Sex in Cinema 2010

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hat a difference a year makes. Last year we posed the question "Whatever happened to sex in cinema?" Surveying a bleak, parched terrain we had to conclude that the big screen had become a child-safe sex-free zone overpopulated by teen- and tween-targeted high school musicals, Harry Potter and superhero movies. TV—especially cable—had become the go-to haven for more-adventurous viewers.

The good news is eroticism is staging a comeback. While the rapacious sexual appetites on True Blood get more primal than ever before, moviegoers witness not only a riveting perfor­mance from Natalie Portman in Black Swan but also her having sex with herself. Several times. The suburban pot peddlers on Weeds get themselves into all kinds of sexual mischief, and

nubile Ivy League coeds run rampant at coke-fueled parties in The Social Network. Mad Men's steely hero ratchets up his bed-hopping, and in Stone, long-married parole officer Rob­ert De Niro gets bedded by temptress Milla Jovovich.

Big-screen sex didn't just become more visible this past year, it also became edgier. Amy Smart and Jason Statham bring risk addiction to a new level when they make love on a horse-racing track in Crank: High Voltage. Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro features the kind of vibrant, anything-goes sexuality one might expect from a 1960s European import. James Cameron even managed to introduce interspecies sex in Avatar. Is it too early to pop the cork and declare sex the movies' comeback kid of the year? This year's Sex In Cinema amply illustrates why it might not be.

Keep Your Day Job

Christina Aguilera's sexy voice should have saved Bur­lesque (opposite). Too bad it seems stitched together from Chicago and Showgirls leftovers.

Working Blue

Mind-blowing 3-D special effects plus Zoe Saldana's sultry bewitchery blast away the ick factor from the interspecies sex in Avatar (above).

By George

In The American (below left), Violante Placido, playing an earthy prostitute, persuades George Clooney to lower his guard—and his trousers.

'Sup, Holmes?

This bit of gilt-edged bondage from Sher­lock Holmes (below center) gives us the year's best line: "Beneath this pil­low lies the key to my release."

Holy Hell

In the provocative Antichrist (below right), Charlotte Gainsbourg suffers greatly. The good news is that she often does so while undressed.

Swords, Sandals and Schwing A far

cry from Kirk Douglas and Stan­ley Kubrick's famed gladiator epic Spartacus, Starz's bloodthirsty Spartacus: Blood and Sand features

sexually ravenous lesbian interludes (above left). Lucy Lawless and her slave-owner husband, played by John Hannah, pleasure each other as their domestic help looks on (above

center). And not to be outdone, there's the passionate thrusting of gladiator Spartacus (Andy Whit-field) and his beloved wife, played by Erin Cummings (above right).

Spice is Nice

Angelina Jolie in Salt (above) isn't just a gung-ho CIA agent; she's also a gung-ho lover to her hus­band, played by August Diehl.

Suckers

Margarita Hall and Sianad Greg­ory snog in the goofy British comedy Vampire Killers (above), in which every female in town morphs into a lesbian vampire. Sloppy Seconds Divorced couple Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin discover some new wrinkles when they rekindle their relationship in It's Complicated (left).

Down for the Count

In Greenberg, Ben Stiller plays a for­mer mental patient who somehow attracts Greta Gerwig and subjects her to a badly timed act of cunnilingus.

Hemptress

Mary-Louise Parker on Weeds finds a new best friend in Justin Kirk when he complies with her request to nurse on her painfully lactating breasts.

Dance Fever

The erotic attraction between rival dancers Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis in Black Swan could turn anyone into a ballet fan.

Still Looking for Mr. Goodbar

In the Mexican film Leap Year (above), Monica del Carmen plays a troubled woman who picks up strangers, including one who performs S&M on her. Sexy Beast

Groupies are just part of the fun in the French import Gainsbourg (right), which celebrates iconic musician Serge Gainsbourg (played by Eric Elmosnino).

Thank You for Smoking

Vincent Cassel's way with a cigarette lights plenty of sparks in the incendi­ary Our Day Will Come (below).

The Royal We

Unfazed by those drafty old British castles, Charlotte Salt entices view­ers of The Tudors on Showtime.

Tetrosexual

Francis Ford Coppola's beautiful Tetro bursts at the seams with a European approach to sensuality and sex.

Bar Nothing

Pimp (top left), a faux "hidden camera" documentary that records an especially nasty week in the lowlife of a British hustler in London's Soho, goes heavy on grit and sleaze. Pole Position

In the action thriller Crank: High Voltage (left), Jason Statham isn't so keen on watching Amy Smart work the pole at a strip club. The rest of us? We liked it. Teacher's Pet

In Argentina's Don't Look Down (below), young sleepwalker Leandro Stivelman tumbles down a skylight into the bed­room of sexually experienced Antonella Costa, who schools him in the joys of Tantric sex.

Cutting Edge

Danny Trejo takes a nude swim with Lindsay Lohan (well, her body double) and Alicia Rachel Marek in Machete (right). Bathing Beauties Elena Anaya and Natasha Yarovenko shack up in a hotel and strip themselves—and their emotions—bare in Spain's Room in Rome (below).

Once Bitten HBO's True Blood has delivered some of the most pulse-pounding erotic moments on TV... or anywhere. Miss November 1998

Tiffany Taylor enjoys a sensual bloodletting from Jessica Tuck (below left); studly-if-ancient South­ern vampire Stephen Moyer makes

a back-door delivery to his barmaid lover, Anna Paquin (below center); Paquin lets Moyer hungrily feed while she showers (below right).