Poor Things, Saltburn, All Of Us Strangers: Get ready for sex on screen in 2024
If you’ve read anything about Emma Stone’s latest film Poor Things, you’ll know the big takeaway: there’s lots and lots of sex.
Stone plays Bella Baxter, a woman who was pregnant before she died, only for a scientist to bring her back to life and replace her brain with that of the still-living baby. (Yes, you read that correctly). Bella has the mind of an infant, but the needs of a young woman discovering what life is all about.
The story of a Frankenstein-inspired sex-obsessive might sound too bizarre to work, but the film has been universally praised by critics and is already winning awards – Stone was named best actress at the Golden Globes at the weekend. And it’s not the only movie currently making headlines for its NSFW sex scenes (or not suitable for watching with your parents, as many found out the hard way over Christmas).
Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal star in All Of Us Strangers. Pic: Parisa Taghizadeh/Searchlight Pictures
Filmmaker Emerald Fennell‘s class satire Saltburn features full-frontal nudity, graphic sex, and a bathwater scene that will leave you speechless, while also out this month is Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal’s All Of Us Strangers, a film that is both tender and explicit.
But is all this a turn-off for younger audiences? Age classification – the desire for a film to be seen by as many eyes possible – and changing cinematic tastes have made sex on screen something of a rarity nowadays.
Emma Stone stars as Bella Baxter in Poor Things. Pic: Yorgos Lanthimos/Searchlight Pictures
Poor Things has certainly left wide-eyed critics questioning their own prurient curiosity over the sheer amount of times Stone’s character goes at it.
“I’m a producer on the film, so we definitely talked a lot about all of it,” the Oscar-winning star told Sky News. “It was very clear to me from the beginning that it was necessary because [Bella’s] not ashamed of what’s going on with her. So why would WE be?”
Sex is just one element of Bella’s experience, Stone says. “She’s soaking in everything for the first time: food, politics, philosophy, dancing, travel and, yes, sex. She’s just exploring everything and seeing what works for her… to me, it just furthers what she’s learning.”
‘She’s soaking in everything for the first time’. Pic: Yorgos Lanthimos/Searchlight Pictures/20th Century Studios
Read more:
Why sex on screen is getting better
Nudity warnings and anti-bullying training on TV sets
From today’s cultural perspective, movies such as Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction – filmed by men and centred on the desires of men – haven’t exactly aged well. And you only need to look at the ever-declining levels of nudity throughout each season of Game Of Thrones to see how attitudes towards sex, particularly women and sex, have changed even since that first series in 2011.
Stone’s co-star Mark Ruffalo, who plays Baxter’s love (or sex) interest, says sex on screen is less gratuitous than it used to be – but argues the sex scenes in Poor Things are necessary.
“That’s a big part of our lives,” he says. “You don’t see it a lot anymore. It feels a little Victorian, in a way.”
Mark Ruffalo plays the sex interest alongside Stone. Pic: Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures
And in the last 12 months, sex on screen has made a bit of a comeback. Notably, Christopher Nolan wrote his first-ever sex scene into Oppenheimer, feeling the story necessitated it.
Saltburn, meanwhile, has divided critics, with some saying the graphic sex scenes do not make up for holes in the plot.
The bathwater scene in particular has prompted heated arguments online from those, mostly younger viewers, who argue sex on screen is inherently problematic – triggering to those who don’t want to watch it, exploitative to those made to act it out.
A recent UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Gen Z study found nearly half of the respondents felt sex wasn’t needed for the plot in most TV shows and films, while more than half wanted to see more platonic storylines.
Don’t watch it with your parents: Barry Keoghan has some graphic scenes in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Pic: MGM/Amazon Studios
Speaking to Sky News last year, Fennell disagreed with those findings: “I think that that has been blown out of proportion… I think that was quite a small study and, well, I’m not sure that it’s true.”
While the #MeToo movement prompted a more cautious approach from Hollywood to how sex was depicted, one school of thought is that what we’re seeing now are post-pandemic films born out of a desire to rip off those face masks.
“It certainly feels like a post-COVID world,” said Fennell. “That the things of the body were not allowed to be touched. The more I think about it, the more I understand that’s where it comes from.”
Click to subscribe to Backstage wherever you get your podcasts
Rather than gratuitous nudity for the sake of it, as a filmmaker Fennell believes it’s about using sex to widen the lens of what she can say with her stories.
“Rarely you see anything like below the shoulder blades [in Saltburn], so the sex scenes in this film are all actually our own imagination.”
If sex on screen leaves you hot under the collar, it’s time to compose yourself – because film in 2024 is getting full-on.
Poor Things is showing in cinemas, All Of Us Strangers from 26 January. Saltburn is streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
More entertainment news:
Paris Hilton’s home destroyed in fires
RuPaul pays tribute to The Vivienne
Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway