You may have heard of the seven wonders of the world, but have you heard of the seven non-pornographic films in which actors had sex for real?
Okay, there's not actually any connection between them and mankind's awe-inspiring structures, other than a pretty poor play on words... anyway, you may not have heard of the phrase 'unsimulated sex' before.
For those of us who are unfamiliar with the terminology, it means the 'actors' are actually knocking their socks off on screen.
Recently, we've heard how Aubrey Plaza was instructed to actually pleasure herself on screen during the 2013 flick The To-Do List, with the 28-year-old playing high school student Brandy Klark.
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Plaza admitted to it during an interview with Conan O'Brien, and explained she initially thought that the scene in which she did so would only show her hand that would 'slowly go out of frame'.
She recalled: "I asked the director 'what should I do' and she said 'masturbate like it says in the script'."
Anyway, here's a list of non-pornographic movies which have included real sex:
1. Pink Flamingos (1972)
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The first movie to feature unsimulated sex was Pink Flamingos, which is said to be director John Waters' most infamous film.
Its synopsis reads: "A bizarre fat woman (Divine) and her misfit family compete with a Baltimore couple (David Lochary, Mink Stole) to be named the filthiest people alive."
While the film doesn't have full-blown intercourse, it does feature oral sex between Divine and Crackers (Danny Mills).
Making it even more controversial, the two characters were mother and son.
2. In The Realm of Senses (1976)
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The next movie to feature real hanky-panky is In The Realm of Senses, which is about an affair between a sex worker-turned-hotel maid and her employer.
The Japanese film was met with a strong critical response at the time of its release and was subjected to censorship and bans.
3. The Idiots (1998)
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Fast forward to 1998, and the real-life sex returned to the big screen once again, this time in Lars von Trier'sThe Idiots.
The film features an orgy and, upon its terrestrial television debut in 2005 on Channel 4, the broadcaster was met with several Ofcom complaints.
4. The Raspberry Reich (2004)
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The flick is about a woman who condemns heterosexuality and encourages her male followers to have sex with each other.
One Rotten Tomatoes critic described the film as 'a highly awkward blending of gay porn and political satire'.
The Raspberry Reich doesn't fall under the pornography category, however.
5. Shortbus (2006)
John Cameron Mitchell's erotic comedy also has unsimulated sex in it, according to I-D.
Mitchell has addressed the real sex scenes in the film and joked that '[people] don’t ask whether I could’ve done Hedwig [and the Angry Inch] without the songs'.
6. Dogtooth (2009)
Oscar nominee Dogtooth got chins wagging - but the sex scenes in the film were supposedly used as 'a way of showing the kind of relationships that are born out of these levels of extreme isolation'.
The synopsis for Dogtooth reads: "A controlling, manipulative father (Christos Stergioglou) locks his three adult offspring in a state of perpetual childhood by keeping them prisoner within the sprawling family compound.
"The children are bored to tears in spite of distractions like Christina (Anna Kalaitzidou), an employee of their father's who makes regular visits to sexually service the son (Hristos Passalis). Increasingly curious about the outside world, the older daughter (Aggeliki Papoulia) hatches a plan to escape."
7. Stranger by the Lake (2013)
The most recent movie to have featured proper sex, the saucy piece of French cinema sees main man Franck fall in love with another guy he meets at a nudist beach (as you do).
Again, rather than it being unnecessarily crude, people have insisted that the film's sex scenes are 'another example of real sex and artistic power coming together'.
Topics: Sex and Relationships, Film and TV
Joe Yates