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"Nude scene" is a slang term used in American popular culture to describe a scene in a mainstream (non-pornographic) film which one or more of the actors appears nude onscreen. Female nudity has been less controversial than male nudity in American film for a long time, although the female and male lower genitals are very rarely shown. One famous exception is the brief exposure of the female genitals in the Sharon Stone film Basic Instinct. When females are shown nude, their breasts are, by far, the most commonly exposed "private part", followed by the buttocks. When males are shown nude, the buttocks are shown or the man is shown nude, with his genitals or buttocks obscured by the pose, an inanimate object, or the man is simply shown from the lower back up. If male genitals are shown, it is only very briefly and the shot will usually will be cut from the film prior to release.

An example can be found in the editing process of the film A Home at the End of the World (2004), where a shot of Colin Farrell's penis was deleted. The production company said test audiences were "distracted" or "uncomfortable" when viewing the penis. Recent films have begun to use imitation penises to surprise audiences without actually showing male genitals, or to prevent actors from being embarrassed by size concerns. Adding nudity to films can be seen as a way to increase audience interest. This is also known as fanservice. However, some critics consider the use of nudity to be "cheap" and "gratuitous", and often disapprove that some actresses do to nude scenes in order to be picked for a part or to increase their popularity.

As with nudity, female sexual activity, including female-female activity, is considered more appropriate in film by Americans whose popular culture is primarily biased by the taste of heterosexual men. Males are rarely presented as sex objects when nude in American film. Instead, male nudity is used for humor, shock value, or mild titillation (where the man is not presented fully nude or in a particularly sexual manner).

The exception is gay cinema, which presents men in the same way women are often presented in mainstream film. Overall, America is considerably more offended by nudity, at least it pretends to be, than most European states, Japan, and other 1st-world nations. As with America, however, there is a strong bias toward the presentation of female nudity. America is unique in its high consumption of pornography and popularity of films devoted to nudity, like Strip Tease—coupled with TV shows about stripping where the contestants never remove all layers of clothing, and strong scandal caused by the exposure of so much as a nipple, as when Janet Jackson was exposed on MTV in what has since then become known as "nipplegate".

List (1953 -2004)

Films with nude scenes that have attracted significant attention include:

• Alexander (2004). Colin Farrell shows his penis, scrotum and buttocks in a very brief nude scene as he gets into bed.
• About Schmidt (2002). A scene in which Kathy Bates appeared nude while taking a whirlpool bath was much discussed, due to the fact that she was in her fifties and overweight. Jack Nicholson also reveals his buttocks in this film.
• American Beauty (1999). Thora Birch and Mena Suvari each have topless scenes. Kevin Spacey and Wes Bentley each have rear exposing scenes. Annette Bening has implied nudity during a sex scene.
• American Gigolo (1980). First full frontal nude appearance of a major Hollywood actor — in this case, Richard Gere.
• American Pie (1999). Shannon Elizabeth plays a Czech foreign exchange student duped into changing clothes on a webcam broadcast. Elizabeth was displeased that people remembered her thereafter only as the woman who showed her breasts in the movie.
• And God Created Woman (1956). The film opens with a shot of some clothing on a washing line with a nude Brigitte Bardot sun tanning herself beneath.
• Animal House (1978). Featured the infamous scene where Bluto (John Belushi) is on a ladder peering through the window watching Mandy Pepperidge (Mary Louise Weller) undress until comedy prevails.
• At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1990). Hector Babenco directed adaptation of a story of fundamentalist missionaries sent to the jungles of South America to convert the Indians, includes numerous nude scenes with the indegenous population, as well explicit scenes with most of the cast — Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Kathy Bates (twelve years before About Schmidt), and nine-year-old Niilo Kivirinta as the son of John Lithgow and Kathy Bates.
• Basic Instinct (1992). Known for a notorious police interrogation scene in which Sharon Stone, wearing a tight-fitting skirt with no underwear, uncrosses her legs, revealing her genitals. Also shows a scene of a dead man, with his penis exposed.
• Ben-Hur (1925). Roman soldiers pull off a woman's top, exposing her breasts; rear nudity of galley slave; bare-breasted maidens in parade scene.
• Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Features all main female cast members in nude scenes in addition to numerous extras nude.
• Blowup (1966). First mainstream (and British) film to feature female pubic hair — in this case, Jane Birkin's.
• The Blue Lagoon (1980). A remake of the 1949 film, adding several nude scenes: actors Brooke Shields (or her body double) and Christopher Atkins, as well as the children who played them in the first third of the movie, Glenn Kohan and Elva Josephson.
• Body Of Evidence (1993). Features Madonna and Willem Dafoe in numerous nude scenes.
• Boogie Nights (1997). Features Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, and others in numerous nude scenes, some feature simulated sex and, most famously, a thirteen-inch prosthetic penis.
• Borat:Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006). Sacha Baron Cohen and Ken Davitian wrestle naked in a hotel room, hallway, and in full view of a conference, in a scene that appears to have been inspired by the nude wrestling scene in Women in Love. However, Cohen's genitals were blocked by a superimposed black bar.
• British Sounds (1970). In this experimental film by Jean-Luc Godard, there is a scene with an extended close-up of a woman's genitals.
• Bully (2001). Features Rachel Miner and Bijou Phillips in various full-frontal nude scenes.
• Calendar Girls. Women of various ages raise money by creating and appearing nude in a calendar.
• Caligula (1979). This film, about a Roman emperor, featured nudity as well as masturbation (with ejaculation) and explicit sex scenes.
• Child Bride (1938). Twelve-year-old Shirley Mills appears nude in an infamous skinnydipping scene.
• A Clockwork Orange (1971). Graphic sexual imagery and rape pervade this film.
• Contempt (1963). Features several extended shots of Brigitte Bardot's bare buttocks in parodic reference to her nude scenes in And God Created Woman.
• The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). Helen Mirren and Alan Howard appear nude for most of their screen time. They begin by secretly having sex in a toilet and in a later scene they hide together in a meat freezer while nude.
• Crash (1996). Deborah Kara Unger is nude in several scenes. While in bed with husband James Spader, her labia majora are clearly visible to the camera. Spader then mounts her from behind and penetrates her anally (simulated) as she continues talking.
• The Crying Game (1992). Pivotal to the movie's plot is the sex scene between Stephen Rea and Jaye Davidson, since it shows Dil's (Davidson's) genitals and reveals her to be a transgendered woman rather than a cisgendered woman.
• A Daughter of the Gods (1916). The first film in which a major star (Annette Kellerman) appeared fully nude.
• Devil in the Flesh (1986). Maruschka Detmers appears casually nude during several scenes in this film of Raymond Radiguet's novel by Italian director Marco Bellocchio. In one noted scene, Detmers fellates her co-star, Federico Pitzalis (unsimulated).
• Don't Look Now (1973). Features an explicit scene where Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie are about to get dressed after having made love.
• The Dreamers (2003). Eva Green plays several long scenes in the nude as do her male co-stars, Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel. In one scene, Louis Garrel masturbates to a photograph of Marlene Dietrich, in another Eva Green handles Michael Pitt's penis. In one close-up shot, Eva Green's labia majora are clearly visible to the camera in close-up and Pitt runs his fingers through her pubic hair.
• Ecstasy (1933). Hedy Lamarr famously skinnydips in the lake and runs through a forest in the nude. Years later, her millionaire husband reportedly tried to buy every print and destroy them.
• Equus (1977). Featured extended full frontal and rear nudity from Peter Firth and Jenny Agutter.
• Eyes Wide Shut (1999). This film attracted pre-release publicity for nude scenes of then-married couple Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise, as well as extensive nudity during an orgy scene, featuring nude women wearing masks. The film opens with a shot of Kidman disrobing, letting a dress fall off her body, revealing her bare buttocks as well as her breasts and pubic hair in a mirror. Early on, both Kidman and Cruise apprear topless as they prepare to get dressed for a night out (somewhat reminiscent of Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie's famous conjugal postcoital nude scene in Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now). Cruise also tends to a nude woman who lies incapacitated on a sofa from a drug overdose. Shocked by Kidman's revelation of a sexual fantasy (in which she again appears nude), he walks out and later attends an orgy, but remains fully clothed (at one point he is ordered to strip, but another participant intervenes on his behalf). Some film critics accused Warner Brothers of censorship when they reedited the film for an R-rating after the death of director Stanley Kubrick.
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). The scene in which Phoebe Cates emerges from a swimming pool and removes her bikini top has been endlessly imitated and parodied.
• The Gift (2000). Brief scene where Katie Holmes is seen topless wearing a thong right before her character is murdered.
• Hair (1979). Nude group singing.
• Havoc (2004). Anne Hathaway appears in one graphic nude scene as well as several tamer ones. Hathaway was known as a Disney "good girl," starring in the Princess Diaries films, before taking on this role. The second Princess Diaries movie was released the same year. Bijou Phillips also appears nude several times.
• I Am Curious (Yellow) (1967), Vilgot Sjöman and Lena Nyman. Explicit portrayal of sex and nudity in a non-pornographic film.
• If... (1968), Malcolm McDowell. The film features frontal male nudity in a shower scene by three of the film's lead actors. The female lead, Christine Noonan also appears nude, grappling with McDowell during a feral sex scene. There is also a surreal sequence of the headmaster's wife somnambulating nude through the school hallways at night.
• Inspiration (1915), Audrey Munson. The first film featuring its leading actress in the nude.
• Intimacy (2001.) Kerry Fox and Mark Rylance play lovers and share a number of lengthy love scenes featuring full frontal nudity from both actors. This film is also notable as the first mainstream film to feature unsimulated fellatio.
• James Joyce's Women (1985), Fionnula Flanagan appears casually nude. In one explicit sequence, she is seen lying on a bed and ecstatically masturbating her hirsute labial folds to the point of orgasm in full view of the camera while reciting a monologue (Molly Bloom's famous erotic soliloquy from Ulysses). In this scene, she appears to be actually stroking and penetrating her labia majora with her fingers. Flanagan also appears in another scene squatting over a chamber pot with her pubis exposed and urinating.
• Je vous salue, Marie (1985). Controversial film by Jean-Luc Godard which presents Myriem Roussel as a modern Virgin Mary who appears nude (and in close-up) for much of her screen time.
• Killing Me Softly (2002). Heather Graham and Joseph Fiennes appear nude in numerous sex scenes.
• Last Tango in Paris (1972). Maria Schneider appears fully and casually nude in several long scenes. In one scene, Marlon Brando pins her to the floor facedown and spreads margarine in between her exposed buttocks before penetrating her anally (simulated). In a later scene, he rubs her breasts and pubic region with a wet sponge while she bathes in a tub. There is also a scene in an elevator which features a close-up shot of Maria Schneider lifting up her dress and revealing her pubic hair.
• Los Años Bárbaros (1998). Hedy Burress appears in a full frontal nude scene as she runs across the beach to jump in the ocean. Since the film takes place during the 1960s, director Fernando Colomo had a large tuft of faux pubic hair attached over Burress's shaved crotch because he believed few women shaved their pubic hair in the 1960s.
• Lovers (1991). Victoria Abril and Jorge Sanz share a highly erotic love scene in which there is a closeup of Sanz' penis which Abril fondles.
• Macbeth (1971). Francesca Annis performs Lady Macbeth's famous sleepwalking soliloquy in the nude, baring her buttocks. A young male child is also shown, fully nude, being bathed.
• The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976). The film features David Bowie, Candy Clark and Rip Torn in a number of explicit nude scenes, including full frontal.
• Maurice (1987). James Wilby and Rupert Graves appear fully nude, both rear and frontal, in a gay postcoital scene on a hotel bed.
• Maya (1966). Fourteen-year-old child actor, Jay North, strips naked after falling into the river, revealing his bare bottom.
• Medium Cool (1969). First mainstream American feature to show full male and female nudity.
• Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979). Brian (Graham Chapman) appears naked on a balcony in front of a crowd exposing his penis and minute later Judith (Sue Jones-Davies) appears with him in the full frontal nudity scene.
• 9 Songs (2004). Margo Stilley and Kieran O'Brien are nude for much of the movie, which also includes graphic footage of unsimulated fellatio, cunnilingus, masturbation and penetrative sex.
• Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). Suzanna Hamilton strips in the woods and performs two other long scenes casually in the nude for about two thirds of her screen time. Her full-frontal nudity is frankly presented with particular emphasis on her lean, waifish upper torso, curvaceous mesomorphic hips and thick, dark pubic and underarm hair.
• 1900 (1976). Features a scene in which the characters of Robert DeNiro and Gerard Depardieu visit a prostitute. Both actors are seen completely nude as the woman visibly fondles both their penises. The scene was edited out for the US release of the film, and later reappeared on the 1993 NC-17 re-release. An earlier scene (that was never edited out of the U.S. release) with the two characters as young boys examining their own penises was wildly criticized as child pornography.
• The Pawnbroker (1964). First American film to show a woman (Thelma Oliver) nude from the waist up and still be granted a Production Code seal.
• The Pillow Book (1996). One of many Peter Greenaway's films to feature full frontal nudity, this time by Ewan McGregor (who also appears nude in Trainspotting, Velvet Goldmine, and Young Adam).
• Planet of the Apes (1968). Charlton Heston is stripped, in rear view; one of the few instances of adult nudity in the last months of the Production Code era. His character is also featured in a nude bathing scene.
• Popi (1969). Alan Arkin stars in this controversial G-Rated "family film" with several, extended nude scenes by underaged male leads - Miguel Alejandro and Reuben Figueroa.
• Prénom Carmen (1983). Maruschka Detmers appears nude for much of her screen time, including one close-up shot of her pubic area, while her lover puts his hands between her legs.
• Pretty Baby (1978). Featured nude scenes of actress Brooke Shields, who was eleven and twelve during the shooting, which raised allegations of child pornography.
• Promises! Promises! (1963). Jayne Mansfield becomes the first mainstream American star to appear nude in in the sound era, baring her breasts and buttocks.
• Prospero's Books (1991). Nearly all of the inhabitants of Prospero's island are nude in this deconstructionist interpretation of Shakespeare's The Tempest.
• Quadrophenia (1979). Jimmy (Phil Daniels), the main mod character, enjoys a full-frontal bath in a private cubicle of a public bath-house when his enjoyment is cut short by the sound of a rocker (the mods' cultural enemies) singing Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula" in the next cubicle. It incenses Jimmy, who bursts into a rendition of "You Really Got Me" by mod favourites, The Kinks. Jimmy and the rocker are both seen fully naked in their cubicles as they compete in a raucous singing display. The baths' caretaker angrily bangs on their doors and shouts 'What do you think this is ? The bleedin' Eurovision Song Contest?' Later, the rocker is revealed to be Jummy's old school-mate, Kevin (Ray Winstone).
• Return to the Blue Lagoon. A very similar sequel to The Blue Lagoon, starring Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause, with similar nudity.
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Nell Campbell is seen topless after she is turned to stone by the Medusa Device.
• Romeo and Juliet (1968). This film caused some controversy for a brief postcoital nude scene featuring its two teenage leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey. Whiting exposes his buttocks while Hussey appears topless.
• A Room with a View (1985). Rupert Graves, Simon Callow, and Julian Sands frolic naked around a pond during a swimming scene.
• The Rules of Attraction (2002). Nudity in bathub during suicide scene, nudity in context of sexuality, intercourse, nudity during male masturbation (seen from behind), and nudity at a party (sexualized).
• Savage Messiah (1972). Helen Mirren walks up a staircase, flaunting her voluptuous nude body and striking poses.
• Schindler's List (1993). Shows many nude scenes of Jewish deathcamp prisoners in Auschwitz.
• Shallow Ground (2004). Rocky Marquette is nude throughout the entire film, in much of the film he is also covered in fake blood, only briefly having it wiped off.
• Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). Rear nudity of Dolph Lundgren. Drugged nightclub entertainer Angel (Renee Griffin) is stripped by Yakuza boss Funekei Yoshida (Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa) of all clothing except her panties, and then fondled from the breasts to the crotch Template:Spoiler warning before being beheaded.
• Showgirls (1995). Elizabeth Berkley performs an intense nude lapdance for Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon. Rena Riffel also contributes an intense nude performance with Berkley at a strip club where they are both employed, and Gina Gershon leads a glitzy topless group dance number before Berkley replaces her as the star of the show.
• Socket (2007) Derek Long and Matthew Montgomery, Several scenes of casual full frontal nudity in this indie gay, sci-fi thriller.
• Splash (1984) Daryl Hannah, playing a mermaid, appears naked to Tom Hanks on an isolated beach and to a group of tourists at the Statue of Liberty.
• Summer with Monika (1953). The first nude scene in postwar European cinema. Harriet Andersson's bare buttocks are seen briefly as she runs over the rocks to skinnydip in a lake.
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971), thirteen year old Mario Van Peebles' bare buttocks are seen at the beginning of the film when the character of "Sweetback" is seen visiting a prostitute. The controversial scene limited the film's distribution; it was banned in Australia for years. The scene was revisited 32 years later when Peebles made a biopic about his father, Rated X by an All-White Jury.
• Swordfish (2001). A lingering topless scene featuring Halle Berry was controversial because rumors persist that, in the midst of filming, Warner Brothers executives offered Berry $2 million to do the scene, thinking it would boost the movie's revenue. Berry has said that they paid her $250,000 to expose each breast.
• Tarzan of the Apes (1918). Tarzan (Gordon Griffith), at eleven years old, is nude for much of the first half of the film; the African natives also briefly appear nude.
• 10 (1979). Bo Derek's nudity in 10 is limited to a darkly-lit bedroom scene, but the movie made her an overnight sex symbol and led to a profusion of nudity in her later movies.
• The Terminator (1984). Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Biehn appear nude early in the film, exposing their buttocks (Schwarzenegger also shows — although shadowed and seen from a distance — a bit more than just his buttocks). Linda Hamilton also bares her breasts during a love scene.
• Titanic (1997). Kate Winslet poses nude and wears only a diamond necklace for her portrait.
• Two Moon Junction (1988). Sherilyn Fenn and Richard Tyson share steamy nude scenes that feature frontal nudity from both. Kristy McNichol exposes her breasts in two scenes.
• Ultimo mondo cannibal (1977). Lead actors Massimo Foschi and Me Me Lai are nude throughout most of Ruggero Deodato's predecessor to the controversial Cannibal Holocaust, which also contains brief explicit shots of their genitals.
• Une vraie jeune fille (1975). Various explicit shots of Charlotte Alexandra's breasts and vulva, and Bruno Balp's erect penis. The film also contains graphic urination and masturbation scenes.
• The Unashamed (1938). Typical nudist exploitation film of the 1930s, showing bare breasts and buttocks.
• Walkabout (1971). Famous scene showing David Gulpilil, Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg (as the Agutter's 11-year-old brother) skinny-dipping in a lake in the Australian outback.
• What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? (1970). This film examines the public response to unexpected nudity.
• The Whole Nine Yards (2000). Amanda Peet is seen nude where three hitmen are killed.
• Wild Things (1998). Denise Richards is seen topless in the film during the menage-a-trois sequence. In the director's cut, Richards is topless during a lesbian love scene with Neve Campbell.
• Women in Love (1969). Known for its full frontal nudity in a wrestling match between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed. Glenda Jackson became the first actress to do a nude scene and win an Academy Award for Best Actress.
• Woodstock. Famous skinnydipping scene at rock festival.

See also

• Love scene
• Sex scene
• Sex in film
• Sex in film chronology
• Nudity in film
• Pretexts for nudity in film
• Sex and nudity in European cinema

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