It can be hard to determine what's sexy and what isn't in the field of movies, specifically because sexuality is something quite nebulous.

Not only that, it's viewed through a prism of people's own tastes, identity, sexuality, and so on. In other words, what's sexy for you may not be sexy for someone else. Still, there are some movies that are just undoubtedly that and others that you may not necessarily realise are that.

With that in mind, we've plucked 69 (heh) movies that we think have sex appeal. Some are obvious, some aren't. But isn't that half the fun of it?

 

69 'From Here To Eternity'

You might think that the kiss on the beach between Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr is a bit tame in today's work, but in 1953, it was downright filthy. More than that, however, what 'From Here To Eternity' captured was the desperate passion that made up so many of the relationships that developed in World War II, and how the post-war remove made it all the more potent.

 

 

68 'Jagged Edge'

There's a name you're going to see crop up a lot on this list - Joe Eszterhas. Who is Joe Eszterhas? Well, if there was an erotic thriller in the late '80s or early '90s, there's a better than average chance that Joe Eszterhas was involved. The longer he went on, the more outrageous it went - but it's telling that 1985's 'Jagged Edge' has such a subdued texture to it that it sparks up more tension between the leads - Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close - than anything he'd write again.

 

 

67 'Top Gun'

Depending on how you read 'Top Gun' - either as a homoerotic drama between Maverick and Iceman, or as a straight-up military romance drama - there's no denying that there was a lot going on here and it wasn't just Tom Cruise and Anthony Edwards' very potent chemistry together. Shout-out to Tony Scott for directing the oft-parodied but never-equalled sex scene between the Cruiser and Kelly McGinnis.

 

 

66 'Moulin Rouge'

Baz Luhrmann was never one to keep things subtle, and setting an entire musical in a French cabaret show just amped about everything you'd expect from Luhrmann. It helped that Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor had a chemistry that burst out of every scene, but it's the wild abandon of it all that just made it so much more.

 

 

65 'Star Wars'

You can pluck lines out of 'Star Wars' and just riddle it with double-entendres. "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought!" - "Look at the size of that thing!" Beyond that, however, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher bouncing off each other with a slap-happy, screwball-style routine worked magic into reality. It's no wonder the two of them were carrying on in real-life behind the scenes.

 

 

64 'Grease'

Tell me about it, stud.

 

 

63 'The Bodyguard'

If Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' turned country staples into viable pop crossovers, Kevin Costner secured himself a place as the heart-throb of the '90s in this. Fun fact - Steve McQueen and Diana Ross were originally pitched as the stars in the '70s, and Costner copied McQueen's hairstyle for it.

 

 

62 'Underworld: Evolution'

Yes, vampires are well-trodden when it comes to sexuality, but 'Underworld: Evolution' zeroed in on the silliness of it and it helped that Kate Beckinsale spent much of the film grunting, beating the crap out of people, and making eyes at Scott Speedman throughout.

 

 

61 'Blue Is The Warmest Color'

If you leave aside the controversies surrounding 'Blue Is The Warmest Color', not to mention how lesbians believe it to be an unrealistic portrayal of their sexuality, what it does incredibly well is capture the vitality and the intensity of young love and passion in a way that few movies are able to get at. Not only that, it explores this so boldly and directly that it's no surprised it shocked viewers.

 

 

60 'Labyrinth'

David Bowie. David Bowie's jodhpurs. That's it.

 

 

59 'Play Misty For Me'

Clint Eastwood's first directorial effort was a marked departure from his career to that point, wherein he played hard men and steel-eyed shooters. In 'Play Misty For Me', he channeled a kind of vulnerability that Michael Douglas would utilise in 'Fatal Attraction'. Jessica Walter's full-throttle performance and the dangers of obsession made it all the more potent.

 

 

58 'Hustlers'

That Jennifer Lopez takes two spots on this list is no surprise, but what's really surprising is that 'Hustlers' came and went this Oscar season and didn't get a single, solitary look in any of the categories. Never mind that Jennifer Lopez didn't get Best Supporting Actress, why didn't it get Best Picture? Look at this. Are you telling us that '1917' has anything on this?

 

57 'Magic Mike'

Speaking of strippers, Steven Soderbergh's behind-the-scenes drama about male strippers in Florida is nothing if not a surprisingly tender drama about relationships, a love of pop music, and giving men body dysphoria.

 

 

56 'True Lies'

Do it... ducimo. Do it slowly.

 

 

55 'Road House'

As much as 'Dirty Dancing' helped to put Patrick Swayze on the map, 'Road House' made sure he stayed there. Also, shouts to Sam Elliott and his ability to tie up his hair and make it look slick as all hell. Throw in Kelly Lynch's platinum blonde hair and the general vibe of a late-night denim commercial and you've got 'Road House' in a nutshell, baby.

 

 

54 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show'

The free-wheeling, chaotic, vaguely threatening atmosphere that surrounds 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' has kept it in cinemas for many years than was reasonable. The sexual liberation, the androgyny of the cast, the fishnets and the vampish makeup - there's no denying just how sexually charged and funny it all was. It's astounding!

 

 

53 'Aquaman'

In 2018, industry trade bible Deadline published a lengthy article detailing specifically how 'Aquaman' was geared towards women, specifically mothers who would bring their kids' to see 'Aquaman', on the basis of how thirsty they'd be for Jason Momoa. Studios literally built their marketing campaign on the basis how ridey women would be for Jason Momoa. In fairness, you just have to look at some of the scenes from 'Aquaman' to know that it's not only a viable strategy, but one that paid off.

 

 

52 'Thelma & Louise'

Even though this was the movie that launched Brad Pitt's career as a heartthrob, there's a lot more going in 'Thelma & Louise' besides that. Again, it's that thing of freedom and liberation that makes it all so desperately attractive, how these women are more than willing to go places neither of them even dreamt of. On a deeper level, it explores women's issues and is recently seen as a landmark feminist movie.

 

 

51 'Jade'

By the time 'Jade' hit cinemas in 1995, the erotic thriller genre was nearing its end. The box office bomb that followed 'Jade' was enough to ensure it was killed off for the foreseeable future. Looking back, it's easy to see how it happened. 'Jade' is a ludicrously convoluted story and it's little wonder that audiences and critics alike didn't catch on with it. Still, the atmosphere and the drenched colours of it make it a truly affecting movie with the distance of time.

 

 

50 'LA Confidential'

The hazy sun and the shadowed nights of Los Angeles are the perfect backdrop for 'LA Confidential', but it's in how the relationship forms between Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger that makes it all the more potent and effective. Brian Helgeland's script excavated the story between Budd White and Lynn Bracken and turned it into a seductive, yet emotionally fraught affair.

 

 

49 'Flashdance'

Who knew that steel towns in the '80s had such a vibrant and burgeoning dance and theatrical scene? Enough to sustain major light shows and had buckets of water ready to splash at a moment's notice? Must have been all that cocaine doing the rounds back then.

 

48 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith'

This absolute piece of crap movie was so damn sexually charged that it caused the breakup of one of Hollywood's most iconic couples. Does anyone actually know what this movie is about? All it is is just a vignette of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie making eyes at one another, throwing shapes, and looking stupidly attractive. How dare they.

 

 

47 'Casino Royale'

As much as any Bond movie out there has had its sexy moments, what 'Casino Royale' did differently was it that it recognised or at least appreciated that women were just as much a part of the audience as men. That scene when Daniel Craig rises out of the sea has a distinct inversion of Ursula Andress' key moment in 'Dr. No', and that it shows him being a vulnerable but violent man towards the end is appealing too.

 

 

46 'Interview With The Vampire'

Vampires? Check. Brad Pitt? Check. Exotic locations? Check. Buttoned-down Victorian values and heaving corsets? Check. Lots of longing looks between Cruise, Pitt and everyone else? Check, check, check and check.

 

 

45 'The Piano'

There are precious few movies on this list, or any list really, that are made by women and describe the story exclusively from that viewpoint. 'The Piano' was absolutely made from the viewpoint of a woman, but also explored the sensuality and sexuality of it at a time when repression was everything. It bubbled to the surface in small, tender places and Jane Campion's direction and script exalted those to make it the very core of the movie itself.

 

44 'Drive'

Between the love triangle casting of Ryan Gosling, Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, you've also got Christina Hendricks in there too. The neon-drenched atmosphere that surrounds 'Drive' is only heightened by the synthwave soundtrack and the sense of longing that exists in Gosling's eyes. To be fair, though, nobody can pull off wearing a satin jacket except Ryan Gosling.

 

 

43 'Catwoman'

There are more than a few movies on this list which can be reliably described as "absolutely shit", but have an air of sexiness to them that cannot be denied. 'Catwoman' is one such example of this juxtaposition in action. It is an out-and-out bad movie, but you can't deny that it's also got a lot going on and it's all Halle Berry.

 

 

42 'The Fly'

Yes, this is a body horror movie from David Cronenberg and not what you'd call typically sexy. Yet, the themes with which it deals with - yearning, desire, vulnerability - are all handled in a really sympathetic and senusuous way. That Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis eventually ended up getting married after this is no surprise. You can really tell how they're falling in love with one another with each passing scene, even right up to the gory ending.

 

 

41 'Dirty Dancing'

Do you even need a reason to have this on the list? Is it The Lift? Is it all the dancing? Is it the music? Is it the fact that Jennifer Grey carried a watermelon? Who knows. 'Dirty Dancing' may be written off as a chick-flick movie, but the fact is that there's a lot of incredibly potent scenes going on throughout that bear examination. It deals with class divides in America, abortion, women's liberation, Jewish identity, and all of that with a truly compelling performance by Patrick Swayze too.

 

 

40 'Crazy Stupid Love'

There are only a handful of actors who could pull off playing what's really a sleazeball cad of a character and have him remain innately likeable in spite of everything. Ryan Gosling, without a shadow of a doubt, made that work to his advantage, but it's how he bounces off Steve Carrell and renews his sense of self-worth that it becomes something more. The premise might be a bit lacking, but again, it's that thing of chemistry between Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling that pulls it along.

 

 

39 'Bridges of Madison County'

The vast majority of relationships explored on this list all tend to be between younger couples, but what 'Bridges of Madison County' does is show that love and passion isn't necessarily the preserve of the young, nor does it seek to make it any less intense. If anything, the fact that someone's lived a life and seeks to upend that with someone new makes it all the more dangerous. Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep are both at the top of their powers here, but you can really tell that they're both pushing themselves to go places and explore ideas that they've both never gone near before.

 

 

38 'Cruel Intentions'

Pick a scene. Any scene. That's why this is on the list.

 

 

37 'Days of Heaven'

'Days of Heaven' is one of the few examples on this list of it being a far better movie than it has any right to be. Terence Malick's follow-up to 'Badlands' saw him examine relationships once again, but 'Days of Heaven' instead dropped the Bonnie & Clyde vibes and went for a more richer, grander canvas to work on. The burgeoning relationship that grows between Sam Shepard and Brooke Adams is laced up with passion, but it's how Richard Gere intersects with it that makes it all the more potent and dramatic.

 

 

36 'Entrapment'

Catherine Zeta Jones. She dips beneath the lasers. OH OH OHHHHHHHHH. She has entraped me and Sean Connery. OH OH OHHHHHH.

 

 

35 'Underworld: Evolution'

From 'Days of Heaven' to a truly terrible movie, 'Underworld: Evolution' sneaks in for one scene, and one scene only. It's the scene between Kate Beckinsale and  Scott Speedman where they end up knocking boots and it's very, very, very intense. Very intense.

 

 

34 'Ghost'

How many people took up pottery lessons because of that one scene? How many of them ended with a crappy-looking ashtray or mug at the end of it? Also, anyone's who actually done pottery will tell you that it's way more complex than it looks.

 

 

33 'Ocean's Eleven'

Las Vegas is not a terribly sexy place, but positioning a heist story in it makes it a bit more because, well, heists are sexy. There's all the excitement, the anticipation, the big pay-off - it's all there in 'Ocean's Eleven', and when you have people like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon running around after Julia Roberts, it really catches that hazy, sexy vibe that Steven Soderbergh is so easily able to create.

 

 

32 'Breakfast On Pluto'

As a nation, we can admit to ourselves quietly that there isn't really anything all that sexy about being Irish. Yet, what 'Breakfast On Pluto' does so well is that it explores the idea of repression that's so deeply built in our collective psyche, and then what happens when someone yearning to be free comes from it. That Ireland has now changed to become a more tolerant, open place for the LGBT community in the past two decades is no mean feat, but 'Breakfast On Pluto' acts as a reminder of where it once was not all that long ago.

 

 

31 'Mulholland Dr.'

If you know what's going on in 'Mulholland Dr.', odds are that you're lying and you're only saying that because you want to seem smart. Liar. The confusing nature of the movie aside, you can tell that David Lynch was tapping into the noirish qualities of Los Angeles for something that's unsettling and gets under your skin.

 

 

30 'Witness'

While some might think that 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' is Harrison Ford's rideiest movie, they clearly haven't seen 'Witness'. Ford plays a cop who's trying to investigate corruption in his department and finds that the only witness to a brutal murder of an undercover cop is a timid Amish child, played by a very young Lukas Haas. After getting the child and his mother, played by Kelly McGinnis, to safety after being wounded, he's brought into the Amish community and a tense relationship between Ford and McGinnis begins to unfold into something explosive.

It's up there with some of Ford's best work, demonstrating how gifted an actor he was at displaying roughness with vulnerability, but really it's Kelly McGinnis who is so utterly captivating as the Amish widow. Even though her society and religion dictates that she be subservient and pliant, you can see there's something underneath just bursting to get out.

 

 

29 'Blue Valentine'

Yes, it can be said that 'Blue Valentine' is a desperately harrowing movie about a collapsing relationship, one that's bound for disaster, but it's the hours, days, weeks and years before that happens that puts it on the list. Michelle Williams gives one of her best performances as Cindy, while Ryan Gosling displays that ragged charm he's used so well in the past. What 'Blue Valentine' gets at is how the memory of a relationship can often sustain it long after it's gone past living.

 

 

28 'A Star Is Born'

Well, not the bit where Bradley Cooper's character pisses himself at the Grammys. That's... not really sexy. At all, in fact. It's quite horrifying.

 

 

27 'Sea of Love'

You just know that some movie executive has talked about trying to reboot 'Sea of Love' for the age of Tinder. In fairness, it could work. For one, the whole "lonely hearts killer" thing is perfect, but it'd fall down the second someone like Ellen Barkin turns up. Beyond that, 'Sea of Love' is exactly the kind of erotic thriller - like the next movie on this list - that just doesn't seem to get a fair shake anymore.

 

 

26 'Basic Instinct'

Bill Hicks' capsule review of 'Basic Instinct' is why Bill Hicks would never have made it as a movie critic. For one, saying "piece of shit!" over and over again is the coward's way out. You have to expand on that for, at least, 500 words before you round it up on that. Critiquing critics aside, 'Basic Instinct' is a pretty silly movie and like so many of Verhoeven's American work, it's hard to know precisely whether he was taking the piss out of everyone the entire time.

There's so much going on in 'Basic Instinct', and at the time, it was treated more as a punchline than anything else. Three decades on, 'Basic Instinct' is viewed along the same lines as 'Showgirls' in that it's so-bad-it's-good when it's actually not-that-bad. For one, Jan De Bont's cinematography was just fantastic, and you can see how Verhoeven was trying to drawn on Hitchcock's love of lurid details and bloody blondes.

 

 

25 'Bound'

Before they made 'The Matrix' trilogy, before 'Jupiter Ass-ending', before 'Sense8' and its psychic orgies, 'Bound' was the Wachowskis in their early days and probably at their best. 'Bound' took the familiar trappings of noir, crime and the sensuality that it all entails, but funneled it through a very realistic portrayal of a lesbian relationship. Not only that, feminist and sex educator Susie Bright worked as a consultant on the movie in one of the industry's first examples of an intimacy coordinator, which is now common practice on mainstream sets with sex scenes.

 

 

24 'The Mask of Zorro'

This is probably one of the few examples on this list of a movie that you could probably watch with your parents and it not get super weird. On the surface, 'The Mask of Zorro' is a swashbuckling adventure with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones in roles both of them were born to play. The action is incredibly well staged, James Horner's score evokes the soaring romance of it all. Yet, there's no denying that the scene where the two of them fence against one another - resulting in Zorro expertly slicing off her clothes - is absolute filth.

 

23 'Nocturnal Animals'

Although it's wrapped up in the trappings of thriller and murder-mystery, 'Nocturnal Animals' is really a movie about fantasies. Between Jake Gyllenhaal's character living his fantasy through his novel, to how cinematographer Seamus McGarvey paints lurid, Douglas Sirk-esque scenes, to the styling and glamourous costumes, it's all about fantasy and how it ultimately leads to nothing underneath it.

 

22 'Y Tu Mama Tambien'

Before he directed the likes of ‘Gravity’ and last year’s ‘Roma’, Alfonso Cuaron made this spicy Mexican feature starring a young Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. They play two teenagers venturing out on a road trip with a woman in her 20s who, having discovered she has been diagnosed with cancer, decides to throw caution to the wind. Cue a series of sexy scenes that culminate in a revelatory three-way. Es mucho caliente.

 

 

21 'Cat People'

Paul Schrader's take on the very silly movie of the same name jettisons the seriousness of the original and balances the line somewhere between erotica, horror, fantasy and a tinge of self-awareness. There's no denying that 'Cat People' was utterly of its time, and whether it's in Giorgio Moroder's synth-heavy soundtrack, the emphasis on night-time shooting, or just the overall silliness of it, 'Cat People' is nevertheless an intriguing mixture of two opposing genres to create something freakish and uniquely compelling.

 

 

20 'Fatal Attraction'

Glenn Close recently and quite correctly pointed out that there was no way a movie like 'Fatal Attraction' could be made nowadays. In fact, since the movie's release, Glenn Close has been pushing for a reappraisal of her character not as some kind of supervillain, but as a woman in deep distress. In an interview with EW in 2016, Close said that "from all my research, I just didn’t think she was a psychopath. I thought she was a deeply disturbed woman."

It's significant, then, that you have the first act of the movie about the relationship between Douglas and Close. It becomes so sizzling and tempestuous that you can see how exciting that can be, but the second and third act reveals how that's simply a mask for something much darker and disturbing underneath.

 

 

19 'Lust, Caution'

It speaks to how China and the US deals with sex on screens that Ang Lee made no attempt to cut the movie for an NC-17 rating in the US - often described as box-office death - while he happily cut it for the Chinese market, as it has no age rating system there. Surprisingly, the novella upon which it's based - which was itself semi-autobiographical for writer Eileen Chang - only hinted at some of the sex.

In Ang Lee's adaptation, it's front, centre and impossible to ignore. That lack of subtlety was a deliberate choice by Lee, and you only need to look at his work on 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' to know that he's capable of gifting movies with a kind of delicate touch. It's bold stuff, but it's truly something special.

 

 

18 'Blue Velvet'

There's so much going on in 'Blue Velvet' that it's hard to sum it up in one simple sentence or one thought. It's as conflicted and focused as anything David Lynch has done, and that it never fits neatly into one genre is just how good it is. It has shades of the oddball, absurdist stuff of 'Twin Peaks', but also the heartbreaking innocence of Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan. There is, of course, the black heart of it all in Dennis Hopper's oxygen-huffing Frank Booth, and Isabella Rosselini's daring performance as Dorothy. Throw all that into a mixer, throw in Roy Orbison, and you get one of, if not the best movies of David Lynch's career.

 

 

17 'The Notebook'

Even if 'The Notebook' hews more to soppy romance than sexuality, it's still worth including for how it deals with the idea of time and how passion burns bright but eventually cools to something much more longer lasting through the years. Gosling and MacAdams eventually wound up dating for a brief period after the movie debuted, and it's hard not to see why. The chemistry between feels real and that neither of them hold anything back in their scenes together speaks to that fact.

 

 

16 'Brokeback Mountain'

Compared to Ang Lee's other movies about tragedy and star-crossed lovers, 'Brokeback Mountain' is one that's surprising conventional. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', for example, featured complex martial arts choreography and was described by himself as being closer to 'Sense and Sensibility' than anything else. 'Brokeback Mountain', however, had more in common with 'Titanic' and, in fact, producer James Schmaus blended the poster for 'Titanic' with the two leads for the final poster everyone saw.

 

 

15 'The Duke of Burgundy'

Peter Strickland's work has been marked by its invocation of '70s cinema, and 'The Duke of Burgundy' has all the hallmarks of an arthouse smut movie of that decade. Even the title channels the kind of experimental but explicit works like 'The Story Of O', 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' and so on. Yet, beneath all that, there is a deeply authentic love story that is dressed up in BDSM mechanics that is breathtakingly unique and mesmerising in its execution.

 

 

14 'Rebecca'

'Rebecca' might be a little bit stuffy and conventional by today's standards, but there's an inescapable air of mystery and sensuality around it that makes it so exciting to watch. That it's a familiar story and never been done right before or since, 'Rebecca' has never once diminished in people's minds as one of Hitchcock's finest achievements.

 

 

13 'Call Me By Your Name'

You won't be able to look at a peach the same way after seeing this.

 

 

12 'Gilda'

It might be reduced that one scene, but what a scene it is. There's so much going on it, and when you consider the time period when 'Gilda' was first released, it becomes all the more revolutionary. That it formed one of the key scenes in 'The Shawshank Redemption' is no accident - it speaks to a kind of liberation and sensuality that's utterly missing in the inmates' lives, and it's a small glimpse at what they're missing.

 

11 'Body Heat'

You only have to listen to John Barry's score to know what you're letting yourself in for with 'Body Heat'. Though it takes the effective structure from 'Double Indemnity', Lawrence Kasdan's vision is far more concerned with the sensuous and steamy setting of Florida. You can practically see the camera fog up every time Kathleen Turner vamps her way into a scene, and pitching her against William Hurt, a man completely given over to carnal desires, makes it all the more effective.

 

10 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

The potency of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' hasn't diminished in the near seven decades since it was first released. Marlon Brando's iconic scenes, Vivian Leigh's flustered looks, the sweatiness of it all, it's all there and none of it even close to being topped by anything that's come after it.

 

9 'Wild At Heart'

As much as David Lynch has been obsessed with the idea of dreams and fairytales in his work, 'Wild At Heart' feels more grounded than any of them. It takes together ideas from 'Blue Velvet', 'Twin Peaks' and more into something that could only work in the early '90s with David Lynch. Pairing with Dern with her real-life mother Diane Ladd was a masterstroke, but it's in how Lynch is so sympathetic with the characters that makes it so affecting.

There's never a moment in 'Wild At Heart' when you're not actively pulling for Sailor and Lula, and the way in which they're both so comfortable and close to one another is really affecting. Lynch really never went there again with making a movie this sweet and this intriguing, and it's a shame that it didn't get the praise it deserved on release. Thankfully, it's now reevulated into one of Lynch's better works and rightfully so.

 

8 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'

Whether you go for Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange's version, or Lana Turner and John Garfield's version, 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' is easily the most effective use of the killer couple out there. Nicholson and Lange go to far more explicit extremes than Turner and Garfield, and in our opinion, it's the better for it. Not only that, the more naturalistic tone that David Mamet's script has works to its advantage over the original.

 

7 'Batman Returns'

That this was dressed up as a comic-book movie when it was, in fact, a psychosexual thriller about split personalities just speaks to how batshit (no pun intended) some studios were in the '90s. 'Batman Returns' is replete with the kind of way-too-crazy-sexiness of big studios. Michelle Pfeiffer's catsuit, for example, was right out of a BDSM lair, while the dynamic between her and Michael Keaton's Batman was too much to ignore.

 

6 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'

Vampires and the story of Dracula is one that's deep with sexuality from the very beginning. Throughout its history, vampirism has been equated with diseases of the day. In Stoker's time, it was syphilis. In Coppola's time, it was AIDS. Yet, for all of that, his version of 'Dracula' was the most daring and most emotionally charged. Gary Oldman's performance in the title role was vital, alive and vicious, but equally tender and deeply emotional. Wojciech Kilar's score was sweepingly romantic, and Coppola's nose for melodrama made it all the more operatic.

 

5 'The Piano Teacher'

The relationship and power dynamics that play out in 'The Piano Teacher' are often distressing, and only one director would have the temerity to try take them on and an actress willing to go there as well - Michael Haneke and Isabelle Huppert. It's hard to know whether Huppert's character is in love with Benoit Magimel's character, or if she's simply acting out her fantasy exactly as she wanted to. Is her self-destruction a part of it all, or does it go beyond it? Like all of Haneke's work, there are no easy answers and it purposefully avoids simplistic interpretations, but it stays with you long after.

 

4 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'

"I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." It's hard to overstate how formative Jessica Rabbit was for a generation, and to have that kind of overt sexuality in a movie like it, means that it had to feature prominently on this list. For one, Kathleen Turner was the only choice to voice Jessica Rabbit. Not only that, Robert Zemeckis' inspiration in the work of Tex Avery and Fred Quimby cartoons meant that it was always going to have an over-the-top, femme-fatale vibe to it.

 

3 'Some Like It Hot'

Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in what is easily the greatest romantic comedy ever made. What really is there to say that hasn't been said already about it? 'Some Like It Hot' just oozed sexy charm and humour out of every scene, and how it dealt with homosexuality, cross-dressing, not to mention having a romantic lead with some kind of agency was all way ahead of its time.

 

2 'Secretary'

As unconventional relationships go, particularly those linked with BDSM and with darker urges, 'Secretary' is probably the best example and one that doesn't shirk away from exploring where it stems from. Maggie Gyllenhaal really is the engine of it all, prepared to go anywhere and do anything, but credit is due to James Spader as well for channeling the kind of shame needed to draw out the kindness from Gynehaal's character.

 

1 'Out of Sight'

If you need to know how sexy and sensuous 'Out of Sight' is, you only need to look at the trunk scene where they're locked together and forced to make small talk. It's shot and played like it's pillow talk, but you can see the relationship and the attraction just slowly grow to envelope them. It's all done with such care and subtlety, but it's never not obvious as to what you're watching. Likewise, David Holmes' rhythm and blues-influenced soundtrack just adds to the atmosphere, and Soderbergh's handling of pace and script works so perfectly.