Nudist Film

Nudist Film

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All the nakedness of porn, but with the plot and storylines of mainstream film.
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Looking for a movie that has as much nudity as porn, but...isn't a porn movie ? Unlike actual porn, mainstream movies are saddled with things like "plot" and "coherent storylines," but that doesn't mean that those plots and coherent storylines can't be served by lots (and lots and lots ) of nude scenes. And, over the years, many mainstream movies have taken advantage of their ability to tell beautiful stories full of beautiful bodies in various states of undress.
Some of these movie sex scenes are truly almost porn (we're looking at you, Room in Rome and The Dreamers ) and some nudity is so mainstream they were nominated for Academy Awards (like The Wolf of Wall Street and Boogie Nights ). Across the board, many of these feature A-list, top tier talent (like Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, Antonio Banderas, and James Spader, just to name a few). The lesson to be learned: You may need to rethink your preconceived notions of what excessive nude scenes in movies say about that movie.
Ready to dive in and explore the world of mainstream movies with nearly porn-levels of nudity? Here are movies that will get you turned on with their almost nonstop nude scenes . And yet, they're still totally mainstream with great plots and talented actors. Consider it sex with a side of sophistication.
This erotic saga follows a city couple whose relationship starts innocently enough—until they start exploring their kinks, and feel the freedom of not having to hide their desires behind niceties. Think of it like a 50 Shades precursor.
Though not a fully erotic movie, there’s a particular scene in Do the Right Thing that is so sexy it remains memorable several decades later. Who knew that an ice cube could be so hot?
Michael Fassbender stars as a sex addict forced to take a hard look at his life in this movie, which also brought audiences a full-frontal look at Fassbender.
Elle Fanning is an aspiring young model who venutes to Los Angeles to find her fame and fortune. What she finds is a sexy, pulsating, pretty psychedelically creepy world of competitive other models who will do anything to stay young and beautiful.
The fact that Blue Valentine was originally rated NC-17 should give you an idea of just how far the movie goes when it comes to pushing the envelope (and, yes, that includes plenty of nudity).
This 1979 "erotic historical drama" (per its official Wikipedia description) is all about the fall of the Roman Emperor Caligula and it's the kind of movie that is technically a mainstream movie, but is also basically porn. Needless to say, the nudity levels are off-the-charts in this one.
Henry & June , starring Uma Thurman, was the first movie to receive an NC-17 rating and it definitely earned it. Based on Anais Nin's memoir of the same name, it takes viewers through Nin's affair with Henry Miller and her sexual awakening via his wife, June, in early '30s France.
Though not a fully erotic movie, there’s a particular scene in Do the Right Thing that is so sexy it remains memorable several decades later. Who knew that something as cold as an ice cube could be so hot?
No, we're definitely not talking about the Oscar-winning ensemble film. 1996's Crash stars James Spader as a film producer who becomes involved with a group of symphorophiliacs—aka people who are sexually aroused by car crashes.
The fact that Blue Valentine was originally rated NC-17 should give you an idea of just how far the movie goes when it comes to pushing the envelope (and, yes, that includes plenty of nudity, often with Ryan Gosling).
This South Korean drama is so hot it'll practically scorch you. The story takes place during the Joseon Dynasty, and focuses on a woman named Hwa-yeon, who is forced to become a royal concubine against her will and the triangle around her that involves the Prince Sung-won, who only has eyes for Hwa-yeon and Kwon-yoo, with a drive for revenge.
Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes costar as a troubled married couple in this sexy, sexy erotic thriller about a woman who becomes increasingly suspicious of her controlling husband as she learns about a woman from his past.
In 2001, Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas gifted the world with this sensual historical drama that totally lives up to its tease-y title.
If you haven't seen Eyes Wide Shut , the 1999 "erotic daydream" movie starring Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, now's the time.
Today in Things That Are Not Surprising, Magic Mike , a movie about male strippers, includes a fair amount of nudity. Also not surprising: Said nudity is 🔥🔥🔥.
Jason Schwartzman and the late, great Brittany Murphy star in this black comedy about about hard drugs and harder to believe scenarios.
In 2001, Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas gifted the world with this sensual historical drama that totally lives up to its tease-y title.
This movie is famous for being just bad enough to gain a cult following, and for heavily sexualizing Saved By the Bell star Elizabeth Berkley, who spends a lot of the movie pole dancing in the nude.
This one isn't pornography, but it is about pornography. Set in LA's San Fernando Valley, this film stars Mark Wahlberg as a nightclub dishwasher who becomes a big adult film star during the Golden Age of Porn in the '70s. It's Paul Thomas Anderson so you know it's awkwardly funny but also think-y. And, yes, with tons of nudity and sex.
This French arthouse film premiered at Cannes in 2015 and made headlines for featuring unsimulated sex scenes in—of all things—3D. It's like you can reach out and touch the copious amounts of nudity.
This 2011 French film includes plenty of nudity and even some unsimulated sexual situations. The plot follows Cecile, a young woman who has recently lost her father and is on a quest to distract herself from her grief with a series of sexual encounters.
If you're looking for a mainstream movie that gets as close to the "actually porn" line as possible without crossing it, Room in Rome fits the bill. The 2010 Spanish erotic drama is about the emotional and sexual relationship between two women who spend a single night together in a hotel room in Rome.
An artist suffering from insomnia decides to get a job working the night shift at a local supermarket, where he develops a crush on a coworker and lets his imagination run wild. Is it any surprise that a movie about an insomniac artist's rich inner imaginary world would be heavy on nudity?
This French film is one step away from being soft core porn. The movie stars Juliette Binoche as a journalist who takes on an assignment that requires her to enter a prostitution ring run by college students. It's like an overtly sexual Never Been Kissed .
This Japanese pink film is a tells the story of Ai, a submissive prostitute who is struggling with her romantic relationship with a married man. Warning though: The scenes depicting Ai's sex work explore some of the darker aspects of BDSM relationships.
This 2003 movie based on the novel The Holy Innocents follows a love triangle between an American student in Paris in 1968 and the brother and sister—who have a, shall we say, unusal relationship—he meets there. The sister is played by a young Eva Green, who did a ton of full-frontal nudity for the film.
This art drama, screened at the Cannes Film Festival, featured unsimulated sex acts (opens in new tab) performed by its leads, Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley, who play lovers that attend a lot of rock concerts and have a lot of intercourse.
Directed by Ang Lee, this erotic thriller follows a group of young Chinese women who use seduction to trap an ally of the Imperial Japanese Army so they can try to assassinate him. The movie actually received some criticism for its excessive nudity and graphic sex scenes, but Lee (and many critics) found both integral to the plot. Lust, Caution earned an NC-17 rating in the United States.
Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac , the third film in his "depression trilogy," features way more nudity than Antichrist and a lot of mainstream stars, including Stellan Skarsgard, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, and Uma Thurman.
This movie won the hearts of critics and audiences alike, as well as the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Blue Is The Warmest Color follows the romance between two women and features several realistic love scenes in which the stars are fully nude.
Kayleigh Roberts is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her byline has appeared in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, The Atlantic, Allure, Entertainment Weekly, MTV, Bustle, Refinery29, Girls’ Life Magazine, Just Jared, and Tiger Beat, among other publications. She's a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

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Film still from the British nudie film Naked as Nature Intended (1961) - George Harrison Marks

Poster for The Adventures of Lucky Pierre (1961) - H.G. Lewis
image sourced here.

Nudie films were a 1950s genre of films, popular in Europe and the USA.

Because of ruling censorship laws, the only open cinematic displays of nudity were naturist (nudist camp) quasi-documentary films. Examples are Garden of Eden by Max Nosseck.

Other producers and directors active in the genre included David F. Friedman and Herschell Gordon Lewis .

Filmmaker Doris Wishman was particularly active in the genre with no less than eight nudie films to her name during the early 1960s. The titles speak for themselves: Diary of a Nudist, Blaze Starr Goes Wild, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, Nude on the Moon, Hideout in the Sun, Gentlemen Prefer Nature Girls, Playgirls International, Behind the Nudist Curtain, The Prince and the Nature Girl.

With The Immoral Mr. Teas , director Russ Meyer produced a nudie film with a slightly different twist. At the time called a "nudie cutie"; it was his first successful film. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudie_film [Nov 2005]

It's difficult to believe nowadays that there really was a time when the human body was a forbidden image on the silver screen. After all, even in Britain, where moral censorship still runs rampant, the sight of a naked man or woman is considered completely inoffensive by all but the most bigoted and repressed. Yet only forty years ago, nudity remained strictly taboo in the world of the cinema.

Although the early pioneers of the movie world had flirted with nudity and sex during the ' Golden Age of Hollywood ', a number of off-screen scandals had caused a public outcry over the immoral shenanigans of the new superstars, and brought about the formation of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America's censorship board , headed by Will Hays. By 1934, a number of subjects had been declared off limits for film-makers...and nudity was top of the list. In Britain, too, nudity was a major crime. When the British Board of Film Censors was first formed in 1912, the only two things absolutely forbidden to be shown on screen were depictions of Jesus Christ and.....nudity.

In the wake of such strict controls over the image of the naked body on screen, it's therefore quite surprising to discover that a number of naturist documentaries were produced during the 1930's . These films didn't play in ordinary cinemas of course, but were reserved for private clubs, 'roadshow' screenings (a form of exhibition where maverick film-makers would roll into town, set up a screening of 'adults only' films, and split before the authorities could close them down) and distribution in less prudish European nations. Among the best known of these pioneering films are This Nude World, Elisha - Valley of the Nudes and Unashamed . These films followed the same 'educational' approach that would later characterise the nudist films of the 50's and 60's, more as an excuse for the amount of bare flesh being displayed than through any genuine desire to inform the public.

It was during the 1950's, however that the nudist film really exploded onto the screen. The breakthrough came in 1953, when the American film Garden of Eden was passed by the BBFC, after their original ban of the film was made redundant by over 180 local authorities, who approved the film for showing - some with a 'U' (suitable for all ages) certificate. The same film was the subject of a 1957 court case in America, where it was established that nudity per se was not obscene. Suddenly, the floodgates were open: audiences flocked to see, for the first time, breasts and buttocks, as naked as nature intended. Sexual organs were still banned, but this hardly mattered. Film-makers in the USA and the UK began to churn out dozens of 'candid investigations' into the world of the naturist club.

After Garden of Eden came Diary of a Nudist, How I Lived As Eve (the biblical reference was always a good way of countering criticism from religious zealots), Nude Scrapbook, World Without Shame, Nudist Memories, Search For Venus and dozens more. Interestingly, these films - which a few years earlier had been completely forbidden - were now being shown with 'A' certificates (the then equivalent of ' PG '), meaning that showings could be attended by unaccompanied children! The reasoning behind this was that if the films had been awarded 'X' ratings, then it would be seen as an admission by the British censors that such material was sexually provocative. By passing them for all ages, the censors could ensure that no precedent had been set for the inclusion of nudity in non-naturist films.

The 'plots' of these films were pretty similar - shy, hung up girls visit a nudist colony, cast off their clothes and become born-again sun worshippers. To keep with the documentary feel, most films had a narrator, telling us with breathless enthusiasm about how wonderful naturism really is. Meanwhile, the characters on screen romped sat around the pool, played volleyball, or strolled about with handbags, beachballs or newspapers held incongruously in front of their groins. This was, of course, all necessary to placate the censors, who might have been willing to allow nudity on the screen, but who certainly intended to make sure that no sex crept in. No nudity was allowed outside of the actual naturist area (be it beach or camp) - and no kissing, fondling or groping could be contemplated. The naturist film-maker was always careful to maintain an air of authenticity and respectability to his film. A popular trick was to gain the approval of a bona fide naturist group, as in Ramsey Harrington's The Nudist Story , which proudly states that it has been made 'in association with the British Sun Bathing Association'...so you know it must be serious!

Many film-makers started their careers working on naturist movies. Death Wish director Michael Winner, for instance, started his career with Some Like It Cool, which was so popular that it was still gaining bookings in the early seventies! Top glamour photographer George Harrison-Marks also had a huge hit with Naked... As Nature Intended , which starred top model Pamela Green (previously only available on celluloid in Harrison-Marks' 8mm glamour films). Naked ... is one of the few nudist films currently available on video, and is well worth a look.

In America, cult movie director Herschell Gordon Lewis and David F. Friedman (later to become President of The Adult Film Association Of America) started their careers making 'nudies' such as Daughter of the Sun and Bell, Bare and Beautiful (the latter starring Burlesque queen Virginia Bell in a story involving gangsters and naturist camps!). Doris Wishman, who startled moviegoers in the 70's with two films starring the 73 inch bosomed Chesty Morgan, was America's most prolific nudist film-maker, producing films like Nature Camp Confidential and Blaze Starr Goes Nudist (films showing well known strippers in naturist settings were always popular). When the market for straight-forward 'nudist camp' films began to decline, she injected new life into the genre with Nude on the Moon, where two astronauts jet into space to discover that the moon is a tropical paradise, full of topless beauties who like nothing more than to - wait for it - sit by the pool or play ball! In a spoof on the claims of authenticity often found in nudist films, the movie was approved by 'The National Moon Bathing Association'!

Such twists became more and more common-place in the early 60's, as the public gradually became bored by the straight documentary approach, and censorship began to relax more in it's attitudes to nudity on screen. The arrival of storylines in the films heralded the move away from straight-forward naturist films and the birth of the 'nudie-cutie'. Russ Meyer led the way in 1959 with his groundbreaking film The Immoral Mr Teas, a retread of the popular French comedy Mr Hulot's Holiday with added nudity. These films were the forerunners of the soft-core sexploitation films that emerged during the mid sixties, and gave cinemagoers the opportunity to finally see bare breasts and a plotline in the same film!

Soon, the naturist film was in terminal decline. the only real reason that most people had queued to see the films in the first place was because there was no other way to see nudity on screen. Now that it was available elsewhere, no-one wanted to sit through what was, more often than not, a fairly tedious travelogue just for a vicarious thrill. By the middle of the decade, naturist films were all but dead. A few stragglers still popped up, along with re-issues of golden oldies, but in general, the public now wanted their nude action strictly within the confines of a fictional storyline.

By 1967, the genre had been reduced to being used as a joke by the British Carry On...team. In Carry On Camping , Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw take their girlfriends to a holiday camp that had been featured in a nudist film they'd seen at their local cinema (Nudist Paradise, in reality the first British made film in the genre)...only to find that in real life, campers had to keep their clothes firmly on! I
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