Sexually charged films were big business in the 80s and 90s. Now an explosion of remakes is turning steamy classics into prestige television
hen Richard Gere cruised down an LA highway at the start of the 1980 film American Gigolo – gleaming convertible, sharp suit – it shifted the tectonic plates of cinema. Here was a man, filmed in attentive, ogling closeups, who invited us to objectify him: a sex worker dedicated to pleasing his older clientele, his skin doused in hot California sun, a wardrobe bestowed by Giorgio Armani.
genre that fell from favour so drastically? Kate Hagen, the senior vice president of screenplay platform The Black List, sees TV as the natural next step. “Erotic thrillers fell firmly into the middle-budget movie category, and like many other middle-budget movies of yesteryear, they have now found a home on TV,” she says.
“With the number of social changes around gender and sexual power dynamics, these are the kind of materials that are ripe for being retooled,” says Christina Newland, editor of the anthology book She Found It at the Movies: Women Writers on Sex, Desire and Cinema. “And maybe there’s an attempt to reach a more sex-positive and – frankly – thirsty audience.”
After director Adrian Lyne screened Fatal Attraction to a test audience in the 80s, he was surprised to be met with feedback demanding Glenn Close’s Alex be punished more harshly; he re-edited the ending to appease this point of view. “The audience had no sympathy for such a ‘modern’ female character,” says Longworth. “They wanted the catharsis of watching her die.
Nor is there really an argument that steamy sex can’t be possible in today’s climate of safer sets. “The mandate to hire intimacy coordinators should not scare anyone off making movies about or depicting sex,” says Longworth. A common misconception is that erotic thrillers may have been sleazy or demeaning for the actors. “Zalman King, a producer and writer of 9½ Weeks, pioneered the use of intimacy coordinators in the 90s.
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