Warning: some of the following content would be quite NSFW, so beware!

This Friday sees the release of Lovelace, a look at the life of Linda Lovelace, one of the most name-brand recognisable adult film stars to have ever lived. While the movie focuses more on the trials and tribulations of her life, the impact that Deep Throat itself had on both the pornography business as well as cinema is general is also a vitally important one. Often overlooked as nothing but "dirty movies", the adult movie industry has brought about some big changes in society and culture all by themselves. Here are ten adult movies that completely shaped the way pornography was produced by its makers and received by its audiences:

AFTER THE BALL (1897)
The world's first ever "adult movie" is almost as old as the movie industry itself, and this very short movie of a woman getting dressed down to her underwear (ankles on show to everyone! Gasp!), stepping into a metal paddling pool and having some kind of dark ash-y powder poured over her was enough for folks to find arousing over a century ago.

A L'ECU d'OR OU LA BONNE AUBERGE (1908)
It didn't take long for the adults behind the adult movie making business to make their movies a bit more, well, adult! This movie was produced by a group of randy French guys, telling the story of a weary soldier who spends the night (or at least the movie's running time) with a female servant in the inn (the translation of the title is "The Good Inn", which makes sense).

THE SURPRISE OF THE KNIGHT (1929)
Proving just how ahead of the curve they tend to be (more on that later), The Surprise Of The Knight was the first adult movie to feature exclusively homosexual intercourse, predating the legality of porn ownership by forty years, and "anti-sodomy" laws by over 70 years.

DEEP THROAT (1972)
One of the first movies to present something resembling a plot (well, we say plot…), character development and relatively high production values, Deep Throat changed the face of the adult film industry, thanks to its "porn chic" hipness and, with Linda Lovelace, a likeable lead actress. Anyone who was anyone back in the day had to go see it, and it has made over $600 million to date.

EMMANUELLE (1974)
Initially not even intended to be a pornographic movie, French director (again, those randy French!) Just Jaeckin embraced the X-rating that his movie received, opposed to avoiding it like most other movies would try to do. It wasn't long after the legalities of porn had changed in the US, so this movie went all out, pushing the boundaries of what could be shown on the big screen. The series now has over 40 entries (ZING!) in the franchise.

DEBBIE DOES DALLAS (1978)
One of the last releases during "The Golden Age Of Porn" (1968-1980) and one of the most well-known adult movies ever made, the funny thing about Debbie Does Dallas is that not only does Debbie not "do" anyone in Dallas, the movie never even sets foot inside the city! It was also one of lynchpins in why VHS beat out Betamax as the industry standard for general audience consumption (see Boogie Nights for more information).

CALIGULA (1979)
Telling the story of the rise and fall of Rome's most depraved and mentally unwell Emperor, Caligula the movie was the first major motion picture to feature both prominent film stars and full on pornographic scenes. Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren and Peter O'Toole were all involved in the movie, which was produced in part by Playboy, and even though the movie went on to become a major failure, its influence can still be seen in today's movies.


BOOGIE NIGHTS (1997)
While the movie was a look behind the scenes, what's more important here is the year it was released in. 1997 was the year that DVD was chosen winner of the home entertainment market over its competitor LaserDisk, and that's almost entirely down to the porn industry. Whichever format the adult movie makers choose to put their movies on (VHS over Betamax, DVD over LaserDisc, Blu-Ray over HD-DVD), that invariably is the option that Hollywood then chooses to release their movies on, too. Considering the industry generates $10 billion a year in the US, it makes sense to assume they know what they're doing.


1 NIGHT IN PARIS (2004)
While the movie was filmed in 2001, it was available for purchase from 2004, and in between those two dates, it had spread like wildfire online. Internet pornography is now a world unto itself, with any image available in just a few simple key strokes (ZING!). As well as being one of the most file-shared videos in online history, it's also fed into the celebrity sex-tape "scandals" (hello Colin Farrell, Kim Kardashian, Hulk Hogan, etc.), as well as the advent of "amateur" porn, allowing anyone with a web-cam and internet connection to become a porn star. Uhm… hooray?

PIRATES XXX (2005)
A parody of Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, Pirates XXX is the most expensive adult movie ever produced, with a budget of over $1 million (until its sequel, which cost EIGHT MILLION!), and the production values are really up there on screen to see. Over three hundred special effects shots and its original musical score, it marked a new era in pornography, where the movie attempted to be just as entertaining and taking just as seriously as the bits that had people having sex.

UNTITLED GOOGLE GLASS MOVIE (2013)
The next step in pornography (and the fact that the adult industry has picked up on it means only good things for Google), the new gizmo which is a like a video phone you wear as a pair of glasses, and it wasn't long before two of the porn world's biggest stars (James Deen, star of upcoming Lindsay Lohan thriller The Canyons, and Andy Sam Dimas, 2011 "Performer Of The Year") came together (ZING!) to make this movie. A kind-of mix between first person perspective and virtual reality, that could potentially put you right in the action, this opens a whole new dimension to the future of erotic films.