Sex, Power & Moral Collapse

Desire as the engine of destruction

These films treat sex as the place where power, shame, and self-destruction meet. Transgressive, honest, and sometimes unbearable — but never gratuitous.

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Created: November 11, 2025

The Collection

Deliverance

Deliverance

1972
1
Deliverance
1972
1
Deliverance
IMDb 7.6 / 10
Director John Boorman
Cast Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty
Box Office $46,122,355
Why John Boorman films four Atlanta businessmen on an Appalachian river. The film is power inverted in …
Eyes Wide Shut

Eyes Wide Shut

1999
2
Eyes Wide Shut
1999
2
Eyes Wide Shut
IMDb 7.5 / 10
Director Stanley Kubrick
Cast Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Todd Field
Box Office $55,691,208
Why Kubrick films a Manhattan doctor's two-night drift through sexual jealousy. The masked orgy is the …
The Piano Teacher

The Piano Teacher

2001
3
The Piano Teacher
2001
3
The Piano Teacher
IMDb 7.5 / 10
Director Michael Haneke
Cast Isabelle Huppert, Annie Girardot, Benoît Magimel
Box Office $1,012,069
Why Haneke films Isabelle Huppert's Vienna conservatory teacher and her destructive desire. The film is…
Secretary

Secretary

2002
4
Secretary
2002
4
Secretary
IMDb 6.9 / 10
Director Steven Shainberg
Cast James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeremy Davies
Box Office $4,059,680
Why Steven Shainberg films Maggie Gyllenhaal's law-firm typist and James Spader's boss. The film is the…
Blue Is the Warmest Colour

Blue Is the Warmest Colour

2013
5
Blue Is the Warmest Colour
2013
5
Blue Is the Warmest Colour
IMDb 7.6 / 10
Director Abdellatif Kechiche
Cast Léa Seydoux, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Salim Kechiouche
Box Office $2,199,787
Why Abdellatif Kechiche films a French teenager's three-hour affair with a blue-haired art student. The…
Boogie Nights

Boogie Nights

1997
6
Boogie Nights
1997
6
Boogie Nights
IMDb 7.9 / 10
Director Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds
Box Office $26,416,349
Why Paul Thomas Anderson films a San Fernando Valley porn family from 1977 to 1984. The film is the ris…
Damage

Damage

1992
7
Damage
1992
7
Damage
IMDb 6.7 / 10
Director Louis Malle
Cast Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche, Miranda Richardson
Box Office $7,532,911
Why Louis Malle films Jeremy Irons' British MP destroying his family for an obsession with his son's fi…
Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain

2005
8
Brokeback Mountain
2005
8
Brokeback Mountain
IMDb 7.7 / 10
Director Ang Lee
Cast Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams
Box Office $84,111,816
Why Ang Lee films two men who could not love each other in 1963 Wyoming. The film is power's refusal; t…
A Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method

2011
9
A Dangerous Method
2011
9
A Dangerous Method
IMDb 6.4 / 10
Director David Cronenberg
Cast Michael Fassbender, Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen
Box Office $5,704,709
Why Cronenberg films Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein in early-twentieth-century Vienna. The film is t…
Shortbus

Shortbus

2006
10
Shortbus
2006
10
Shortbus
IMDb 6.4 / 10
Director John Cameron Mitchell
Cast Sook-Yin Lee, Paul Dawson, PJ DeBoy
Box Office $2,016,181
Why John Cameron Mitchell films New York characters at a sex-positive salon. The film is the genre refu…
In the Realm of the Senses

In the Realm of the Senses

1976
11
In the Realm of the Senses
1976
11
In the Realm of the Senses
IMDb 6.6 / 10
Director Nagisa Ōshima
Cast Eiko Matsuda, Tatsuya Fuji, Aoi Nakajima
Box Office $7,650,000
Why Nagisa Oshima films the 1936 Sada Abe case in unsimulated detail. The film is the genre at its limi…

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