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Sex

Despite the accessibility of erotica, audiences still seek out the more substantial approaches to sex that only narrative cinema can offer.

Here you’ll find the full array, from Sixties-era cautionary tales to incisive art films that scrutinise the theme of sexual obsession.

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Viva Viva

Sex comedy 2008 116 mins Director: Anna Biller

Anna Biller's outrageous sexploitation satire follows bored housewife Barbi as she searches for adventure in predatory 1970s Los Angeles.

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The Beast The Beast

Comedy 1975 98 mins Director: Walerian Borowczyk

An outrageous classic of erotic cinema, Walerian Borowczyk’s playful and subversive fantasy finds a horny heiress courting the ravenous desires of a wild beast.

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The Housemaid The Housemaid

Thriller 2010 107 mins Director: Im Sang-soo

An enigmatic housemaid and her wealthy, totalitarian employer begin an affair that will have disastrous consequences for them both.

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The Lickerish Quartet The Lickerish Quartet

Drama 1970 88 mins Director: Radley Metzger

A decadent couple and their son invite a circus stunt-woman back to their castle for an evening of erotic games, role-play and revelations.

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Betty Blue Betty Blue

Drama 1986 185 mins Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix

Jean-Jacques Beineix’s story of a volatile, highly sexual relationship was one of the most successful French films of the 1980s.

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Caught Looking Caught Looking

Drama 1991 35 mins Director: Constantine Giannaris

Years before Grindr, a gay man turns to virtual reality to satisfy his sexual fantasies in this strangely prophetic short film.

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Successive Slidings of Pleasure Successive Slidings of Pleasure

Drama 1974 106 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet

Alain Robbe-Grillet’s serpentine erotic mystery presented as a surreal investigation into a woman with feared sexual powers.

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Eden and After Eden and After

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1969 98 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet

Alain Robbe-Grillet’s sensual fantasy follows a group of students who enter a bizarre sado-masochistic realm after taking a mysterious drug.

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Fascination Fascination

Horror 1979 82 mins Director: Jean Rollin

Jean Rollin’s best-known film is the most full-blooded of his vampire tales, teeming with sex and lavishly filmed gore scenes

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Kelly + Victor Kelly + Victor

Drama 2013 90 mins Director: Kieran Evans

In modern Liverpool, a couple meet and begin a transgressive, sexually charged affair set against a background of crime and encroaching danger.

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Bad Timing Bad Timing

Drama 1980 122 mins Director: Nicolas Roeg

Nic Roeg's complex, elusive cult classic is a Vienna-set tale of all consuming passion, starring Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell and Harvey Keitel.

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Immoral Tales Immoral Tales

Anthology 1974 103 mins Director: Walerian Borowczyk

Walerian Borowczyk presents four stories of sexual taboos throughout the ages, in his highly controversial classic of 1970s erotic cinema.

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Belle de Jour Belle de Jour

Drama 1967 100 mins Director: Luis Buñuel

Luis Buñuel's provocative classic about a bored and neglected housewife (Catherine Deneuve) risks her reputation to take up a daring new hobby.

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King of Escape King of Escape

Comedy 2009 90 mins Director: Alain Guiraudie

A film about tractors, aphrodisiacs and forbidden love from Alain Guiraudie, the Cannes award-winning director of Stranger by the Lake.

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Goltzius and the Pelican Company Goltzius and the Pelican Company

Biopic 2012 117 mins Director: Peter Greenaway

An artist stages a series of erotic dramatisations illustrating sexual taboos from the Old Testament, in this startling and shocking return from director Peter Greenaway.

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Interior. Leather Bar. Interior. Leather Bar.

2013 60 mins Director: James Franco and Travis Mathews

James Franco and Travis Mathews recreate explicit footage cut, rumoured to be lost, from one of the most notorious gay features ever made.

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Nighthawks Nighthawks

Drama 1978 113 mins Director: Ron Peck

A schoolteacher juggles everyday life with nights spent cruising for Mr Right in this fascinating landmark in British gay cinema

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Nighthawks 2: Strip Jack Naked Nighthawks 2: Strip Jack Naked

Documentary 1991 91 mins Director: Ron Peck

Ron Peck’s experimental follow up to the groundbreaking Nighthawks is both a making-of documentary and a deeply personal film memoir.

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Maitresse Maitresse

Drama 1976 113 mins Director: Barbet Schroeder

Gerard Depardieu plays the young innocent who falls for the mysterious maitresse Ariane (Bulle Ogier), a leather clad dominatrix, in Barbet Schroeder’s controversial film.

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More More

Drama 1969 116 mins Director: Barbet Schroeder

The first feature by Barbet Schroeder (Maîtresse, The Valley), More created a sensation when it was released in 1969, quickly becoming a cult classic and famed for its Pink Floyd soundtrack.

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Prostitute Prostitute

Drama 1981 98 mins Director: Tony Garnett

Explicit and controversial drama. An ambitious working girl moves to London hoping to securing wealthier patrons, while her social worker friend fights to change antiquated prostitution laws.

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The Nude Vampire The Nude Vampire

Horror 1969 85 mins Director: Jean Rollin

Jean Rollin’s second vampire film is a mesmerisingly surreal art-horror, short on logic but steeped in gorgeously sensual imagery.

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Red Road Red Road

Thriller 2006 110 mins Director: Andrea Arnold

Andrea Arnold’s highly acclaimed film, winner of top prizes at Cannes and the BFI London Film Festival, is a haunting drama about a woman confronting past demons.

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Strip Strip

Documentary 1966 26 mins Director: Don Defina, Peter Davis and 1 more

Documentary about the lives of the women who work at a striptease club called The Phoenix on Old Compton Street, in the heart of Soho in the swinging sixties.

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Crimes of Passion Crimes of Passion

Thriller 1984 107 mins Director: Ken Russell

Ken Russell's second Hollywood film is a deliriously excessive erotic thriller with Kathleen Turner as an imperilled prostitute.

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Twinky Twinky

Comedy 1970 94 mins Director: Richard Donner

Richard Donner directs this unlikely romance between a 38-year-old writer of erotic novels (Charles Bronson) and a 16-year-old schoolgirl (Susan George). After marrying and absconding to Scotland, the pair finds it hard to adjust to life together.

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Visions of Ecstasy Visions of Ecstasy

Drama 1989 20 mins Director: Nigel Wingrove

Nigel Wingrove's experimental depiction of the erotic imaginings of the 16th Century Carmelite nun.

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Trans-Europ-Express Trans-Europ-Express

Thriller 1966 95 mins Director: Alain Robbe-Grillet

This stylish, cult 1966 erotic thriller stars French New Wave icons Jean-Louis Trintigant and Marie-France Pisier.

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What Can I Do with a Male Nude? What Can I Do with a Male Nude?

Comedy 1985 24 mins Director: Ron Peck

Ron Peck tests the thin line between pornography and art with his amusing rumination on the difficulties of showing the naked male form.

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Anatomy of a Pin-up Anatomy of a Pin-up

Documentary 1971 30 mins Director: David Cohen

This documentary explores attitudes to nude modelling in Britain - models, photographers and members of the public express their opinions.

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Eisenstein in Guanajuato Eisenstein in Guanajuato

Biopic 2015 106 mins Director: Peter Greenaway

One of Britain’s most inventive filmmakers tackles the story of arguably the most influential filmmaker in cinema history, Sergei Eisenstein.

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Central Bazaar Central Bazaar

Drama 1976 142 mins Director: Stephen Dwoskin

Five strangers explore their fantasies over a period of five days in Stephen Dwoskin's remarkable experimental film.

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Woman of the Dunes Woman of the Dunes

Animation & Artists Moving Image 1964 147 mins Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Hiroshi Teshigahara's mystifying, serene and provocative fable about an entomologist who becomes trapped in a young widow’s desert shack.

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Salon Kitty Salon Kitty

Drama 1976 133 mins Director: Tinto Brass

Before Caligula, Italian provocateur Tinto Brass directed this controversial and transgressive drama, inspired by the true story of a Nazi-run brothel in 30s Berlin.

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The Kreutzer Sonata The Kreutzer Sonata

Drama 2010 96 mins Director: Bernard Rose

Bernard Rose updates Tolstoy's tale about the corrupting power of sex and jealousy, with Danny Huston as the wealthy husband of a beautiful, famous pianist (Elisabeth Röhm).

More Sex films in our Rentals collection.

More related films in our Subscription collection, The Pleasure Principle.