You might be familiar with the seven wonders of the world, but did you know there are seven non-pornographic films where actors actually had sex on screen?
There’s no real link between these films and the wonders of the world, apart from a catchy phrase. You may not have come across the term ‘unsimulated sex’ before.
This term refers to when actors are genuinely engaging in sexual activities during filming.
One recent instance involved Aubrey Plaza, who was asked to actually perform a sexual act on screen in the 2013 film The To-Do List, where she portrayed high school student Brandy Klark.
Plaza revealed this during her interview with Conan O’Brien, explaining she initially believed the scene would only feature her hand ‘slowly moving out of frame’.
She remembered: “I asked the director ‘what should I do’ and she said ‘masturbate like it says in the script’.”
Here is a list of movies that have featured unsimulated sex:
Pioneering the inclusion of unsimulated sex was the film Pink Flamingos, widely regarded as director John Waters’ most notorious work.
Its storyline follows: “A bizarre fat woman (Divine) and her misfit family compete with a Baltimore couple (David Lochary, Mink Stole) to be named the filthiest people alive.”
The film includes a scene of oral sex between Divine and Crackers (Danny Mills), though it does not portray full intercourse.
The controversial aspect is heightened as the characters are mother and son.
Following Pink Flamingos, the film In The Realm of Senses also depicts real sexual encounters, centering on an affair between a sex worker-turned-hotel maid and her boss.
This Japanese production faced significant censorship and bans, despite receiving strong critical acclaim at its release.
Jump to 1998, and real sex scenes reappeared in cinema with Lars von Trier’s film The Idiots.
This movie features an orgy scene, and when it premiered on Channel 4 in 2005, it received multiple Ofcom complaints.
This film tells the story of a woman who denounces heterosexuality and encourages her male followers to engage in sexual acts with each other.
A critic on Rotten Tomatoes described it as ‘a highly awkward blending of gay porn and political satire’.
Despite this, The Raspberry Reich is not classified as a pornographic film.
John Cameron Mitchell’s erotic comedy likewise features unsimulated sex, as noted by I-D.
Mitchell has spoken about these scenes and humorously remarked that ‘[people] don’t ask whether I could’ve done Hedwig [and the Angry Inch] without the songs’.
The Oscar-nominated Dogtooth sparked significant discussion, with its explicit scenes purportedly serving to highlight relationships that arise from extreme isolation.
The narrative follows: “A controlling, manipulative father (Christos Stergioglou) locks his three adult offspring in a state of perpetual childhood by keeping them prisoner within the sprawling family compound.
“The children are bored to tears in spite of distractions like Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou), an employee of their father’s who makes regular visits to sexually service the son (Hristos Passalis). Increasingly curious about the outside world, the older daughter (Aggeliki Papoulia) hatches a plan to escape.”
The most recent film in this category is a French piece featuring real sex, where the protagonist Franck falls for another man he meets on a nudist beach.
Far from being gratuitous, viewers have argued that the film’s sex scenes symbolize the merging of genuine intimacy with artistic expression.