Every so often a scene gets paired with a song that, for better or worse, ends up making it that much more memorable, and we’ve got a hell of a throwback from some heavenly voices this Tunes-day. For any late Millennials and Gen Z folx that might be reading this, you may not be aware that there was a short time at the beginning of the 90s where a bunch of chanting Gregorian monks were the biggest thing in contemporary popular music.
The song “Sadness (Part I)” by the German musical project known as Enigma was a global hit in 1990, not just reaching number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, but taking the top spot on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs and Dance Singles charts. That’s right, DANCE. Imagine rolling into a club nowadays and seeing everyone dropping it like its hot to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir because someone added a drumbeat under them. It’s basically like that.
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Three years later cult filmmaker David Lynch’s daughter Jennifer gives us Boxing Helena, a dramatic mystery steeped in controversy over its casting (both Madonna and Kim Basinger were going to play the title role at one point and Basinger pulling out led to a huge legal battle) and its explicit subject matter (it was originally rated NC-17 but a successful appeal got it down to R). In the film, Dr. Nick Cavanaugh (the late Julian Sands) spends his days having sex with busty babes in his huge mansion - when he’s not surgically removing the limbs of his hot next door neighbor Helena (Sherilyn Fenn) to stop her from leaving that is.
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Nicolette Scorsese Nude in Boxing Helena
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One such conquest is played by Nicolette Scorsese (no relation to Martin), and their shaboinking is set to Enigma’s hit single while Sherilyn watches.
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During the lengthy scene, Nicolette strips down to her sexy lingerie and gets banged a bit from behind before sitting up and showing off her beautiful bare boobs as they go at it some more. We get it - first, nothing gets people horny like the dead language of Latin, but secondly, we presume that the song’s suggestive French lyrics and heavy breathing were the perfect addition to cover up Nicolette’s complete lack of facial expressions. The song might be titled “Sadness” but it’s really without it that we’d suspect Nicolette might not be having the best time.
Though it definitely dates the film, perhaps it was such a crazy choice after all.
