Sexually Deviant Cinema
By Aaron Licht

Sex and the cinema have always been happy bedfellows.  Since the conception of the mass medium in the late nineteenth century, early innovators Muybridge and Marey each turned the camera on the naked human form.  These studies of the "human figure in motion," with naked men and women dismounting from a bicycle, running, and having a picnic, toured the United States. Allegedly these films were scientific studies, but it was a different breed of curiosity that drew the crowds.  It's no surprise that at the early nickelodeons, nickels most often found their way into the cinema short "The Kiss."

In the Golden Age of Hollywood, it only took an over-passionate screen kiss or suggestive embrace to enrage the church groups about societal moral degradation.  While hardcore 'Blue Movies' or stag films had always been around, they were tucked underground away from "polite society."  In time, the mass audience's desire for sex would prevail.  In the late 1960s, with the influence of America's changing sexual morals and the business pressures to go where television could not, Hollywood cinema began pushing their depiction of sexuality.  Explicit sex reached its apex with mainstream hardcore pornography in 1972.  In this new permissive era of free speech in the cinema, limitations on sexual content are determined by the filmmakers themselves.

But this is no history lesson.  For more info you can read Robert Sklar's Movie-Made America or Linda Williams' Hard Core, the first scholarly study of pornography.  My interest here is to celebrate the best cinema that has explored sexuality.  In particular, the more sexually deviant films which took risks and used the art form to explore the complexity of human sexuality. 


Sexual Deviance:

"sexual behavior and attitudes that differ from accepted social standards"

My goal is to celebrate my favorite deviant filmmakers and the best deviant cinema I've seen from around the world.  I focus on fictional feature films - documentary is another whole realm - and no mindless exploitation or pornography.  For each film in the list I give a brief description of its deviant nature, with a little interpretation, keeping it light on the evaluation.  Recalling all my favorites made me a little overexcited so I wrote about over 60 films.  Since the list is a little daunting, it may be of better use as a reference than source of definitive information.

So do you get a kick out of sexual deviance and a touch of politics?  Convinced most movies are devoid of original thought?  Read over the films below and you might learn something from the kinky, slutty, queer, freakish fun.  But be forewarned, subversive thought often comes with subtitles, low budgets and/or artistic ambiguity - not all go well with popcorn!


Maverick sexually deviant filmmakers:

Catherine Breillat reigns in the controversial French film scene; the best of modern French intellectual jabber and bleak sexuality.  Breillat works to explore sexual politics and detach our mind/body’s sexual hang-ups.  Each of her films paves new cinematic ground in sexual deviance.

A Real Young Girl (Breillat, 1976)

A quiet girl lives in isolation with her parents and refuses to do much of anything - except explore her youthful interest in deviant sex.  With a young girl exploring her masochistic sexuality, like reveling in the fantasy of a sexy construction worker dropping worms on her genitals, scenes will offend most audiences.   But as an unapologetic exploration of female sexuality uneroticized by male artists, the film is a rare breed.  Breillat wrote the source material when she was sixteen and it was given an X rating... she couldn’t legally buy a copy of her own book.  Ridiculous.

Romance (Breillat, 1999) 

Think the complete opposite of romance.  Marie is fed up with the miserable intimacy in her life.  Near film’s end, after a explicit 'glory hole' fantasy sequence, she’s content to think of herself as a hole waiting to be filled.  We’re allowed to decide if this is liberating, or not.

Fat Girl (Breillat, 2001) 

This film follows a fat 12-year-old girl and her beautiful 15-year-old sister vacationing with their mother.  It explores their desire to be rid of their virginity - for pleasure, for love, or just to be done with it.  In a controversial 30 minute scene, a man lies in bed with the older sister, using loving words to persuade her into sodomy.  It's painful for her, painful for her younger sister watching in the corner and painful for us, who can see through his shallow declaration of love.  For this explicit scene, the Ontario censors wouldn't approve the film; until the Toronto filmmaking community convinced them Breillat addresses important issues for teenage girls.  Maturing young women would benefit from watching this with a wise older friend.


Anatomy of Hell (Breillat, 2004) 

A woman hires a gay prostitute to torture her with garden equipment while she theorizes about sexuality.  Harsh! While many critics thought the misogynistic porn and dubious claims about universal female misery went too far, I always respect Breillat's unflinching commitment to her controversial sexual beliefs.

The fucking brilliant Rainer Werner Fassbinder made some truly personal queer films in the German new wave of the 1970s.

Fox and his Friends (Fassbinder, 1975)

Fassbinder himself plays a gay circus hustler who lucks into the lottery jackpot.  He enters Germany’s wealthy queer social scene, they exploit his naiveté, and he slowly loses sense of who he is.  Light on sexuality but it’s a rare serious dramatic glimpse into the 70s German queer scene.



Queerelle (Fassbinder, 1982)

An unusual French sailor discovers an unusual whorehouse and embraces his deviant sexuality.  Poetic, dreamlike and pretentious.  It’s strangely beautiful and exciting in a dirty under-the-docks kind of way.  This was Fassbinder's final film before committing suicide.


Todd Solondz’s films explore such shocking sexual deviants, few audiences leave unsettled.  While many find his satires distasteful, if you get it, then you get it.  The foremost American maverick of bleak sexual deviance.

Happiness (Solondz, 1998)

Pitch black comedy about a handful of social deviants.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman in a career defining role as sweaty phone pervert.  The major subplot is about a father sexually assaulting his boy’s friends.  And yes, this is a comedy.





Storytelling (Solondz, 2001)

An oddly entertaining film loosely about telling stories.  Great performance by Paul Giamatti, playing a pathetic documentary filmmaker wannabe.  Characters explore their fetishes, including disabled kink and miscegenation.  Tamer sexually than in Solondz's other work, but his tragic storytelling still pulls no punches. 

Palindromes (Solondz, 2004) 

A twelve year old girl (played by actresses of varying ages, sizes and races) desperately wants to have a baby.  Investigates pedophilia, abortion, and Jesus Christ.  Quite possibly the most awkward sex scenes in cinematic history.


Greg Araki was a key member of the American Queer New Wave at the start of the 90s.  His small independent films explore youthful sex and deviance with energetic irreverent storytelling. 

The Living End (Araki, 1992) 

A gay hustler and a movie critic, both HIV positive, go on a 'fuck you world' road trip.  Araki is still learning how to sustain the drama, so expect some tedium and a couple useless characters.  But this is seminal queer cinema.

The Doom Generation (Araki, 1995)

A nihilist comedy road trip with three real cuties.  Watch it for their sensual bi-adventurous threesome.  Many lazy critics compare the spirit of comic violence and great music and colors with Pulp Fiction or Natural Born Killers, but not me.  Lots of fun.  Apparently teen isolation can induce apocalyptic violence or explosive sexual energy, or something.

Mysterious Skin (Araki, 2004)

A brash teenage hustler (a standout performance by 3rd Rock from the Sun's Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is fixated on prostituting himself to older men.  Demonstrates the diametrically opposed responses to sexual abuse.  Araki's best work, combining his talent for sensational storytelling with an emotional journey.  Darkly funny and non-judgmental.  Brave considering the harsh subject of child sex offenders.


Canadian film is known internationally for exploring kinky sex:

Toronto filmmaker Bruce LaBruce proudly makes art porn with skinheads, punks and other outsiders that viewers are surprised to see having butt sex.

Hustler White (LaBruce, 1996) 

OK, this is vapid little movie.  It’s a silly story about a man researching male hustlers in California.  Explicit sex scenes revel in a few extreme fetishes, like full-body wrapping and amputee fisting.  But it’s pretty damn slow for something that could easily be more playful.  The tagline is “see it with someone you've paid for.”


Skin Flick (LaBruce, 1999) 

About a “straight” skinhead gang who has sex together.  The film follows their hate crimes, specifically when they follow home a wealthy interracial gay couple.  LaBruce's sweet campy tone alleviates much of the malicious hateful energy.  It’s explicit and sprawling art porn better than most of LaBruce’s other work.



Raspberry Reich (LaBruce, 2004) 

Fucking hilarious revolutionary bisexual porno comedy.  LaBruce’s best work by far.  See review in Oct 2004 issue.

Experimental queer video activist, John Greyson has been involved in Toronto’s art scene since the early 1980s.  Famous for queering the film form itself.  He’s likely the queer artist I hold in the highest esteem.

Urinal (Greyson, 1988) 

Informative docudrama about the policing of washroom sex in Toronto.  Langston Hughes, Sergei Eisenstein and other famous dead homosexual artists are resurrected to investigate this illicit aspect of the homosexual community, everything from the origins of the washroom to cases of police misconduct ruining a man's reputation.  An unusual subject to explore in a feature film.

The Making of Monsters (Greyson, 1991)

Investigates a fictional movie production about the 1985 murder of a gay teacher by his homophobic students.  Brechtian alienation techniques and musical numbers criticize homophobic hockey culture. The film is critical of the hegemonic construction of a culture of anti-gay violence.  Sounds deep, but there's a dance sequence of naked men wearing only hockey masks, so it ain't too deep.

Zero Patience (Greyson, 1993) 

Explores the myth of the flight attendant who first spread HIV around North America.  Classic Greyson that takes a serious subject and turns it into a spectacular AIDS ghost story musical.

Proteus (Greyson, 2003)

A self-reflexive period piece set on the Robin Island penal colony. Explores a key trail in gay history; two prisoners who were tried and convicted for their decade-long love affair.  Since the title refers to a flower grown on the island, Greyson refers to this as the first flower sodomy epic.

The master of venereal horror, David Cronenberg, believes everything, especially horror, is about sex.

Shivers (Cronenberg, 1975) 

A horror film about the spread of a ‘sex’ parasite created by a mad scientist.  The phallic parasite releases the mad lust deep inside all of us.  Mass sex/murders in a Montreal apartment building.  Good times.

Rabid (Crone, 1977) 

Porn star Marilyn Chambers stars in a horror film about a contagious, rabid sex disease... is it a sex disease or a drive to feral madness?  Whatever, this is early Cronenberg; it’s campy, gross and tragic.



Videodrome (Cronenberg, 1983) 

The medium of television becomes a grotesque sexual plaything.  Explores the link between sexual violence in the media and our everyday life.  Kinky James Woods sadomasochism, including a vaginal VHS player in his stomach.  This is super smart stuff: "long live the new flesh."


Crash (Cronenberg, 1996) 

The smashing violence of car crashes turn people on, again and again.  Despite the film being relentlessly repetitive, scar tissue has never looked this erotic.


The further adventures of sexually deviant Canadian cinema:

Exotica (Atom Egoyan, 1994) 

Egoyan's bittersweet school girl strip club obsession.  For more of Egoyan's unique brand of self-reflexive kink see Family Viewing and Speaking Parts.


Kissed (Lynne Stopkewich, 1996)

Molly Parker in an intimate romance about necrophilia.  Astonishing that this subject matter doesn't come across as disgusting, but rather strangely beautiful.











Better Than Chocolate (Anne Wheeler, 1999) 

Revolves around a lesbian romance, their queer friends and their sexually political bookstore.  I don’t remember this one very well.  It was a little fluffy, but good fun.

Last Night (Don McKellar, 1999)

I admit I snuck this one on here.  It’s a brilliant Torontonian film about the last day on earth.  The drama of real people, leaving the hero work to the other apocalyptic films.  Not too much sexual deviance, except for one major character who’s obsessed with fulfilling his list of sex perversions before he dies.

The Wild Dogs (Thom Fitzgerald, 2002) 

Sensitive story shot in Bucharest with many local outcasts in key roles.  The major subplot explores the sex trade exploitation of young girls.

Love, Sex and Eating the Bones (Sudz Sutherland, 2003)

A man's porn addiction interferes with his ability to perform with a real lady.  A fun sex comedy that plays against the stereotype of black sexual potency. 

Deviant classics from throughout the decades and around the world:

Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

A shy man murders prostitutes, co-workers and female friends to film their dying expression.  Less about sex than kinky scopophiliac sadism.  British slasher contemporary of Psycho.

My Life to Live (Jean-Luc Godard, 1962)

Godard explores one of his favorite themes, the commodification of the female body.  A highlight of the French New Wave staring Anna Karina, my first serious movie star crush, as a Parisian woman who first prostitutes herself to pay her rent then chooses to 'live the life.'  The twelve sections of the film play out with hypnotic sensuality.

A Married Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1964)

Twenty four hours in the life of a married woman having an affair.  Highly stylized scenes of lovemaking and luscious sexual philosophy.  Original title 'the married woman' was censored, lest it imply a universal desire for infidelity.

Go Go, Second Time Virgin (Koji Wakamatsu, 1969)

Fucking brilliant Japanese cult classic.  A gang of Japanese teens drag a young woman onto a roof and sexually assault her as a passive young man watches.  Expect severely experimental bleak nihilism.


Belle de Jour (Luis Bunuel, 1967)

A bored bourgeois housewife fantasies about kinky, submissive sex.  Her husband is too goddamned nice, and Séverine soon discovers the joy of sneaking away to work afternoons at a Madame's brothel.  Deliciously subversive storytelling.  A joy!  Classic Bunuel, and one of my favourite films.

Last Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972) 
|
Brando and a young woman have an explicit sex-only affair.  Famous kinky scenes… pass the butter.

The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973)

One of the last classics of the French New Wave.  Others have seen this as an epitaph of the passing days of rebellion and free love.  The male lead (Jean-Pierre Leaud) is supported by his girlfriend, and lives a carefree existence smoking in cafes.  He befriends a very sexually active woman and tries to bring her home.  The film addresses the sexual archetypes of mother and whore.  With a running time of 3 1/2 hours, much time is spent with Leaud indulging in long-winded self absorbed philosophy.

The Man Who Loved Women (Francois Truffaut, 1977) 

A Frenchman's entire life is consumed with seducing women; enough women for him to write a book of his exploits.  Best part is he isn't out to prove his masculine virility, or play games like Alfie, but instead he treasures each woman's unique qualities.  Don't get me wrong, this is a French film and has dubious sexual politics, but it celebrates female beauty nonetheless.  Gold for leg fetishists.

My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985)

Stephen Frears of High Fidelity fame came out of Britain's independent movement in the 80s.  This film explores racism and queer politics in a surprisingly realistic manner.  It follows a young British South Asian starting out his career and a lot revolves around the politics of his family living in Britain and their traditions and materialistic drive.  However light on the sexual deviance, the film’s major subplot involves the protagonist’s while male lover, a young Daniel Day Lewis, radiating a marvelous “I don’t give a shit” street hustler vibe.

Looking for Langston (Isaac Julien, 1988)

The most beautifully poetic on this list and more political, set in the 1920s Harlem renaissance.  The film explores interracial desire with gorgeous nude cinematography, photos by Robert Mapplethorpe and the beautiful words of Langston Hughes.  Finally, gay black men are given a beautiful, honest and invigorating portrait of their sexuality.

Fuck Me (Virginie Despentes and Coralie, 2000) 

This film caused a big international stir.  After a graphic sexual assault, two women go on a patriarchal killing spree.  It’s exemplary of recent European cinema which pushes the explicit deviance to shock the audience.  There's really too much violence for its own sake, and it’s not nearly as good as it could be, but it’ll still get you thirsty for vengeance.

Irreversible (Gaspar Noe, 2002)

Intense, twisted rape-revenge told backwards.  The real-time rape scene is unbearable to watch, forcing us to confront the ugly horror of sexual violence and shocking many viewers to leave the cinema.  Harsh, but if you can make it through the whole movie, it does have something to say.

Welcome to Destination Shanghai (Andrew Cheng, 2002)

Follows, in part, a strikingly beautiful male sex worker, new to the trade.  Part of Shanghai’s new digital media movement.  Be warned, this is very slow, but strangely seductive.

Fucking Amal & A Hole in My Heart (Lucas Moodysson, 1998 & 2004)

I heard both of these Swedish Moodysson films are subversively brilliant.  I haven’t seen them but they're on my list anyhow.


Popular American films that pushed deviant sexuality in mainstream cinema:

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (Mike Mitchell, 1999)

Just kidding.  Avoid vapid Hollywood tripe like this.  But American cinema has offered some deviant goodness over the years...

Lolita (Kubrick, 1962) Like the tagline in 1962 asks, how did they ever make a movie of Lolita?  A man's burning obsession for nymphet love is deviant, but so is Lolita's unusually clever control of her sexuality to manipulate Humbert and Quilty.  Also check out Adrian Lyne's 1997 version, which is able to stay truer to the sexual obsession in the novel.

The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)

A college graduate experiencing post grad ennui is seduced by his mother's friend.  The whole 'Mrs. Robinson' thing is a cliché, but it’s still an excellent dramatic comedy.

Midnight Cowboy (John Schlesinger, 1970) 

Naive small town guy leaves for New York to be a hustler.  Surprisingly emotional, unforgettably moving friendship between Voight and Hoffman.

Carnal Knowledge (Mike Nichols, 1971)

Early Jack Nicholson, tracing two average guys from being roommates in college, through their lives.  Explores their shallow sexual relationships.  Included the first use of a condom in the movies.

A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971) 

Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven, this one needs no introduction.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975)

A newly engaged couple, too virginal for their own good, are introduced to the deviant delights of a Transylvanian party.  Injects sex with much needed playfulness.  Still unsurpassed for a campy good time!

Sex, Lies and Videotape (Steven Soderbergh, 1989)

A socially impotent man gets off videotaping women confessing their sex lives.  Great storytelling reminds us that intimate conversation is incredibly sexy.







The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (Stephan Elliott, 1994)

Guy Pearce mincing around in drag - enough said.

Spanking the Monkey (David O. Russell, 1994)

First feature by the director of I Heart Huckabees.  Dark comedy about a young man slowly building towards a possible incestual relationship with mom.  Surprisingly heartfelt.

Clerks & Chasing Amy (Kevin Smith, 1994 & 1997)

Everyone knows about Smith's perverse dialogue.  Clerks is full of crude sexual humor and still pretty funny and I'm embarrassed to say that Chasing Amy taught a certain 16 year-old a few things he wanted to know.

Boogie Nights (Paul Thomas Anderson, 1997)

A porn family that shoots together, snorts together, sleeps together.  Brilliant epic storytelling goodness.  Fantastic performances and surprisingly emotional!  This is a deviant favourite that I can watch again and again. 

Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

Some were let down by Kubrick's promise of sexual deviance starring 'hot couple de jour' Cruise & Kidman.  While the costume ball group sex is titillating, what I really respond to is the sexual obsession and dreamlike atmosphere.  And Kidman is seriously hot.

Quills (Philip Kaufman, 2000)

Set in a Napoleonic era insane asylum, the infamous Marquis De Sade provokes the common folk with tales of sexual deviance.  Expresses the power of the kinky word.


Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)

Irreverent rock musical about a transsexual trying to get even with an ex-boyfriend who stole their songs and sold out to corporate executives.  The cheeky title will be clear.  Fantastic.




Secretary (Steven Shainberg, 2002)

Dramatic comedy, explores sadomasochism with a splash of subversive romance.  James Spader excels with sexual deviance; it's his third appearance on this list.  Fun!

Monster (Patty Jenkins, 2003)

Charlize Theron plays a serial killer prostitute.  Along with Christina Ricci, this comes off as an engaging and surprisingly realistic character study.

Kinsey (Bill Condon, 2004)

A standard Hollywood biopic in all its glory, except this one is about a controversial sexologist.  See the review in our Nov 2004 issue.

The Woodsman (Nicole Kassell, 2004)

Kevin Bacon plays one of cinema’s first sympathetic pedophiles.  See review in Feb 2005 issue.

That’s it for me.  Now its time to share your favourite twisted sexual cinema!