Sexual Revolution Cinema

Sjöman

Seized by US customs. Went to Supreme Court. Landmark.

Robson

Hollywood starlets on pills. Camp classic.

Buñuel

Housewife secretly works in a brothel. Masterpiece of desire.

Vadim

Jane Fonda in psychedelic sex-comedy space opera.

Russ Meyer

King of sexploitation. Huge hit. Surprising politics.

Polanski

Occult pregnancy horror. Sexuality as dread.

Fellini

Roman excess as psychedelic nightmare.

Ken Russell

Nude male wrestling was revolutionary.

Visconti

German family corrupted by Nazism. Incest, transvestism.

Antonioni

Counterculture America. Desert orgy is legendary.

Russ Meyer

Written by Roger Ebert. Insane brilliant trash.

Rohmer

Obsessed with a knee. Shows nothing. Erotic through intellect.

Franco

De Sade adaptation. Gateway to Eurosleaze.

Makavejev

Reich's sexual theories + communist satire. Banned everywhere.

Ken Russell

Possessed nuns. Still censored. Russell's masterpiece.

Malle

Coming-of-age with incest. Treated with tenderness.

Kubrick

Ultra-violence as commentary. Kubrick self-banned it in UK.

Kennedy

Raquel Welch rape-revenge gunslinger.

Schaefer

Hollywood competing with exploitation.

Wishman

Only female sexploitation director of the era.

Becker

Scandinavian sex comedy. Nordic skin flick wave.

Bakshi

First X-rated animation. Crumb disowned it.

Bertolucci

Brando. Anonymous sex. Butter scene controversy.

Borowczyk

Medieval desire. Pure art before his explicit turn.

Levesque

Women-in-prison. Drive-in peak.

Franco

Erotic noir in a cabaret underworld.

Damiano

Hardcore goes mainstream. $600M. Mob-financed.

Mitchell Bros

Marilyn Chambers. 'Porno chic' moment.

Samperi

Laura Antonelli became Italy's biggest star overnight.

Ferreri

Men eat themselves to death. Riot at Cannes.

Roeg

Cinema's most realistic sex scene. Grief horror masterpiece.

Hardy

Pagan sexuality as horror. Greatest ending ever.

Verhoeven

Explicit Dutch love. Best Dutch film ever. Verhoeven's breakthrough.

Paolella

Nunsploitation. Convent rebellion through desire.

Rothman

Corman's best protégé. Real social commentary.

Milligan

NYC grindhouse. Real street people.

Damiano

Existential despair as hardcore. Critics called it art.

De Sisti

'Commedia sexy all'italiana' wave.

Buñuel

Surrealist sketch film attacking bourgeois sexual morality.

Carver

Angie Dickinson. Depression-era crime. Shatner nude.

Konuma

Nikkatsu Roman Porno. Japanese bondage. Franchise launcher.

Freen

Small-town cop comedy. Drive-in bread and butter.

Cavani

SS officer and survivor resume sadomasochism.

Wertmüller

Class warfare on island. First woman nominated Best Director.

Jaeckin

Softcore phenomenon. 11-year run in one Paris cinema.

Davy

French doc about porn actress. Blurs documentary/explicit.

Hill

Female gang warfare. Tarantino's favorite exploitation.

Losey

Caine and Berger in bourgeois infidelity.

Miles

Genet adaptation. Glenda Jackson. Class hatred as psychodrama.

Robbe-Grillet

Novelist turned BDSM filmmaker. Art-house bondage.

L.Q. Jones

Post-apocalyptic. Underground society breeds humans.

Damiano

Real film within hardcore.

Samperi

Italian erotic drama. Follow-up to Malizia.

Moxey

Women-in-prison TV movie pushing network limits.

Burt Reynolds

Reynolds directs himself. Southern action.

D'Amato

Blaxploitation meets Italian exploitation.

Jancsó

Mayerling as orgy. Hungarian master goes explicit.

Fellini

Mechanical, grotesque sexuality. Fellini's coldest.

Hamilton

Softcore art photography as film.

Altman

Dreamlike identity-swap. Duvall and Spacek.

Schlöndorff

Palme d'Or AND Oscar. Still controversial.

Verhoeven

Male full-frontal. Caused protests in Netherlands.