Every so often a nude scene gets paired with a song that, for better or worse, ends up making it that much more memorable, and this Tunesday just happens to fall on the 25th anniversary of a film that had all the right ingredients but somehow didn’t fit a lot of people’s taste. Grab your sunscreen and flip flops, because we’re headed to The Beach!
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Released on February 11, 2000, this adventurous drama should have been a slam dunk: it stars Leonardo DiCaprio, still riding that blockbuster heartthrob high from Titanic; it’s directed by a post-Trainspotting Danny Boyle, and the source material actually comes from a book by Alex Garland, who would go on to give us 28 Days Later (also with Boyle) and Ex Machina. Yet, most critics couldn’t get behind it, and neither could fans, judging by its place at number sixty on the year’s box office tally. It’s not even the highest-grossing “The” movie of 2000 - it got beat out by The Perfect Storm, The Patriot, The Kid, and The Cell, among others.
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So, where did it go wrong? Well, it certainly wasn’t an overabundance of nudity. If anything, it was too subtle for paradise and there could have been more of it (Tilda Swinton’s in it and yet we only see a shadow of her boob behind a tent flap? Ridiculous)
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And it wasn’t the music either. While the soundtrack may not have been showered with accolades upon release, it has since developed an almost cult status, with VICE magazine even declaring it “a Balearic Masterpiece” in 2018.
Virginie Ledoyen Nude in The Beach
The song/boobs combo highlight comes fifty-one minutes in when the film’s ingenue Virginie Ledoyen takes a late night dip with Leo, leading them to lose their wet tops and get busy near the shoreline. This skinful moment is paired with the aptly titled “Pure Shores” by the Spice Girls-esque group All Saints.
00:51:00 Brief buoyant breastages as Virginie gets wet with a worked-up Leo D. (1 min 2 secs)
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These gals definitely do not feel out of place amongst the other quintessential 90s names (Blur, Moby, Sugar Ray) that surround them, and the echo-y guitar adds to the underwater feel. The scene and song were made even more synonymous when it was included in the music video.
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In the end, lack of character development and an overall disjointed script seem to be what sunk The Beach, with the music and landscape (especially Virginie’s) being some of its only lifelines.
