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Sexually charged films were big business in the 80s and 90s. Now an explosion of remakes is turning steamy classics into prestige televisionWhen Richard Gere cruised down an LA highway at the start of the 1980 film American Gigolo – gleaming convertible, sharp suit – it shifted the tectonic plates of cinema. Here was a man, filmed in attentive, ogling closeups, who invited us to objectify him: a sex worker dedicated to pleasing his older clientele, his skin doused in hot California sun, a wardrobe bestowed by Giorgio Armani.It helped signal a new way of watching men on screen, kickstarting two decades of films that tied pleasure and danger into a heady knot, ready for audiences to lasciviously unpick. By the mid-90s, erotic thrillers were banking not just several hundred million dollars at the box office, but Oscar nominations for the leads. Continue reading...