BY: Amanda Jane Stern

There are films from around the world that sizzle with passion, style, and eroticism. These seven will take you on a world tour of beautiful cities and extraordinary people.

Room in Rome (2010)

This movie is a 2010 Spanish feature, and the action happens during a single night in a Rome hotel room. It explores the emotional and physical connection between two women, one Spanish and the other Ukrainian. 

Spanish actress Elena Anaya (known to U.S. audiences as the masked villain Dr. Maru in Wonder Woman) is Alba. And Ukrainian actress Natasha Yarovenko (of Diary of a Nymphomaniac) is Natasha, who Alba met in a club the previous night. As the night continues, Natasha reveals her abusive past, and Alba’s story keeps changing (is she married? — did her son die in a boating accident?)

It is writer/director Julio Medem’s first English language film and loosely based on his 2005 movie In Bed.  Rome’s Piazzetta di San Simeone was where exteriors were filmed. The steamy hotel room was built and shot on a soundstage in Madrid.

 

Come Undone

Not to be confused with the 1993 Duran Duran song, this 2000 French-Belgian film was directed by Sébastien Lifshitz —a two-time Teddy Award winner for the movie Wild Side and the documentary Bambi about transgender French entertainer Marie-Pierre Pruvot.

Come Undone explores a vacation romance in Brittany between 18-year-olds Mathieu (Jérémie Elkaïm, also known for 2001’s Sexy Boys, aka “France’s American Pie”) and Cédric (Stéphane Rideau). Following his younger brother’s death from cancer, Mathieu meets Cédric during a family vacation. The film ends on a hopeful note, with the teens connecting 18-months later after Mathieu’s suicide attempt.

Come Undone was released in U.K. markets under the title Almost Nothing, a more literal translation of its French title, Presque Rien.

 

Sorry Angel (2018)

A devastatingly beautiful 2018 French film from writer/director Christophe Honoré. Throughout the last two decades, with movies like Love Songs and The Beautiful Person, Honoré has honed a filmmaking style that expands upon the eroticism of the French New Wave.

Don’t expect a happy ending for Pierre Deladonchamps’ (Stranger by the Lake) character, the HIV-positive author Jacques. But be prepared to come away from this romantic drama with the feeling that you’ve experienced a powerful movie destined to be a new French classic.

 

The Dreamers

This project is a 2003 French-Italian/American co-production from visionary director Bernardo Bertolucci (Last Tango In Paris, and Oscar Best Picture winner The Last Emperor).

It’s set during the 1968 Parisian strikes and showcases the teen’s isolation. The love triangle involves an American student (Michael Pitt of Gus Van Sant’s Last Days and TV’s Dawson’s Creek) with twins Eva Green  (film debut) and Louis Garrel (also in the middle of a love triangle in 2014s Saint Laurent). 

The film also includes footage from French New Wave classics and is based on the novel The Holy Innocents by Gilbert Adair (who also wrote Love and Death on Long Island).

 

Angels of Sex

Spanish director Xavier Villaverde explores a polyamorous relationship in this 2012 project. It was shot on location in Barcelona, Spain.

This love triangle is among street dancer Rai (Álvaro Cervantes), student Bruno (Llorenç González), and Bruno’s girlfriend, Carla (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey (known to U.S. audiences as The Mage in 2017’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and the mermaid Syrena in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides). Eventually, Bruno can date both lovers as long as the relationships remain separate.

In the U.K. markets, the film carries the title, The Sex of Angels.

Belle de Jour

The iconic Catherine Deneuve (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Repulsion, and more) is Séverine Serizy, a young housewife who spends her afternoons working as a high-class prostitute.

In the film’s famous last line, Séverine says she was only thinking of her husband, Dr. Pierre (Jean Sorel of The Day of the Jackal, and a Doctor in One on Top of the Other). But throughout the movie, she’s also thinking of a friend, Henri Husson (Michel Piccoli of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and the villain in Alfred Hitchcock’s Topaz), and the young gangster, Marcel (Pierre Clémenti).

This 1967 French classic, from writer/director Luis Buñuel,  is based on the 1928 novel of the same name.

 

Sex and Lucia

Spanish director Julio Medem takes us to the Mediterranian’s Italian and Spanish beaches in this 2001 drama. It utilizes timelines to explain a complicated and highly-charged relationship. The film opens with Spanish waitress Lucía (Spanish actress Paz Vega, known to U.S. audiences for Spanglish and 10 Items or Less). She cannot return to her apartment because she fears that her boyfriend Lorenzo (Tristán Ulloa, best known to U.S. audiences as Father Vincent in Netflix’s Warrior Nun TV series) committed suicide. The film flashes back to a tryst between Lorenzo and the married Elena (Najwa Nimri). 

These characters reveal secrets and unexpected connections across the years.