Sex In Cinema 2004

It's peculiar year when the three most talked about films--The Passion of the Christ, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Kill Bill Vol. 2--are virtually sexless. Fortunately, Mel Gibson, Michael Moore and Quentin Tarantino weren't the only directors working. The year's best film about sex was Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, which tells the story of an American and a French brother and sister who discover sex in the politically enraged Paris of 1968. Michael Pitt shows the young American's intelligence and naïveté, and Eva Green demonstrates why it sometimes seems that nothing on earth is more like a goddess than a 19-year-old woman. Much attention fell to Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny, a strange but frequently dull film most notable for Chloë Sevigny's on-screen fellatio. Far more attention should be paid to more provocative and thoughtful films such as Catherine Breillat's Sex Is Comedy and Roger michell's The Mother. But sex is too important to be left to philosophers. Sex is fun in Wimbledon (featuring a sweaty and fit Kirsten Dunst) and Eurotrip (get the unrated version on DVD). For sexy star power, see how Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwen Stefani, Kate Beckinsale and Cate Blanchett portray Hollywood's golden age in The Aviator. Charlize Theron, in Head in the Clouds, makes us forget how she looked in Monster, and Halle Berry makes Catwoman worth watching. Finally, recall the face of Diane Kruger, who plays Helen in Troy; it may not exactly launch a thousand ships, but surely her marina will never lack for a dinghy.