Tired of the traditional tearjerkers and unrequited love, and in need of a catalog that's a little weirder? You’re in the perfect spot. Art surrounding the allure and strangeness of seductiveness has been around for nearly as long as human existence-- one of the earliest known sculptures, the Venus of Willendorf made roughly thirty thousand years ago, is a depiction of a voluptuous woman, and is considered one of the most famous and important works of art in history, but even it has a strangeness and unusual quality about it.
Art is often how we initially learn about the human body, what pleasure and desire is, and what’s normative and what's not. The draw of on-screen sultriness is mostly dependent upon glamour and aesthetically pleasing angles, positioning, and lighting, but the series of emotions wrapped up with the big build up, is what can make or break a "good" love scene or romance movie. Sometimes these films take the traditional stories into unusual, unexpected directions, where couples explore the ambiguities in their relationships in specific, unique ways. With Valentine's Day coming, take a look at four somewhat recent movies which took a strange approach to relationships and how couples navigate their desires, insecurities, hopes, and needs.
4 Fifty Shades of Grey
The most vanilla.
It's genuinely surprising that a book about a BDSM relationship became a massive global success and spawned a huge trilogy of films (and that it actually wasn't that risqué at all). Although the acting may be debatable for some viewers depending on understandable preferences, the on-screen buildups between Christian and Anastasia are beyond epic in itself. In the first initial scene between the two, Anastasia walks into Christian's office at Grey Enterprises to interview him for her roommate Kate's article. The exchange between the duo is so tense and awkward, yet fascinating to watch.
To start off, Anastasia is completely enamored with Christian as he glides around his exuberantly large office, to the point that she can't take her eyes off of him. She's set on seeing first-hand any next moves Christian will make. Quite similar to meeting a hot guy or girl for the first time, she has so many emotions and can't settle on one. Anastasia becomes surprisingly frightened by Christian because of his authoritative executive role and demeanor, however, it's obvious she's intrigued by him. Christian plays off power, especially in the initial parts of this scene; he's answering Anastasia's questions as expected and keeping his composure, but as he begins to hear the wit within her questions and responses, he instantly becomes captivated. In the tiny moment where Anastasia bites on the Grey Enterprise pencil, we begin to see Christian fold, his fingers move in a catatonic pace under the table and the roles are reversed-- he wants to learn more about Anastasia, and the viewers want to see how.
3 365 Days
The most explicit.
First off, the plot of 365 Days, in which Massimo kidnaps Laura and gives her 365 days to fall in love with him before she can finally leave, is obviously problematic and wrong. This should never happen in real life, under no circumstances. Except in the film, Laura actually falls for Massimo, super hard, and eventually the two became engaged. It could possibly have been the temptation of being around a handsome yet dangerous mafia boss, but as we later come to find, there are many layers to Massimo. Like Christian, Massimo thrives off of power and control, but it's in those moments when he's most vulnerable with Laura that viewers see a different side to him. Still reeling from the death of his father, he later reveals to Laura that he saw her on the same beach where he and his father were both shot five years ago, and from then on all Massimo could do was attempt to find her. While receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews and having some extremely troubling content, the movie became a surprisingly massive hit internationally, topping the most-watched Netflix lists in countries around the world, probably because of its graphic content (with scenes which convinced audiences that the actors were actually having sex).
2 Mr. & Mrs. Smith
The PG-13 alternative.
In a world where marriages seem to deconstruct before noon, the universe gave us John and Jane Smith, a play off of John and Jane Doe because neither of these two married people actually know who the other really is. The film reminds us all just how many secrets you can keep from your partner before the world instantly crumbles around your feet. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's chemistry is undeniable and oozes through scenes like the infamous tango. After identifying each other as assassins who work for conflicting agencies, the two are assigned to kill the same target and, down the line, become aware that they've been assigned to kill each other. This begins a series of violent attacks, i.e the assassin's tango. In the scene, John and Jane engage in the sensual ballroom dance as a ploy to remove any weapons the other has hidden underneath their clothing. Though the tango is meant to express components of romance through synchronized movements, and it's clear that they both have elements of disdain toward each other (like most marriages), it's still very exciting to watch.
1 Eyes Wide Shut
The modern blueprint.
If there's ever a chance to include a Stanley Kubrick masterpiece, why not seize the opportunity? Eyes Wide Shut explores the eerie connection between the prurient and the anonymous, especially as it relates to sex. The film follows the adventures of wealthy couple Bill (Tom Cruise) and Alice Hartford (Nicole Kidman), who reveals to her husband that she's thought extensively about having an affair the year prior. Shocked by his wife's confession, Bill leaves the couple's home and goes out on a night-long adventure where he just so happens to stumble upon a masked orgy in an anonymous secret society in this strange psychosexual thriller. Eyes Wide Shut proposes that, although married (as the actors were in real life), the characters are ultimately strangers to one another. The movie's central idea is structured around human sexual desire. Bill's drive to fulfill his sexual desires in many of his exchanges with women onscreen overshadows his moral compass, and his jealousy and insecurity leads him to an unexpected confrontation with his own desire. He attempts to uncover this unknown world because it holds an erotic fantasy he's longing to feel in the absence of true romance and confidence within his relationship. It's a sad, beguiling, beautiful, and, yes, sensual film, and one of the best.