We all have questions when it comes to sex and our sexuality. There are no clear answers and the way we view both ourselves and others is always in flux.
This collection of movies and TV shows remind us that it doesn't matter where you live in the world, or what you were raised to believe, sexuality is always complicated.
MOVIES
Novo
A fledgling relationship is put the test when a man with significant memory loss must entrust his new girlfriend to be the keeper of their collective memory.
Cashback
After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild.
28 Hotel Rooms
Unfolding as a collage of moments: some sexy, some innocent, some profound, some silly, this is an intimate portrait of an affair. Two people wrestle with the intoxication of sex, and the confusion of loving multiple people.
My Mistress
Harrison Gilbertson (Picnic At Hanging Rock) stars alongside acclaimed French actress Emmanuelle Béart (Mission: Impossible, 8 Women) in this unconventional and provocative Australian coming-of-age story, in which a beautiful and innocent affair between the vulnerable teenage romantic Charlie and S&M mistress Maggie soon becomes something more dangerous.
Hide and Seek
In an isolated English cottage, four young people from London move in together, seeking to challenge social conventions and their own tolerances by engaging in scheduled partner-swapping. As their inhibitions and past traumas fade, they achieve a unique kind of collective happiness but the durability of their new living arrangement is tested by the arrival of an outsider, who fails to get in tune with the foursome's radical spirit.
Double Lover
Francois Ozon's steamy mystery follows Chloé, a fragile young woman, who falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul. A few months later she moves in with him, but soon discovers that her lover is concealing a part of his identity.
Sirens
An uptight and upright English couple, the Reverend Tony Camden and his wife Estella, visit the artist Norman Lindsay en route to their new parish, in order to persuade him to remove a controversial painting from an upcoming exhibition. Estella finds herself seduced by the sensuality of her surroundings and the bohemian lifestyle.
TV
Do Communists Have Better Sex
Sex, studies have shown, was better for women in East Germany than in West Germany. They had sex more often and more frequently had orgasms. Why? This film tries to find reasons. During the Second World War women in both the eastern and western parts of Germany took on the work of their absent menfolk. At the end of the war the returning soldiers claimed back their old jobs and most women were forced to return to domestic life. As the majority of the men, however, chose to settle in the West, there was a shortage of workers in the East, and the women there stayed in the workforce.
The Ceremony: Dominatrix of France
A look at the most famous dominatrix in France and how she creates sadomasochist ‘Ceremonies’ in her chateau. Catherine Robbe-Grillet, age 84, defies the relations between power and submission, sensuality, and physical pain.
Love and Sex in India
From forbidden love stories to arranged marriages and spectacular weddings where the bride and groom only just met, we follow the epic stories of young couples in India.
Love and Sex in Japan
In the land of the Rising Sun, love and relationships are in danger. Unsurprisingly, this has led to birth rates plummeting. What are the reasons for this detachment from the world of love and sex? Paradoxically, Japan is also one of the largest producers of porn movies in the world, with many men seeming to prefer manga heroines to women their age. As Japanese men and women slowly lose the skill of connecting, courses teaching the art of seduction are flourishing.
Love and Sex in China
With an estimated 180 million singletons in China and people traditionally marrying early, the race to find a soulmate before surpassing the sell by date is frantic. Singles fairs, where CVs are passed around, speed-dating, and lessons in the art of seduction are all examples of a booming westernised market. However, there is a massive imbalance in the sexes due to the penchant for male offspring since the single-child policy was introduced in 1980. Future brides are in short supply, and the men most likely to find a wife are those in a strong financial position.
Sex Revolutions
As a cause and consequence of multiple social struggles and evolutions as well as medical progress, the sexual revolution redefined our societies. From New-York to Paris, San Francisco and Berlin, discover previously unseen public and private archives with analysis by the most eminent experts.
