Sexually Explicit

It seems difficult to imagine today, but there was a time in the 1970s when sexually explicit films and artistry weren't considered poles apart. Director Radley Metzger was taken quite seriously by critics in the late 1960s and early '70s, despite quite explicit sexuality in his films. Eventually turning to hardcore film under the pseudonym Henry Paris (including such still well-regarded films as The Opening of Misty Beethoven), Metzger delves here into fetishism in a violent and intriguing triangle.

Mediaeval pilgrims gather at an inn at the start of their journey to Canterbury. The innkeeper suggests that they tell tales to pass the time. Pasolini picks images and stories from eight of Chaucer's tales to illustrate his themes of life, death, sex and politics.

Mexican-born, New York-based filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón directed this Mexican box-office smash hit about a pair of randy upper-class buddies that sparked some controversy for its frank depiction of drug use and sexual exploration. With their respective girlfriends away in Europe, Julio (Gael García Bernal) and his upper-class friend Tenoch (Diego Luna) are looking forward to a summer full of drink, drugs, and cheap meaningless sex. During a wedding, they meet Luisa (Maribel Verdú) - the 28-year-old wife of Tenoch's scholarly cousin - and try to convince her to go on a road trip to Heaven's Mouth, a made-up beach paradise the two claim is on the Oaxacan coast. To their surprise, Luisa - who is looking to escape her troubled life for a spell – agrees to go along. Two days into the trip, tension starts to build between the two friends: Luisa has had sex with each, and now both lads are not-so-quietly vying for her affection. Soon simmering jealousies boil over into savage arguments, threatening to completely destroy their friendship. After an enormously successful run in Mexico and Guatemala, this film was screened to much acclaim at the 2001 Venice, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals.

Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) works as a barmaid in her father's factory-town saloon where she learns to deal with the unwanted advances of male customers. When her father dies, she moves to New York City with her maid, Chico (Theresa Harris), to become a ruthless gold digger. First she meets office boy Jimmy McCoy (a young John Wayne in an uncharacteristically clean-cut role) who helps her get a job at the Gotham Trust Company. From there, she seduces and discards various men (George Brent, Donald Cook, Henry Kolker) as she LITERALLY sleeps her way to the top of the company. Jealously between the men causes a murder scene, so Lily takes her furs and jewels and moves to Paris with Chico…

New inmate Marie arrives at an island prison in the women's sector and receives the number 99. The inmates are controlled by the sadistic lesbian warden Thelma Diaz and Governor Santos and submitted to torture, rape and lesbianism. When the Minister of Justice replaces Diaz by Leonie Caroll, Marie believes that her life will improve and her case will be reopened. However, Marie is disappointed with the new warden and decides to escape with two other inmates. But their runaway scheme fails and the three women are chased not only by the guards, but also by male prisoners that have not seen women for many years.

From bomb threats sent to campaigners for more females on banknotes to sexually explicit pop videos. From extreme laddism at universities to rape jokes in the school yard… Kirsty Wark explores whether there’s a new culture abroad in which it’s acceptable to write about, talk about, and feature women in a sexually offensive, even abusive way. Or whether the female of the species just needs to ‘man up’, learn to enjoy a gag, and get used to the 21st century world.

In a social context deteriorated by a countrywide economic crisis, the life of several people will be turned upside down after they meet Cecile, a character who symbolizes desire.

In this tribute to James Joyce, Fionnula Flanagan gives a tour-de-force performance as a half-dozen or so women in Joyce's real and fictional worlds. When she portrays his wife Nora remembering their time together, Flanagan captures the era and the author in lyrical detail. As Sylvia Beach, the woman who first published Ulysses, new dimensions concerning the importance of Nora in Joyce's literary visions of women emerge, and when Flanagan interprets Joyce characters like Molly Bloom or a washerwoman from Finnegan's Wake, the beauty of Joyce's language shines through the melodious words.

In honor of his late wife who died in a flaming car accident, scientist, Dr. Robert Ledgard, is trying to synthesize the perfect skin which can withstand burns, cuts or any other kind of damage. As he gets closer to perfecting this skin on his flawless patient, the scientific community starts growing skeptical and his past is revealed that shows how his patient is closely linked to tragic events he would like to forget.