What was the best nude scene of 1996?

24 thoughts on “What was the best nude scene of 1996?”

1. “It’s subjective folks…it’s funny to read comments that say this or that is the “best.” What you’re actually saying is it’s you’re favorite. “Best” is a misnomer.”

   Except like the old saying goes….”there’s no accounting for taste, even bad taste”.

   I “encourage” you to look at the scenes I mentioned and then stack them up against what the votes came out with. If you’re still not convinced, then as Scoopy has proven in the ~20 years that this poll has been running, that popularity and fame account for more than quality (with few exceptions).

   Look at the winners of the polls since 1997 and see if you can spot a pattern? 😉

   http://www.fakes.net/top20_summary.htm

   For the record, I have only agreed with with the winner of the poll 50% of the time. I notice that in the last 5 years my picks have differed greatly from the top vote getters (Scarlett Johansson in 2014 as a prime example, and that’s mainly because I didn’t know who the hell Alexandra Daddario was, it’s an excellent scene, but I liked Scarlett’s better). My top pick is usually in the top 3 (mostly because I don’t watch those cable shows) most years, so name recognition and quality don’t always go hand in hand in those cases. (plus I’d argue a TV show allows for more opportunity to show something than a 2 hour movie).

   Can anyone objectively tell me that Charlize Theron in The Devil’s Advocate & Jennifer Connelly in Inventing the Abbots had a “BETTER” (Eg. quality, including context) nude scene than Kari Wuhrer in Vivid?

   She’s nude in a large portion of the movie, covered in paint, in her prime. There’s no horror aspect like in Theron’s movie nor a less than 60 second scene as in Connelly’s case. They have done better and if people aren’t voting for quality and “focusing solely on personal taste and nostalgia” (strong emphasis) then they’re doing it wrong.

   I could analyze the polls by year (See the year 2000) to point out examples of this, but have better things to do with my time.

   Otherwise Scoopy wouldn’t keep saying this in most (if not all) of these poll comments.

   “…but I always try to study them and vote for the MOST IMPRESSIVE NUDITY.”

   Hence why I say best vs. most popular (which given the results of these retro polls favor heavily into nostalgia vs quality) You might get a chuckle in my arguments or assessment of the results, but I would argue that I make many a solid point in many (but not all) cases.

   I’ll end with this.

   My original comment:
   “I was like have the voters never seen Catherine Bell’s awesome scene in this movie”

   A response:
   “Loved Bell’s nude scene, but haven’t seen it in a while…”

   That only goes to prove that nostalgia & spotty memory are more potent than actual fact (Ie. quality) in these polls.

   I’ll be curious to see if the people who voted for Teri Hatcher support her again in 1993’s poll for what is her definitive scene, only time will tell.

   The defense rests.

2. It’s subjective folks…it’s funny to read comments that say this or that is the “best.” What you’re actually saying is it’s you’re favorite. “Best” is a misnomer.

   1. This is the BEST comment I’ve read all day! 😛

   2. Yup. “Most popular” would be the best term, but I always try to study them and vote for the most impressive nudity. This is why my vote never matches the poll results. (Eva Green was the only one I remember. There may have been one or two more.)

3. A quick (ok, long) take on the results.

   But first my top 5
   Catherine Bell
   Demi Moore
   Charlize Theron
   Alex Kingston
   Ashley Judd

   Notes on my picks:
   —-
   Catherine Bell:
   While watching the votes in real time as they happened, I was like have the voters never seen Catherine Bell’s awesome scene in this movie? I know it was for a Red Shoe Diaries rip-off show (reducing many of the people who would have seen it back then, I took the time to track down the VHS copy, but I believe I would have been the exception to the rule in this case), but it was well worth checking out & is better than many of the entries that garnered more votes than it.

   She performed respectfully, but not to my personal expectations of what was one of the best scenes of this year, I hope if nothing else more people check out is one of my personal Hall of Fame scenes. (up there with Hudson Leick’s scorching scene in Denial aka There’s Something about Sex from 1999)

   Demi Moore:
   Striptease, one of the highest profile movies on the list, Demi was in prime condition, the movie sucked storywise, well lit nudity from many attractive women, Burt Reynolds (“Fresh…Hot…Lint” that line is forever burned into my mind) and great music from Annie Lennox (formerly of Eurythmics) another one to score disappointingly low, but the competition was fierce this year. Still one of my personal Top 25. If Elizabeth Berkley isn’t top 3 for Showgirls (1995), I’ll start thinking people need their heads examined btw…

   Charlize Theron:
   THIS was the scene that made me take notice of her, not the totally not sexy in any “way, shape or form” that is the Devil’s Advocate (people actually get excited from that scene?) O_o; Plus my all time nudity hero James Spader (Scoopy, you should look into what I affectionately call “Spader’s Women” sometime) playing an assassin with ice cubes, how can you go wrong (and Teri Hatcher looked awesome in this movie & The Cool Surface IS her top scene, regardless of how hard the movie was to find) but I digress…

   Alex Kingston: Croupier gets big numbers, this gets almost nothing. I’m almost dumbstruck here. I would have voted this as my 2nd or 3rd choice (Demi is hard to surpass), she’s playing Moll Flanders in a production that originally aired on PBS, let that sink in, nowadays they’d be all over the news for corrupting a tax payer institution with smut. I found a copy of this on DVD in upstate New York in the early 2000’s and still own it. While Croupier was better lit, these scenes were hotter…by far. One of the classics that apparently no one cares about, shame that is.

   Ashley Judd:
   Glad this represented. Not sure if it was solely for her or the fact she re-enacted the iconic PB centerfold shot of MM on clear, well lit film that drove the votes. Thankfully Ms. Judd would continue to share herself with movie goers for many years after this, most definitely Top 100.

   Notes on some of the top vote getters:
   —-
   Alyssa Milano – She did better nudity the year before, this movie is just too dark (lighting, not thematically) even today it still disappoints me, just wished she had this hair when she did EotV, instead of that cropped short hair she did have. This was effectively her last nude scene she’s done in the last 20+ years…shame.

   Teri Hatcher – See my comments above, not her best scene, virtually no heat in this movie, she looked better in the scene in the car with Alec Baldwin while showing her chest in the bra. At least she grew her hair back out, so there’s that.

   Jennifer Connelly – She’s not the “IT” girl for me, always a looker, but not my number 1, nor is this movie the best nudity of 1996 people, for shame. Moving on.

   Charlize Theron – See my comments above, one of her best, but thankfully there was more to come, the votes didn’t back that up though….confusing.

   Liv Tyler – I guess people were much more into her than I was (and still am) plus she was the daughter of a famous singer. Not too much to say, not one of my favorites, Rachel Weisz had a better scene in that movie, in my opinion. Cest la vie.

   Kelly MacDonald – Great scene (albeit too short), depressing, but good movie, seems to be a year when up and coming young actresses got lots of the votes (see next entry).

   Kate Winslet – Pre-Titanic, not her hottest nudity (for me that’s Little Children) and she looked better in Quills (considering the context, it takes much of the heat from that scene) she looked alright here, but looked much better in 1997 (the little ship that could…err, couldn’t movie)

   Natascha McElhone – This genuinely confuses me. (considering the women below were so ignored) She’s a handsome woman, had some A-list films after to this year and somehow she got more votes than Alex Kingston in a movie that frankly is pretty limp. Sure she’s nude plenty, but come on, they didn’t go out of there way to make her as attractive as they could have. Rewatched the scene to see if I was missing something…nope. At a loss here to figure out the voting on this one.

   Honorable mentions/oddities
   —
   Lynn Whitfield – I guess the fame that The Josephine Baker Story brought her in 1991 didn’t last all that long, she’s one of the few black actresses of the 90’s to show skin often and in good scenes. An unsung hero to me. Shame no one seemed to care. Hopefully in her banner year performance she can walk away with her head held up high with a strong finish.

   Molly Parker – Another case of if only I had a bigger name.
   A constantly working actress since the early 90’s, she just never had that one project to bolster her fame, easily one of her best and a top 20 scene of the year (even for a film with a taboo subject matter), apparently no one thought that though…

   Pamela Anderson – Short and sweet. Everyone had seen the goods time and time again at this point….yawn.

   —
   Up next 1995:
   Alyssa Milano – Embrace of the Vampire vs. Elizabeth Berkley – Showgirls…..a battle of the titans already, I almost can’t decide….can we vote twice? 😉

   Elizabeth Shue, Salma Hayek, Sharon Stone, Mimi Rogers, Natasha Henstridge, Anne Heche/Joan Chen (why oh why did this scene have to be 1995, one of the hottest lesbian scenes ever to be put on film with such great music too)

   Some pretty fierce competition coming up, get ready.
   http://www.filmsite.org/sexinfilms48.html

   1. I didn’t want to prejudice the voting by revealing my opinion in advance, but I did review most of the scenes before the voting began, and I have absolutely no doubt that I voted for the best nudity: Marion Cotillard in Chloe. That was truly epic.

      Films with little exposure in America don’t get the recognition they should in our polls.

      1. Scoop, just rewatched the Cotillard scene, wasn’t sure which one it was. Man, that is a brutal rape scene, not sexy at all unless you have some unusual tastes and predilections. Don’t you think that’s a better explanation for why it didn’t do better in the voting than the fact that it is foreign film? I mean, no matter who the actress was and how hot she was, I can’t see myself ever voting for such a rough scene. You just can’t take the tits and the bush out of that context and appreciate them
         on their own.

         This year had a lot of nice nudity but nothing really stood out for me. I voted for Tilly because I really like her, always have, and because I like girl-on-girl action (but I didn’t review the scene to check on the quality). I would have voted for Preston who has world-class breasts but the scene was just a tease, nothing really to see.

         1. That was only one of five nude scenes in the film!

            1. Damn, I just Googled it for simplicity’s sake and only got the rape scene. Guess I’ll have to check out the rest.

   2. Loved Bell’s nude scene, but haven’t seen it in a while; didn’t she kinda cop out a little and keep those ugly panties on in a scene where they should’ve naturally been off? Points off, if so… but on the other hand, her stunning boobs make up for a lot. I almost voted for her.

   3. 1995: Sophie Marceau, “Beyond the Clouds”

4. Yup, I kept an eye on it. Somebody gamed it. I will adjust it back to the correct numbers (14 as of this minute) when the balloting is closed.

5. Rachel Weisz suspiciously shot from 12 votes to 54 votes in the last three hours, bringing her from 11nth place to 2nd.

   1. It must be the Russians🤪

6. Hard to go wrong with any of these choices. I went with Mira because in that movie with Judd, she seemed like the one who wouldn’t be naked… but she shocked us with a clear topless scene, looking right at the camera no less. And it was her only nude scene ever, as far as I know. Jolie in Foxfire would be my runner-up. Amy Irving’s scene, while classic, gets points off since you can’t watch it w/o seeing Dennis Hopper’s weiner. Hatcher’s scene was great, maybe even a bit of bush in some of the freeze frames, but as I recall, she was roundly criticized for the surprisingly droopy boobage.

   1. Hatcher’s scene may be the most disappointing nude scene of all time.

      There’s a lot of good stuff here, but I was surprised to find that 1996 lacked an “obviously going to be #1” scene. I ended up voting for Jennifer again, even though the scene is short and muddled, because she’s basically my perfect woman and looks absolutely incredible for those couple of seconds.

      1. Likely because of the Seinfeld episode where Hatcher says they’re real and spectacular….

   2. To me, Hatcher was the one I wanted to see naked the most. She was best known for Clark and Lois. It was a big deal back then, although not quite spectacular.

      Other than that… Amy Locane. Because naked on horseback is always special.

      1. Don’t forget that Hatcher had already done a topless scene two years earlier in which she actually did look spectacular.

         1. “The Cool Surface” …better but not spectacular imo.

         2. Yes, you’re absolutely correct. However, I could never find that movie at Blockbuster or Tower Video, and I don’t remember seeing any clips of the scene anywhere online (at the time). All I saw were grainy screencaps.

   3. I thought Teri in Cool Surface was nothing short of spectacular. She was on a lot of men’s “must see nude” list at the time, and she came through wonderfully with the lovely boobs & erect ninnies (Frank Zappa’s word) in that scene. So yes it was a disappointment to see her flashing Alec Baldwin later on looking rather haggard & droopy. Even so, though, she got some decent votes in this poll, which shows she’s remembered fondly.

7. You’ve got Jennifer Tilly from Bound, but not Gina Gershon.

   Admittedly, I’m not sure which of the two I’ll pick, since I can’t do a tie.

   1. I really should have left both of them off. While it is a good sex scene, it isn’t a good nude scene, and there are absolutely no clear images of both faces and body parts.

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