film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
,
nudity
Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing.
The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to ...
may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a person appears to be naked but is covered by a sheet. Since the birth of film, depictions of any form of sexuality have been controversial, and in the case of most nude scenes, had to be justified as part of the story.
Nudity in film should be distinguished from sex in film. A film on
naturism
Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...
or about people for whom nudity is common may contain non-sexual nudity, and some non-pornographic films contain brief nude scenes. Nudity in a sexual context is common in
pornographic film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
s or erotic films.
Nude scenes are considered controversial in some cultures because they may challenge the community's standards of modesty. These standards vary by culture and depend on the type of nudity, who is exposed, which parts of the body are exposed, the duration of the exposure, the posing, the context, or other aspects.
Nudity in film may be subject to censorship or rating regimes that control the content of films. Many directors and producers apply
self-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or insti ...
, limiting nudity (and other content) in their films to avoid censorship or a strict rating.
Nude photography before cinema
Nudity has almost universally not been permitted on stage, but sheer or simulated nudity may have been. Devices used included flesh-colored
bodystocking
A bodystocking or body stocking is a one-piece skin-tight garment that covers the torso, legs and sometimes the arms of the wearer. It is a foundation garment or an article of lingerie usually made from a sheer fabric similar to that used for st ...
s to simulate nudity or long hair as a cover for vital parts for roles such as
Lady Godiva
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...
.
American actress Adah Isaacs Menken created controversy in 1861 when she wore a flesh-colored bodystocking in the play ''Mazeppa'', based on
Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
's '' Mazeppa'', in which she played a Polish man who was tied nude to the back of a wild horse by his enemies.Brooks, Daphne A. "Lady Menken's Secret: Adah Isaacs Menken, Actress Biographies and the Race for Sensation". ''Legacy'', Volume 15, Number 1 (1998): pages 68–77. She also posed nude for photographs.
Early in her career, French actress
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including '' La Dame Aux Camel ...
posed topless on several occasions for photographer
Felix Nadar
Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar, was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloonist, and proponent of heavier-than-air flight. In 1858, he became the first person t ...
. She is nevertheless seen with her top covered in surviving stills of these sessions. At least one topless photograph of Bernhardt from 1873 survives. These nude sessions were not meant for public viewing but for the encouraging of theatrical employers or personal guests.
In the 1880s, Eadweard Muybridge used a device he called a
zoopraxiscope
The zoopraxiscope (initially named ''zoographiscope'' and ''zoogyroscope'') is an early device for displaying moving images and is considered an important predecessor of the movie projector. It was conceived by photographic pioneer Eadweard Muy ...
to project a series of successive still photographs. The photos would then be played one after the other, giving the illusion of movement. Sometimes the same sequence would be filmed using several cameras. Many of Muybridge's photographic sessions using the zoopraxiscope had anonymous nude models, both female and male.
Early films: the silent era
The first films containing nudity were early erotic films. Production of such films commenced almost immediately after the invention of the motion picture. The earliest film containing a simulated nude scene is thought to be the 1897 '' After the Ball'' by French director
George Méliès
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...
, in which the director's future wife wears a bodystocking to simulate nudity.
Two of the earliest pioneers of erotica were French producer
Eugène Pirou
Louis Eugène Pirou (26 September 1841 – 30 September 1909) was a French photographer and filmmaker, known primarily for his portraits of celebrities and scenes from the Paris Commune. He was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle ...
and director
Albert Kirchner
Albert Kirchner (1860–1902), better known under the pseudonym Léar, was a French photographer, manufacturer, exhibitor,Richard Abel''Encyclopedia of early cinema'' Taylor & Francis, 2005, , p.518 and filmmaker who is noted for producing severa ...
. Kirchner (under the pseudonym "Léar") directed films for Pirou. The 1899 short film ''
Le Coucher de la Mariée
''Le coucher de la mariée'' or ''Bedtime for the Bride'' or ''The Bridegroom's Dilemma'' is a French erotic short film considered to be one of the first erotic films made. The film was first screened in Paris in November 1896, within a year of t ...
'' starred Louise Willy performing a bathroom striptease. Other French filmmakers considered that profits could be made from risqué films that showed women disrobing.
In Austria,
Johann Schwarzer
Johann Schwarzer (30 August 1880 – 10 October 1914) was an Austrian photographer and pioneer producer of adult films through his Saturn-Film ( de) company.
Schwarzer was born in Javornik, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and now locat ...
sought to break the dominance of French-produced erotic films being distributed by the
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...
brothers. Schwarzer formed his Saturn-Film production company, which between 1906 and 1911 produced 52 erotic productions, each of which contained young local women fully nude, to be shown at men-only theatre nights (called ''Herrenabende''). These films were promoted as erotic and artistic, rather than pornographic, but in 1911, Saturn was dissolved by the censorship authorities and its films destroyed.Michael Achenbach, Paolo Caneppele, Ernst Kieninger: ''Projektionen der Sehnsucht: Saturn, die erotischen Anfänge der österreichischen Kinematografie''. Filmarchiv Austria, Wien 2000, . However, copies of at least a half of the films have been found in private hands. Filmarchiv Austria has included four of Schwarzer's works on the Europa Film Treasures site: ''Das Sandbad'' (1906), ''Baden Verboten'' (1906), ''Das Eitle Stubenmädchen'' (1908) and ''Beim Fotografen'' (1908).
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
has included over twenty of Schwarzer's works on their site.
The 1911 Italian film ''Dante's Inferno'', directed by Francesco Bertolini, is loosely adapted from
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
's epic poem ''
The Divine Comedy
The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...
'' and inspired by the illustrations of Gustave Doré. In depicting tormented souls in Hell, there are frequent glimpses of nude male and female actors (including the first male frontal scenes). Remade many times, the U.S. version, '' Dante's Inferno'' (1924) from the Fox Film Corporation, also contains groups of nude figures and scenes of flagellation.
Several early films of the
silent era
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...
and early sound era include women in nude scenes, presented in a historical or religious context. One such film was the anticlerical ''
Hypocrites
Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...
'', directed by Lois Weber and released in January 1915, which was the first American motion picture with a central role played entirely in the nude. It contained several sequences with Margaret Edwards (uncredited) appearing fully nude as a ghostly apparition representing Truth. Her scenes were created using innovative travelling
double exposure
In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...
sequences (photographed by the legendary early cinematographer Dal Clawson) which made her appear as a semi-transparent spirit. ''
Inspiration
Inspiration, inspire, or inspired often refers to:
* Artistic inspiration, sudden creativity in artistic production
* Biblical inspiration, the doctrine in Judeo-Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible
* Creative inspirat ...
'', released in November 1915, is believed to be the first American motion picture with a ''named'' leading actor in a nude scene. The nudity in the film was that of an artist's model, played by
Audrey Munson
Audrey Marie Munson (June 8, 1891 – February 20, 1996) was an American model (person), artist's model and film actress, considered to be "America's first supermodel." In her time, she was variously known as "Miss Manhattan", the "Panama–Paci ...
. Munson appeared nude again in a similar role in the 1916 film '' Purity''. In these films, Munson was a tableau vivant, not being required to move, and only her backside and breasts were in view.
Annette Kellermann
Annette Marie Sarah Kellermann (6 July 1887 – 6 November 1975) was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress, and writer.
Kellermann was one of the first women to wear a one-piece bathing costume, instead of the then ...
, the famous Australian swimming star, appeared fully nude in an active role in Fox's ''
A Daughter of the Gods
''A Daughter of the Gods'' was a 1916 American silent fantasy drama film written and directed by Herbert Brenon. The film was controversial because of the sequences of what was regarded as superfluous nudity by the character Anitia, played by A ...
'' in 1916. Though shot from the front, most of Kellerman's body is covered by her long hair.
Historical and "exotic" contexts were also used as justifications for nude or near-nude scenes. In 1917, Fox produced the lavish ''
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
'' in which Theda Bara wore a number of risqué outfits.
Gordon Griffith
Gordon S. Griffith (July 4, 1907 – October 12, 1958) was an American assistant director, film producer, and one of the first child actors in the American movie industry. Griffith worked in the film industry for five decades, acting in over ...
appeared as a young naked Tarzan in ''
Tarzan of the Apes
''Tarzan of the Apes'' is a 1912 story by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the first in the Tarzan series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine '' The All-Story'' beginning October 1912 before being released
as a novel in June ...
'' (1918), making him the first child actor to appear naked on screen. Nell Shipman appeared nude in the Canadian film '' Back to God's Country'' (1919). Fox produced ''
The Queen of Sheba
The Queen of Sheba ( he, מַלְכַּת שְׁבָא, Malkaṯ Šəḇāʾ; ar, ملكة سبأ, Malikat Sabaʾ; gez, ንግሥተ ሳባ, Nəgśətä Saba) is a figure first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. In the original story, she bring ...
'' in 1921 starring
Betty Blythe
Betty Blythe (born Elizabeth Blythe Slaughter; September 1, 1893 – April 7, 1972) was an American actress best known for her dramatic roles in exotic silent films such as ''The Queen of Sheba'' (1921). She appeared in 63 silent films and 56 t ...
, who displayed ample nudity even when wearing 28 different
diaphanous
In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions a ...
costumes. There is also a brief moment of nudity in
D. W. Griffith
David Wark Griffith (January 22, 1875 – July 23, 1948) was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the na ...
's '' Orphans of the Storm'' (1921) to display the debauchery of the French aristocracy. '' Hula'' (1927) is a feature film in which popular star
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...
does a nude bathing scene.
''
Is Your Daughter Safe?
''Is Your Daughter Safe?'', also known as ''The Octopus'', was an early silent exploitation film produced and directed by S. S. Millard. Written by Max Abramson, it was originally released in 1927 and presented around the United States in the f ...
'' (1927) was one of the earliest exploitation films which contained nudity. A compilation of medical documentary films and stock footage of nude scenes dating back to the 1900s, it was presented as an educational film about the dangers of venereal disease, white slavery, and prostitution. Exploitation short subjects (three to 15 minutes in length) with comedic plots and frequent nudity were also produced in the silent era. A few have survived to the present such as ''
Forbidden Daughters
''Forbidden Daughters'' is a 1927 American silent black & white short erotic-drama film directed by prominent nude photographer Albert Arthur Allen. This is the only known movie directed by Allen who, otherwise, was famous by his work as a ph ...
'' (13 minutes, 1927), directed by prominent nude photographer Albert Arthur Allen, ''Hollywood Script Girl'' (three minutes, 1928), and ''Uncle Si and the Sirens'' (eight minutes, c. 1928). These were the forerunners of the "nudie" comedy feature films that emerged in the late 1950s. Years later, when the
Hays Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
came into force, these films were considered too obscene to be reshown. Most of these films are now
lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
.
In France in the 1920s, short-subject films were made of a topless
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker (born Freda Josephine McDonald; naturalised French Joséphine Baker; 3 June 1906 – 12 April 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in her adopted Fran ...
performing exotic dance routines. The 1922 Swedish/Danish silent horror film '' Häxan'' contained nude scenes, torture and
sexual perversion
Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...
. The film was banned in the U.S. and had to be edited before it was shown in other countries. The 1929 Russian film '' Man with a Movie Camera'' by
Dziga Vertov
Dziga Vertov (russian: Дзига Вертов, born David Abelevich Kaufman, russian: Дави́д А́белевич Ка́уфман, and also known as Denis Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet Union, Soviet pioneer documentary f ...
featured nudity within the context of
naturism
Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...
, including live childbirth.
U.S. cinema since 1929
Overview
Filmmaking started in the 1890s, and the first feature-length film was produced in 1906. Nude scenes appeared in films from the start of the new invention. Several Hollywood films produced in the 1910s and 1920s, which contained only brief nudity, were controversial. Various groups objected to these features on moral grounds, and several states set up film censorship boards, arguing that such content was obscene and should be banned. Under pressure, the
Motion Picture Association of America
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...
(MPAA) created its own censorship agency, the Hays Code, which brought an end to nudity and risqué content in films produced by the main Hollywood studios. The Code was adopted in 1930 and began to be effectively enforced in 1934. At the same time, the
Catholic Legion of Decency
The National Legion of Decency, also known as the Catholic Legion of Decency, was a Catholic group founded in 1934 by Archbishop of Cincinnati, John T. McNicholas, as an organization dedicated to identifying objectionable content in motion pictu ...
was formed to keep an eye on the morals conveyed in films and indicate its disapproval by "condemning" films it considered morally objectionable. Theaters would not show a condemned film until this system declined in the 1960s.
American social and official attitudes toward nudity later began to ease, and the Code came under repeated challenge in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1958, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that a film that merely contains nudity was not obscene. The Code was abandoned in 1968 in favor of the MPAA film rating system.
Even today, the presence of nudity in a film is invariably noted by critics and censors. Until the 1980s, male nudity was rarely shown on screen. Though female nudity was routinely treated with respect and solemnity, male nudity, when it finally found its way onto the screen, was generally treated humorously and mockingly.
Pre-Hays Code Hollywood, 1929–1934
The silent film era came to an end in 1929. In 1930, the Motion Picture Association of America drew up the Motion Picture Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, to raise the moral standards of films by directly restricting the materials which the major film studios could include in their films. The code authorized nudity only in naturist quasi-documentary films and in foreign films. However, the code was not enforced until 1934.
After the end of silent films, movies with sound that included brief glimpses of nudity appeared as early as 1930 with ''
All Quiet on the Western Front
''All Quiet on the Western Front'' (german: Im Westen nichts Neues, lit=Nothing New in the West) is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I. The book describes the German soldiers' extreme physical and mental trauma du ...
''.
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille (; August 12, 1881January 21, 1959) was an American film director, producer and actor. Between 1914 and 1958, he made 70 features, both silent and sound films. He is acknowledged as a founding father of the American cinem ...
, later known as a family entertainment specialist, included several nude scenes in his early films such as '' The Sign of the Cross'' (1932), ''
Four Frightened People
''Four Frightened People'' is a 1934 American Pre-Code adventure film directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland, and William Gargan. It is based on the 1931 novel by E. Arnot Robertson.
Plot
The ...
'' (1934), and ''
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...
'' (1934). The "Dance of the Naked Moon" and orgy scene was cut for ''The Sign of the Cross'' in a 1938 reissue to comply with the production code. Other filmmakers followed suit, particularly in historical dramas such as '' The Scarlet Empress'' (1934) – which, among other things, shows topless women being burned at the stake – and contemporary stories filmed in exotic, mostly tropical, locations. '' Bird of Paradise'', directed by King Vidor in 1932, featured a nude swimming scene with
Dolores del Río
María de los Dolores Asúnsolo y López Negrete (3 August 1904 – 11 April 1983), known professionally as Dolores del Río (), was a Mexican actress. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is regarded as the first major female Latin Am ...
, and
Harry Lachman
Harry B. Lachman (June 29, 1886 – March 19, 1975) was an American artist, set designer, and film director.
He was born in La Salle, Illinois on June 29, 1886. Lachman was educated at the University of Michigan before becoming a magazine and bo ...
's '' Dante's Inferno'' featured many naked men and women suffering in hell.
The early ''Tarzan'' films with Johnny Weissmuller featured at least partial nudity justified by the natural surroundings in which the characters lived; in ''
Tarzan and His Mate
''Tarzan and His Mate'' is a 1934 American pre-Code action adventure film based on the Tarzan character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Directed by Cedric Gibbons, it w ...
'' in 1934, Jane (
Maureen O'Sullivan
Maureen O'Sullivan (17 May 1911 – 23 June 1998) was an Irish-American actress, who played Jane in the ''Tarzan'' series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. She performed with such actors as Laurence Olivier, Greta Garbo, William ...
Josephine McKim
Josephine Eveline McKim (January 4, 1910 – December 10, 1992), also known by her married name Josephine Chalmers, was an American swimmer who won three medals at the 1928 and 1932 Olympics. In 1928 she won the bronze medal in the 400-meter fr ...
) swims in the nude.
Under the pretense of being an educational ethnographic film, producers could justify showing half-clad natives in jungle epics and South-Sea-island documentaries. This was often done by editing in stock footage or fabricating new scenes with ethnic-looking stand-ins. Examples of docufiction include ''
Ingagi
''Ingagi'' is a 1930 pre-Code mockumentary exploitation film directed by William S. Campbell. It purports to be a documentary about "Sir Hubert Winstead" of London on an expedition to the Belgian Congo, and depicts a tribe of gorilla-worshipping ...
'' (1930), notorious for its fake scenes of semi-nude "native" girls filmed on a back lot. ''Forbidden Adventure in Angkor'' (1937) is a 1912 Cambodia documentary with scenes added, for dramatic effect, of two explorers and a dozen topless female bearers, incongruously played by African-American women. ''The Sea Fiend'' (1935), re-issued as '' Devil Monster'' (1946), is a low-budget South-Sea drama spiced up with stock footage inserts of half-dressed native girls. Other films of questionable authenticity in this subgenre, sometimes referred to as Goona-goona epics, include '' Moana'' (1926), ''
Trader Horn
Alfred Aloysius "Trader" Horn (born Alfred Aloysius Smith; 1861–1931) was an ivory trader in central Africa. He wrote a book, ''Trader Horn'', detailing his journeys. The book also documents his efforts to free slaves; meet the founder of Rhodes ...
'', ''
The Blonde Captive
''The Blonde Captive'' is a 1931 American controversial Pre-Code film directed by Clinton Childs, Ralph P. King, Linus J. Wilson, and Paul Withington. The film took previously released anthropological footage of native people in the Pacific and ...
'', '' Tabu: A Story of the South Seas'' (all 1931), ''Goona Goona'' aka ''Kriss'', ''Isle of Paradise'', ''Virgins of Bali'', '' Bird of Paradise'' (all 1932), ''Gow'' aka ''Gow the Killer'' (1934, re-released as ''Cannibal Island'' in 1956), ''Inyaah, Jungle Goddess'' (1934), '' Legong: Dance of the Virgins'' (1935), ''Love Life of a Gorilla'' (1937), ''Mau-Mau'' (1955), and '' Naked Africa'' (1957).
Due to the
diaphanous
In the field of optics, transparency (also called pellucidity or diaphaneity) is the physical property of allowing light to pass through the material without appreciable scattering of light. On a macroscopic scale (one in which the dimensions a ...
or sheer nature of 1920s and 1930s fashions, female body parts or virtual nudity, or both, can be on display even when the performer is fully clothed. As a result, when the Hays Code came into force in 1934, studio wardrobe departments had to attire actresses in more conservative as well as contemporary dress.
Hays Code Enforcement Hollywood, 1934–1960s
Though in place, the Hays Code was not enforced until 1934, spurred on in response to objections voiced by several groups to the content of Hollywood films – provoked at least partly by the notorious 1933 Czech film ''
Ecstasy
Ecstasy may refer to:
* Ecstasy (emotion), a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness
* Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness, visions or absolute euphoria
* Ecstasy (philosophy), to be or stand outside o ...
'', which was highly controversial in its time largely because of a nude swimming scene by Hedy Lamarr as well as perhaps the first non-pornographic film to portray sexual intercourse, although never showing more than the actors' faces. It has also been called the first on-screen depiction of a female orgasm.
The restrictions of the production code were strictly enforced from 1934 until the early 1960s to restrict nudity in films produced by the studios. United States-produced films were also under the scrutiny of moral guardians, such as the Catholic Legion of Decency, which had an influence on the content and subject matter of films in the 1930s and 1940s. They were also subject to constraints of state censorship authorities. These bodies followed inconsistent guidelines through which the film producers had to navigate; with some films being exhibited in cut versions in some states.
The Hays Code was so strict that even the display of cleavage was controversial. Producer
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...
created controversy by his emphasis on cleavage, especially that of Jane Russell, first in the 1941 film '' The Outlaw'' and also in the 1953 film '' The French Line''. The film was found objectionable under the Hays Code because of Russell's "breast shots in bathtub, cleavage and breast exposure" while some of her
decollete
Cleavage is the narrow depression or hollow between the breasts of a woman. The Superior (anatomy), superior portion of cleavage may be accentuated by clothing such as a low-cut neckline that exposes the division, and often the term is used to de ...
gowns were regarded to be "intentionally designed to give a bosom peep-show effect beyond even extreme decolletage". Both films were condemned by the Legion of Decency and were released only in cut versions.
Independent film producers – i.e., those outside the studio system – were not bound by the restrictions of the Hays Code. However, they were subject to state censorship regimes and could be excluded from so-called "family" theatres. These films claimed to be educational and dealt with taboo topics such as drug parties, prostitution, and sexually transmitted infections. In the course of presenting the message, nudity at times made an appearance. These films, which emerged in the 1930s, were obliged to play in independent theaters or traveled across the United States in "roadshow" fashion. They were normally low-budget, and described as sensationalized exploitation films. Using this framework, brief nude scenes of women appeared in ''
Maniac
Maniac (from Greek μανιακός, ''maniakos'') is a pejorative for an individual who experiences the mood known as mania. In common usage, it is also an insult for someone involved in reckless behavior.
Maniac may also refer to:
Film
* ' ...
'' (1934) and ''
Sex Madness
''Sex Madness'' is a 1938 exploitation film directed by Dwain Esper, along the lines of ''Reefer Madness'', supposedly to warn teenagers and young adults of the dangers of venereal diseases, specifically syphilis.Marihuana
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...
'' (1936) and ''
Child Bride
''Child Bride'', also known as ''Child Brides'', ''Child Bride of the Ozarks'' and ''Dust to Dust'' (USA reissue titles), is a 1938
'' (1938). ''Child Bride'' was controversial because it included a topless and skinny dipping scene by 12-year-old
Shirley Mills
Shirley Olivia Mills (April 8, 1926 – March 31, 2010) was an American actress. She played the roles of the youngest daughter in ''The Grapes of Wrath'' and the title character in '' Child Bride''. In the latter, she is shown nude in a nude sw ...
, which was described by Allmovie as "gratuitous child nudity", though in some versions the topless scene was cut out.
Exploitative films with pseudo-ethnographic pretensions continued well into the 1960s. For example, ''Mau-Mau'' (1955), presented as a documentary of the violent nationalist uprising in Kenya, played the grind-house circuit. Fabricated scenes filmed in front of a painted backdrop of an African village show nude and semi-clad "native" women being raped, strangled, and stabbed by machete-wielding maniacs.
Other films containing nudity were the early underground 8mm
pornographic film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
s and fetish reels which, due to various censorship regimes, had only limited (usually clandestine) means of distribution and were only shown in private until the 1970s.
Nudist films
Nudist films first appeared in the early 1930s as documentaries,
Utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
and docu-dramas promoting the healthy lifestyle of the naturist movement in Europe and the U.S. Earliest examples include ''This Nude World'' (1933), a narrated documentary filmed in the U.S., France, and Germany, and ''Elysia, Valley of the Nude'' (1933), a docu-drama filmed at a
nudist camp
A naturist resort or nudist resort is an establishment that provides accommodation (or at least camping space) and other amenities for guests in a context where they are invited to practise naturism – that is, a lifestyle of non-sexual socia ...
in Elsinore, California. Throughout the thirties, nudist films like ''Why Nudism?'' (1933), ''Nudist Land'' (1937), and ''The Unashamed'' (1938) flourished in road shows, but disappeared entirely in the forties.
The nudist-camp movie was revived in the 1950s with ''
Garden of Eden
In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...
'' (1954), the first naturist film shot in color. Changes in censorship laws led to a flood of films such as ''Naked Venus'' (1958) directed by
Edgar G. Ulmer
Edgar Georg Ulmer (; September 17, 1904 – September 30, 1972) was a Jewish- Moravian, Austrian-American film director who mainly worked on Hollywood B movies and other low-budget productions, eventually earning the epithet 'The King of PRC', ...
, ''
Nudist Memories
''Nudist Memories'' is a 1961 British naturist film. It was inspired by the success of '' Nudist Paradise'' and was a success at the box office.Sheridan, Simon (2011). ''Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema'', Titan Books pp. ...
Doris Wishman
Doris Wishman (June 1, 1912 August 10, 2002) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. She is credited with having directed and produced at least 30 feature films during a career spanning over four decades, most notably in the ...
was probably the most active producer/director in the genre, with eight nudist films to her credit between 1960 and 1964, with ''
Hideout in the Sun
''Hideout in the Sun'' is a 1960 nudist film, produced by Doris Wishman and co-directed by Wishman and Larry "Lazarus" Wolk. It stars Greg Conrad, Dolores Carlos and Earl Bauer.
Plot
Brothers Duke and Steve Martin (Conrad and Bauer) hold up a ba ...
'' (1960), ''
Nude on the Moon
''Nude on the Moon'' is a 1961 science-fantasy nudist film co-written and co-directed by Doris Wishman and Raymond Phelan under the shared pseudonyms "O. O. Miller" and "Anthony Brooks". The film was produced in 1960 and theatrically released in ...
'' (1961), ''
Diary of a Nudist
''Diary of a Nudist'', also known as ''Diary of a Girl Reporter'', ''Diary of a Naturist'', ''Girl Reporter Diary'', ''Nature Camp Confidential'', ''Nature Camp Diary'' or ''Nudist Confidential'', is an American 1961 nudist film produced and di ...
'' (1961), ''
Blaze Starr Goes Nudist
''Blaze Starr Goes Nudist'' is a 1962 nudist film, produced and directed by Doris Wishman. The film stars legendary burlesque queen Blaze Starr and crooner Ralph Young (as "Russ Martine").
The film was also released under the bowdlerized tit ...
Playgirls International
''Playgirls International'' is a 1963 American nudist film produced and directed by Doris Wishman.
Plot
Cast
See also
*List of American films of 1963
*Nudity in film
In film, nudity may be either graphic or suggestive, such as when a ...
Edward Craven Walker
Edward Craven Walker (4 July 1918 – 15 August 2000) was a British inventor, who invented the psychedelic Astro lamp, also known as the lava lamp.
War record
Craven was a pilot in World War II, flying a DeHavilland Mosquito over Germany to ...
(1918-2000), the inventor of the lava lamp, was a major figure in the naturist movement. He made three nudist films under the name Michael Keatering. They were '' Travelling Light'' (1959), ''
Sunswept
''Sunswept'' is a 1962 British naturist film directed by Edward Craven Walker.Simon Sheridan, ''Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema'', Titan Books 2011 p 44
References
External links
*
British drama films
Nudity in fi ...
'' (1962), and ''
Eves on Skis
''Eves on Skis'' is a 1963 British naturist documentary from Edward Craven Walker. It was not a success at the box office.Simon Sheridan, ''Keeping the British End Up: Four Decades of Saucy Cinema'', Titan Books 2011 p 48
References
External ...
'' (1963).
Ramsey Harrington produced ''
The Nudist Story
''The Nudist Story'' is a 1960 British film set at a nudist colony. It was released in the U.S. as ''Pussycat's Paradise'', and is also known as ''For Members Only''.
Plot
Prudish businesswoman Jane Robinson inherits the 'Avonmore Sun Camp' from ...
'' (1960) (retitled "For Members Only" or "Pussycat's Paradise" for the U.S. market), Arthur Knight produced '' My Bare Lady'' (1963) and
Leo Orenstein
Leo Alan Orenstein (24 July 1919 – 5 February 2009) was a Canadian director, producer and writer who worked primarily in television and theatre. At CBC Television alone, he was director or producer in over 150 works there, many of which were ...
(under the pseudonym Alan Overton) directed ''Have Figure, Will Travel'' (1963).Storey, Mark (2003). ''Cinema Au Naturel: A History of Nudist Film''. .
Exploitation producer George Weiss also released films such as ''Nudist Life'' (1961), which comprised vintage nudist camp footage. In the same year, in England,
Harrison Marks
George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films.
Personal life
Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926, Marks was 17 when he married his first wife ...
released ''
Naked as Nature Intended
''Naked as Nature Intended'' (released in the United States under the title ''As Nature Intended'') is a 1961 British nudist film produced and directed by George Harrison Marks and starring Pamela Green. It was the first film from producers Tony ...
'' which starred
Pamela Green
Phyllis Pamela Green (28 March 1929 – 7 May 2010) was an English glamour model and actress, best known at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s. She modeled for Zoltán Glass and his brother Stephen, Horace Roye, Jean Straker, Bill Brandt, ...
and was a box office success (Marks soon went to make softcore pornographic and caning / spanking fetish films).
Nudist films claimed to depict the lifestyles of members of the nudism or naturist movement, but were largely a vehicle for the exhibition of female nudity. They were mainly shot in naturist resorts, but augmented by attractive glamour models. The nudity was strictly non-sexual and, when filmed frontally, the members' pubic area was strictly covered by the angle of shot or some clothing or other objects. However, there was uninhibited exposure of breasts and backsides. The acting and technical production standards were not very high and the outlets for their exhibition were very limited, as was the size of the audience interested in these films, and many films were re-released several times under new titles, to trick patrons into seeing the films additional times. What audience there was lost interest in these films by the mid-1960s and production ceased.
Nudie-cuties
At the same time, some independent producers produced erotic feature films which openly contained female nudity without the pretext of a naturist context. These nudie-cuties followed the formula of being humorous films with hapless, bumbling males and glorified women. The groundbreaking '' The Immoral Mr. Teas'' (1959) directed by Russ Meyer was the first of such films. In that film, the context for the presentation of female nudity was the fantasies of the main character. The film is widely considered the first pornographic feature not confined to under-the-counter distribution, and the film was commercially successful. Russ Meyer made two more nudie-cuties: ''
Wild Gals of the Naked West
''Wild Gals of the Naked West'' is a 1962 nudie-cutie Western film written and directed by Russ Meyer and starring Sammy Gilbert, Anthony-James Ryan, Jackie Moran, Terri Taylor, Frank Bolger, and Werner Kirsch. The film is one of the few porn ...
'', and '' Eve and the Handyman'', starring his wife Eve in the title role. For the next few years a wave of such films, known as "nudies" or "nudie-cuties", were produced for adult theatres (in the United States sometimes called grindhouse theatres). The films bailed out movie houses that were facing stiff competition from television at the time. Nudie-cutie advertising was packed with tag-lines such as "You'll Never See This on TV". Films in this genre included Doris Wishman's science fiction spoof ''
Nude on the Moon
''Nude on the Moon'' is a 1961 science-fantasy nudist film co-written and co-directed by Doris Wishman and Raymond Phelan under the shared pseudonyms "O. O. Miller" and "Anthony Brooks". The film was produced in 1960 and theatrically released in ...
Ed Wood
Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker,
actor, and pulp novel author.
In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...
s horror-nudie ''
Orgy of the Dead
''Orgy of the Dead'' is a 1965 erotic horror film directed by Stephen C. Apostolof (under the alias A. C. Stephen). The screenplay was written by cult film director Edward D. Wood Jr., who adapted the screenplay into a novel.
Genre
The film b ...
'' (1965), with its bevy of topless dancers from beyond the grave, following his Western screenplay ''
Revenge of the Virgins
''Revenge of the Virgins'' is a 1959 American nudie cutie film directed by Peter Perry Jr with a screenplay by Ed Wood.
Plot
The film involves a main plot about an entrepreneur leading an expedition to find gold and a subplot about a tribe o ...
'' (1959), which shows a fierce tribe of bare-breasted Indian women hunting a group of treasure seekers. There were very many other similar films and sequels. One of the most renowned nudie-cuties is ''The Imp-probable Mr Weegee'', a pseudo-documentary in which famed crime photographer Arthur Fellig, nicknamed "Mr. WeeGee", stars as himself. In the film, he falls in love with a store window dummy. Besides Russ Meyer, the only director in this field to go on to critical success is
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...
, who began his career writing and directing a pair of nudie comedies in 1962, ''
Tonight for Sure
''Tonight for Sure'' is a 1962 softcore comedy film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It was the re-edited version of a nudie film named ''The Wide Open Spaces'' directed by Jerry Schafer. Jack Hill was the director of photography. The music ...
'' and ''
The Bellboy and the Playgirls
''The Bellboy and the Playgirls'' is a 1962 American film by Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Hill. The film is a re-edited version of a West German film of 1958 originally titled '' '', directed by Fritz Umgelter with Coppola and Hill shooting nud ...
''.
Harrison Marks
George Harrison Marks (6 August 1926 – 27 June 1997) was an English glamour photographer and director of nudist, and later, pornographic films.
Personal life
Born in Tottenham, Middlesex in 1926, Marks was 17 when he married his first wife ...
's '' The Naked World of Harrison Marks'' (1967) and ''Nine Ages of Nakedness'' (1969) could be considered late additions to the genre.
Peeping Tom
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...
'', released in 1960, a model (
Pamela Green
Phyllis Pamela Green (28 March 1929 – 7 May 2010) was an English glamour model and actress, best known at the end of the 1950s and early 1960s. She modeled for Zoltán Glass and his brother Stephen, Horace Roye, Jean Straker, Bill Brandt, ...
) lies back on a bed waiting to be photographed by the killer in a key scene. She undoes her top briefly exposing one of her breasts. The scene is regarded as the first female nude scene in a mainstream postwar English-language feature film, and notably the first such scene for a British film. The movie was panned by critics at the time and it reportedly destroyed Powell's directing career in the UK. The film is now seen as a
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...
re-released it in 1979. Another 1960 release, the American horror film ''
Macumba Love
''Macumba Love'' is a 1960 American adventure horror film directed and co-produced by Douglas Fowley and written by Norman Graham. The film stars Walter Reed, Ziva Rodann, William Wellman Jr., June Wilkinson and Ruth de Souza. The film centers o ...
'', featured a brief topless scene of
June Wilkinson
June Wilkinson (born 27 March 1940 in Eastbourne) is an English model and actress, known for her appearances in ''Playboy'' magazine and in films of the 1960s. One of the world's most-photographed women in the late 1950s and early 1960s, at the he ...
frolicking in the ocean. This segment, which caused a sensation at the time, only was seen in the European release of the film.
By now the Production Code had been revised so that it served less as a doctrine of rules and more as a workable set of precautions, including those on sex and nudity, to which filmmakers were advised on the more graphic depictions and given exceptions that could be made. It gave the MPAA the power to label certain films that were seen as containing adult or provocative material as "Suggested for Mature Audiences".
First major nude scenes in studio films
The
unfinished
Unfinished may refer to:
*Unfinished creative work, a work which a creator either chose not to finish or was prevented from finishing.
Music
* Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) "Unfinished"
* ''Unfinished'' (album), 2011 album by American singer Jor ...
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...
. For the filming of the scene, a body stocking was made for Monroe, and the set was to be closed to all but necessary crew. However, Monroe asked photographers to come in, including
William Woodfield
William Read "Billy" Woodfield (January 21, 1928 – November 24, 2001) was an American photographer, television screenwriter, and producer who took black-and-white photographs of American screen actors. He also wrote the screenplay to ''the Hy ...
, and took off the body stocking and swam in only a flesh-colored bikini bottom. After filming was completed, Monroe was photographed in the bikini bottom, and without it. Had the project been completed and released as planned, it would have been the first Hollywood film of the sound era to feature a mainstream actress in the nude.
However, this was not the first instance of Monroe being filmed in the nude. In the 1961
John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
film '' The Misfits'', Monroe, playing the lead female character, drops a sheet during an intimate scene, exposing herself on camera. Huston, however, decided not to include the footage in the final cut, as he believed it was of no value to the story. The script did not emphasize nudity in the 45-second-long love scene, but Monroe thought it was required, seeing that her character is putting on her clothes while being alone in the room, and it made "no sense" that "a woman sitting up in bed, with nobody in the room,
ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames.
Notable p ...
pull the sheet up and then try to put a blouse on at the same time". Charles Casillo, author of ''Marilyn Monroe: The Private Life of a Public Icon'', says the footage was preserved by ''Misfits'' producer Frank E. Taylor and has been, as of 2018, in the possession of his son, Curtice Taylor, since 1999.
The distinction of being the first mainstream American actress to appear nude in a starring role went to actress Jayne Mansfield in the 1963 film ''
Promises! Promises!
''Promises! Promises!'' (presented as ''Promises... Promises!'' on screen) is a 1963 American sex comedy film directed by King Donovan and starring Tommy Noonan (who also served as coproducer) and Jayne Mansfield. Released at the end of the Produ ...
'', though her pubic area is never visible on film. The film was banned in Cleveland and some other cities, though later the Cleveland court decided the nude scenes in the film were not lewd. Both the original and an edited version enjoyed box office success elsewhere. As a result of the film's success, Mansfield landed on the Top 10 list of Box Office Attractions for that year. However, ''Chicago Sun-Times'' movie critic
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
wrote, "Finally in ''Promises! Promises!'' she does what no Hollywood star ever does except in desperation. She does a nudie. In 1963, that kind of box office appeal was all she had left." Mansfield's autobiographical book ''Jayne Mansfield's Wild, Wild World''—which she co-wrote with
Mickey Hargitay
Mickey Hargitay (January 6, 1926 – September 14, 2006), born Miklós Karoly Hargitay, was a Hungarian-American actor and the 1955 Mr. Universe.
Born in Budapest, Hargitay moved to the United States in 1947 and eventually became a U.S. citi ...
—was published directly after the release of the film. It contains 32 pages of black-and-white photographs from the movie printed on glossy paper. Photographs of a naked Mansfield on the set were published in the June 1963 edition of ''Playboy''.
''
The Pawnbroker
''The Pawnbroker'' (1961) is a novel by Edward Lewis Wallant which tells the story of Sol Nazerman, a concentration camp survivor who suffers flashbacks of his past Nazi imprisonment as he tries to cope with his daily life operating a pawn sho ...
'', released in 1964, breached the Motion Picture Production Code with actresses
Linda Geiser
Linda may refer to:
As a name
* Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named)
* Linda (singer) (born 1977), stage name of Svetlana Geiman, a Russian singer
* Anita Linda (born Alice Lake ...
and Thelma Oliver (who later became the mystic and yoga teacher Krishna Kaur Khalsa) fully exposing their breasts. Allied Artists refused to cut the film and released it to theaters without a Production Code seal. The nudity resulted in a backlash from moral and religious conservatives, including the Catholic Legion (which by that time had become a virtually powerless fringe organization). However, critical and overall public response was positive, and many Catholics rebuked the Legion's condemnation of the film. The National Council of Churches even gave the movie an award for Best Picture of the Year.
The 1965 thriller '' The Collector'' contained mild nudity of Samantha Eggar and added to the challenge to the blanket prohibition of nudity in films. That same year Paula Prentiss performed a strip-tease in the
Woody Allen
Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...
-scripted comedy ''
What's New Pussycat?
''What's New Pussycat?'' is a 1965 screwball comedy film directed by Clive Donner, written by Woody Allen in his first produced screenplay, and starring Allen in his acting debut, along with Peter Sellers, Peter O'Toole, Romy Schneider, Capuci ...
'', which ended up on the cutting room floor but resurfaced on the pages of ''Playboy'', and Julie Christie appeared nude in the British drama film ''
Darling
Darling is a term of endearment of Old English origin.
Darling or Darlin' or Darlings may also refer to:
People
* Darling (surname)
* Darling Jimenez (born 1980), American boxer
* Darling Légitimus (1907–1999), French actress
Places Austral ...
''. U.S. release prints of the film and even later U.S. video and DVD versions cut the nudity. In 1966,
Michelangelo Antonioni
Michelangelo Antonioni (, ; 29 September 1912 – 30 July 2007) was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for directing his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—''L'Avventura'' (1960), ''La Notte'' (1961), and ''L'Eclisse'' (1962 ...
's seminal film '' Blowup'' was the first English-language film to show a woman's pubic hair. Antonioni's
mod
Mod, MOD or mods may refer to:
Places
* Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band
* M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
-influenced murder-mystery contained a scene involving two girls undressing before being chased around a studio by a fashion photographer, who wrestles them to the ground and exposes their torsos. There are additional scenes depicting sexuality and partial nudity, as well as blatant drug use. The film was produced in Britain and released to American audiences by
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
without Production Code approval, the first mainstream motion picture containing nudity to be released by a major studio in the US, the first open defiance by a major studio of the Code. That same year the biblical epic based on the book of Genesis '' The Bible: In the Beginning...'', was released by
Twentieth Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film studio, film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm o ...
featuring a nude sequence of Adam and Eve. Another epic, the historical film ''
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
'' (1966) featured scenes of topless native girls. John Frankenheimer's 1966 sci-fi thriller ''
Seconds
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
'' contained an extended sequence of full frontal male and female nudity that was deleted from the original American release in which bohemian revelers dance and play in a wine vat.
By 1967, the MPAA had abandoned the Production Code altogether, and in November 1968, the voluntary MPAA film rating system was implemented. The rating system has changed in minor ways since its inception, but the type and intensity of nudity continue to be rating criteria.
Sexploitation films in the U.S.A
By the mid-1960s, the novelty of the purely voyeuristic nudie-cutie/nudist camp comedy had dissipated. A new cycle of more realistic sex dramas and gritty, film noir-inspired crime stories (mostly filmed in black-and-white) emerged to dominate the adult market. These films had a much harder edge and dealt with racy subjects such as infidelity, wife-swapping, prostitution, lesbianism, drugs, white slavery, rape, psycho-killers, sex cults, decadence, sadomasochism, and sexual perversion. The films that concentrate on the dark and violent side of sexuality are generally known as "roughies".
Prime examples of roughie
sexploitation
A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit s ...
include: Lewis and Friedman's ''
Scum of the Earth!
''Scum of the Earth!'' (also known as ''Sam Flynn'') is a 1963 American exploitation film directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis and produced by David F. Friedman. It is credited as being the first film in the "roughie" genre.
Synopsis
An innocent ...
'' (1963); Russ Meyer's ''
Lorna
Lorna is a feminine given name. The name is said to have been first coined by R. D. Blackmore for the heroine of his novel ''Lorna Doone'', which appeared in 1869. Blackmore appears to have derived this name from the Scottish placename ''Lorn''/' ...
'' (1964); Joseph P. Mawra's misogynistic Olga trilogy, ''White Slaves of Chinatown'', ''Olga's Girls'', and ''Olga's House of Shame'' (all 1964); R. Lee Frost's ''The Defilers'' (1965); Doris Wishman's ''
Bad Girls Go to Hell
''Bad Girls Go to Hell'' is a 1965 American sexploitation film written, produced and directed by Doris Wishman. The film stars Gigi Darlene, Sam Stewart, Barnard L. Sackett, and Darlene Bennett.
Plot
Meg (Gigi Darlene) is a Boston housewife, w ...
'' (1965); ''The Sexploiters'' (1965); ''The Agony of Love'' (1966), and Michael Findlay's ''Body of a Female'' (1965) and psycho-killer trilogy starting with ''The Touch of Her Flesh'' (1967).
Sexploitation films initially played in grindhouse theatres and struggling independent theaters. However, by the end of the 1960s they were playing in established cinema chains. As the genre developed during the 1960s films began showing scenes of simulated sex. By the late 1960s, the films were attracting a larger and broader audience, including couples rather than the single males who originally made up the vast majority of patrons. The genre rapidly declined in the early 1970s due to advertising bans, the closure of many grindhouses and drive-in theaters, and the growth of hardcore pornography in the " Golden Age of Porn". During this period a number of
adult film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
s that were sexually explicit received general theatrical releases, including ''
Blue Movie
''Blue Movie'' (also known as ''Fuck'') is a 1969 American erotic film written, produced and directed by Andy Warhol. It is the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States, and is re ...
'' (1969), ''
Mona the Virgin Nymph
''Mona'' (1970) (also promoted as ''Mona; the Virgin Nymph'') is a sexually explicit adult film that contains a number of unsimulated non-penetrative sex scenes as well as penetrative ones. The film is regarded as the second sexually explicit f ...
'' (1970), '' Deep Throat'' (1972), and others.
Frost's '' Love Camp 7'' (1968) was the forerunner of the women in prison and Nazi exploitation subgenres which have continued to the present day. Their stories feature women in prison who are subjected to sexual and physical abuse, typically by sadistic male or female prison wardens and guards. The genre also features many films in which imprisoned women engage in lesbian sex. These films discarded all moralistic pretensions and were works of pure fantasy intended only to titillate the audience with a lurid mix of sex and violence, including voyeurism (strip searches, group shower scenes, cat-fights) to sexual fantasies (lesbianism), to fetishism (bondage, whipping, degradation), and outright sadism (rape, sexual slavery, beatings, torture, cruelty).
Gate of Flesh
is a 1964 Japanese film based on a novel by Taijiro Tamura and directed by Seijun Suzuki.
Plot
In an impoverished and burnt out Tokyo ghetto of post-World War II Japan, a band of prostitutes defend their territory, squatting in a bombed-out b ...
'' (1964) was the first mainstream film with nudity seen in "general release" (as opposed to adults-only) theaters. Suzuki was a pioneer of the
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
. His surreal and influential '' Branded to Kill'' (1967) contains several scenes of casual nudity (the actors had to wear adhesive patches to avoid censorship problems).
In Japan, films called
pink film
in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equiv ...
s (pinky violent movies) were partly influenced by the Japanese
Ero guro
is an artistic genre that puts its focus on eroticism, sexual corruption, and decadence.Silverberg, Miriam Rom. "By Way of a Preface: Defining ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense''". Galley copy of the preface for ''Erotic Grotesque Nonsense: The Mass C ...
films which focuses on sexual corruption, and decadence. Many, such as ''
Shogun's Joy of Torture
is a 1968 Japanese ''ero guro'' film directed by Teruo Ishii and distributed by Toei. The film, which can be classified as belonging to a subgenre of pink films, is considered a precursor to Toei's ventures into the "pinky violent" style of f ...
'' (1968) by Teruo Ishii, deal directly with sadomasochism or include fetishistic scenes of female victims being bound.
1968–present day
In 1968, the Hays Code was replaced by the MPAA film rating system. Since then, nudity in various forms has become more common. A number of actresses have appeared nude or partially nude in films, and it has become increasingly common for actresses to appear topless onscreen. Notable actresses who have appeared topless include
Jane Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...
Julie Andrews
Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films, particularly period dramas, and for her portrayals of headstrong and complicated women, she has received numerous accolades, incl ...
(''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'', 1997),
Gwyneth Paltrow
Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (; born ) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films ...
Twilight
Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this il ...
'', 1998),
Rene Russo
Rene Marie Russo (born February 17, 1954) is an American actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model in the 1970s, appearing on magazine covers such as ''Vogue'' and ''Cosmopolitan''. She made her film debut in the 1989 comedy '' ...
Katie Holmes
Kate Noelle Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress. She first achieved fame as Joey Potter on the television series ''Dawson's Creek'' (1998–2003).
Holmes made her feature film debut in 1997 with a supporting role in Ang Lee ...
Halle Berry
Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mis ...
(''
Swordfish
Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfis ...
'', 2001). In an interview in March 2007, Berry said that her toplessness in ''Swordfish'' was "gratuitous" to the movie, but that she needed to do so to get over her fear of nudity, and that it was the best thing she did for her career. Having overcome her inhibitions, she went on to a role in ''
Monster's Ball
''Monster's Ball'' is a 2001 American drama film directed by Marc Forster, produced by Lee Daniels and written by Milo Addica and Will Rokos, who also appear in the film. It stars Billy Bob Thornton, Heath Ledger, Halle Berry, and Peter Boyle, ...
'', which required her to be nude in a sex scene featuring her and Billy Bob Thornton, and which won her an
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...
. Some actresses prefer not to expose their breasts and use a
body double
In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes FOR another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...
.
In 2007, writer/director Judd Apatow announced "I'm gonna get a penis or a vagina in every movie I do from now on. . . . It really makes me laugh in this day and age, with how psychotic our world is, that anyone is troubled by seeing any part of the human body." On 11 October 2010, the MPAA's Classification and Rating Administration announced that it would specifically note in the future which films contained "male nudity" in direct response to parental concerns about the content of the
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
film ''
Brüno
''Brüno'' is a 2009 mockumentary comedy film directed by Larry Charles and starring Sacha Baron Cohen, who produced, co-wrote, and played the gay Austrian fashion journalist Brüno. It is the third film based on one of Cohen's characters from ...
''.
Actors and actresses are typically informed of nude scenes well in advance, and nudity waivers require directors to state what will be shown and its presentation. This is generally stipulated in the
nudity clause
A nudity clause is a paragraph or a section in a performer's legal contract that stipulates which parts, if any, of the performer's body are to be exposed during a theatrical, television, cinematic, or other type of production. The clause may stipu ...
of a performer's contract. Actress Anne Hathaway said in an interview with National Public Radio, "The director submits a shot list, and you look over them for approval. And a lot of times, if an actor feels the shot demands a lot of them, they'll demand money for it.". In 2021, however, following on from multiple allegations that actors and actresses were forced to push past their comfort zones in the name of artistic integrity, the Time's Up campaign has advised many Hollywood stars to set boundaries in order to avoid past mistakes. It also advises celebrities to avoid using film doubles to make on-screen nudity more graphic, but rather focus on imparting the same effect on the audience through alternative methods. While this may seem over the top for some movie stars, with the likes of Winslet and Sebastian Stan still preparing to strip off in their latest films, the fact that leading actresses like Eva Green have spent nearly 30 minutes on-screen naked, while leading actors such as McGregor have managed to accrue nearly 20 minutes themselves, is perhaps alarming enough to movie-goers and audiences that graphic displays of nudity may have been overused.
The tastefulness of nude scenes is hotly debated in the United States. Adding nudity to films may potentially hurt a film's commercial potential.
European cinema since 1929
Some European films showed more nudity than the American films, due to less strict attitudes about nudity in some parts of Europe. European films exhibited in the United States were not subject to the
Hays Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
, though some did create controversy. The 1931 Greek film '' Daphnis and Chloe'' by
Orestis Laskos
Orestis Laskos ( el, Ορέστης Λάσκος; 11 November 1907 – 17 October 1992) was a Greek film director, screenwriter and actor. He directed 55 films between 1931 and 1971. He also wrote scripts for 24 films between 1929 and 1971. ...
featured the first nude scene in a European fiction film, showing Chloe bathing in a fountain.
Gustav Machatý's ''
Extase
Extase is a computer game developed by Cryo and published by Virgin Mastertronic.
Summary
It features some puzzles involving a sleeping female android that the player needed to wake up by cleaning its circuit. Each level represented a different ...
'' (1933) with Hedy Lamarr was condemned by
Pope Pius XI
Pope Pius XI ( it, Pio XI), born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (; 31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was head of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to his death in February 1939. He was the first sovereign of Vatican City fro ...
. It was very controversial on its release in the United States and is credited with contributing to the repressive regime under the Hays Code.
Abel Gance
Abel Gance (; born Abel Eugène Alexandre Péréthon; 25 October 188910 November 1981) was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films: ''J ...
's ''
Lucrezia Borgia
Lucrezia Borgia (; ca-valencia, Lucrècia Borja, links=no ; 18 April 1480 – 24 June 1519) was a Spanish-Italian noblewoman of the House of Borgia who was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. She reigned as the Govern ...
'' (1935) had a nude scene with actress
Edwige Feuillère
Edwige Feuillère (born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti; October 29, 1907 – November 13, 1998) was a French stage and film actress.
Biography
She was born Edwige Louise Caroline Cunatti to an Italian architect father and an Alsace-born mo ...
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
mounted a campaign against this film.
Leni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda.
A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...
's ''
Olympia
The name Olympia may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film
* ''Olympia'' (1938 film), by Leni Riefenstahl, documenting the Berlin-hosted Olympic Games
* ''Olympia'' (1998 film), about a Mexican soap opera star who pursues a career as an athlet ...
'' (1938), which was produced as Nazi propaganda and a documentary of the
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...
, has an opening sequence noted for its idealized, non-exploitive use of male and female nudity. Another film from Germany, ''
Liane, Jungle Goddess
''Liane, Jungle Goddess'' (German ''Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald'') is a 1956 West German film directed by Eduard von Borsody. It was based on the 1956 novel ''Liane, das Mädchen aus dem Urwald'' by Anne Day-Helveg. The film attracted con ...
'' (1956), featured
Marion Michael
Marion Michael (17 October 1940 – 13 October 2007) was a German film actress and singer. She was best known for her role in the 1956 film ''Liane, Jungle Goddess''. She was also the second German actress to appear nude on film, after Hildegard ...
as a topless female variant on the Tarzan legend.
Alessandro Blasetti
Alessandro Blasetti (3 July 1900 – 1 February 1987) was an Italian film director and screenwriter who influenced Italian neorealism with the film ''Quattro passi fra le nuvole''. Blasetti was one of the leading figures in Italian cinema during ...
's ''La cena delle beffe'' (''Dinner of fun'', 1941) had
Clara Calamai
Clara Calamai (7 September 1909 – 21 September 1998) was an Italian actress.
She was one of the most famous and popular Italian actresses in the 1930s and 1940s, sharing the limelight with actresses such as Alida Valli, Valentina Cortese, an ...
in what is credited as being the first topless scene in an Italian film. It was soon followed by similar scenes in the Italian films ''
La corona di ferro
''The Iron Crown'' () is a 1941 Italian adventure written and directed by Alessandro Blasetti, starring Massimo Girotti and Gino Cervi. The narrative revolves a sacred iron crown and a king who is prophesied to lose his kingdom to his nephew. I ...
'' (''The Iron Crown'', 1941) and '' Carmela'' (1942). Other noteworthy European films which contained nudity include Italian film '' Era lui... sì! sì!'' (1951, with then 15-year-old
Sophia Loren
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...
in a harem scene), two of
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer and playwright. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time, his films are known ...
's Swedish films ''Hamnstad'' ('' Port of Call'', 1948) and ''
Summer with Monika
''Summer with Monika'' ( sv, Sommaren med Monika) is a 1953 Swedish romance film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, and starring Harriet Andersson and Lars Ekborg. It is based on Per Anders Fogelström's 1951 novel of the same title. It was ...
Isabelle Corey
Isabelle Corey (29 May 1939 – 6 February 2011) was a French actress and model.
Corey started modeling in Paris in her teens for magazines such as ''Jardin des Modes'', ''Elle'' and ''Madame Figaro''. She was discovered in the Latin Quarter, wh ...
, then-age 16),
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. After a career of more tha ...
's ''
Shoot the Piano Player
''Shoot the Piano Player'' (french: Tirez sur le pianiste; UK title: ''Shoot the Pianist'') is a 1960 French New Wave crime drama film directed by François Truffaut that stars Charles Aznavour as the titular pianist with Marie Dubois, Nicole Ber ...
Jesús Franco
Jesús Franco Manera (12 May 1930 – 2 April 2013) was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a prolific director of low-budget exploitation film, exploitation and B-movies. In a career spanning from 1959 to 2013, he wrote, directe ...
,
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as Fran ...
, the French film ''The Game Is Over'' (1966, with
Jane Fonda
Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress, activist, and former fashion model. Recognized as a film icon, Fonda is the recipient of various accolades including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, sev ...
Isadora
Isidora or Isadora is a female given name of Greek origin, derived from Ἰσίδωρος, ''Isídōros'' (a compound of Ἶσις, ''Ísis'', and δῶρον, ''dōron'': "gift of he goddessIsis").
The male equivalent is Isidore.
The name surviv ...
'' (1968, with
Vanessa Redgrave
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two ...
).
Makers of the British film '' The Pleasure Girls'' (1965) shot an alternate version of a party scene with brief nudity that only appears in the export print. The 1966 British-Italian film '' Blowup'' became the first mainstream English-language film to show a woman's pubic hair, although the particular shot was only a fraction of a second long. (Some sources, such as ''Playboys ''History of Sex in Cinema'' series, have stated that the pubic hair exposure was unintended).
Two Swedish films from 1967, '' I Am Curious (Yellow)'' and '' Inga'', were ground-breaking—and famous—for showing explicit sex and nudity. Both were initially banned in the U.S. and were rated X when they were shown in 1968. ''I Am Curious (Yellow)'' was banned in Massachusetts, more on the basis of the sexuality than the nudity, and was the subject of prosecution. The film was held not to be obscene.
There was a surge in nudity in film in the United Kingdom after 1960. The gritty social drama '' This Sporting Life'' (1963) was among the first to include glimpses of male nudity. Judy Geeson's uninhibited nude swim in ''
Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
"Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" (also titled "Mulberry Bush" or "This Is the Way") is an English nursery rhyme and singing game. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7882. It uses the tune which Nancy Dawson danced into fame in ''Th ...
'' (1967) created a stir at the time. The surreal student protest film '' If....'' (1968) was notorious and controversial for its frontal male nudity (excised by censors), female nudity, sex, violence and homosexuality.
Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptation ...
's ''
Women in Love
''Women in Love'' (1920) is a novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel ''The Rainbow'' (1915) and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, ...
'' (1969) was especially controversial for showing frontal male nudity in a wrestling scene between
Oliver Reed
Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...
and
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story '' Whistle Down the Wind'' to the " kitchen sink" dram ...
Academy Award for Best Actress
The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. ...
in that film, the first performer to win for a role that included nude scenes.
There was also a long line of
sex comedies
Sex comedy, erotic comedy or more broadly sexual comedy is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sex comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary works such ...
, beginning with '' Mary Had a Little...'' (1961), which were more intended to display nudity than sexuality. Other British sex comedies included ''
What's Good for the Goose
''What's Good For The Goose'', also known as ''Girl Trouble'', is a 1969 British comedy film directed by Menahem Golan and starring Norman Wisdom.John Hamilton, ''Beasts in the Cellar: The Exploitation Film Career of Tony Tenser'', Fab Press, 200 ...
'' (1969). There apparently are two versions of the film, one being an uncensored version (105 minutes vs. the censored 98-minute version), which shows nudity from
Sally Geeson
Sally Louise Geeson (born 23 June 1950) is an English actress with a career mostly on television in the 1970s. She is best known for playing Sid James's daughter, Sally, in '' Bless This House'' and for her roles in ''Carry On Abroad'' (1972) a ...
(Judy's sister); this version was released in continental Europe. Other films include '' Percy'' and its sequel, '' Percy's Progress'', as well as the ''
Carry On
Carry On may refer to:
* ''Carry On'' (franchise), a British comedy media franchise
*Carry-on luggage or hand luggage, luggage that is carried into the passenger compartment
* ''Carry On'' (film), a 1927 British silent film
* ''Carry On'' (novel), ...
'' series, which added nudity to its saucy
seaside postcard
A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...
innuendo
An innuendo is a hint, insinuation or intimation about a person or thing, especially of a denigrating or derogatory nature. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging (also called insinuation), that works obliquely by allusion ...
George Segal
George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as ''Ship o ...
movie '' Loving'' (1970) and added his two favorite words to the title, making '' Carry On Loving'' the twentieth in the series, followed by ''
Carry On Girls
''Carry On Girls'' is a 1973 British comedy film, the 25th release in the series of 31 ''Carry On'' films (1958–1992). The film features regulars Sid James, Barbara Windsor, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Bernard Bresslaw and Peter Butterwor ...
'', based around a
Miss World
Miss World is the oldest existing international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's widow, Julia Morley, has co-chaired the pageant. Along with Miss Universe, Miss Int ...
-style beauty contest. Next in the series was '' Carry On Dick'', with more risque humour and Sid James and Barbara Windsor's on- and off-screen lovemaking. There was also the
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...
.
Traditionally conservative Hammer Film Productions introduced nudity into their line of horror and fantasy films starting with ''
The Vampire Lovers
''The Vampire Lovers'' is a 1970 British Gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, George Cole, Kate O'Mara, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams and Jon Finch. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions. I ...
Ingrid Pitt
Ingrid Pitt (born Ingoushka Petrov; 21 November 193723 November 2010) was a Polish-British actress and writer best known for her work in horror films of the 1970s.
Early life
Ingoushka Petrov was born in Warsaw, Poland, one of two daughters ...
, ''
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
''When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'' (titled ''When Dinosaurs Ruled the World'' in the U.K.) is a 1970 British prehistoric dinosaur film from Hammer Films, written and directed by Val Guest, and starring Victoria Vetri. It was produced by Aida Yo ...
'' (1970) with
Victoria Vetri
Victoria Vetri (born September 26, 1944; also known as Angela Dorian and Victoria Rathgeb) is an American model and actress.
Early life and education
Vetri was born in the Queen of Angels Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to Italian immigran ...
, ''
Lust for a Vampire
''Lust for a Vampire'', also known as ''Love for a Vampire'' or ''To Love a Vampire'' (the latter title was the one used on American television), is a 1971 British Hammer Horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Ralph Bates, Barbara Jeffo ...
'' (1971), ''
Twins of Evil
''Twins of Evil'' (also known as ''Twins of Dracula'') is a 1971 British horror film directed by John Hough and starring Peter Cushing, with Damien Thomas and the real-life identical twins and former ''Playboy'' Playmates Mary and Madeleine C ...
'' (1971), et al.
The ''
Commedia sexy all'italiana
The commedia sexy all'italiana (, lit. "sex comedy Italian style"), also known as commedia scollacciata or commedia erotica all'italiana, is a subgenre of Italian ''commedia all'italiana'' film genre.
Style
''Commedia sexy'' is characterized typ ...
'' genre of Italian film of the 1970s and early 1980s featured abundant female nudity in a clichéd form, most of it for the local market, but some for the international market. The Italian-produced ''
Last Tango in Paris
''Last Tango in Paris'' ( it, Ultimo tango a Parigi; french: Le Dernier Tango à Paris) is a 1972 erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The film stars Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and Jean-Pierre Léaud, and portrays a recently w ...
'' (1973), directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, was one of the first commercial films to openly contain nudity, and led to the boom of other fashion erotic films, such as the French-produced ''
Emmanuelle
Emmanuelle is the lead character in a series of French erotic films based on the main character in the novel ''Emmanuelle'' (1959), created by Emmanuelle Arsan.
Character history
Emmanuelle appeared as the pen name of Marayat Rollet-Andrian ...
'' (1974) and the Franco-German production ''
Story of O
''Story of O'' (french: Histoire d'O, link=no, ) is an erotic novel published in 1954 by French author Anne Desclos under the pen name Pauline Réage, and published in French by Jean-Jacques Pauvert.
Desclos did not reveal herself as the autho ...
'' (1975) by
Just Jaeckin
Just Jaeckin (8 August 1940 – 6 September 2022) was a French film director, photographer, and sculptor.
Early life
Jaeckin was born in Vichy, Allier, French State
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 19 ...
Caligula
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germanicu ...
'' (1979) by
Tinto Brass
Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (born 26 March 1933) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. In the 1960s and 1970s, he directed many critically acclaimed avant-garde films of various genres. Today, he is mainly known for his later work in the er ...
.
The films of Catherine Breillat, a French filmmaker, are well known for containing explicit nudity. Her film '' Une vraie jeune fille'' (1975) contains close-ups of actress Charlotte Alexandra's breasts and vulva and actor Bruno Balp's erect penis, some of which are particularly graphic in nature (including a sequence where an actor attempts to insert an earthworm into Alexandra's vagina). This resulted in the film not officially being released until 1999. Other actresses who have appeared in explicit full-frontal nude scenes in Breillat's films include Caroline Ducey in '' Romance'' (1999) and
Roxane Mesquida
Roxane Mesquida (born 1 October 1981) is a French-American actress and model based in Los Angeles.
Mesquida grew up in Le Pradet, a little town located in southern France. Her mother, writer Françoise Mesquida, is French/Spanish and her father ...
in ''
Sex Is Comedy
''Sex Is Comedy'' is a 2002 comedy-drama film written and directed by Catherine Breillat. It revolves around a director ( Anne Parillaud) and her troubles filming an intimate sex scene between two actors who cannot tolerate each other.
Based ...
'' (2002). Bernardo Bertolucci's film '' The Dreamers'' (2003) included extensive full frontal nude scenes, male and female, and graphic sex scenes.
European attitudes towards depictions of nudity tend to be relatively relaxed and there are few taboos around it. Showing of full frontal nudity in movies, even by major actors, is common and it is not considered damaging to the actors' careers. In recent years, explicit, unsimulated sexual intercourse has occurred in movies which target the general movie-going audience, albeit those usually labeled 'arthouse' product; for example, Michael Winterbottom's '' 9 Songs'' (in which the male character is depicted ejaculating) and
Lars von Trier
Lars von Trier (''né'' Trier; 30 April 1956) is a Danish filmmaker, actor, and lyricist. Having garnered a reputation as a highly ambitious, polarizing filmmaker, he has been the subject of several controversies: Cannes, in addition to nominat ...
's ''
The Idiots
''The Idiots'' ( da, Idioterne) is a 1998 Danish dark comedy-drama film written and directed by Lars von Trier. It is his first film made in compliance with the Dogme 95 Manifesto, and is also known as Dogme #2. It is the second film in von Tr ...
''.
The Italian film ''
1900
As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...
'' (1976), a.k.a. ''Novecento'', includes an explicit scene of
Robert De Niro
Robert Anthony De Niro Jr. ( , ; born August 17, 1943) is an American actor. Known for his collaborations with Martin Scorsese, he is considered to be one of the best actors of his generation. De Niro is the recipient of various accolades ...
and
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu, CQ (, , ; born 27 December 1948) is a French actor, filmmaker, businessman and vineyard owner since 1989 who is one of the most prolific thespians in film history having completed over 250 films since 1967 alm ...
, who are shown on either side of the actress
Stefania Casini
Stefania Casini (born 4 September 1948) is an Italian actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. She starred alongside Robert De Niro and Gérard Depardieu in Bernardo Bertolucci's ''1900'' (1976) and received two David di Donatello Award ...
as she fondles and masturbates their exposed penises. Another scene features two prepubescent boys in a barn, one of them taking his damp clothes off, and shown frontally naked. The other one gets curious about the former's exposed glans, who asks him to show his own penis, and incites him to retract his foreskin, while his own penis is seen twice fully erect.
The Finnish documentary '' Steam of Life'' about men in saunas shows nudity throughout the film. In the Dutch movie ''All Stars 2: Old Stars'', the main characters stay in a nudist campsite. Much full frontal nudity is displayed, but not of any of the main characters. The French film ''
Stranger by the Lake
''Stranger by the Lake'' (french: L'Inconnu du lac) is a 2013 French erotic thriller drama film written and directed by Alain Guiraudie. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where Guiraudie won th ...
'' (2013) is set on a male nude beach, showing much male full frontal nudity, and even an ejaculation scene.
Although there has been a gradual relaxation of attitudes towards nudity, changes in laws can lead to more stringent criteria. One prominent case involved '' Walkabout'' (1971) which includes numerous scenes of full frontal nudity featuring 17-year-old Jenny Agutter which did not pose a problem when submitted to the
British Board of Film Classification
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...
(BBFC) in 1971 and later in 1998, since the Protection of Children Act 1978 permitted the distribution and possession of indecent images of people over the age of 16; however, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 raised the age threshold to 18 which meant the actress' age was a factor when the film was re-submitted in 2011. The BBFC reviewed the scenes in regards to the law and deemed them to not be "indecent" and passed the film uncut. Had this not been the case, the film would have been refused classification and it would have effectively made it illegal to possess a copy of the film, including copies that had been purchased legally at the time.
Contemporary trends in Western cinema
Over the years, nudity in film was a source of scandal and provocation; but its presence today is treated largely naturally, frequently with nudity being shown in scenes that naturally require it, such as those that take place in nature or in the bathroom or in love scenes. For example, '' The Blue Lagoon'' (1980) shows the awakening of the sexual instinct in two shipwrecked young cousins – one male, one female – on a tropical island where nudity is a natural part of the environment in which they find themselves. The relationship between a painter and his model, who traditionally poses in the nude, is the context of a number of films. In ''
La Belle Noiseuse
''La Belle Noiseuse'' (, ) is a 1991 drama film directed by Jacques Rivette and starring Michel Piccoli, Jane Birkin and Emmanuelle Béart. Loosely adapted from the 1831 short story '' Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu'' (''The Unknown Masterpiece'') by H ...
'' ("The Beautiful Liar", 1991) the painter's model motivates him again after a period of lack of inspiration of the artist. Similarly, in ''
Titanic
RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, United ...
'' (1997)
Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films, particularly period dramas, and for her portrayals of headstrong and complicated women, she has received numerous accolades, incl ...
poses nude for Leonardo DiCaprio. These films show the close relationship between film and the traditional
art nude
The nude, as a form of visual art that focuses on the unclothed human figure, is an enduring tradition in Western art. It was a preoccupation of Ancient Greek art, and after a semi-dormant period in the Middle Ages returned to a central position ...
Goya in Bordeaux
''Goya en Burdeos'' (English: ''Goya in Bordeaux'') is a 1999 Spanish historical drama film written and directed by Carlos Saura about the life of Francisco de Goya, the influential 19th-century Spanish painter.
Awards
* 5 Goya Awards, includin ...
The Naked Maja
''The Naked Maja'' is a 1958 Italian-American co-production made by S.G.C., Titanus, and United Artists. This historical film recounting of the romance between the painter Francisco Goya and the Duchess of Alba was directed by Henry Koster, an ...
''. There are film scenes where nudity, in routine and non-sexual situations, such as mixed shower scenes, has been used to emphasize gender equity in the future, as in ''
Starship Troopers
''Starship Troopers'' is a military science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. Written in a few weeks in reaction to the US suspending nuclear tests, the story was first published as a two-part serial in ''The Magazine of F ...
''. Another example of the practice involves scenes with a nude swim, also called skinny-dipping, such as Kelly Brook and
Riley Steele
Riley Steele is an American pornographic actress and escortbr>
Early life
Steele grew up in Escondido, California. Before starting her adult film career, she worked at Starbucks and at a golf course snack bar.
Adult film career
In 2005, St ...
in ''
Piranha 3D
''Piranha 3D'' is a 2010 American 3D horror comedy film that serves as a loose remake of the comedy horror film ''Piranha'' (1978) and an entry in the ''Piranha'' film series. Directed by Alexandre Aja and written by Pete Goldfinger and Josh St ...
''.
Toplessness
Toplessness refers to the state in which a woman's breasts, including her areolas and nipples, are exposed, especially in a public place or in a visual medium. The male equivalent is barechestedness, also commonly called shirtlessness.
Expose ...
in film is regarded by some as partial nudity, such as
Halle Berry
Halle Maria Berry (; born Maria Halle Berry; August 14, 1966) is an American actress. She began her career as a model and entered several beauty contests, finishing as the first runner-up in the Miss USA pageant and coming in sixth in the Mis ...
in ''
Swordfish
Swordfish (''Xiphias gladius''), also known as broadbills in some countries, are large, highly migratory predatory fish characterized by a long, flat, pointed bill. They are a popular sport fish of the billfish category, though elusive. Swordfis ...
''.
East Asian cinema since 1929
Female nudity has been fairly common in Japanese cinema since at least the 1960s when the director Seijun Suzuki included nude scenes in his yakuza exploitation films such as '' Branded to Kill'' (1967). The actress
Reiko Ike
is a Japanese actress, singer, and entertainer. She is best known for her roles in the genre of action/erotic movies known as ''pink films''. Ike also released an album of songs in 1971, ''Kōkotsu No Sekai''. After a drug-related arrest, and an ...
headlined a number of exploitation flicks in the early 1970s: ''
Girl Boss Guerilla
is a 1972 Japanese film in the ''sukeban'' (delinquent girl) subgenre of Toei's "Pinky violence" style of '' Pink film''. The third in the seven-film ''Girl Boss'' series, it was directed by Norifumi Suzuki and starred Miki Sugimoto and Reiko Ike ...
'' (1972), ''Criminal Woman'' (1973) and ''
Sex & Fury
''Sex & Fury'', translated , is a 1973 Japanese action-thriller film directed by Norifumi Suzuki and starring Reiko Ike.
It was followed by ''Female Yakuza Tale: Inquisition and Torture'' in the same year.
Plot
The film tells the story of a fe ...
Eiko Matsuda
was a Japanese actress. She is best known for her performance as Sada Abe in ''In the Realm of the Senses
''In the Realm of the Senses'' (french: link=no, L'Empire des sens, Japanese: , ''Ai no Korīda'', "Bullfight of Love") is a 1976 erotic ...
and Tatsuya Fuji. The unexpurgated version of the film has never been shown in Japan, and the film negatives had to be secretly shipped out of the country to France for developing.
Eri Ishida
is a Japanese actress. She won the award for best supporting actress at the 9th Yokohama Film Festival for ''Chōchin'' and at the 13th Hochi Film Award for '' A Chaos of Flowers'', ''Hope and Pain'' and ''Wuthering Heights''.
Filmography
Films ...
appeared naked in '' Enrai'' (1981) and ''Daburu Beddo'' (1983), before going on to mainstream success. In 1986,
Hitomi Kuroki
Hitomi Kuroki (Japanese: ; Katakana: ''Kuroki Hitomi''; born October 5, 1960, in Kurogi-Machi, Yame District, Fukuoka, Japan) is a Japanese actress and film director. Her birth name is Shoko Ichiji ( ''Ichiji Shōko'') née Egami ( ''Egami Shōk ...
Loletta Lee
Rachel Lee (; born 8 January 1966), previously known as Loletta Lee, is a Hong Kong actress and a Category III film star.
She started playing small roles in Hong Kong movies in the 1980s. Her first role as a lead actress was in ''Devoted to You ...
appeared nude in a whole series of Hong Kong category III movies, e.g. ''Girls Unbutton'', '' Crazy Love'', and ''
Sex and Zen II
''Sex and Zen II'' (, "The Carnal Prayer Mat II - Jade Maiden Heart Sutra") is a 1996 Hong Kong erotic comedy film directed by Chin Man Kei. The film is a sequel to ''Sex and Zen'' (1991), and it was followed by ''Sex and Zen III'' (1998).
Back ...
'' with
Shu Qi
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
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, resting_place_coordinate ...
. ''New Love in Tokyo'' (1994) was notable for having one of the first scenes of uncensored
pubic hair
Pubic hair is terminal body hair that is found in the genital area of adolescent and adult humans. The hair is located on and around the sex organs and sometimes at the top of the inside of the thighs. In the pubic region around the pubis bon ...
. 2000 saw Harumi Inoue strip down for her role in ''
Freeze Me
, or ''Freezer'', is a 2000 Japanese rape and revenge thriller film by director Takashi Ishii. This film stars Harumi Inoue as Chihiro, a rape victim who tries to live a normal life, only to be visited several years later by her three rapists in ...
''.
Full-frontal adult male nudity (in which genitals are fully revealed) traditionally has been taboo in mainstream cinema from East Asia (and for actors of East Asian origin living outside East Asia), in sharp contrast to the situation in mainland Europe, but similar to the US. However, two rare early examples of a challenge to this taboo occurred: first, in the early years of cinema in mainland China, in the black-and-white silent film ''
The Big Road
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' (1934), directed by radical 1930's Chinese film director Sun Yu, which features the full-frontal nudity of a group of young men skinny-dipping in a river, while being observed by two women,"The Chinese Mirror: A Journal of Chinese Film History – Retro Review: The Big Road" . ''The Chinese Mirror''. Retrieved 12 May 2013. a scene described as "very advanced for the time". Another example of nudity (but with simulated genitals) in East Asian cinema is the Japanese film '' Hanzo the Razor'' (1972). It is the first part of a trilogy, depicting Officer Hanzo Itami's foiling of a plot by corrupt officials in Edo period Japan. Simulated male and female genitals are shown in various scenes. There are also scenes showing Hanzo using sexually aggressive tactics in order to extract secrets from women who associated with Hanzo's suspects.
However, a number of films from the early 1990s onwards have begun to lift this taboo. Among them are: the notable frequent full-frontal nudity of Hong Kong Chinese females and the brief but particularly notable full-frontal adult male nudity of a Hong Kong Chinese male actor, Chung Lin, who plays the robot version of Japanese scientist Ryuichi Yamamoto, in the 1991 Hong Kong science fiction/comedy film '' Robotrix'' (perhaps the first time in Hong Kong cinema that a Chinese adult male's genitals have been fully revealed on camera in a film on general release); the full-frontal male and female nudity of young Hong Kong Chinese actor
Tony Leung Ka-fai
Tony Leung Ka-fai (; born 1 February 1958) is a Hong Kong actor who is a four-time winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actor.
As he is often confused with actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Tony Leung Ka-fai is known as "Big Tony," while Tony Leu ...
and young British actress
Jane March
Jane March Horwood (born 20 March 1973) is an English film actress and former model.
Early life and education
March was born Jane March Horwood in Edgware, London. Her father, Bernard Horwood, was a design and technology secondary school teac ...
in the French/Vietnamese film '' The Lover'' (1992); the brief view of the genitals of Hong Kong Chinese actor
Mark Cheng
Mark Cheng Ho-nam (born 6 October 1964) is a Hong Kong actor. He made his name with his first starring role in the movie ''Cupid One'' with Sally Yeh. He is also known for his role as "Lam Wing" in the 1996 film ''Tai Chi Boxer'' and FuXi in ''My ...
, as he walks around a room fully naked in the Hong Kong movie ''
Raped by an Angel
''Raped by an Angel'' a.k.a. ''Naked Killer 2'' (香港奇案之強姦; pinyin: Xiang Gang qi an zhi qiang jian) is a 1993 Category III Hong Kong film directed by Andrew Lau, with a scenario by Wong Jing. The Hong Kong Chinese actor Mark Cheng i ...
'' (1993); the full-frontal appearance of Hong Kong Chinese actor
Michael Lam
Michael Lam Wai-Leung () is a former Hong Kong film actor. He has appeared in numerous films, in several of which he has played the lead role. He first appeared in the film ''The Night Rider''.
Lam took his first lead role in the Hong Kong-Sin ...
, who was the lead in the Hong Kong/Singapore film, ''
Bugis Street
Bugis (Kampong Bugis in Malay) is an area in Singapore that covers Bugis Street now located within the Bugis Junction shopping mall. Bugis Street was renowned internationally from the 1950s to the 1980s for its nightly gathering of transvesti ...
'' (1995), as his clothes and underwear are torn off by his lover, fully exposing his genitals; a variety of East Asian actors whose genitals are shown in '' The Pillow Book'' (1996); of Hong Kong Chinese lead actor
Sunny Chan
Sunny Chan Kam-hung (born 1 January 1967) is a Hong Kong television and film actor.
Career
His film role the 1998 Hong Kong film '' Hold You Tight'' was the role that made him well known to the Chinese and East Asian public, and for which he ...
in a bathroom scene as he enters a shower, fully revealing his genitals for a few moments, in the Hong Kong film '' Hold You Tight'' (1997), directed by Hong Kong film director Stanley Kwan; of mainland China lead actor
Wang Hongwei
Wang Hongwei (; born in Anyang, Henan) is a Chinese actor. Wang is perhaps best known for his work with director Jia Zhangke. The two men were classmates at the Beijing Film Academy when they began their professional relationship, with Wang star ...
in the mainland China film ''
Xiao Wu
''Xiao Wu'' (), also known as ''Pickpocket'', is a 1997 Chinese drama and the first directed by Jia Zhangke. Starring Wang Hongwei in the titular role along with Hao Hongjian and Zuo Baitao, it was filmed in Fenyang, Jia's hometown, in 16 mm.
Sy ...
'' (English title: ''The Pickpocket'', 1998), directed by a leading Sixth Generation movement Chinese film director, Jia Zhangke, in which a young Chinese man takes off all his clothes in an empty bathhouse and his genitals are shown; of South Korean lead actor Lee Sang-hyun and lead actress
Kim Tae-yeon
Kim Tae-yeon (; born March 9, 1989), known mononymously as Taeyeon, is a South Korean singer. She debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007, which went on to become one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one ...
, both of whose genitals are shown in bedroom scenes, in the South Korea film '' Lies'' (1999), directed by South Korean film director
Jang Sun-woo
Jang Sun-woo (born 20 March 1952) is a South Korean film director.
Life
Jang attended Seoul National University and received a bachelor's degree in anthropology.
Before his directorial debut, Jang made a name for himself by writing film critic ...
; of both the male and female leads in the South Korean film ''
Peppermint Candy
''Peppermint Candy'' () is a 1999 South Korean drama film by Lee Chang-dong, his second. The film opens with the implied suicide of the protagonist and uses reverse chronology to depict some of the key events of the past 20 years of his life tha ...
'', directed by South Korean film director Lee Chang-dong (also 1999), in which their frontal nudity is briefly shown in several scenes.
In the 2000s, the mainland China lead actor Liu Ye appears with frontal nudity in the mainland China film '' Lan Yu'' (2001), in which his genitals are shown for several seconds as he lies naked on a bed; the frontal nudity of Thai film actor Min Oo, playing the character of Min, is shown, in which his penis is gently pulled out of his clothes by his female lover, and then as it is slowly caressed by her, shown to gradually become erect, in an outdoor scene in a forest, in the Thailand film ''
Blissfully Yours
''Blissfully Yours'' ( th, สุดเสน่หา, S̄ud s̄aǹeh̄ā) is a 2002 Thai romance film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It won the prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Min is an illegal Burmese immigrant living in ...
'' (2002), directed by Thai film director
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong Weerasethakul ( th, อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล; ; ) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, ...
; the full-frontal close-up of a Singapore Chinese actor's penis in the Singapore film '' 15'' (2003), directed by Singapore film director Royston Tan; a brief view of the genitals of a Chinese male actor in a story where the main characters openly brag about the size of their "packages", in the mainland China film ''
Green Hat
''Green Hat'' () (also known as ''The Green Hat'') is a Chinese film from 2003 and the debut of screenwriter Liu Fendou. Starring Li Congxi, Liao Fan, and Dong Lifan, the film tells the story of two men, one a bank robber, and one a police offi ...
'' (also 2003), directed by Chinese director/film writer
Liu Fendou
Liu Fendou () (born 1969, Beijing) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and film producer.
Biography
Born in Beijing, Liu Fendou spent some time in the United States in his youth doing "generally doing a whole lot of nothing" until retur ...
; of mainland Chinese actors Guifeng Wang (playing an extraterrestrial from the planet Mars) and Yu Bo playing his Chinese friend Xiao Bo, shown naked in the mainland China film ''
Star Appeal
Star Appeal (1970-1987) was an Irish-bred Thoroughbred and sire who won top-class races in four countries. In 1975, he became the first German-trained racehorse to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Racing career
Star Appeal was initially rac ...
'' (2004), with Guifeng Wang's genitals revealed on camera in several scenes, directed by mainland China writer/director Cui Zi'en; of Thai actor Sakda Kaewbuadee, who plays the character Tong, shown running naked in a jungle, in brief glimpses of full male nudity, in the Thailand film ''
Tropical Malady
''Tropical Malady'' (สัตว์ประหลาด RTGS: ''Satpralat''; lit. "monster") is a 2004 Thai romantic psychological drama art film written and directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. The film has a bifurcated structure; it is se ...
'' (also 2004), directed by Thai film-maker
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong Weerasethakul ( th, อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล; ; ) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, ...
.
The genitals of mainland Chinese actors Yu Bo and Xiwen Zhang, whose genitals are briefly shown in the mainland China film '' My Fair Son'' (also 2005), directed by Cui Zi'en; of Singapore Chinese actor/director Zihan Loo, who removes all his clothes, uncovering his genitals, and while waiting to meet a prostitute, masturbates on camera, eventually revealing his fully erect penis, in the Thailand film ''
Pleasure Factory
''Pleasure Factory'' (快乐工厂 ''Kuaile Gongchang'') is a 2007 Singaporean-Thai docudrama film set in Geylang, the red-light district of Singapore. Directed by Ekachai Uekrongtham, the film was selected for the Un Certain Regard competition ...
'' (2007), directed by Thai film director Ekachai Uekrongtham; the full-frontal nudity of Filipino actor Harry Laurel in bedroom scenes in the Philippines film '' The Man in the Lighthouse'' (also 2007), directed by the Filipino film and television director
Joselito Altarejos
Joselito Altarejos is an accomplished Filipino filmmaker having won several prestigious awards in the Philippines as well as internationally. He is well known for his ground-breaking openly gay-themed film features like '' The Man in the Lighthous ...
; the full-frontal nudity of Filipino actor Harold Montano in the award-winning Philippines film ''Tirador'', also known as ''Slingshot'' (also 2007),Marco Morales Lets It All Hang Out . Publisher: MGG – Manila Gay Guy. Retrieved: 24 March 2014. directed by Dante Mendoza; a variety of Taiwanese Chinese actors who dare each other to skinnydip in the Taiwan film ''
Winds of September
''Winds of September'' () is a 2008 Taiwanese film. Set in 1996 in Hsinchu, it focuses on a gang of teenage boys who drink, smoke and gamble, and the relationships between them. It broke a number of taboos in Taiwanese filmmaking, including showin ...
'' (2008); and of lead Hong Kong Chinese actor
Ron Heung
Adrian 'Ron' Heung Tze-Chun (born 1985), is a Hong Kong baseball player, actor and art director. He has appeared in a lead role in two films and as a supporting player in two others. He was also art director for the film ''Permanent Residence'' ...
and the
Hong Kong National Baseball Team
The Hong Kong national baseball team is the representative team for Hong Kong in international baseball competition. The team finished 6th in the 2007 Asian Baseball Championship.
Current roster
Roster for the 2012 East Asian Cup:
;Manager: Dav ...
, who are shown naked in communal shower scenes in the Hong Kong film ''
City Without Baseball
''City Without Baseball'' (; stylized: ; jyutping: mou4 je5 zi1 sing4) is a 2008 Hong Kong drama film starring Ron Heung and other members of the Hong Kong National Baseball Team. It is directed by South African-born Hong Kong filmmaker Lawren ...
'' (also 2008), with their genitals fully revealed on camera. The film is directed by the Chinese South African film director
Lawrence Ah Mon
Lawrence Ah Mon or Lawrence Lau Kwok Cheong (劉國昌) (born 1949) is a Hong Kong film director. His films are notable for their lurid exploration of the problems of the poor in modern Hong Kong, such as ''Gangs'' (1986), ''Spacked Out'' (2000), ...
.
In the same year, Filipino actor
Marco Morales
Marco Paolo Z. Morales (born July 16, 1982), widely known as Marco Morales, is a television and film actor in the Philippines.
Life and career
Morales was born in Bulacan, Philippines. He started his acting career in 2007 including ''You Got M ...
appeared in full-frontal nudity in two scenes in the Philippines film ''Walang Kawala'', also known as ''No Way Out'', directed by
Joel Lamangan
Joel Lamangan (born September 21, 1952) is a Filipino film director, television director and actor. His award-winning films includes '' The Flor Contemplacion Story'', ''Sidhi'', '' Deathrow'', ''Hubog'', '' Aishte Imasu 1941'', '' Blue Moon'' an ...
, as did the Filipino actors
Coco Martin
Rodel Pacheco Nacianceno (born November 1, 1981), known professionally by his stage name Coco Martin (), is a Filipino actor, director, and film producer. He is best known for playing the lead roles in ''Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin'', '' Walang H ...
and Kristofer King in the
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...
entry Philippines film ''Serbis'', also known as ''Service'', directed by Dante Mendoza.
South Korean lead actor
Song Kang-ho
Song Kang-ho (born January 17, 1967) is a South Korean actor. Song made his film debut in ''The Day a Pig Fell into the Well'' (1996), and came to national prominence with a series of critically acclaimed performances, including ''No. 3'' (1997) ...
appears frontally naked, with his genitals revealed, in the South Korean vampire horror film ''
Thirst
Thirst is the craving for potable fluids, resulting in the basic instinct of animals to drink. It is an essential mechanism involved in fluid balance. It arises from a lack of fluids or an increase in the concentration of certain osmolites, suc ...
'' (2009), directed by South Korean film director Park Chan-wook; Hong Kong Chinese actors
Sean Li ''Sean Li Rì Shēng'' (李日焺) is a film actor. He was born in Hong Kong and educated in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Education
Li was educated at Hurstpierpoint College, an independent school near the village of Hurstpierpoint in ...
and
Osman Hung
Osman Hung Chi-kit (born 20 March 1979) is a Hong Kong actor and singer-songwriter of the Cantopop group EO2.
Life and career
Hung has appeared in several films, and in 2009 took the joint-lead role in '' Permanent Residence'', playing the chara ...
appear frontally naked, with their genitals revealed, in a variety of scenes in the Hong Kong film ''
Permanent Residence
''Permanent Residence'' () is a 2009 Hong Kong film starring Sean Li and Osman Hung. It was directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Cheng, also known as Scud. The film explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society, ...
'' (also 2009), directed by the mainland China-born film director and producer known as
Scud
A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second World, Second and Third World, Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporti ...
, as does Thai lead actor Phakpoom Surapongsanuruk, in a scene of full frontal genital nudity and attempted masturbation in the Thailand film ''
Mundane History
''Mundane History'' ( th, เจ้านกกระจอก) is a 2009 film by the Thai film-maker Anocha Suwichakornpong. She wrote, co-produced and directed the film. It is described as “one of the most startling and original feature debut ...
'', directed by Thailand female film director
Anocha Suwichakornpong
Anocha Suwichakornpong ( th, อโนชา สุวิชากรพงศ์, born 1976) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter and producer. She is Visiting Lecturer on Art, Film, and Visual Studies at Harvard University. Her fi ...
(also 2009). Three movies, made from 2009 to 2013, feature the full-frontal nudity of Asian American actor Ken Jeong, whose genitals appear in the US films '' The Hangover'' (2009), '' The Hangover Part II'' (2011) and '' The Hangover Part III'' (2013). One Asian-Australian movie in 2013 features full-frontal nudity, with Asian Australian Actor
Matthew Victor Pastor
Matthew Victor Pastor (born 2 March 1989) is an Australian film director. His feature films explore Asian Australian identity, and tell Filipino Australian stories. An alumnus of the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne Facult ...
showing his genitals for the '' Made In Australia'' opening title sequence.
The genitals of lead Hong Kong Chinese actors
Byron Pang
Byron Pang Koon-kei () is a Hong Kong actor and former model of Jiexi, Guangdong Hakka descent. He first appeared as a runner-up contestant for Mr. Hong Kong in 2005. His appearances include the leading role in the 2010 film ''Amphetamine'' (a ...
and Hong Kong half-Chinese/half-British actor Thomas Price are shown several times in the Hong Kong film ''
Amphetamine
Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a strong central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity. It is also commonly used ...
'' (2010), as are the genitals of numerous Hong Kong Chinese actors in the Hong Kong film '' Love Actually... Sucks!'' (2011), including a scene of masturbation revealing a Chinese young man's fully erect penis and uncovered glans. The mainland China film ''
Bad Romance
"Bad Romance" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her third extended play (EP), ''The Fame Monster'' (2009)—the reissue of her debut studio album, ''The Fame'' (2008). Gaga wrote and produced the song with RedOne. Following an illegal ...
'' (also 2011), by first-time mainland Chinese film director François Chang, features a brief view of the penis of mainland Chinese actor Hayden Leung in a home shower scene, while the Hong Kong – mainland China film '' Speechless'' (2012) by Hong Kong Chinese film director
Simon Chung
Simon Chung Tak-sing (), is a Hong Kong film director. His films include ''Innocent'', released in 2005, ''End of Love'' which premiered at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival in 2009,B-E-D'' (also 2012), written and directed by South Korean film director
Park Chul-soo
Park Chul-soo (November 20, 1948 – February 19, 2013) was a South Korean film director, producer, screenwriter and occasional actor. He was one of the most active filmmakers in Korean cinema in the 1980s and '90s.
Career
Park Chul-soo was ...
, features frequent full-frontal nudity. The Hong Kong film '' Voyage'' (also 2013), starring the Hong Kong Chinese actors
Byron Pang
Byron Pang Koon-kei () is a Hong Kong actor and former model of Jiexi, Guangdong Hakka descent. He first appeared as a runner-up contestant for Mr. Hong Kong in 2005. His appearances include the leading role in the 2010 film ''Amphetamine'' (a ...
and Adrian 'Ron' Heung, also features full-frontal male nudity in several scenes. The Japanese-Peruvian Internet music star Sebastian Castro (the stage-name of Benjamin Brian Castro) also appears in the film, and in one scene undresses in front of his girlfriend, with his penis and testicles fully exposed on camera. The South Korean/French film '' Black Stone'' (2015), by South Korean film director
Roh Gyeong-tae
Roh Gyeong-tae (born 1972) is a South Korean film producer, director and screenwriter.
Personal life
Born in 1972, Roh studied at KAIST and was a former stockbroker at Sam-Sung Securities Company. He later graduated with Master of Fine Arts ...
, stars South Korean actor
Won Tae-hee
Won Tae-hee (born 13 December 1978) is a South Korean actor and film director. Won is also known as the Ha Jung-woo of independent films.
Career
Won has been sporadically active in film and television for a decade since his debut in ''Sword i ...
, playing the part of a young army recruit, in which he is shown in a shower scene with other men with his genitals fully exposed on camera. In the same year, the award-winning mainland China/Taiwan/Hong Kong film ''
No No Sleep
No No Sleep () is a 2015 mainland China—Taiwan—Hong Kong short film by Taiwanese film director Tsai Ming-liang, winning ''Best Director'' at the Taipei Film Awards in 2015. It features Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng and Japanese actor Masanobu ...
'', directed by Taiwanese film director Tsai Ming-liang, features
Lee Kang-sheng
Lee Kang-sheng () (born 21 October 1968) is a Taiwanese actor, film director and screenwriter. He has appeared in all of Tsai Ming-liang's feature films. Lee's directorial efforts include ''The Missing'' in 2003 and ''Help Me Eros'' in 2007.
Ca ...
and Masanobu Andô in a short film without dialogue, and includes non-sexual full-frontal male nudity. Also in the same year, the Hong Kong Chinese film '' Utopians'' tells a story of a student's attraction to his Professor, and several scenes of full-frontal male nudity include one in which the main character, played by mainland China actor Adonis He Fei, is shown masturbating his erect penis until ejaculation. In 2017, the Japanese—German film ''Berlin Drifters'', directed by Japanese film director Kôichi Imaizumi, tells the story of two Japanese men temporarily living in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
: one living alone and the other urgently in need of accommodation, played by Japanese male actor Lyota Majima and actor/director Kôichi Imaizumi, appearing together in full-frontal nudity, frequently shown with erect penises, having sex, and masturbating and ejaculating each other on screen.
These appearances contrast with those in films nearer the beginning of the 21st century: the much briefer nude (side) appearance of young mainland Chinese actor Cui Lin (in which his genitals are shown) at the beginning of the shower scene in the mainland China film '' Beijing Bicycle'' (2001), directed by mainland China film director Wang Xiaoshuai; the very brief frontal view of young mainland Chinese actor
Wang Baoqiang
Wang Baoqiang (; born 29 May 1984) is a Chinese actor, martial artist and director. His debut role was that of Yuan Fengming in the movie ''Blind Shaft'', for which he shared the Best New Performer prize at the 2003 Golden Horse Awards.
Early ...
, whose genitals are visible for a short moment while he quickly washes in a large metal bucket in the mainland China film '' Blind Shaft'' (2003), directed by mainland China film director Li Yang; of Japanese puppeteer and actor ''Sota Sakuma'', whose body and genitals are fully revealed but shown briefly, in a nude beach scene in the US/Czech film '' EuroTrip'' (2004); and even the brief frontal view of mainland China lead actor Guo Xiaodong's genitals as he lies in bed with his wife, in the mainland China film '' Summer Palace'', later in the decade (2006).
South Asian Cinema
Indian cinema
Nudity in film is restricted by the Indian Censor Board. Even in 18+ films, full frontal nudity with genitals/buttocks exposed is banned (not allowed to be released in India). However some Indian films with their premieres outside India do contain nudity and western films containing nude scenes are allowed to be shown in the adult film theaters in major cities of the country. The Bengali film '' Gandu'' (2010), starring
Anubrata Basu
Anubrata Basu (born 5 October 1989 in Calcutta), is a Bengali film actor. Born in India, he started acting through local theatre performances. He received his first commercial acting break with Anjan Dutt's ''Madly Bangali'', where he played one ...
, features full-frontal nudity and a fully erect penis, and the film ''
Chatrak
''Chatrak'' ( en, Mushrooms) is a 2011 Indian Bengali erotic drama film directed by Sri Lankan director Vimukthi Jayasundara. It was screened at several film festivals worldwide, including the Directors' Fortnight at the 2011 Cannes Film Festiva ...
'' (2011), starring
Paoli Dam
Paoli Dam (born 1980) is an Indian actress who started her career with the Bengali television serial ''Jibon Niye Khela'' (2003). She then worked in Bengali television serials such as ''Tithir Atithi'' and ''Sonar Harin''; the former ran for ...
and Anubrata Basu, features full-frontal male and female nudity. Another Bengali film ''
Cosmic Sex
''Cosmic Sex'' is a 2013 art-house Independent Bengali Film written and directed by Amitabh Chakraborty and produced by Putul Mahmood. The film deals with the connection between Sex and Spirituality. This film won National Award and 1 crore ru ...
'' shows Rii Sen completely nude. Malayalam films ''
Kutty Srank
''Kutty Srank'' ( en, The Sailor of Hearts) is a 2010 Indian Malayalam arthouse film directed by Shaji N. Karun. Mammootty played the title role for the film. The film was produced by Reliance Entertainment under the banner of Big Motion Pict ...
'' (2010) and '' The Painted House'' (2015) show nudity of main protagonist actresses. Hindi films include ''
Trishagni
''Trishagni'' (English: The Sand Storm) is a 1988 Hindi film directed by Nabendu Ghosh. The film was based on a historical short story set some time after the Asokan Missions, ''Moru O Sangho'' written by Saradindu Bandopadhyay, and inspired by ...
'' (1988) and ''
Bandit Queen
''Bandit Queen'' is a 1994 Indian Hindi-language biographical action-adventure film based on the life of Phoolan Devi as covered in the book ''India's Bandit Queen: The True Story of Phoolan Devi'' by the Indian author Mala Sen. It was written, ...
'' (1994) contain nudity though in ''Trishagni'' body-double was used for actress Pallavi Joshi. A scene in ''
Ek Chhotisi Love Story
''Ek Chhotisi Love Story'' (English: ''One Small Love Story'') is a 2002 Indian romantic film directed by Shashilal K. Nair. The film is an adaptation of Krzysztof Kieślowski's ''A Short Film About Love'' (''Krótki film o miłości'' 1988). I ...
'' (2002) which appeared to show actress
Manisha Koirala
Manisha Koirala (; born 16 August 1970) is a Nepalese actress who works in Cinema of India, Indian films, predominantly in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil films and has also worked in few Telugu language, Telugu, Bengali language, Bengali, Mala ...
's
buttock cleavage
Buttock cleavage is minor exposure of the buttocks and the intergluteal cleft between them, often because of low-rise pants. The ''crena'' is a formal term for the cleft between the buttocks.
History
When faced with indecency issues back in the ...
in underwear was shot using a body double.
Sri Lankan Cinema
Director
Asoka Handagama
Asoka Handagama (born December 1962) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker. He obtained his primary and secondary schooling in a provincial school and went on to study Mathematics at the University of Kelaniya where he was awarded a first class honours de ...
is famous for showing nude scenes in his films. Another director
Vimukthi Jayasundara
Kala Keerthi Vimukthi Jayasundara ( si, විමුක්ති ජයසුන්දර) is a Sri Lankan filmmaker, critic and a visual artist. Jayasundara is the first Sri Lankan to win the Caméra d'Or, in 2005.
Life and career
Vimukthi Jay ...
In animated films in the U.S., nudity is limited. Only a few mainstream animated films like ''
Fritz the Cat
''Fritz the Cat'' is a comic strip created by Robert Crumb. Set in a "supercity" of anthropomorphic animals, it focused on Fritz, a feline con artist who frequently went on wild adventures that sometimes involved sexual escapades. Crumb began d ...
'' (1972), '' Fantastic Planet'' (1973), and '' Heavy Metal'' (1981), have contained significant female full frontal nudity.
In Japanese cinema, nudity taboos have evolved greatly since the dawn of animation, and
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
, the general category of animated films, includes some films with a spectrum of nudity and sexual situations. The
Toei Animation
() is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' ''GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' ''Mazinger Z'', ''Galaxy Express 999'', ''Cutie Honey'', ''Dr. Slump'', ' ...
Tatsu no ko Taro
is a 1979 film adaptation of a famous Japanese folk tale, and the novel ''Taro, the Dragon Boy'' by Miyoko Matsutani. In 1966, Taro, the Son of Dragon with the original Japanese title of "Tatsu, no ko Taro", started as a puppet series on a Japane ...
'' in the 1970s include brief full nudity of their title characters. The popularity of OVA (
Original Video Animation
, abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...
) direct-to-video series in Japan has been a major factor in the unique blend of content in Japanese anime. Starting in the mid-1980s when video tape players became common home appliances, themes of nudity and sexual content flourished in Japanese animation with the hallmarks of many modern subgenres being established early with such films and OVA series as '' Lolita Anime'', '' Cream Lemon'' and '' Urotsukidōji''. Such sexually explicit films or those with significant nudity are referred to as
hentai
Hentai is anime and manga pornography. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ( ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of . In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exis ...
outside of Japan while partial nudity in Anime is called ecchi.
See also
*
Body double
In filmmaking, a double is a person who substitutes FOR another actor such that the person's face is not shown. There are various terms associated with a double based on the specific body part or ability they serve as a double for, such as stunt ...
Imagery of nude celebrities
There has been demand for imagery of nude celebrities for many decades. It is a lucrative business exploited by websites and magazines.
Types include authorized images, such as film screenshots, copies from previously published images, such ...
Nudity in American television
Nudity in American television is a controversial topic. Aside from a few exceptions, nudity in the United States has traditionally not been shown on terrestrial television. On the other hand, cable television has been much less constrained as far ...
*
Nudity in music videos
The appearance of nudity in music videos has caused controversy since the late 1970s, and several explicit music videos have been censored or banned. Nudity has gained wider acceptance on European television, where audiences often view nudity ...
List of mainstream films with unsimulated sex
In the film industry, unsimulated sex is the presentation of sex scenes in which actors genuinely perform the depicted sex acts, rather than simulating them. Although it is ubiquitous in films intended as pornographic, it is very uncommon in o ...
*
History of nudity
The history of nudity involves social attitudes to nakedness of the human body in different cultures in history. The use of clothing to cover the body is one of the changes that mark the end of the Neolithic, and the beginning of civilizations. ...
Footnotes
References
Further reading
* Bernard, Jami. 1999. ''Total Exposure: The Movie Buff's Guide to Celebrity Nude Scenes.'' Citadel Press.
* Green, Pamela. 2013. ''Naked as Nature Intended: The Epic Tale of a Nudist Picture'', 2013, Suffolk & Watt, .
* Hosoda, Craig. 2001. ''The Bare Facts Video Guide''. Bare Facts. .
* Jones, Marvin. 1996. ''Movie Buff Checklist: Male Nudity in the Movies''. (5th ed.) Panorama City, Cal.: Campfire Productions. .
*
*
* Mr. Skin. 2004. ''Mr. Skin's Skincyclopedia: the A-to-Z guide to finding your favorite actresses naked''. New York: St. Martin's Press. .
* Stewart, Steve. 1996. ''Full Frontal Male: Nudity Video Guide.'' Companion Press. .
* Storey, Mark 2003. ''Cinema au Naturel: a history of nudist film''. Naturist Education Foundation. .