Some people say love is sex, sex is love. While others say sex is a four letter word. Sylvia is a love columnist who is writing a book on love stories. On a warm summer night she has invited six friends to tell true stories of their intimate love and sexual experiences. During the course of the evening the boundaries between love, sex and friendship narrow. People are exposed, fears are shared, friendships tested and relationships are destroyed and new ones formed. SEX IS A FOUR LETTER WORD is a contemporary film about love in the 1990s.
Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.
Belle de jour
1967
7
Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.
Die Blechtrommel
1979
6
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.
The Bridges of Madison County
1995
7
Manhattan explores how the life of a middle-aged television writer dating a teenage girl is further complicated when he falls in love with his best friend's mistress.
Manhattan
1979
7
When 17-year-old Effi Briest marries the elderly Baron von Instetten, she moves to a small, isolated Baltic town and a house that she fears is haunted. Starved for companionship, Effi begins a friendship with Major Crampas, a charismatic womanizer.
Fontane Effi Briest
1974
6
A mute Scottish woman arrives in colonial New Zealand for an arranged marriage. Her husband refuses to move her beloved piano, giving it to neighbor George Baines, who agrees to return the piano in exchange for lessons. As desire swirls around the duo, the wilderness consumes the European enclave.
The Piano
1993
7
Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.
Faces
1968
7
Connie is a wife and mother whose 11-year marriage to Edward has lost its sexual spark. When Connie literally runs into handsome book collector Paul, he sweeps her into an all-consuming affair. But Edward soon becomes suspicious and decides to confront the other man.
Unfaithful
2002
6
Walter is a successful doctor, and so is his wife Evelyn. Wealthy and good-looking, they should be a happily married couple, but they're not. Walter is so caught up in his career that he fails to keep up with Evelyn. So when she falls for the charms of Greg, a real estate Romeo, it takes Walter by surprise. Even more so, because he finds out about it from Stephanie, Greg's deserted TV weather girl girlfriend.
Loving Couples
1980
4
In 1747, a handsome but rebellious Scotsman named Richard Abdee is auctioned off as a slave on a Caribbean island controlled by French and British sugar-planters. When caught having sex with his owner's wife, Abdee is given 100 lashes with the dreaded "dragonard" whip. This sentence is meant to be fatal but Abdee survives and later joins in a slave revolt which puts an end to the island's era of savage whippings.
Dragonard
1987
4
Matt Lee Whitlock, respected chief of police in small Banyan Key, Florida, must solve a vicious double homicide before he himself falls under suspicion. Matt Lee has to stay a few steps ahead of his own police force and everyone he's trusted in order to find out the truth.
Out of Time
2003
6
Handsome Jules has problems with school and girls. His domineering dad doesn't make matters easier, although his mom is supportive of her only child. Contemplating an extramarital affair, Claude Jade attempts to discreetly shop for condoms, a cute twist on what is traditionally a teenage boy's awkward ordeal.
Tableau d'honneur
1992
0
Rendezvous in Paris
1982
7
Callimaco, a wealthy young man, falls madly in love with Lucrezia, the beautiful young wife of a much older man, Messer Nicia. But Lucrezia is honest and faithful. Her husband has failed to help her discover love. Lucrezia will resist the combined assaults of her mother, her confessor and her husband for a long time before agreeing to cheat on him. How to approach her?
La Mandragore
1972
0
Heaven-Bound Travelers (circa 1935) was discovered among the rolls of film in the Gist collection at the Library of Congress by S. Torriano Berry during the recent restoration of Hell-Bound Train. Eloyce Gist takes a central role onscreen as a wife and mother who is wrongfully accused of adultery by her husband and is left to fend for herself and their daughter in the world. As she struggles to sustain them, the husband becomes riddled with guilt and struggles with his decision, and the social realism of the drama shifts to an allegorical struggle between the devil, appearing to tempt humanity to sin, and the angels. The film does not exist in complete form but the fragments show a project of ambitious scope. Presented with a score composed and performed by Dr. Samuel Waymon.
Heaven-Bound Travelers
1935
4
To escape a secure but stifling life with her workaholic husband Sudhir, bored housewife Simran begins an affair with Sunny, an ex-boyfriend from her college days. However, when Sudhir grows suspicious and hires a private detective, the infidelity soon comes to light.
Murder
2004
5
Juggling increasing career success and a growing heroin habit, a television comedy writer attempts to go down a path of improvement.
Permanent Midnight
1998
5
When Remy, an ad consultant, falls in love with Sarah, the newest star of an ad campaign, sparks fly. The only problem is that they are both married. Sarah's husband knows she will eventually get tired of Remy while his wife just can't let go. At first she throws him out, begs him to come back, cheats on him, hates him, and finally slumps into the worse depression ever. It is amazing what love can do...
Amoureux fou
1991
3
Married couple Jack and Terry Linden are experiencing a difficult period in their relationship. When Jack decides to step outside the marriage, he becomes involved with Edith, who happens to be the wife of his best friend and colleague, Hank Evans. Learning of their partners' infidelity, Terry and Hank engage in their own extramarital affair together. Now, both marriages and friendships are on the brink of collapse.
We Don't Live Here Anymore
2004
5
After the release from prison, small-time criminal is marrying his girlfriend and lives a straight and poor, but happy life with her and her daughter. However, his happiness is shattered by wife's infidelity. Driven mad by jealousy, he kills her and her lover and runs into mountains, thus escaping law for months. This film is based on the true story about Junuz Kečo, last Bosnian outlaw.
Kuduz
1989
6