The gasman cometh: a belated introduction

In the coldest part of last winter, when it was snowing, the boiler in my flat died. When the repairman came to replace it, I went out for part of the day to avoid the noise and disruption. On my return, the job had been completed and he was eager to be on his way.

Home early, with little to do, I thought I may as well watch a DVD, but then noticed that my various stacks of films had been moved: some discs were gone. I could see that Sex and Lucía was missing, but couldn't work out what the others might be. I rang the boilerman and asked if he happened to have seen any of my DVDs, but could hardly accuse him of theft.

It was clear that the films he'd taken all featured fairly strong sex - I've since discovered the others included Baise-Moi and Catherine Breillat's Anatomy of Hell. It got me thinking about how sex on mainstream DVD has become more explicit, and how we're more likely to have these films in our homes. HMV, for instance, will group many of these, often art-house, films together on its display shelves, some for as little as £3. The message would seem to be, you may not be a porn buyer, but here's something fairly strong, if not hardcore, that's acceptable to take home.

At university, I did a dissertation on obscenity law, notably in cinema, and I am interested in how attitudes have changed since the big arguments over censorship, such as the controversies over the book of Lady Chatterley's Lover (1960) or the film Last Tango in Paris (1972). Outrage is as big a sell as ever, but now the film certificates ('strong real sex') seem as much a part of the marketing.

The films here did not all cause controversy, nor were that many censored, but they are part of the process that allows us to freely buy DVDs featuring hardcore sex (Baise-Moi) or genital mutilation (Antichrist) on the high street and watch them at home. The films I've chosen are all available on DVD (details refer to UK editions for the most part) and these posts are the building blocks to a longer essay I want to write, updating my original thesis.

NB There be spoilers throughout!

The usual note: if any picture infringes your copyright, please let me know and I'll remove it immediately.