from Hacker News

Why Aren't Movies Sexy Anymore?

by quicksilver03 on 2/6/23, 9:45 AM with 11 comments

• by ChuckNorris89 on 2/6/23, 10:41 AM

  Whoever though 'Magic Mike' as a sexy film clearly hasn't watched "Profumo di donna" - 1974, the Italian movie after which "Scent of a Woman" with Al Pacino was later adapted in 1992. The Italians were on a whole different level back then, and also the French and Nordic cinema wasn't pulling their punches when it comes to explicit nudity in films.

  Maybe the prude nature of Hollywood films is a reflection of the American society and of the Chinese one where many blockbusters are being pushed?

  That being said, as a European, I really don't care for sex scenes in mainstream movies, as they mostly feel forced and shoehorned in there and not relevant to the plot in any way, and are absolute cringe when the writers didn't spend any time or efort developing any attraction between the characters, and instead the script just forces them to suddenly f*ck because he's the male lead of the movie and she's the female lead, therefore they must get it on.

• by an_aparallel on 2/6/23, 10:52 AM

  A few reasons:

  Subversion is risky as an investment...There was an article linked here a while ago, about how you cant make movies like "The Fugutive" anymore:

  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31874606

  China has been investing in Hollywood as well, and with that has come higher exports of US cinema to China. For a movie to work in China - it will need to pass censors there. Its no surprise most media coming out is safe as all fuck, tedious, obvious as hell, and objectively bad.

  Moreso - there's the concept of the four-quadrant movie - one which appeals to all four major demographic "quadrants" of the moviegoing audience: both male and female, and both over- and under-25s:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-quadrant_movie

  More pertinent to sex - sexuality is/has traditionally sided towards objectifying women. This can be turned on its head by objectifying men...or avoided all together (the safer choice) - the wide range of overly sexualised fantasy characters in McMarvel franchise type movies is odd to consider based on what i just said though

  Basically, no sexy times, no political times, no times at all...

• by Havoc on 2/6/23, 11:15 AM

  Movies in general are becoming tamer. Half the big ones are just superhero movies with the counter at end incremented but 1

• by jacooper on 2/6/23, 11:57 AM

  > the most acclaimed out of Europe, but international markets don’t face the same business pressures as Hollywood

  Maybe locally, but internationally I think that's pretty clear its not true, its simply that eastern audiences don't like unnecessary sex in a movie.

• by deafpolygon on 2/6/23, 11:58 AM

  While movies are trending less sexy, TV shows are trending more.

• by jdmtheNth on 2/6/23, 3:59 PM

  Art by committee, or corporation, can never be worthwhile.