Artful Desire: Sex, Style, and Scandal in Luca Guadagnino’s Films

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A Relentless Output, A Personal Turn

Since ‘Call Me By Your Name’ in 2017, Luca Guadagnino has quietly become one of the most consistently productive auteurs working today. He’s not quite working on a clock- but it’s close. With near-annual feature releases, plus the occasional short film or music video nestled in between, Guadagnino’s output is beginning to resemble Woody Allen’s in terms of consistency- that is, if Guadagnino can keep the pace up for another forty-something years.

This year continues the streak. After releasing what he has called his most personal project yet, ‘Queer’ (now streaming on HBO Max), Guadagnino already has another film on deck. ‘After the Hunt,’ a psychological drama is set for release this October, starring Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, as well as two Guadagnino alums- Chloë Sevigny (‘Bones and All’) and Michael Stuhlbarg (‘Call Me By Your Name’).

Luca Guadagnino’s relationship with ‘Queer’ began long before he stepped behind the camera. As a teenager in 1980s Palermo, he discovered William S. Burroughs’ novella and felt an immediate, personal jolt- an encounter that sparked his first, clumsy attempt at screenwriting. He was just 21 when he tried adapting it for the screen, unaware that this early, private obsession would evolve- decades later, with the help of his ‘Challengers’ screenwriter, Justin Kuritzkes– into what he described to Cinnecittá as “[his] most personal film.”

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The Scandal of Stillness

In that same interview with Cinecittà, Guadagnino teased that the sex scenes in ‘Queer’ were going to be “numerous and quite scandalous.” And they are- but not in the way the average American moviegoer might expect. The scandal, such as it is, lies not in what is shown, but in how it’s shown. Guadagnino’s signature “patient camera” doesn’t leer or cut away; instead, it lingers with painterly restraint, capturing the physical intimacy between Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey with quiet clarity rather than spectacle.

It’s not gratuitous. Nor is it tasteless. In fact, ‘Queer’ reveals its boldness in what it holds back. To some, yes, it may feel scandalous simply because it refuses to flinch. But anyone who read that quote from Guadagnino and expected something closer to ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’– a film that famously spares us nothing, presenting the full bodies of its actresses during extended, explicit scenes- might walk away disappointed, by how much ‘Queer’ chooses to imply instead of show.

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The Children Around the World Continue to Ask the question

From the Hays Code to No Code

It’s the kind of gesture born of necessity, a relic of the Hays Code era- a censorship framework imposed in 1934 amid growing pressure from religious groups and conservative watchdogs who feared Hollywood’s moral influence. The Code mandated strict moral guidelines, prohibiting explicit sexuality, “perversion,” and even suggestive language, forcing filmmakers to invent clever, indirect ways to imply what they could no longer show outright. Ironically, just a year before the Code’s enforcement, in 1933, the Czech film ‘Ecstasy’ shocked international audiences with what is widely considered the first Cinematic depiction of female orgasm- achieved not through graphic imagery, but through Hedy Kiesler’s (later known as Hedy Lamarr, Golden Age actress and co-inventor of frequency-hopping technology) expressive face. The Hays Code arrived swiftly thereafter, demanding that directors cover not only bodies, but suggestion itself.

And yet, that constraint birthed some of Cinema’s cleverest moments. Hitchcock’s ‘North by Northwest’ famously ends with a train rushing into a tunnel as Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint get cozy in their sleeper car. In ‘From Here to Eternity,’ crashing waves on rocks follow a passionate kiss on the beach, dissolving into a wisp of cigarette smoke- an era’s shorthand for what just happened. But as time wore on, the old tricks became the punchlines.

Jay Leno tells the story that Johnny Carson knew it was “time to go” when “they”- i.e. the new generation, was not just mocking his act, but the caricature of his act.

Such was the case when ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ spoofed the implication game in a 1969 sketch. A couple, played by Carol Cleveland and Terry Jones, are in bed mid-tryst. As things heat up, the camera cuts away- to stock footage. Back to the couple. More implication, more film reels. Eventually, the woman, cigarette in hand, looks over at the man now fiddling with a projector beside the bed and deadpans, “Oh Beavis, are you going to do anything or are you just going to show me films all evening?”

The Hays Code, it seemed, had worn out the welcome it never really had in the first place.

Style, Not Just Skin

Sex is no longer forbidden on film. But that doesn’t mean filmmakers have stopped making choices. The question now isn’t whether to show sex- it’s how to show it.

Some, like the great Gus Van Sant in ‘My Own Private Idaho,’ freeze the moment of intimacy into a tableau vivant, evoking intimacy through painterly stillness. Others, like Spike Jonze in ‘Her,’ skip the visuals entirely: we hear the voices of Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson consummate their bond over a black screen, their emotional connection taking precedence over physicality.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some filmmakers ask us not just to look, but to think about what we’re seeing. Mary Harron’s ‘American Psycho’ frames Christian Bale having sex with a prostitute as he stares at himself in a mirror- narcissism made literal. Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ makes the choice to visualize a past sexual encounter in the mind of Emily Blunt’s character as the titular character is being interrogated (allegorically undressed, as Nolan visually implicates), illustrating the psychological residue of her husband’s affair.

Guadagnino belongs to a camp of stylists who treat sex with narrative and emotional specificity. He’s unafraid of nudity, yes- but more crucially, he’s unafraid of tone. His sex scenes aren’t just about bodies. They’re about characters, psychology, atmosphere, time, restraint. ‘Queer’ isn’t scandalous because it shows too much. It’s scandalous because it shows just enough that we can sit with it for as long as he holds the shot.

By Joseph Tralongo

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Joseph Tralongo

Joseph Tralongo is a playwright and screenwriter who approaches storytelling with a deep respect for film’s ability to distill human behavior into meaningful moments. His personal work- i.e. his plays, screenplays, and films- leans into semantic tension, moral ambiguity, and the quiet unraveling of social dynamics- not to preach, but to parse. For him, writing is a slow excavation of truth through craft. With a background in theatre and independent film, he brings a structural precision and dramatic instinct to every film he reviews. Hollywood Insider’s mission to champion substance over spectacle aligns with Joseph’s belief that storytelling should investigate, not dictate.

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Joseph Tralongo

Joseph Tralongo is a playwright and screenwriter who approaches storytelling with a deep respect for film’s ability to distill human behavior into meaningful moments. His personal work- i.e. his plays, screenplays, and films- leans into semantic tension, moral ambiguity, and the quiet unraveling of social dynamics- not to preach, but to parse. For him, writing is a slow excavation of truth through craft. With a background in theatre and independent film, he brings a structural precision and dramatic instinct to every film he reviews. Hollywood Insider’s mission to champion substance over spectacle aligns with Joseph’s belief that storytelling should investigate, not dictate.

Joseph Tralongo

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