Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso Let’s Talk About Sex (At the Movies)

Film historian Karina Longworth is the host of You Must Remember This, a podcast exploring the forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century. 

This week she joins us to discuss her new series, “Erotic 80s” (4:48), the seismic shift created by films like Last Tango in Paris and Deep Throat (7:58), the way in which these movies sold a distorted view of “female sexual liberation” (11:58), and how the cultural perception of these X-rated pictures evolved as the public learned of the abusive conditions in which they were made (13:24). As the 1980s took hold, Karina outlines how Hollywood capitalized on sex in the movies (16:50), making a film like American Gigolo (16:35), which transformed Richard Gere into a “distracting” sex symbol (21:27) and lead to an “MTV aesthetic” in films like Flashdance and Risky Business (27:42). 

On the back-half, we wrestle with the legacy of director Adrian Lyne’s work (27:30), the way cinema has drifted away from the center of culture (35:27), why Karina continues to make You Must Remember This (39:50), and a refrain she shares with 1930s actress, Kay Francis (45:44).