http://www.salon.com/life/lgbt/index.html?story=/ent/movies/2010/07/11/gay_sex_movies_slide_showhttp://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/2010/07/11/gay_sex_movies_slide_show/slideshow.htmlSlate Slideshow
Cinema's most pivotal gay sex scenes
As "The Kids are All Right's" refreshing love scene hits theaters, a look
back at the hook-ups that got us thereBy Andrew Belonsky
Sunday, Jul 11, 2010 11:01 ET Julianne Moore and
Annette Bening are getting rave reviews for their new movie, "The Kids Are All Right," which concerns two lesbians whose lives are turned upside down when their teenage children invite their sperm donor father, played by
Mark Ruffalo, into their lives. Tears, joy, hilarity and awkward dinner parties ensue.
Yes, the movie's family matters matter, but the film also deserves note for its frank and lighthearted depiction of lesbian sex. In one memorable scene, the women get it on in their suburban bedroom while watching their favorite gay porn, which features two muscular farmhands. Meanwhile, under the covers, Bening's character uses a vibrator on her increasingly frustrated wife. Things are going well until a mishap with the television's volume blasts gay porn grunting throughout the entire household. The scene isn't exactly sexy, no, but it's refreshing to see lesbian sexuality portrayed with a respect and humor rarely exhibited in mainstream movies.
Of course, Hollywood's approach to gay sex hasn't always been so straightforward. The treatment of gays in movies has changed tremendously over the past few decades. Here we review 9 of the most pivotal gay and lesbian sex scenes in cinematic history.
'My Beautiful Laundrette,' 1985There are too many good things to say about
Stephen Frears' 1985 love story set in
Margaret Thatcher's Britain.
Gordon Warnecke's Pakistani
Omar and
Daniel Day-Lewis' thuggish
Johnny should hate each other; Johnny's pals did, after all, attack Omar, but the two men have an erotic history and can't resist falling back into one another's arms. Though perhaps too saccharine to be considered a "sexy" movie, "My Beautiful Laundrette" does offer viewers one particularly alluring scene of Warnecke and Day-Lewis getting vertical, and sweaty, in the titular laundrette's backroom, where they swig champagne and snog for a remarkable two minutes before being interrupted by Omar's uncle.The scene only shows waist-up action, but it's not hard to imagine what's going on below. "My Beautiful Laundrette's" earnest treatment of race, sex and class turned fearsome gay sex into something far more complex, and admirable.
"Personal Best," 1982Not many people have heard of "Personal Best," and that's a shame, because director
Robert Towne, the man who wrote "Chinatown," gave the world one of the first film examinations of bisexual love. Though there's plenty of straight sex in "Best,"
Mariel Hemingway and
Patrice Donnelly steal the show as competing track stars who run into bed together. There's loads of skin, and plenty of steam room action, but perhaps the most important scene was the most tame: the women arm-wrestling and Donnelly leaning in for a kiss with the defeated Hemingway, a tender showing of two women coming to terms with their latent sexualities. The film helped turn Mariel Hemingway into a lesbian icon, sparked the actress'
Playboy spread, and remains one of the most important, least recognized works in the lesbian cinematic canon.
"The Rocky Horror Picture Show," 1975Oh, Rocky! "Picture Show" qualifies as more queer than squarely gay. In case you don't remember, the story revolves around young lovers
Brad and
Janet, played by the traditionally handsome
Brad Bostwick and the quietly sumptuous
Susan Sarandon, who want to celebrate their new engagement by visiting an old science professor. Yes, these people are pretty straight-edge. Well, they are until their car breaks down and they seek refuge in a nearby castle, where they meet
Dr. Frank N. Furter, portrayed by
Tim Curry. Frank N. Furter and his merry gang of hedonists enjoy gender-bending, free love and breaking boundaries, for good and ill. After sending the couple to separate quarters, the good doctor dresses as Janet, sneaks into Brad's bed and begins his seduction. It doesn't take long for Brad to see that his "fiancee" has some extra equipment. Shocked -- and even appalled -- at first, Brad ultimately gives himself over to pleasure. The action happens in shadow, behind a lace curtain -- but the scene paved the way to the movie's orgiastic climax, in which most of the main characters, three guys and two girls, cavort in a swimming pool. Though now a cult classic -- and staple of midnight singalongs -- one should never underestimate how sexually transgressive the movie was for its time.
"Bound," 1996Jennifer Tilly and
Gina Gershon let loose in their infamous sex scene in the
Wachowski brothers' "Bound." To achieve a realistic quality, the Wachowskis brought in feminist and sex expert
Susie Bright, who gave everyone points on how best to portray the girl-on-girl action. Always looking to satisfy, Bright sent the directors some old-school lesbian sex scenes, like one from
Robert McCallum's "3 A.M.," and recommended that they focus on the subtext of the sex scene. "'Bound' is about getting inside someone very fast, trusting them with everything -- these women had to be fucking each other," Bright later wrote. "Penetration was the act we wanted to imply." And implied it was: Who could forget Tilly on top of a writhing Gershon, her hand obscured by a sweaty thigh and each limb vibrating. It was scorchingly hot, and remarkably believable. As with "Brokeback," "Bound" put gay sex in the context of a real romantic relationship, and helped set a new standard for same-sex cinematic love.
"Brokeback Mountain," 2005I'd be remiss not to include "Brokeback." The Oscar-winning film, with A-list stars
Jake Gyllenhaal and
Heath Ledger and respected director
Ang Lee at the helm, was pivotal in bringing gay male love into mainstream popular culture. Its pivotal sex scene is hard to forget: Ledger's
Ennis Del Mar and Gyllenhaal's
Jack Twist are sheepherders on the mountain, sharing a tent; the sexual tension becomes too taut to bear, and, at one point, Ennis turns Twist over, spits in his hand, applies some pressure and the two have sex. The men's moment isn't particularly sexy or glamorous, nor do we see much skin, but it did go further than any other mainstream movie when it came to conveying gay male sex. Finally, anal sex was driving a love story, rather than being tossed in for simple gratuity, a gross-out moment or the impetus for a violent encounter. The cowboys' love wasn't simply carnal: It was a romance, and one that proved once and for all that gay men aren't always in it for the happy ending.
"Cruising," 1980"Pivotal" doesn't always mean "positive," a fact made clear in the 1980
William Friedkin film "Cruising," which stars
Al Pacino as a New York police officer who goes undercover in the gay leather scene to catch a serial killer. Gay activists protested the movie from the get-go, and regularly disrupted production on a movie they feared would paint them in a negative, violent light. Friedkin ended up including a disclaimer, "This film is not intended as an indictment of the homosexual world. It is set in one small segment of that world, which is not meant to be representative of the whole." Still, there's endless debate about whether the movie's infamous fisting scene, among many others, crossed the line. Though not visually explicit, the scene itself is remarkably graphic for its time, and proves to be a turning point for Pacino's character, who goes further and further down the gay rabbit hole. Many people argue that Friedkin included the sex scenes intentionally to shock straight viewers, and perhaps did want to smear gay people by portraying them as a debaucherous, dangerous breed. Others celebrate it as an unapologetic look at New York's pre-AIDS leather scene, or perhaps even as a warning. Regardless of where one stands on "Cruising," this 30-year-old film still surprises, if for nothing else than its boldness.
"Mulholland Drive," 2001Leave it to
David Lynch to bring audiences one of the sexiest, most mind-boggling gay (ish) movies in recent memory. In case you've forgotten,
Laura Elena Harring plays an amnesiac,
Rita, who gets down with
Betty, an aspiring actress played by
Naomi Watts. It all begins as an innocent good-night kiss for the women, who are sleeping in the same bed, but rapidly evolves into both Watts and Harring bare-chested, and Harring asking, "Have you ever done this before?" Watts replies, "I want to do it with you. I'm in love with you." And so they do. As with all things Lynch, the movie -- and its lesbian content -- are awfully hard to decipher. Are the women really who we think they are? Are they even really lesbians? Even Harring herself doesn't know the latter, and once remarked, "I kiss her and then there's just an energy that takes us. Of course I have amnesia so I don't know if I've done it before, but I don't think we're really lesbians."
"Threesome," 1994While some of the entries on this list are known for their shock value, "Threesome" is distinguished by its honest, perhaps self-indulgent portrayal of three college kids,
Lara Flynn Boyle,
Stephen Baldwin and
Josh Charles, whose convoluted attractions are realized in the titular Ménage à trois. Director
Andrew Fleming offers us a '90s-era, politically correct representation of fluid sexuality that, although technically tame by today's standards, was shocking for a mainstream dorm room comedy. In the pivotal scene, the three friends are joking on the bed, when the straight guy, played by Baldwin, casually suggests a threesome. The other two are game, and the next thing you know Lara Flynn Boyle's pressed between the men, who are busy exchanging lustful glances. Charles' gay character ventures a grope of Baldwin's bum before retreating. Clearly intrigued, Baldwin guides his gay pal back, an open invitation to whatever happens off camera. The film's exploration of bisexuality, still a relatively taboo topic today, broke new ground by treating sexual experimentation between two men as something completely organic.
"Wild Things," 1998"Wild Things" sure was scandalous even before its release -- and the excitement wasn't over the movie's murder scenes. The film's hype revolved around
Denise Richards and
Neve Campbell lip-locking as part of a bisexual plotline (the film centered around two students accusing their teacher of rape for the sake of money). The women's girl-on-girl show didn't disappoint: Poisoned by greed, Campbell and Richards' characters resort to catfighting in a pool, but, overcome by passion, and dripping wet, they end up making out, taking off their tops and having a regrettably short romp. No doubt writer
Stephen Peters threw the scene in simply to bring in straight men, but it seemingly managed to ignite a new trend toward girl-on-girl kissing in mainstream movies:
Sarah Michelle Gellar and
Selma Blair would swap spit one year later in "Cruel Intentions."