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From art house to grindhouse, these films pushed boundaries with their revealing content! Join us as we count down the movies that turned gratuitous nudity into an art form. Our list spans from exploitation classics of the 70s to controversial arthouse films that challenged censors and audiences alike.
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00:00Caesar cannot be a fool!
00:02But he's trying very hard!
00:04Caesar cannot be a fool!
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be counting down our picks for those movies that turned gratuitous nudity into an art form.
00:14What can I get you?
00:16I don't know. How about something hot?
00:22Number 20. They're playing with fire.
00:25Vile movies like this one away with a disclaimer, it was a different time.
00:29Are you still looking for work?
00:31Oh, yeah.
00:34Come and see me in my office.
00:36Their playing with fire was just one of the teacher-seduces-student subgenre of exploitation films with which writer-director Howard Avedis was associated, the first being The Teacher from 1974.
00:46Fast forward a decade, and 80s cult star Sybil Danning steps into the role of a woman with a husband and a plan, to utilize her wiles to get young Jay Richard to commit a murder.
00:57You know I wouldn't get you into any trouble.
00:59What if something happens?
01:00Nothing's going to happen.
01:04Please, Jay. Do it for me.
01:07Danning was no stranger to on-screen nudity at this point in her career, yet the undeniably sleazy premise of their playing with fire allowed for the actress to chew the scenery with zero inhibitions.
01:17Number 19, Stacy.
01:19It was the leering cinema of Andy Sedaris, present with ABC's Wide World of Sports, that first introduced viewers to how this future exploitation filmmaker would view the world.
01:27I got the idea for Honey Shots because I am a dirty old man.
01:31Okay.
01:32Because I turned 17, I remember it was terrifying.
01:35Every time I'd look at a girl, I'd just tremble.
01:37And I thought if I'm like that, maybe other people are like that.
01:40And you know what? They are.
01:41Sedaris' direction on these telecasts was notable for its frequent cutaways to sideline cheerleaders, and it wouldn't be long before that prurient instinct was turned towards feature films.
01:50Efforts like Stacy, from 1973, utilized well-worn private eye and mystery tropes as a vehicle for Playboy model Anne Randall, while also including roles for notable 70s beauties Anitra Ford and Christina Raines.
02:02Why did you kill Frank? We don't kill, we give birth.
02:09Sedaris would double down on this formula in the 1980s, as well taking exploitable nudity all the way to the bank with cult skin flicks like Malibu Express.
02:18Number 18, Piranha 3DD.
02:20It's interesting to research the descending barometer of cinematic quality of the Piranha franchise when compared to the ascending amounts of exploitable nudity.
02:27The first effort from 1978 certainly contained its share of drive-in skin, while the 2010 remake considerably upped the ante in this regard.
02:34You tell her 10am tomorrow, I want her bleach blonde booty at the marina. Gotta get my first shot off by noon, so bright and early, baby.
02:41Meanwhile, Piranha 3DD, from 2012, wasn't even trying to hide what it was selling, both from a marketing and screenplay standpoint.
02:48The nudity here was as plain as the noses on our faces, an apologetic B-movie effort that was designed to titillate and entertain,
02:55albeit with a lot less skill and charm compared to Joe Dante's original.
03:00You coming in or what?
03:01Yeah, I'm going in.
03:07Nobody stop, okay?
03:08Number 17, Friday the 13th.
03:11It's sort of a misconception that every slasher movie from the 80s featured tons of exploitable nudity.
03:27This wasn't always the case.
03:29The Friday the 13th franchise, though?
03:31Well, let's just say that sometimes stereotypes emerge for a reason.
03:34This definitely felt true with the 2009 remake as well, since director Marcus Nispel and producer Michael Bay went all in with a knowingly excessive approach to sex and violence.
03:44I get it, though, dude. You do what you gotta do to survive, you know?
03:47If we were all out here starving to death and you were dead, I'd eat your leg.
03:53The action here was gritty and nasty, while the nudity was often prolonged and shot with an intentionally adolescent and male gaze.
04:00Juliana Gwil's comedically extended sex scene comes to mind, as do the nude scenes from America Olivo and former pop star Will Afford.
04:07It was what it was, for better or worse.
04:10Number 16, Valero.
04:12You are like the most precious flower.
04:15Your blooming can only be enjoyed once.
04:20Just once.
04:22The marriage of John Derrick and his fourth wife, Beau, resulted in a number of cinematic collaborations,
04:27all of which retained a single unifying factor.
04:30This was to showcase, in as glamorous a way as possible, Beau Derrick's natural beauty,
04:34and her husband's almost fanatical devotion to making her a star.
04:38Valero was one of these outings, a film that's received a lot of retroactive appraise as one of the biggest turkeys of all time.
04:45The only reason to see this movie would be a couple of steamy sex scenes with Beau Derrick, who is undeniably good-looking.
04:51But I don't think the future of this movie is in theatres anyway.
04:54I think the future is in videocassette, where people can really use that instant replay device on their machines.
04:59The movie wasn't a box office success either, but later earned infamy not only for its second-hand popularity with the prurient set,
05:05but also the age of co-star Olivia D'Arbo. D'Arbo was still a teenager during filming, fact which allegedly went unknown by John Derrick at the time of casting.
05:15Number 15. A Dirty Shame
05:17Somebody somewhere finish me off!
05:22Exploitation king John Waters hasn't directed a feature film since his infamous Bomb from 2004.
05:27Don't feel too bad, however, since the filmmakers' reputation for unrepentant sleaze remains secure within the narrative and execution of A Dirty Shame.
05:34There's virtually no taboo left unexplored within the cult feature, as evidenced by its Scarlet Letter rating of NC-17.
05:41Okay, Mom, let's go sexy!
05:47The entire affair of A Dirty Shame retains Waters' pitch-black sense of humour, of course,
05:52but that mattered little to the movie-going public of the early aughts, who avoided catching this provocative feature like the plague.
05:58Number 14. The Perils of Gwendolyn in the Land of the Yik Yak
06:01This is one of the feature films from French director Just Jakin on our list, an infamous auteur with a very specific style of filmmaking.
06:08A soft-lens, erotically-focused style, which could just as often feel artistic as it did semi-pornographic.
06:14Why did you come to our city?
06:16To catch a butterfly.
06:17And who came with you?
06:19Nobody.
06:20Lying is against all of my rules.
06:23The Perils of Gwendolyn in the Land of Yik Yak was loosely based on an erotic comic series,
06:28and starred music video vixen Tony Katane alongside the ultra-buff Brent Huff.
06:33The advertising for this film seemed to promise an Indiana Jones-styled adventure, and there is some of that to be found, for sure, as well as a lot of skin.
06:41Still, Gwendolyn is rarely boring, and usually delivers enough WTF narrative choices and flesh-driven asides to keep the audience busy.
06:50How do you make love to a man?
06:58Oh, listen, it's much easier to make love than fight four warriors with your hands tied behind your back.
07:03How?
07:05Number 13. The Wolf of Wall Street
07:07Married people can't have friends.
07:11We're gonna be friends?
07:14Yeah. You wanna be my friend?
07:16The inclusion of frequent and explicit nudity was probably unavoidable within Terence Winter's screenplay from this Martin Scorsese film.
07:23Jordan Belfort's rise and fall just featured too many instances of bad behaviour, too many stories of sex and drugs, for a film like The Wolf of Wall Street, not to include multiple nude scenes.
07:32Does this take away from the film's success or story? Not really.
07:36If anything, the sex here just adds to the chaos of Belfort's story, while also feeling part and parcel to the Wolf of Wall Street 80s setting.
07:43Daddy doesn't even get to touch Mommy for a very, very, very long time.
07:50A, perhaps sticky, hand-in-glove example of the story fitting the execution.
07:55Number 12. Humanoids from the Deep
07:57The production history of Humanoids from the Deep is an interesting one, both from the perspectives of producer Roger Corman and director Barbara Peters.
08:15The latter got her start in the exploitation film industry in front of and behind the camera, before graduating to the director's chair.
08:21Corman, meanwhile, became a legend not only for his own films, but for marketing drive-in fare that never skimped on sex and violence.
08:28That's the thing with Humanoids from the Deep, specifically Peter's original cut.
08:31It lacked what Corman wanted to sell, so he hired James Spardellati for more explicit reshoots.
08:38Very explicit reshoots that deliver exactly what you're thinking at this very moment.
08:43Why the girls?
08:44It's my theory that these creatures are driven to mate with man now, in order to further develop their incredible evolution.
08:51Number 11. Emmanuelle
08:53We return to the subject of just Jaikin, with the film that made him famous, Emmanuelle.
08:57I have the impression that in love there should be something more important, more intelligent than the knowledge.
09:04I'm sure that it's in the physical pleasure that you have to look for. It's a matter of state of mind, mentality.
09:12It wasn't only Jaikin that became a star in the wake of this film. One that bore the infamous tagline, X was never like this.
09:18Emmanuelle also shot Dutch actress Sylvia Crystal into the sex queen Stratosphere, thanks to a performance that effectively balanced naivete and eroticism.
09:27This was a movie that wasn't only a success in theatres and home video, it spawned an insanely labyrinth themed franchise of sequels and remakes.
09:34There was even an Italian knockoff franchise of Emmanuelle, films with an M to avoid litigation, that took Jaikin's adaptation of Emmanuelle Arsene's novel to further depths of intentional degradation.
09:45Number 10. Boogie Nights
09:47Let's go get some of that Saturday night beaver.
09:51This film's setting of adult cinema's golden age essentially ensured that Boogie Nights was going to contain a lot of nudity.
09:58Director Paul Thomas Anderson takes his audience from the industry's early 70s innocence right on through to a comparatively jaded period of Reagan-era desperation.
10:08Jack?
10:09Yeah?
10:10I'm ready to shoot.
10:11Uh, 20 minutes, huh?
10:13No, I'm ready now, it's gotta be now.
10:1520 minutes, babe.
10:17Anderson even included legitimate adult film stars Veronica Hart and Nina Hartley within the cast of Boogie Nights, alongside daring performances from Julianne Moore
10:27and Heather Graham.
10:29I was gonna take a pottery class at every woman's village days.
10:31Oh, oh, I wanna do that.
10:33This is a film that received varying reviews from those who were actually there performing in Erotica back in the day, but that hasn't stopped Boogie Nights from remaining a cult classic.
10:43You know what I'm staring at?
10:45Yeah?
10:46I'm staring at the foxiest bitch in the whole world.
10:51Number 9. Nymphomaniac Vol. 1
10:53The transgressive reputation of director Lars von Trier remained intact after both volumes of his Nymphomaniac series debuted back in Denmark in 2013.
11:03You wouldn't understand.
11:08Well, try me.
11:12But I wouldn't know where to start.
11:14These films were completed utilizing not only the talent of stars like Charlotte Gainsbourg and Shia LaBeouf, but also adult film actors who performed hardcore acts for insert shots.
11:25The subject of Nymphomaniac is another that, by definition, requires a lot of nudity on set.
11:31Whether I left society or it left me, I cannot say. I suppose you could make an argument for both sides.
11:38Von Trier also varies the tone of these set pieces, from the blackly comedic to the deadly serious.
11:44The extremity of this film, as a result, doesn't always make it light viewing.
11:49No.
11:55Yet there's no denying the frank and honest depictions of compulsive sexual behaviour contained with Nymphomaniac.
12:02No. 8. Blue is the Warmest Colour
12:12There is a lot to unpack with regards to the controversies of Blue is the Warmest Colour.
12:16For starters, there's the allegations that director Abdelatif Kashish placed his cast and crew within an atmosphere of unfair working conditions.
12:24There have also been those that have pointed out how the film's themes of bisexual and lesbian relationships were delivered to the screen by a heterosexual male.
12:40What wasn't up for debate, however, were the end results of this film, which held nothing back in terms of nudity.
12:46The sexual act is explored within multiple set pieces and couplings.
12:56Although Blue is the Warmest Colour generally exists more within the art house than the grind house.
13:02Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Madam.
13:08No list like this would be complete without an appearance from the maestro of sexploitation, Russ Meyer.
13:24The man's cinematic oeuvre is one of tough men and tougher women, larger-than-life sex goddesses that dominated drive-in screens throughout the 60s and 70s.
13:33The motion picture born to entertainment, vibrant, spellbinding and so hilariously funny.
13:40The latter part of this decade saw Meyer releasing two of his most envelope-pushing features with Up and Beneath the Valley of the Ultra Vixens.
13:48The latter's title is playing on Meyer's biggest hit, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, while also containing an overabundance of nudity.
13:55Kitten Lativedad is the star of the show here, encapsulating all of the protracted dialogue and unsubtle jiggle that made Maverick Meyer one of a kind.
14:04Your own bed. Maybe what you need is our duty to well-self.
14:09Number 6. HOTS
14:13Hi, Johnny!
14:16Honey? Honey?
14:19This is the sort of film that wears its influences on its sleeve. Or is that shirt?
14:24The legacy of HOTS has endured today not only due to its acronym, which stands for its title characters, but also the Hall of Fame level nudity that stacks the screen.
14:34History has seen scores of sex comedies over the years, but HOTS played its hand by casting a number of notable models, including Halloween star Sandy Johnson as stars.
14:44A woman. Perfectly ideal woman.
14:47Oh shit!
14:49But HOTS surprisingly never feels sleazy. The vibe here instead feels more silly and sexy, the sort of atmosphere that's largely parodied today, yet delivered straight-faced back in 79 for an excited audience.
15:02HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS! HOTS!
15:09Number 5. Porky's
15:10Well, relax! Will you portray that while I'm doing it?
15:13Hey, wait a minute. How come you guys ain't getting undressed?
15:15Hell yeah. We got inspected last week.
15:18If there was a Mount Rushmore for sex comedies, then we're willing to bet that Bob Clark's Porky's would deserve a prime spot.
15:25The Black Christmas and A Christmas Story director enjoyed one of 1981's biggest hits, a franchise maker that saw no less than two sequels.
15:33Come on, Tigers. Go get up.
15:40Porky's is notable for its casting of Kim Cattrall as Miss Honeywell, whose exaggerated sex scene went on to become the stuff of home video legend.
15:48Elsewhere, there's also that old-school go-to classic, the shower scene, only this time boasting both male and female noobity.
15:55Granted, Porky's does have its share of more serious-minded moments with some of its side plots, but the overarching vibe here remains sex comedy 101.
16:04Number four, Showgirls.
16:14That's it. Okay, music!
16:17Go! Ha! Go!
16:20Get out!
16:21Erotic thrillers were all the rage back in the 1990s, with Showgirls existing as one of the most memorable NC-17 flubs of this era.
16:29The balance of R-rated intrigue with extreme sexual content, highlighted by star Elizabeth Berkley, perhaps seeking to distance herself from television past.
16:45Showgirls became infamous for its hard-in-the-paint sex scene between Berkley and co-star Carl McLaughlin, although edited versions were also released for home video.
16:54Yet, who are we kidding? There's only one way to enjoy a Showgirls screening, and that's with the full, uncensored Monty.
17:03You look good.
17:08Real good.
17:14Number three, Eyes Wide Shut.
17:17Director Stanley Kubrick's cinematic coda, Eyes Wide Shut, was certainly an interesting way to cap off his career.
17:32The film earned headlines back in 1999, due to the extremity of its sexual content.
17:37Eyes Wide Shut was even digitally censored back in the day, in order to achieve its theatrical R rating.
17:42What is going to happen to that woman?
17:46No one can change her fate now.
17:49The full, uncut version remains available on home video today.
17:52However, it remains a challenging film.
17:55The nudity here doesn't always feel as if it's designed to titillate, just as Eyes Wide Shut doesn't so much feel like an erotic thriller as it does an examination of a marriage.
18:04Still, the memorable design, costuming, and visual aesthetic ensured this film never strayed too far from a Kubrickian conversation.
18:21Number two, Caligula.
18:23So, did you think that streaming services like Netflix pioneered the historical drama masquerading as erotica?
18:40Think again.
18:41Because Caligula would like you to hold its beer.
18:44I hate them!
18:47This utterly unforgettable cult classic was produced by Penthouse Magazine publisher Bob Guccione, written by Gore Vidal, and directed by Italy's Tinto Brass.
18:57The result was a film of varying cuts, but with a number of creative constants.
19:02Sex, style, and violence.
19:04Caligula starred Helen Mirren, Malcolm McDowell, and Peter O'Toole, alongside performers hired by Guccione during post-production to film hardcore sequences.
19:13There's honestly enough nudity beyond these sequences, of course, but this infamous editing only adds to Caligula's notorious reputation.
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19:45Number 1. The Dreamers.
19:47Oh!
19:49S-S-S-S-S-L-U-D-P-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F-F!
19:59Director Bernardo Bertolucci was no stranger to controversy, having helmed the infamous
20:07Last Tango in Paris back in 1972. The Dreamers only added to Bertolucci's uncompromising legacy
20:13thanks to such taboo topics as the sexualisation of sibling relationships. Granted, themes of
20:19political unrest and class structure also arrived within the narrative of the Dreamers,
20:24but most attention was paid to the nude scenes of stars Ava Green, Michael Pitt and Louis Guerrel.
20:30And I look at you and I listen to you and I think, you're never gonna grow.
20:36This love triangle is juxtaposed against the Parisian riots of May 1968 and a result that makes
20:42the Dreamers feel like a study of character and motivation amidst a backdrop of eroticism.
20:48What are your thoughts on the nature of necessity of film nudity in the modern day? Let us know in the comments.
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