Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct HFP/Lagardere Photo Archive

If you consider other movies that are not your own, what would you regard as the best movie about and showing sex?
Nothing jumps to my mind. I remember some very good sexual scenes in some of Ingmar Bergman's films — he never shied away from nudity and has found some very interesting images basically to show that. He is clearly a lover of women, like I am. And he uses sexuality in the most wonderful way.

Do you think that the depiction of graphic sex is going to eventually be incorporated into mainstream cinema with stars willing to participate?
I don't know. Christianity is against that. Christianity doesn't want that. Christianity is denying us basically our sexuality. We are supposed to look up vertically to God instead of horizontally to the other person, to a large degree. I think Christianity is not a friend of sexuality. And the Letters of Paul pointed it out pretty clearly that it is better not to do it than to do it. So I think as long as we are a so-called Christian nation that will never happen.

But it is quite bizarre then that cinema lags so far behind the other arts regarding the representation of sex.
Yes, I think it is. The art of cinema has been moving away from [sex] and of course has always been a pretty conventional art, isn't it? Because it's [made for] a mass audience. Film is always a bit behind in anything, in everything, I think. But once in a while you can break through if you are lucky.

How do you coach your actors before shooting a sex scene?
I just tell them the truth about exactly what I want. Tell them what kind of shots I want, tell them how much nudity. In Black Book I just asked [Waldemar Kobus]: "Do you have a problem with the scene? You have to be naked in the room and standing there peeing." And he said: "No, no. Don't worry about that. Of course, I will walk in naked. I have no problem." Kobus is a great guy, a wonderful actor. He is a very nice man too.

There was no problem with all the nudity I did in whatever movie. And be it Showgirls or Basic Instinct — which has extended sexual scenes or erotic scenes — I have always felt that it was necessary to tell the actors exactly what I was going to do. So I would sit with them with the storyboards and say: "These are shots that I am going to make. This is the part of the body that we are going to use. This is what we are going to do to you. This is what you are going to do to him. This is the amount of oral sex there will be." And use every detail. And name it. Not be afraid of using the word prick or vagina or whatever or nipple. [I want] everybody is really completely informed and if they had problems with some of the shots — I think Sharon [Stone] was first in a state of shock when I showed them the storyboards — but then this has to be discussed. It was only once or twice that somebody said... that is not my most wonderful angle. So, okay, you move the camera a touch to the side or whatever, you know, and that is easily done. And the video is on the set and they could watch it. Sharon didn't watch much of the video but Michael [Douglas] would often look at the video and come back to be laughing and say: "You will never get away with that." [laughs] But that is good. That is revolt, you know?

MORE SEX ON FILM...
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The Old Hand: Brian De Palma
The Crossover: John Cameron Mitchell
The Punk Rebel: Larry Clark
The Big Buffalo: Vincent Gallo
The Buttoned-Up Brit: Richard Eyre
The Sophisticate: David Cronenberg
The Motherfucker: Christophe Honoré
The Shocker: Gaspar Noé