Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies

It's a pretty good. Did a fine job at exploring the evolution of nudity in film. I always noticed that female nudity is disproportionately prevalent than than male nudity-which annoys me. However this movie intrigued because it discussed candidly why that is. Yes I know it's because sex sells and the male gaze etc. but, the importance of these things were explored very honestly. It wasn't trying too hard to something that it is not.

The evolution of sexuality in the cinema, where nudity is either tasteful, erotic, educational, gratuitous, or exploitative. Many historians, critics and actors are interviewed for their opinions on movies featuring their own nudity and commenting on the sex scenes of others (my favorites were Eric Roberts and Mariel Hemingway separately discussing "Star 80" and, by the end-credits, getting a bit off-track but still intriguing us). There was no innocent era for nudity on-screen; from the time Edison got a patent for the movie camera, men and women have been slipping out of their clothes. These by-gone years are the most fascinating: from the ill-fated Audrey Munson and swimmer Annette Kellerman, Hedy Lamarr in the Czech drama "Ecstasy", Mae West to Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe, the skirting of Joseph Breen's moral Code is, at once, funny and pathetic. In 1962, with the Code going out-of-fashion, nudity made a comeback (Russ Meyer's "The Immoral Mr. Teas" from 1959 was a watershed moment for permissiveness in a non-underground picture, while Antonioni's "Blow-Up" in 1966 is cited as the first movie to--fleetingly--show pubic hair). Informative and well-researched and produced, "Skin" has a great assortment of film clips and, well, lots of breasts and bums. *** from ****

Wonderful! Surprisingly thoughtful and well-done. I actually expected this documentary to be gratuitous... nothing could have been further from that than this exceptional film!

I was fascinated with the stories about Audrey Munson, and the predatory Edison patent, but already knew about the idiotic Hays Code. After that, I actually remembered the kerfuffle over Jane Birkin's pubic hair and the introduction of the rating system.

Of course, I am old. You may not be. I remember the shock of Richard Gere's full frontal in 1981, and there's worse than it on cable now.

Enjoy the film.

The documentary started out fine for the first hour. The documentary chronical nudity in films decade by decade. But somehow as the film gets into the 1980s and later, it isn't as good as the first half. It quickly became boring. The way I experienced the second half was as though I was listening to the Charlie Brown school teacher wah wah wah wah, insert nude scene, wah wah wah, another nude scene etc. The documentary seem to have lost its focus during the second half. Became more about titillation than information. I was relieved when the end credits came up after the 2hr+ runtime.