We've got some incredible stuff in store for you on this day in movie nudity history! An buddy-cop action flick, an Oscar-winning favorite, two recent foreign films, a seminal 70s movie, and one of the all-time camp classics all released on June 17 in Movie Nudity History!
2016: Cosmos
Four years ago today, American audiences got their first glimpse of the latest film from renowned directorAndrzej Żuławski (Possession), hitting our shores a mere four months after his death in February, 2016. Dubbing his final film a "metaphysical noir thriller," Żuławski brings us the tale of two wayward young men who have both failed out of school and decide to celebrate their failure with a trip to a secluded house in the Portuguese countryside. Upon arriving, they seem to have stumbled into a fool's paradise where the only thing looser than their morals are the women!
Of course, if you've seen an Andrzej Żuławski film before, you know that there's much more than meets the eye to this one and while it's not quite on the same level of insanity as some of his earlier work, it does manage to pack a wallop in the third act! Before things get insane, however, we're treated to an amazing fully nude scene from Victória Guerra, who gets naked to have sex with one of the guys while the other watches from street level...
2016: Parched
Also on this day four years ago came this intense and moving drama about four Indian women finding the courage in themselves and their friendship to escape their lives of repression.Rani (Surveen Chawla), Bijli (Tannishtha Chatterjee), Janaki (Lehar Khan), and Lajjo (Radhika Apte) are from the small village ofRajasthan where they must adhere to the strict societal roles in which women have found themselves for generations. They're obviously not content to conform to these roles and seek to break free of their restricted lives and live life on their own terms, not anyone else's.
The film caused controversy in India due to the film's nudity, which is still a mostly verboten thing in Indian cinema. Radhika Apte was an immensely popular theater and film actress in India and her nude debut in the film caused quite a ruckus when the film was first screened in the country...
Much like her character in the film, though, Radhika didn't have to go it alone as bothTannishtha ChatterjeeandSurveen Chawlaboth bare their bods when the four go skinny dipping an hour and fourteen minutes in...
1988: Red Heat
On this day 32 years ago, director Walter Hill (48 Hrs.) was back with another mismatched buddy cop action comedy, this time starring Jim Belushi as a slovenly Chicago cop who is paired with aMoscow Militia Captain(Arnold Schwarzenegger) to track down rogue Georgian drug kingpin Viktor Rostavili (Ed O'Ross) who is hiding out in the Windy City! It's East meets West, snobs versus slobs, and any other mismatched partner combinations one can think of, as Belushi attempts to keep a leash on Schwarzenegger, which is about as futile a gesture on his part as it sounds.
The film opens in Russia, where we get to know Schwarzenegger's Danko and his doomed partner—Walter Hill loves a good dead partner to avenge—as they infiltrate a bathhouse where Viktor is rumored to be hiding out. There's quite a bit of uncredited nudity in this scene, but watch out for hogs a'flying courtesy of Schwarzenegger and Arnie's old weightlifting pal and frequent co-star Sven-Ole Thorsen as one of the men protecting Viktor. The other nudity in the flick comes in Chicago where a raid gone wrong causes the room ofGretchen Palmerto be invaded, whom we see nude as she flees from danger...
Also, keep your eyes peeled for a young Gina Gershon playing Viktor's American wife, though sadly she doesn't take off any of her clothes. Still, it's pretty nice seeing a skin legend before she was famous!
1983: Fanny and Alexander
Ingmar Bergman'sFanny and Alexanderis among the most complex and richly rewarding films ever made. Originally conceived as a television miniseries, the full tale runs 312 minutes, a comparative breeze in this age of binge-watching. There is a three hour "theatrical version" which is excellent, but plays like an adaptation of the longer film rather than its own thing.Criterion has a set featuring both cuts of the film, along with a feature documentary about its production, so you can compare and contrast for yourself. It's the shorter version that was released theatrically on this day 37 years ago.
Spanning the first decade of the 20th century, this historical epic follows the exploits of the titular pair of Swedish royals, children in the Ekdahl family, using 10 year old Alexander as the audience surrogate. Following the sudden death of their father, the children are then bounced around from house to house as Alexander wrestles with his own faith, and the various adults bed-hop their way to happiness.
Despite the expansive running time, all of the nudity proper occurs in the first hour. A youngPernilla August(a.k.a. Shmi Skywalker, mother of Anakin) plays a maid named Maj, who is having an affair with Alexander's uncle Gustav, flaunts her fun bags when he attempts to get some hanky panky happening...
Not ten minutes later, ol' Uncle Gustav is still trying to get it wet—and failing—with his wife, played byMona Malm, who right nipple keeps popping out of her rather constricting top...
1977: The Deep
Mere weeks after the release of Star Wars, an almost equally seminal film came along that gave the vast majority of horny young teenagers the sexual awakening they'd been craving. Peter Yates' The Deep was basically a glorified Jaws knockoff—starring Jaws' Robert Shaw, of all people—about a team of divers looking for treasure within a shipwrecked Spanish schooner. The only things standing between them and the treasure, however, are the dangers of the deep sea from swarming sharks to something, perhaps, much more sinister.
The film likely would have been forgotten to time were it not for the presence of European sex goddess Jacqueline Bisset in a wet t-shirt. Producer Peter Guber once quipped that Bisset's t-shirt in the film made him a very rich man and she is often credited with popularizing the very notion of a wet t-shirt as sexy apparel. While there are probably very few men alive who saw The Deep in theaters and remember anything about it other than Jacqueline Bisset's wet t-shirt, it's not hard to blame them for putting everything unmemorable about the film out of their heads. Enjoy 90 of the greatest seconds of cinema from the 1970s...
1970: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
Derided in its day for being nothing but a kitschy piece of campy sexploitation cinema, Russ Meyer's magnum opus of big breasted excess Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is celebrating its 50th birthday today! Co-written by Meyer and film critic Roger Ebert, the film has since come to be recognized for the brilliantly subversive piece of work that it always was, though it only took several decades for people to catch on to the film's many charms. The film is a classic example of a "sequel in name only" as it shares virtually none of its DNA with 1967's Valley of the Dolls other than exposing the dangerous and dark side of fame.
Dolly Read, Cynthia Myers, and Marcia McBroom play a trio of musicians who travel to Los Angeles with their sights set on fortune and fame. Of course, they find plenty of both along with all the perils and pitfalls they bring, as they're constantly exploited, doped up, and duped. The plot is more or less secondary to the sights and sounds of the film, with Meyer being an undeniably talented purveyor of gorgeous moving images. His three leads all gamely drop their clothes for the camera, showing off their nude bodies in a number of skintillating scenes...
This being a Russ Meyer affair, however, nearly all the women are busty, beautiful, and bare, with other vixens like Phyllis Davis, Angel Ray, Susan Reed, and so many more also joining in on the flesh-filled fun...
1970: The Hawaiians
While it can't help but be overshadowed by Russ Meyer's flick, this adaptation of James Michener's epic novel Hawaii also celebrates its 50th anniversary today! With an all-star cast including Chuck Heston, Geraldine Chaplin, Mako, and John Phillip Law, the film covers the tail end of Michener's book with substantially darker subject matter therein compared with what would have been allowed on film at the time of the book's publishing. 50 years on, it's about as culturally insensitive as one might expect given the era in which it was produced, but it's not without its merits, namely in the nudity department.
An hour and twenty-nine minutes in, the sensationally stacked Miko Mayama drops her top to climb into a communal tub, showing off her insanely nice rack...
Then just seven minutes later, Tina Chen gives us a quick peek at her left breast while putting a shirt on...
