film is nothing but porn.

7. Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)

La vie d’Adèle (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2OLRrocn3s

Two young girls and their relationship – love, desire, despair and a lot of sex. 

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche – Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos brings to life one of the most sexually detailed lesbian affair on screen. 

The film is highly cinematic and has great emotional impact.

6. 9 Songs (2004)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1HWcofsxJk

One of Michael Winterbottom‘s earlier works, this film is a collage of intense sexual encounters and rock concerts!

It doesn’t have a rigid narrative but overall the film manages to capture the mood of the young lovers to perfection.

The love-making scenes are very natural and erotic at the same time.

5. Sex and Lucia (2001)

Lucía y el sexo (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLl_-3vHxFk

The Spanish director Julio Medem knows the secrets of erotica better than most of the others in his profession.

And working with as bold an actress as Paz Vega, the film boasts some of the best sensual moments ever created. 

The same director’s Room in Rome (2010) also recommended.

4. Boogie Nights (1997)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOk0fsMGyck

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Heather Graham – one of the most stylized and sexy film based on the porn industry in California in the 70s.

Directed by none other than Paul Thomas Anderson the film is the perfect combination of power, drugs, sex, music and passion.

The most stylish film in the list!

3. Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Y tu mamá también (original title)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qg6n7V3kO4

Alfonso Cuarón, the director of famous films like Gravity (2013) and   Children of Men (2006) have also directed this unique film.

Maribel Verdú, Gael García Bernal, Daniel Giménez – all together in this journey of self-awareness, eager to take on the teachings of life.

A road trip that involves friendship, love, trust and raw sexuality. Sex comedy at its best.

2. The Dreamers (2003)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU1brBVMBkM

Paris 1968, an American student who befriends a French brother and sister and experiences a unique level of friendship.

Michael Pitt, Louis Garrel and the sensuous Eva Green (her first film).

Highly sexual in content, even incest and thus controversial – a film that only the acclaimed Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci could have handled so well. 

Far better than his other famous film Last Tango in Paris (1972).

1. Malèna (2000)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIES83R56RY

Probably the most popular film based on the age-old concept of a young boy who is sexually attracted towards an elder woman.

Directed by the master director Giuseppe Tornatore of Cinema Paradiso fame, this Italian film (especially because of the voluptuous beauty Monica Bellucci) has become a benchmark of young sexual awakenings and sensuality. A must watch.

and (The ‘+1′ film is not necessarily the best but certainly the most unique one. A must watch).

+1. Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (1996)

Film trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c0JTj9sl_Y

Starring Rekha, Naveen Andrews, Indira Varma, Sarita Choudhury among others, the film is an epic tale of sexual rivalry between two girls who were childhood friends. 

Candid sexual scenes throughout the film, elaborate and sensual in a very Indian way!

Some other films with extreme sexual and erotic content that could have easily made the list are I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967), The Lickerish Quartet (1970), A Real Young Girl (1976), Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977), Jamón, Jamón (1992), Female Perversions (1996), Pola X (1999), Romance (1999), Killing Me Softly (2002), Wetlands (2013).

And now, a few classics which essentially deals with the psychology of sex like Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Fellini’s Casanova (1976), Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), Pedro Almodóvar’s Bad Education (2004) and Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001). 

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Poster courtesy: www.impawards.com, www.imdb.com.