10 Movies Celebrating Birthday Suits

(image above from Dublin Gazette)

When summer is less summ and more er (we’re looking at you, humidity) let’s all take a break from laundry and ironing boards and appreciate a more natural look. Cheers to an alternative way of keeping it cool throughout a hot summer! This week dress lightly and check our top 10 movies featuring bodies as art canvases (okay… maybe don’t dress that lightly…)

EYES WIDE SHUT

Stanley Kubrick’s saucy swan song raises the temperature to dangerous levels, masking desire as the missing ingredient to save a failing wedding. The scenes are reminiscent of a symposium and have us craving for a glass of wine and a warm body.

THE DREAMERS

Bernardo Bertolucci’s idea of a ménage à trois blurs the lines of grotesque and erotic so masterfully we have a new understanding of complicated incestuous relationships. Not that anybody asked for one.

SHOWGIRLS

We watched the movie, we marveled at Elizabeth Berkley’s wicked dancing moves, we joined a yoga/pilates/pole-dancing class, we cried and had a few mental breakdowns along the way… basically, we did literally anything we could to channel her breathtaking barrier-pushing character. 

NYMPHOMANIAC

Lars von Trier’s actors use nudity as an act of rebelliousness and self-affirmation. The last saga of the director’s “depression trilogy” (maybe don’t watch it after having a few glasses of wine) reimagines sexuality as a panacea. Who wants to play doctor?

ADORE

Robin Wright and Naomi Watts share a lifelong friendship and each other’s adult sons in a love story that has us looking frantically for the portable fan. Basically, Xavier Samuel is back at it again looking like a 3-course meal.

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY

Say whatever you want…  but the fact that you secretly watched it all alone and guilty in the dark is exactly what it was made for.

E.L. James voice: You’re welcome.

SEX AND THE CITY

In the early 2000’s, streets were empty and flocks of women gathered together to watch the iconic series. Samantha Jones came like fire and ice at a time when a single confident woman rocking the streets of New York was considered a taboo. The 2008 movie was not the trailblazer the tv-show was, but we’ll watch Samantha going through lovers like popcorn candy any time we can.

BASIC INSTINCT

Sex is power, and underwear-free Sharon Stone crossing and uncrossing her legs is the 90’s equivalent of Nicki Minaj’s twerking. Except classy.

Y Tu Mamá También

Alfonso Cuarón’s coming-of-age drama explores friendship, sexuality and the grey areas in between. Who knew that steamy could be this emotional?

Sex and Lucía

Nudity serves Julio Medem as the means to tell a story rather than paralyzing his grief-stricken complex characters. Seductive, intimate, provocative, creative the movie is a Freudian visual treatise. 

FUN FACT:

Some of the very first documented nudists go way back, in the Olympics, when ancient Greek men wrestling naked in public was considered a noble sport and not a public offense. Since this isn’t Sparta, we advise you sharpen your striptease skills in the privacy of your bedroom or head out to the nearest nude beach.