20) Julian Sands and Sherilyn Fenn making love in BOXING HELENA (1993)
Overall, this was not one of the better films, but because of the ideas and horrific nature of the themes in this film, for me this sequence of the two making love is incredibly sexy and erotic. Almost anyone who originally saw this film knew about the plot and ideas, and knew that the story involved an obsessive man who ultimately cut off the arms and legs of the woman he was obsessing about. I do give this film credit for being a rare film to tackle the issues of obsessive love and sexual issues. Fenn's sequence where she explicitly discusses what women truly enjoy from sex is another incredibly powerful scene. In addition, Sherilyn Fenn has never been as beautiful as she was in this film, and I have to say that she has some of the most beautiful pairs of breasts around. To this day, I still don't know what to make of this film as a whole, as it disappointed me on several levels (particularly the ending), but also fascinating me in ways as well. But one thing's for sure ... the memories of Fenn in this film won't soon leave me.
19) Jeanne Moreau wanting to have sex with a younger man in Louis Malle's THE LOVERS (1958)
As I mentioned at the beginning of this week's article, foreign films have done an outstanding job throughout the years of producing some truly wonderful films which tackle sexual issues seriously. One of the earliest and the best was Louis Malle's controversial at the time film The Lovers, a French film known as Les Amants, starring the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. Moreau's character is a woman bored with her husband, and bored with her lover, who instead becomes involved with a much younger man. It's a film which seriously tackles the issue of women's sexual needs, and Moreau gives a stunning performance of this very dignified woman searching for something else. The film was also well known for a prolonged love scene towards the end, but it's quite tame by today's standards (only a breast was briefly visible). The scene itself is incredibly erotic because of everything that has led up to it. Moreau abandons her family after one night with this new love, even though neither one has any idea of what kind of future they would have together. Again, these are sexual themes which really deserve serious exploration on film. This film was notable because of its controversy at the time, as a Cleveland theater owner was even arrested on an obscenity charge for showing the film, a case which ultimately went all the way to the Supreme Court. It's amazing to think that something like that can happen in America over a little bit of nudity and some serious sexual themes. We've thankfully come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.
