From Baby Girl to Poor Things & Saltburn – how cinema is going sexy again after a long dry spell

CINEMA is going sexy after a long dry spell – and bonking is back in a big way.

The Venice Film Festival got pulses racing this week with a series of saucy premieres, including Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman, described as “tremendously horny” by one critic.

Also showing was Daniel Craig romance Queer, about sexual relationships, and Diva Futura, which tells the story of Italian pornographer Riccardo Schicchi.

Audiences were also treated to four episodes of series Disclaimer, featuring Cate Blanchett as a journalist who seduces a photographer in scorching scenes.

It will be released on Apple TV+ in October.

Sun on Sunday film critic Dulcie Pearce said: “Banging is back on the big screen and I am delighted. 

“Having watched hundreds of caped crusaders and violent gun battles, it seemed one of the most natural acts in the world had become more extinct than the T-Rex.

“Even a snog became a rarity. But now the on-screen orgasm has come back into fashion, with top actors like Nicole Kidman and Emma Stone happy to strip for the scenes. And thank goodness they’re taking the reins on bringing sexy back.”

In her new film, out in January, Kidman plays a high-flying boss who has an affair with her young intern. 

Mum-of-four Nicole, 57, said this week: “It is obviously about sex, it’s about desire, it’s about secrets, marriage, truth, power, consent.”

The film comes 25 years after Stanley Kubrick directed her in erotic classic Eyes Wide Shut, opposite her then husband Tom Cruise. 

And it follows a 2019 Playboy magazine study that found just one in 100 films in the 2010s featured a raunchy scene.

There were hints of the steamy trend last year with Poor Things, starring Emma Stone.

Described as a “bonk fest”, the film follows Emma’s character as she embarks on a sexual awakening.

Also in 2023, Amazon Prime’s Saltburn brought Barry Keoghan into our homes in a movie littered with outlandish sex scenes.

Love Lies Bleeding, a 2024 lesbian thriller starring Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian, includes one particularly steamy bathroom scene.

Mary Harrod, professor of French and screen studies at the University of Warwick, said the movie trend reflects how we are renewing our desire for physical contact after the pandemic.

She added: “After life went online in the pandemic, people want to return to celebrating physical interactions, including sex. And often, the down and dirtier the better.”

Lights, camera . . . action!