Our Staff Picks column takes you back to a time when video stores reigned supreme and the "Staff Picks" section was the place to find out what films were worthy of one's time. Of course, our version of Staff Picks has a decidedly skintillating angle, as we suss out which films from a particular subgenre are the best to find great nudity. This week, we cover a classic: movies based on books!
We know that there are a lot of movies that are based on books. From Anne Rice novels to the Harry Potter series to Jane Austen to Shakespeare to Nicholas Sparks and sooooo many more. However, you might be surprised to learn about explicitly sexy films that are based on books - or movies that were based on books that are even crazier than the movies. Here are my recommendations for those kinds of films. This list might even inspire you to take a trip to the library!
9 1/2 Weeks
Adrian Lyne directed this sexy flick that had everyone talking about the beautiful Kim Basinger in 1986. But did you know that it is based on a memoir? Does that mean that the sex in this movie is based on a TRUE story? Yeah, kind of!
Elizabeth McNeill wrote this memoir in 1978 in which she detailed her true experience in an extremely passionate sexual relationship that was just as dangerous as it was exciting. Her thrilling relationship was fun at first, but through a series of psycho-sexual games that her lover imparted on her, she lost herself in this sexy experiment. By the end of the book, McNeill felt that she had become a sexual prisoner.
The memoir is actually quite harrowing and scary (so much so that McNeill published the book under a pseudonym originally, Ingeborg Day). Initially, the movie was supposed to reflect that same fear that the author really went through. However, the studio turned the film into more of a twisted romance.
50 Shades of Grey
This trilogy became a phenomenon in the 2010s! Author E.L. James wrote the books in 2011 trying to write Twilight fan fiction. She made it way sexier and eventually took the vampires out of the story entirely in order to focus on the sub-dom relationship between the wealthy Christian Grey and his demure new sex toy Anastasia Steele.
These books revitalized erotic fiction for a new generation. The books are just as filthy as the movie, filled with erotic imagery and detailed descriptions of sex and pleasure that Anastasia feels as she explores her new interest in BDSM. Dakota Johnson took on the role of Anastasia Steele and she made everyone as hard as steel with her skincredible nudity.
Dakota Johnson did all kinds of things, especially in the first film. From being a bathing beauty to getting whipped on her tight tush, Dakota Johnson really knows how to please the audience's johnsons with her many nude scenes. Like this one:
Forrest Gump
Not only is Forest Gump based on a novel, but it's a really strange novel. Winston Groom wrote this book in 1986 and the film is not faithful to the book. There are a couple of reasons for that! Forrest's odyssey in the original novel gets a little more fantastical, including a story in which he goes to space with an orangutan named Sue. Seriously - that's in the book.
The movie also has Jenny and Forrest ending up together which does not happen in the book. Jenny, played by Robin Wright, delivers all of the sexiness in the movie. While she never actually goes nude, it is implied that she is nude when she plays guitar for a packed crowd.
The sequel to the novel is even stranger. The sequel came out in 1995, a year after the movie, and it was not nearly as popular as the originals. It's kind of nuts considering this version has Forrest going on much wilder adventures like being involved in the Iran-Contra conflict, making a recipe for New Coke, and hog farming. Oh, and the space thing.
Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn wrote the novel of this film adapted by David Fincher about a woman who gets back at her cheating husband by faking her own death, waiting patiently, and then coming back "from the dead" to wreak havoc on his life. This bestselling book was everywhere in 2012 and was notable for its unreliable narrator and many plot twists. Rosamund Pike brought the woman on the verge to life in a thrilling way in the film.
The movie is very faithful to the book, so it was thrilling to see Emily Ratajkowski go nude as The Other Woman. She played the man our leading lady's hubby was sleeping with and in the book there is a famous passage that describes Emily's character as The Cool Girl. In the movie, we get to see The Cool Girl's very cool boobs!
A Clockwork Orange
A weird and very memorable movie, the novel A Clockwork Orange is even stranger and more memorable. Writer Anthony Burgess delivered this book to the public in 1962. That dialect that the guys speak in the film? The book is written that way. The dialect is called Nadsat in the book and it is entirely fictional, but it is the language teenagers use in this future society in which the youth express themselves in extreme violence.
Meant as a satirical black comedy, the book's violence can often distract from its comedy. That is another reason why the book can be so hard to understand. The film smooths some of it out, but the film is also very violent. Some of those violent scenes include nudity, but luckily there is also toplessness outside of those violent scenes such as when Virginia Wetherell shows up in her undies and a wig.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Here's another David Fincher adaptation - well, the American version. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was a popular book series that instantly spawned films in Sweden which prompted an instant remake in America. Steig Larsson wrote this Sedwish crime novel that is a little tough to get through up top. However, once you finish the first few chapters, you will be unable to put it down! This Scandinavian noir will keep you on the edge of your seat.
The film did the same, giving us nudity from Rooney Mara who brought the badass Lisbeth to life. This was in the American version which, as I said up top, was not the first film adaptation. Still, it was wildly popular in the states!
The original film adaptation starred nude icon Noomi Rapace as the sexy bisexual hacker who solves the crime. She has great nudity, too, but I think that Rooney has her beat in the Hollywood version. That being said, both actresses have very similar bodies!
The Last Picture Show
This classic film, considered by many to be one of the best American made films of all time, was actually based on a book. Furthermore, had Peter Bogdonavich's wife, producer Polly Platt, not read the book the movie may have never been made. Polly read the book and convinced Peter to read it and take interest in it, essentially pushing the entire idea into production.
That means that we have Polly Platt to thank for bringing us Cybill Shepherd's breasts (crazier considering Bogdonavich then left Polly for Cybill, so really Bogdonavich has Polly to thank for A LOT in his life at this time). Cybill famously took off her clothes to join her friends for a naked dip in the pool.
The book and the film are both great at capturing small-town American life in a Texas town trying to survive and keep its movie house alive with it. Cybill plays the sweet, innocent blonde while Cloris Leachman plays a horny housewife sleeping with a high school student and Sharon Ullrick and Kimberly Hyde are teens who also go nude. This black-and-white flick really has it all!
