What Are The Best English Sexy Films Of All Time?

Sensual cinema, which skillfully merges artistic values with human emotions, is probably more captivating than any other genre. While most films of this kind feature erotic scenes, in sensual cinema these moments are intertwined with philosophical notions of human existence, as is the case with ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’. A majestic love story developed against the background of political changes, ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ explores the fragile line between love and desire. The French ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’ is another beautiful example of cinematic exploration of young love, captured in all its intensity and intimacy. The lengthy and deep scenes of sex between the two girls are not meant to excite, but to reveal the true nature of their emotions. They are very honest and that is why sensual cinema is not just about making us feel sexy.

For something a little different, ‘Secretary’ is a quirky and off-beat darkly comic drama which explores the world of BDSM in a refreshingly different and increasingly realistic light. The central performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal is particularly impressive in showing a wonderfully real and fragile girl in control. And then there’s ‘Y Tu Mamá También’, Cuarón’s affectionate coming-of-age drama set on a road trip across Mexico where two young boys escape the circumstances of their lives and fall for the mother of one of their new friends. Vibrant, full of life, unpredictable and wound up, it is both a gorgeous travelogue and a serious political drama – a truly memorable and touching movie that will stick long after the end credits have rolled.

In the Realm of the Senses is an unusually quiet and intense film which still shock today, often pushing the boundaries between passion and obsession in a most aesthetically-pleasing way. The difference with Brokeback Mountain is that while the former was designed to be as provocative as possible, the latter is a film of restraint, with the most erotic scene of the two – the famous tent scene – also being one of the most tender. Ang Lee succeeded in being much sexier than any word by rendering the repressed homosexual desire of two cowboys to externalize in the most beautiful way possible: in silence and in space between words. Both films remind me that the most erotic moments occur between words.

The sexual content is language in films that I love. ‘Call Me by Your Name’ the way the desire is expressed through the characters and how Luca Guadagnino frames the scenes of desire to let the audience feel the laziness of the summer and feel the chemistry of Chalamet and Hammer leaking through the screen and filling us with the feelings that they are experiencing in order to connect with them. The same can be said for the eroticism in ‘The Handmaiden’, the very lush and deliberate eroticism serves the plot as another twist of the puzzle.

A lot of the most interesting erotic films are quite funny as well as smart and subversive. For example, Joseph Gordon-Levitt made a film called ‘Don Jon’ a few years ago about a guy with a serious porn addiction and his search for real intimacy. The film is quite satirical but it is also really nuanced and has a lot of depth. And then there’s ‘Basic Instinct’. I know it’s a bit of a camp classic these days but Sharon Stone was an absolute icon as the fierce and fabulous femme fatale in that one.