On movie sex and movie love...

Category: 1940s

Casablanca

  • YEAR: 1942
  • DIRECTOR: Michael Curtiz
  • KEY ACTORS: Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid
  • CERTIFICATE: U
  • IMDB SCORE: 8.5
  • ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 99%

SEX SCORE: 3.5/5

✔️ This is definitely rewatchable. From any point in the film, at any time.
✔️ And I definitely want to fuck the cast. Doesn’t everyone?
❓ I’m giving it a half mark for inspiring fantasies because it didn’t inspire anything directly, but it could be the source of so many other doomed romance/love triangle/being fought over by two men fantasies…
❌ Sadly, it fails the Bechdel Test. There are only three named female characters and they never speak, let alone talk about something other than a man.
✔️ I had to think about it, but I think Casablanca is sex positive. Sex seems to be both ever present and never spoken about, but I don’t recall any particularly negative moments so I’m giving it the mark!

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It’s a Wonderful Life

  • YEAR: 1946
  • DIRECTOR: Frank Capra
  • KEY ACTORS: James Stewart, Donna Reed
  • CERTIFICATE: U
  • IMDB SCORE: 8.6
  • ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:  94%

SEX SCORE: 2.5/5

✔️ This is absolutely definitely rewatchable! It has become a Christmas classic and is on TV nearly every year…
❌ But I don’t want to fuck the cast. It’s old-fashioned without the charm that makes me wish I’d loved back then and Jimmy Stewart is just…well…old. Regardless of his actual age!
❌ And similarly, it didn’t inspire fantasies. It’s just not that kind of film.
✔️ Surprisingly, this does pass the Bechdel Test. It’s a relatively dubious pass, qualifying with snatches of conversation that aren’t part of the main plot, but it does pass!
❓But is it sex positive? I’ve been unable to decide. Maybe yes, because there’s no shaming or obvious judgement and there’s a pretty risque scene when Mary loses her gown, but equally women are treated as wives or nothing so…half mark?

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