‘Ecstasy’: the first-ever sex scene featured in a movie
It’s safe to say that when cinema kicked off at the dawn of the 20th century, tastes were far more conservative than they are now, with the sight of a toilet on screen enough to make viewers swoon. Violence, swear words and nudity were hit with strong censorship laws back in the day, and, as for sex, you can wash your mouth out with soap and water for even passing thoughts of such depraved thoughts.
Having passed through the era of silent cinema, the 1930s was when the movie industry saw its most significant number of technological and creative innovations. Promoting the advancements of ‘talkies’ in cinema and embracing a whole new world of technicolour, movies from such filmmakers as Walt Disney, Victor Fleming, and Fritz Lang demonstrated some significant cinematic milestones.
In this same decade, the very first known sex scene also made its way into cinema, with the sequence being found in the erotic romantic drama Ecstasy, directed by Czech filmmaker Gustav Machatý. Telling the story of Eva, a young bride who finds herself stuck in a lifeless marriage with an older man, the sex scene itself occurs when Eva, played by the Austrian-born actor and inventor Hedy Lamarr, loses her clothes in ludicrous circumstances, only for a passing stranger to help and seduce her.
Their coincidental meeting demonstrates some questionable morals, to say the least, but later on, things get even more complicated when the two meet up for a night of lusty lovemaking.
By today’s standards, the scene is undoubtedly tame, lasting merely a minute as it depicts jewellery and clothes tossed to the floor and the obscure body parts of both man and woman entwining in monochrome. It’s a pretty tasteful and artistic piece of cinema put to a classical music score, but at the time, the scene, and the film in general, was considered pretty scandalous.
Despite – or perhaps because of – its controversial subject matter, Ecstasy generated considerable attention and acclaim, particularly for Lamarr’s performance and Machatý’s direction. That said, amid the furore, the film was still praised for its artistic merit and groundbreaking approach to storytelling, paving the way for future films that dared to explore taboo subjects.
However, no amount of critical merit could save Ecstasy from censors. The film became the first-ever to be blocked by the US Customs Service, effectively banning it for its obscenities. Whilst a re-edited version was eventually allowed through in 1936, three years after the original release, the film remained banned in several locations across the country.
Speaking about the negative impact that the film had on her career in an interview with Life in 1938, Lamarr said that she was “famed through Europe and America as the Ecstasy girl”. Later, she added that the film studio would look down on her “like I am something in a zoo”.
If the same censors saw something like Lars von Trier’s 2014 film Nymphomaniac or Tomasz Mandes and Barbara Białowąs’ 2020 erotic Netflix flick 365 Days, they would have pursued such filmmakers with pitchforks and burning torches.
See the scene below.
