History of Sex in Cinema: 1995, Part 2 |
Never Talk to Strangers (1995) In director Peter Hall's psycho-sexual erotic thriller (similar in part to The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Basic Instinct (1992)), the main character was another brilliant, cool blonde - a criminal psychologist named Dr. Sarah Taylor (Rebecca DeMornay). As part of her job, she was evaluating the sanity of accused serial killer Max Cheski (Harry Dean Stanton). In the meantime, she fell in love with smooth talking, quick-tempered, passionate, long-haired Latino stranger Tony Ramirez (Antonio Banderas) who she said was "a bad influence." In Tony's "loft" apartment where walls were composed of wire fencing and wooden cages, she found vigorous, kinky thrills with him inside one of the 'caged' or mesh-screened rooms. It appeared that she was increasingly frightened by things sent to her - she was disturbingly stalked with both strange gifts and death threats: threatening phone messages, dead flowers, her own newspaper obituary, and her dismembered cat in a box. When Sarah looked into Tony's background, he was revealed to be a police officer and surveillance expert. (She didn't know that Tony was investigating the strange, unsolved disappearance of Benny Martin, Sarah's ex-fiancee a year earlier.) In the nail-biting, twisting conclusion set in Sarah's house, Tony confronted her and pulled a gun on her. She accused him of stalking her ("I've seen the file, Tony. I know you've been stalking me right from the beginning") and he confirmed that he had been investigating her. He told her that he had installed a surveillance camera in her hallway to help identify her stalker, but it revealed that she was actually stalking herself and sending herself frightening and strange objects: ("It's you, Sarah, you've been stalking yourself"). Tony demonstrated that Sarah had multiple personality disorder, and he advised: "You need help." Then, her ailing estranged father Henry (Len Cariou) entered the house, someone Sarah feared. Her illness stemmed from an abusive childhood from her despised father Henry during which time she murdered her mother to satisfy Henry and cover up the crime.
Sarah flashbacked to her abusive childhood about 20 years earlier, when her despised father (who had committed incest with her) was confronted by her mother Alison (Susan Coyne). She knew of his sexual abuse ("You'll never, ever touch that child again!"). Alison threatened to leave, causing Henry to erupt in a rage and push her down the stairs, while young Sarah (Emma Corosky) watched. Henry then coerced his daughter to help cover-up the crime to ensure that Henry wouldn't be blamed, by shooting her (with his help) and calling it an accident: "Mama's been bad and gotten Daddy in trouble. You have to help Daddy pull the trigger. Do as you're told. One, two, three. All right. All right. Daddy'll help you."
Knowing the truth of what happened to her mother so long ago, Sarah aimed her gun at her father, claiming: "It wasn't an accident, was it? You put the gun in my hand." Sarah described the effect her father's abuse had on her: " You think I don't remember what happened, what you did to me every night? You think I don't remember the sound of your shoes, coming into my bedroom every night? Why they took me away from you? Why my aunt would never let me see you? You fooled everybody. You never fooled me." When Tony asked her to trust him and he disarmed himself, she shot him to death. She had now fully revealed the man-hating, homicidal alter-ego side of her multiple personality disorder (MPD). She screamed at Tony as he died on the floor, and kicked his body: "Now you know what happened to Benny. You were so f--kin' interested. He was a worthless piece of s--t, like you. Like all men. Like all men!" Then, she screamed at her father, in an unholy voice: "F--k! Now look what you've gone and done! And I'm gonna have to f--kin' cover for you again! Goddamn it! I'm sick of it!" When her father assured her, as he had done many years earlier, "It wasn't your fault," she picked up Tony's gun and killed her father with multiple gunshots. She said to herself: "It never happened. Never happened like that. Never happened. I'm not gonna remember any of this. All right, Sarah. It's gonna be all right. It was self-defense." In the end, Sarah's homicidal alter ego killed both Tony and her father, and then easily convinced the police that the crazed Tony murdered her father and that she killed Tony with her own gun in self-defense. She signed a statement about what happened:
Two detectives discussed the likelihood that Sarah probably wouldn't have to stand trial. Six months later in her psychiatry office, Sarah was preparing and recording an upcoming convention lecture about a "very interesting disorder" - MPD - a disease she didn't know she suffered from:
Her pushy next-door neighbor Cliff Raddison (Dennis Miller), with whom she had experienced a one-night stand earlier, entered her office for an 8 o'clock movie date. |
Tony Ramirez (Antonio Banderas) and Dr. Sarah Taylor (Rebecca DeMornay) Kinky Thrills in Tony's Loft Apartment Sarah's Murder of Tony Sarah's Recollection and Flashback to Henry's Words: "It Wasn't Your Fault" Sarah's Murder of Her Father Henry Sarah Recording Her Lecture About MPD Cliff Raddison (Dennis Miller): Sarah's Next Man |
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A Reason to Believe (1995) Holly Marie Combs (star of TV's magical fantasy series Charmed as Piper Halliwell) was featured in this mostly-unseen, low-budget, independent film by first-time director Douglas Tirola. The intelligent film was about date rape on a college campus, expressed by the tagline:
Combs appeared topless (as Sharon) in one short sex scene that was unrelated to the main plot. As a second male watched (with his hand down his pants masturbating) and drank beer, she ripped open a condom packet with her teeth, then put a condom on another naked guy in front of her, and provided oral sex. She then removed her sweater to reveal her breasts, and let the male fondle her. This scene was possibly one of the few reasons that anyone had even heard of this film.
In the film's main plot, a popular and pretty sorority girl named Charlotte Byrne (Allison Smith) attended a frat party where she was raped (forced into unwanted sex) by her boyfriend Wesley's (Danny Quinn, actor Anthony Quinn's son) womanizing best friend Jim (Jay Underwood). Subsequently, she lost her boyfriend, was shunned by her sorority sisters, and suffered confusion and terror. She was even accused of raping the aggressive male: "You raped him." When she finally took a stand against the rape and made strong allegations (with support from a campus women's group), her actions led to both positive and negative consequences. |
Rape of Charlotte (Allison Smith) |
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Showgirls (1995) Director Paul Verhoeven's erotic show-biz, sexploitation drama (teamed up again with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas) was the first attempt of Hollywood to mass market a studio film with an NC-17 rating (since the failure of Caligula (1979)), although it was a tremendous flop (with domestic box-office of only $20 million from a production budget of $45 million). In subsequent years, it has regained some of its status as a deliberately campy, misogynistic guilty-pleasure adult film, with some unfortunate depictions of the mistreatment of women. It remains the highest-grossing NC-17 rated film of all-time with almost double the box-office take of its next major competitor, Henry & June (1990) at $11.6 million. Although it flopped at the box-office, the notorious film found an audience among cult film-goers, although it reportedly destroyed the career of lead female star Elizabeth Berkley (as uneducated, aspiring dancer and new stripper in town named Nomi Malone), earlier noted for her role in the late 80s TV show Saved By the Bell. Its campy, dramatically-sleazy story was about the sex industry. Many viewers found the non-stop nudity almost boring after awhile. It was controversially loaded with very frequent nudity, sexuality, and notorious, unbelievable dialogue. It took an uncensored look at cheap Las Vegas strip clubs and shows (beginning with pole-dancing at the low-class Cheetah) and higher-class hotel shows and their headliner dancers. One of the other main stars was Gina Gershon as Cristal Connors, the Stardust Hotel revue showgirl headlining diva star who performed on stage at the "Goddess" topless dance show. In one of the earliest scenes of the infamous film, Al Torres (Robert Davi), manager of the topless, pole-clinging dancers at the Cheetah, detailed requirements for a lap dance to new girl Penny (Rena Riffel): "Fifty bucks a pop, you take 'em in the back. Touch and go. They touch, they go. You can touch them. They cannot touch you...Now if they come, that's okay. If they take it out and come all over you, call the bouncer, unless he gives you a big tip. If he gives you a big tip, it's okay. You got that?" Al also criticized Nomi for her lame excuses for missing work and then propositioned her: "I'm gettin' real tired of your s--t, kid. If you want to last longer than a week, you'll give me a blow job. First, I get you used to the money, then I make you swallow." Two visitors to the Cheetahs to watch Nomi dance included the Stardust Hotel's entertainment director and impresario Zack Carey (Kyle Maclachlan) and his cocaine-using girlfriend Cristal, who suggested: "I'll buy her for you"; afterwards, the reluctant Nomi was paid a top price of $500 dollars to perform a private and extended lap dance for Zack - Cristal's gift to him, while she watched from afar; it was Cristal's way of humiliating Nomi and proving that she was 'prostituting' herself at the Cheetahs; it ended up being a totally-nude, frenzied, hip-grinding, orgasmic experience for Zack, and seemed to also turn Cristal on. During one night's performance at the Cheetahs, Nomi was offered an audition for an open spot in the chorus line of the "Goddess" show; Nomi suspected that Cristal was behind the invitation to try-out ("She sent you, didn't she?").
During the dance audition scene, Tony Moss (Alan Rachins) introduced himself: "Okay, ladies. I'm Tony Moss. I produce this show. Some of you have probably heard that I'm a prick - I am a prick. I got one interest here, and that's the show. I don't care whether you live or die. I want to see ya dance and I want to see ya smile. I can't use you if you can't smile, I can't use you if you can't show, I can't use you if you can't sell"). He also threatened one of the losing contestants: "Come back when you've f--ked some of this baby fat off. See ya!", and made insulting comments to Nomi about her nipples: ""You got somethin' wrong with your nipples?...They're not stickin' up. Stick 'em up....Play with 'em a little bit. Pinch 'em a little. You want me to do it for ya, I'll do it...I'm erect. Why aren't you erect? Here, put some ice on 'em". After an outburst, Nomi stormed off; Cristal (who had been watching from the audience) followed her backstage and admitted why she had arranged for Nomi to be selected: "Maybe I like the way you dance. Maybe I like you. What difference does it make?"; Nomi said she hated Cristal for her 'enjoyment' of her harsh treatment. Earlier, Nomi also had become briefly acquainted with the Crave Club's dread-locked black bouncer, James Smith (Glenn Plummer), resulting in her overnight stay in jail and the loss of James' job. From the first moment they met, he kept offering uninvited advice, and insults about her style of dancing ("You got potential. I could teach you"). After Nomi's audition, James (working as a hotel bellhop) again stated how Nomi's aspirations for a glamorous topless showgirl career meant the exploitation of her talent: "You don't want to be in this kind of show. Here, they pretend they want something else, And you still show them tits and ass"; for talking to Nomi during his work, James was fired; he drove her back to his apartment in a pink convertible where he showed her some of his choreographed dance moves for her before they had a brief sexual fling. However, their relationship quickly ended when she later found him bedding down Penny, another stripper-dancer from the Cheetahs Club. [Much later in the film, James quit choreographing dance numbers after a disastrous show at the Crave Club, and took a grocery store job after impregnating Penny.] It was confirmed that Nomi had been given the job to dance in the "Goddess" show, so she quit her leggy, pole-dancing Cheetahs job. Intense rehearsals for the show were conducted by choreographer Gay Carpenter (Michelle Johnston) and Marty (Patrick Bristow), including crude hip "Thrust It" exercises, before her first show - that very evening. The show went smoothly, and Nomi was rewarded with a bouquet of flowers from Zack at her dressing table. During the next day's noon practice, Nomi found herself in an empty Stardust showroom with Cristal, snorting cocaine; it was a pretense to go out to lunch at Spago's. While Cristal and Nomi ate lunch, they first talked about eating Doggie Chow in their past when they faced hard times. They also became fixated on breast-talk:
Nomi confessed that she felt like a "hooker" when she showed off her breasts at the Cheetahs Club, although Cristal reminded her that they both provided sexual entertainment for cash: "You are a whore, darlin'....We all are. We take the cash, we cash the check. We show them what they wanna see"; Nomi disagreed: "Maybe you are a whore, Cristal, but I'm not," but Cristal again stipulated: "You and me, we're exactly alike"; Nomi was angered: "I'll never be like you!"; a love-hate relationship and rivalry was developing between the two divas. Upon their return to the Stardust show stage, they competitively engaged in an erotic dance duo, when suddenly, Cristal stripped Nomi of her complete top, to ogle her and to fondle her breasts and tweak her nipples; she then approached slowly for a bi-sexual kiss - and again reminded Nomi: "You see, darlin'? You are a whore." Nomi felt used by Cristal and spit the word "Bitch!" at her before storming off. Cristal's malicious intentions on and off the stage were now clear - she would continue to imply and humiliate Nomi by proving that she was basically a cheap whore who was prostituting herself for money; Nomi was at first enticed when Cristal recommended her for a promotional dance appearance at a boat show convention coming to town in the next week, to be paid $1,000 dollars; however, at the event when she was propositioned for a show, dinner, and sex by a "high-roller" from Bangkok named Mr. Okida (Jim Ishida), she felt degraded, rejected the offer ("Not me") and marched away. When she confided with Zack about the issue, she thought he was supportive when he reprimanded Newkirk for his actions, but she had been fooled. Later during a stage show, two rival showgirls sabotaged each other, leading to a serious knee injury for one of the girls, Annie (Ungela Brockman). It left an opening for tryouts for the position of Cristal's understudy. Meanwhile, Nomi was invited by Zack to his magnificent estate. She complimented him about the lap dance ("I liked it when you came"), and then after noticing his outdoor pool with neon palm trees and a dolphin fountain, she stripped down and dived in. He joined her with a champagne bottle and two glasses, and poured the bubbly all over her face and body. In an overacted, over-the-top swimming pool scene, she seduced him and the two thrashed around during orgasmic activity below the water level - it was a basic repeat of the earlier lap dance, but under water. [Note: The scene was voted the # 1 'unsexiest' or worst sex scene in cinema history by Empire Magazine in 2005.} The next morning, Zack urged Nomi to consider trying out for the understudy role at a noon audition against the other rivals Nikki (Melinda Songer) and Julie (Melissa Williams), and she won the competition. After finding out that Zack had slept with Nomi, Cristal was jealous and furious and interfered with the decision by threatening legal action and leaving the show, resulting in Nomi's offer being withdrawn. Enraged now that Cristal had the upper hand, Nomi vengefully pushed Cristal down the steep flight of stairs leading from the stage (after a contentious biker number between them), but she was cleared of blame by Julie, one of the rival showgirls that Nomi had earlier covered for. However, Molly saw the 'accident' and knew Nomi had caused it. Cristal suffered a compound fracture of her right hip, and thus Nomi became the headliner for the show; after Nomi's successful opening-night, debut lead performance, a premiere party was held at the luxurious Paradiso hotel; one of the guests was famous celebrity musician Andrew Carver (William Shockley) - one of Molly's idols; in the film's most violent and traumatic sequence, Molly was gang-raped by Carver and his two security guards in one of the hotel rooms; Zack and others from the Stardust agreed to bribe Molly with hush-money to keep the rape out of the news. During the aftermath of Molly's rape and recovery from a broken nose, Zack had conducted a background check on Nomi's elusive and shady past after learning a number of nefarious things about her: (1) Nomi's real name was Polly Ann Costello, (2) in 1989 when she was 15 years old and living in San Francisco, her father murdered her mother and then drunkenly committed suicide, (3) placed in a foster home in Oakland, Polly ran away in 1990 and roamed through the country, (4) she already had a rap sheet, for crack cocaine drug use and possession, soliciting, and assault with a deadly weapon; Zack pressured and blackmailed Nomi to not report Molly's assault to the police. Not content with the lack of justice for Molly, Nomi exercised vigilantism by meeting up with Carver in his Paradiso Hotel room where she stripped, but then pulled out a switchblade and violently assaulted him with her heavy boots; she then visited Molly to inform her of the payback ("I just went to Carver. I kicked the s--t out of him"), and then visited Cristal to apologize for hurting her; Cristal, who had received a large cash payment for the injury, admitted that she had gotten her first lead earlier in life with the same tactic: ("There's always someone younger and hungrier coming down the stairs behind you"); before Nomi left, the two shared a passionate good-bye kiss. The film concluded with Nomi's departure from town toward Los Angeles - again hitch-hiking - and hooking up with the same truck driver who had swindled her in the film's opening; this time, she held him at knifepoint and demanded her suitcase back. |
Nomi - Starstruck Watching the Stardust's "Goddess" Stage Show Starring Cristal Connors Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon) - Headliner Diva Star Backstage Nomi Backstage at the Topless Cheetahs Club Some of Topless Dancers At the Cheetahs Club Carmi (Dante McCarthy) New Girl Penny (Rena Riffel) at the Cheetahs Club Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkley) Dancing At the Cheetahs Club Nomi's Brief Sexual Fling with James (Glen Plummer) Intense Rehearsals Erotic Dance Between Cristal and Nomi on Empty Stardust Stage Vengeful Nomi Admitting to Being Behind Cristal When She Fell Down a Flight of Stairs and Broke Her Hip - But Cleared of Blame The New Headliner For the Stardust Show - Miss Nomi Malone At the Debut Performance After-Party - Andrew Carver Molly's Gang-Rape Incident Zack's Discovery of Nomi's Past Life Nomi in Andrew Carver's Hotel Suite Before Her Vengeful Assault With Switchblade and Her Boots Passionate Goodbye Kiss Between Cristal and Nomi |
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Species (1995) Director Roger Donaldson's R-rated, titillating science-fiction action thriller contained plentiful sex and nudity - exhibited by a gorgeous, deadly, part-alien/part-human nymphomaniacal creature named Sil. She was the result of a scientific experiment at a top secret Utah facility to combine alien and human DNA. First portrayed as a 12 year-old by Michelle Williams, Sil grew into a gorgeous but deadly female (model Natasha Henstridge) whom the scientists attempted to gas to death. She escaped and prowled the LA singles scene looking to procreate with a suitable male mate to provide her with the genetic seed necessary to have offspring for colonization. The beauteous murderous creature enticingly seduced men in many scenes by becoming naked and aggressively demanding sex (a reversal of normal sex roles), especially in one hot tub sequence. When aroused, spikes came sprouting from her back. Whether impregnated or not, she would kill her shocked male victims, Black-Widow style.
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Hot Tub Scene Sil (Natasha Henstridge) |
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Strange Days (1995) Director Kathryn Bigelow's realistic science-fiction story told about virtual reality "clips" (sold on computer discs and played back on head-worn devices called SQUIDS or Superconducting Quantum Interference Device). Ex-vice cop and illegal clip peddler/user Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) would also sample the wares - a virtual reality clip of two girls (Kylie Ireland and Dru Berrymore) and a guy making love. Buyers used them for entertainment's sake in the future Los Angeles of late 1999 - to experience the real sensations of others with strong doses of violence and sex. Lenny also ecstatically enjoyed 'jacking in' to playback a clip of ex-girlfriend Faith Justin (Juliette Lewis) - filmed from a first-person perspective - first roller-skating with him in Venice, California (she wore a skimpy black bikini bottom), and then stripping down before they had sex together (to the tune of Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds"). As she laid back on the bed, he caressed her face: "You're so beautiful." She told him that she loved his eyes as they made love: "I love the way they see." Lenny pined for Faith whose new crazed and paranoid boyfriend was record promoter Philo Gant (Michael Wincott), even when she told him off in the dressing room of her performing club venue, the Retinal Fetish: "You know one of the ways that movies are still better than playback? 'Cause the music comes up, there's credits, and you always know when it's over. IT'S OVER!" Lenny promised one of his buying clients:
He had the client sample a clip of an 18 year-old girl taking a shower, and he was excited by his sleazy virtual reality trade: "There's money to be made. Dreams to sell." One tense playback was more horrifying for Nero to watch - a contraband snuff clip (or 'blackjack'), something he claimed he didn't peddle, in which an anonymous murderer ("sick f--ker") forced his friend, female hooker/victim Iris (Brigitte Bako), to be 'jacked in' - in order to experience her own brutal demise after she was tasered, handcuffed, blindfolded, and simultaneously raped and strangled:
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Stoned Looking Girl (Kylie Ireland) and Stoned Girl's Lover (Dru Berrymore) Faith Justin (Juliette Lewis) The Snuff Clip of Iris (Brigitte Bako) |
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Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995) Todd Solondz's painfully-realistic, uncompromising rites-of-passage black comedy - his first major independent film success, was about bespectacled, geeky 11 year-old outcast Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo) in a middle-class New Jersey family. Without scenes of sex, nudity, or violence (although there were some vulgarities), the film followed her cruel, miserable, and isolated progress through puberty, when she was called "lesbo," "weiner dog," and "dog-face" by her junior-high classmates and shunned in the cafeteria. She was told that she was "ugly" - the main reason for her tauntings. In one scene, she developed an obvious crush on her brother's garage band-mate Steve Rodgers (Eric Mabius). In another scene, violence-prone and jealous Lolita (Victoria Davis) forced Dawn in the toilet to relieve her bowels, to exercise power over her. And in a potential rape scene, Heather was menacingly told by crass 7th grade bully Brandon (Brendan Sexton, Jr.) at her locker that he was going to rape her at 3 pm, but then didn't follow through (because he didn't actually know what rape was and only wanted to awkwardly express his interest in her) - although she was willing to let him kiss her and submit in order to be accepted. |
Dawn Weiner (Heather Matarazzo) Dawn Taunted by Others |
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When Night is Falling (1995, Can.) Writer/director Patricia Rozema's realistically-told and beautifully-photographed lesbian love story (released unrated rather than as NC-17, for its two lesbian love scenes) was about the repressed and erotic desire within an unexpected and improbable romance, that occurred between:
They first met by chance at a laundromat. The crisis in the story revolved around Camille's conflict of love due to her relationship with fiancee and ministerial colleague Martin (Henry Czerny) and her choices between homosexual/heterosexual love, her strict religious beliefs and feelings, and between career and free-spirited romance -- succinctly expressed by Petra: "Ordinary with you would be... wild." Petra enticed Camille with the statement:
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Camille Baker (Pascale Bussieres) |
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Wild Side (1995) Writer/director Donald Cammell's (director of Performance (1970)) tawdry, soft-core erotic thriller (with the tagline: "Going Too Far Was Just the Beginning") was about a love triangle including two lesbians. The film was heavily re-edited by the studio to avoid being unrated or receiving an NC-17 rating, and was released directly to video and cable TV. After the director committed suicide and self-outed star Anne Heche garnered controversial headlines with TV star Ellen Degeneres in 1997, the film was restored to its original posthumous Director's Cut and re-released in 1999 with extended lesbian scenes. It followed the growing sexual relationship between:
Because of her debts, Alex took on clients after-hours, including brutish, perverted money-launderer Bruno Buckingham (Christopher Walken). She found herself brutally raped by Bruno's sadistic chauffeur Tony (Steven Bauer), who was under Bruno's orders to check out her background - although he was actually a crooked undercover cop tracking down Bruno. Tony blackmailed her into helping him and the FBI entrap the crook. In the meantime to further complicate matters, one of Alex's new clients setting up a bank account was Virginia Chow, the soon-to-be ex-wife and ongoing lover of Bruno. Together, Alex and Virginia attempted to send up Bruno and escape the country together. They believably found themselves attracted to each other in an international bank's executive washroom with bright red walls. Later, they convincingly made tender exploratory love in a naturalistically-filmed scene in Virginia's hotel room while rolling around and touching each other:
In another semi-farcical scene, Bruno vengefully threatened forcible sodomy against Bruno to prove a rhetorical point about power ("This is not about sex, this is about power") and how he loved Alex (Bruno: "I need to do this to disgust myself, to become selfless in the name of... love"). |
Alex Lee (Anne Heche) Virginia Chow (Joan Chen) |