The festive period is a time for settling down with the family to enjoy one of the hundreds of feelgood films that fill the telly schedules every Christmas.
But not every movie that’s been made for the festive season is so innocent. There are illicit affairs, underground orgies and masses of sexual tension to enjoy if that’s more your thing.
Here we take a look at a few of these classics. Some of them are deliberately themed around the festive season while others just happen to take place around this time – but they all have the ability to up the excitement levels.
READ MORE: Seven in 10 Brits say festive films and TV shows are what ‘make Christmas’ for them
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Eyes Wide Shut
This Stanley Kubrick film, set in New York at Christmas, features a doctor called Bill, played by Tom Cruise, being told by his wife Alice (Nicole Kidman) that she’d considered having an affair. The doc then goes off on a wild journey that involves being seduced by a patient’s daughter, meeting a hooker and infiltrating a masked orgy.
The tension between Cruise and Kidman is electric at times. And at the end of the story, when Bill confesses to Alice about what he’s been up to, she says they should do something “as soon as possible”. When the doc asks what she means, Alice replies “F***”.
Some of the more explicit scenes were edited and toned down for the version shown in the cinema, but the uncut version has since been released, too.
(Image: Warner Brothers)
Love Actually
This might be a fairly clean, family-friendly tale, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t got its fair share of sexual tension.
There’s a language barrier between Colin Firth’s and Lúcia Moniz’s characters, but that doesn’t prevent them from connecting and understanding each other. Then there are the famous scenes involving Hugh Grant’s Prime Minister and Natalie, played by Martine McCutcheon. And there’s even some nudity too, involving Rodrigo Santoro and Joanna Page.
Love Actually is proof that even gentle, mainstream films can set pulses racing.
(Image: Universal Studios)
Trading Places
This isn’t a traditional Christmas film, but it was set at this time of year and is a staple on the festive TV schedules.
It was the movie that helped Jamie Lee Curtis broaden her CV, as she’d previously been mainly associated with horror films such as Halloween. She plays a prostitute called Ophelia, and there’s a famous scene when she gets her kit off in front of Louis (Dan Ackroyd).
She’s recently admitted she was uncomfortable with that scene. In a People interview, she said: “Did I like doing it? No. Did I feel embarrassed that I was doing it? Yes. Did I look OK? Yeah. Did I know what I was doing? Yeah. Did I like it? No. Was I doing it because it was the job? Yes.”
(Image: Paramount)
While You Were Sleeping
Lucy, played by Sandra Bullock, and Jack (Bill Pullman) star in this acclaimed rom-com that tells the story of a Chicago transportation officer who falls for the brother of a bloke, Peter, played by Peter Gallagher, whose life she saves on Christmas Eve.
Amid the awkward scenes in which Peter’s family think Lucy is his fiancée, there’s a growing chemistry between her and Jack.
It’s not as overtly racy as some of the other films on this list, but the sexual tension between Jack and Lucy is unmistakable.
(Image: Walt Disney)
Reindeer Games
This thriller is another movie that doesn’t tick the “traditional” box, but again it’s set during the Christmas season.
It stars Ben Affleck (Rudy) and Charlize Theron (Ashley) as lovers who meet as prison pen-pals. Except they weren’t really pen-pals – Ashley had been writing to Rudy’s cellmate Nick. But when Nick is killed during a prison fight, Rudy pretends to be Nick and hooks up with Ashley when he’s released. They meet at a diner and then go for sex in a cabin.
There are twists and turns as the film descends into violence, and it’s not a movie that has won universal praise, but it just about fits the bill for raunchy festive films given the Santa hats and Christmas music.
(Image: Miramax)
Carol
This is a tale about the forbidden love affair between a young female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce. Carol, played by Cate Blanchett meets Rooney Mara’s Therese while she’s out Christmas shopping for her daughter, and things quickly spark between them.
On New Year’s Eve they share their first kiss, and Therese asks Carol to “take me to bed” – leading to a very hot scene.
The fact the film’s set in the 1950s when such relationships were much more taboo than they are today makes the whole thing even steamier.
(Image: Studio Canal)
Happiest Season
This 2020 rom-com follows a young woman Harper (played by Mackenzie Davis) who is struggling to find a way to tell her traditional folks that she and her pal Abby (Kristen Stewart) are a lesbian couple.
The tale is set during their Christmas visit to Harper’s parents, and features a number of pulse-racing moments. As well as the scenes between Harper and Abby, there’s killer eye contact between Abby and Riley (Aubrey Plaza).
Director Clea DuVall has said the film has components that are autobiographical and nod to her real-life experiences with her own family.
(Image: HULU)
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
