For many years, kisses were the only sexual acts to be seen in mainstream American movies. Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, American cinema ‘grew up’ in response to the sexual revolution, and movie audiences came to expect more knowledge about what happened between the sheets. In “Screening Sex”, the renowned film scholar Linda Williams investigates how sex acts have been represented on screen for more than a century and, just as important, how we have watched and experienced those representations. Whether examining the arch artistry of “Last Tango in Paris”, the on-screen orgasms of Jane Fonda, or the anal sex of two cowboys in “Brokeback Mountain”, Williams illuminates the forms of pleasure and vicarious knowledge derived from screening sex.
