for more than two decades.) Breillat’s later work, 1999’s “Romance,” tells the story of a woman desperately seeking human connection and featured similar scenes, including sadomasochistic sex play. (The lead actress Charlotte Alexandra was 20 during production, and the film wasn’t released in theaters in the U.S. From Vincent Gallo’s controversial directing for “Brown Bunny” to Robert Pattinson’s masturbatory method acting in”Little Ashes,” genuine intimate encounters captured on film - however staged they may be - can pull audiences into the bigger stories their writers and directors are trying to tell.Ĭatherine Breillat’s first film in 1976, “A Real Young Girl,” adapts her own controversial novel about a 14-year-old exploring her newfound sexuality. Sex on film is nothing new, and yet unsimulated intercourse in non-pornographic movies continues to raise eyebrows and draw eyeballs.
