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"Love scene examples"

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"Love scene examples"

Posted by Sopwith99 on Jun-03-05, 12:01 PM (PST)

I'm writing a screenplay that will contain 2 steamy love scenes. Can anyone suggests movie or TV screenplays to read as examples of well writen love scenes?
Many thanks,
Sopwith

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Table of contents

RE: Love scene examples, Larry Brody, Jun-03-05, (1)
RE: Love scene examples, sopwith99, Jun-05-05, (3)
RE: Love scene examples, Rus McLaughlin, Jun-03-05, (2)
RE: Love scene examples, Rob O'Hannon, Jun-06-05, (4)
ssssMOKin!, Soup, Jun-06-05, (5)
RE: ssssMOKin!, Rus McLaughlin, Jun-07-05, (6)
RE: ssssMOKin!, Rob O'Hannon, Jun-08-05, (7)
RE: ssssMOKin!, Soup, Jun-08-05, (8)
RE: ssssMOKin!, Kevin Shuster, Jun-08-05, (9)
RE: Love Scenes, Rob O'Hannon, Jun-09-05, (10)
RE: Love Scenes, Tim Muncher, Jun-09-05, (11)
RE: Love Scenes, Rob O'Hannon, Jun-09-05, (12)
RE: Love Scenes, Rob O'Hannon, Jun-09-05, (13)

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1. "RE: Love scene examples"

Posted by Larry Brody on Jun-03-05, 02:49 PM (PST)

Read LETHAL WEAPON. In it, Shane Black creates modern-day screenwriting style.
I don't have the script in front of me and haven't memorized the exactly language, but Shane's love scene here says, in effect: "What follows next is a hot, sexy love scene. I know you're all busy executives and have read these a million times before so let's just move on to:" and then off he goes to the next scene.
Works for me.

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3. "RE: Love scene examples"

Posted by sopwith99 on Jun-05-05, 03:46 AM (PST)

Thanks for the advice, I was reading Michael Hauge's book Writing Screenplays that sell and he gives an example from the movie body heat, its very good. Hot but not pornographic (as Michael Hauge puts it) and I wanted to find other examples like that. The scenes are pretty important to the overall story line as the woman in the scenes will be waring a wig each time, only hinting at her real identity. I may even have the wig fall of in the last love scene provide discovery to the reader.
Again thanks for the input.
Sop

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2. "RE: Love scene examples"

Posted by Rus McLaughlin on Jun-03-05, 02:56 PM (PST)

Why not just write the scenes that make sense to the story, in the exact way you would want to see them on the screen?
Sex scenes - scratch that; GOOD sex scenes - are fundamentally no different than any other brand of dramatic scene in terms of elements. There must be tension, there must be risk, there must be a small, vital detail that sticks in the mind. These things can be physical or emotional or both, but they must be present.
And for Christ's sake, make it hot. Which is to say, don't emulate 90% of Hollywood sterile sex scenes.

Rus McLaughlin

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4. "RE: Love scene examples"

Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-06-05, 11:04 AM (PST)

Hamlet's soliloquy is probably the greatest self-love scene ever written. I'd look at that, too - as a writer you'll need it.
Good luck.

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5. "ssssMOKin!"

Posted by Soup on Jun-06-05, 01:18 PM (PST)

To be honest I can't think of very many "steamy" love scenes that really work. Most of them come off as basically soft porn. Now if that's what you WANT, if that's what you think the story really NEEDS,..
And prudishness aside, I can see where that might be the case.
To offer just ONE example - if the POINT of the scene is to clearly portray to the audience the shear power of carnal lust, and the idea that you too (a.k.a. the audience), could be led to do something you dammed well know is WRONG, in such a way as to maintain the audience's sympathy for the character, well, in a case like that I could see where it might be necessary to get the audience hot enough in the crotch to feel that in the same situation they too might wind up going over the edge.
If I had to do that I'd approach it this way...
I'd focus on dynamics. Tension building up to an ultimate (no pun intended), climax.
Instead of sex think in terms of the classic "no brakes!" action sequence. All of those "no brakes!" sequences follow the same pattern.
Things start out "normal", just driving along. Tension starts to build slowly (insert shot of the speedometer passing 80 or whatever, a.k.a. a hint of trouble to come). The road is windy, steep cliffs to fall off of. The brakes are applied but don't work, and now you're into a sequence where every moment does all it can to increase the danger from moment to moment, the dangers keep getting piled up on each other with all of it building to (again, no pun intended), the final climactic wreck (BLAM!) that the victim either escapes or doesn't.
A "steamy" love scene imo would work exactly the same way, start slow, tease, tease more, build the tease toward a "climax" (stop giggling guys).
How I'd do that:
I'd start thinking long and hard (come on, stop it), about shots, individual shots that would make me hot in the crotch. I'd make a list of them and rate them subjectively for their "hotness factor". Then I'd arrange them into a montage so that the "hotness factor" builds to the whopper, the hottest shot I could come up with, the "big bang" so to speak (o.k., YOU, the one with the giggles, go sit in the corner).
That said, were I you, I'd REALLY think twice about *2* steamy love scenes. Dump one of 'em. Do whatever you have to to dump one of 'em, but one way or another I'd find someway, anyway, to dump one of those *2* steamy love scenes.
If you don't manage to do that then you're inevitably setting yourself up to fail, and possibly fail fatally, with whichever steamy love scene occurs second.
You can only have somebody "lose their brakes" once in a picture. Twice doesn't cut it. No matter how the hell good that second steamy love scene is, it's only going to have half to a quarter the impact it would have had if there wasn't a previous steamy love scene it had to compete with.
If there's no way to get rid of the first love scene, then tone it down, way down, so that when the second love scene occurs it's not competing with the first one for "hot".
Just a thought, but honestly it's a thought I'd think quite a bit about before settling on trying to do TWO really steamy love scenes in one picture. I really don't see that panning out.
Alternatively-
I'm by absolutely no means sure that "steamy" necessarily equates to "well written" when it comes to love scenes of any kind. Personally my own favorite love scenes lack "steam" of any kind in the bare flesh sense.
Two of my own favorite love scenes are-
In INDIANA JONES and the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC (the first Indie flick) where Indie and Marion wind up (finally!) alone in the cabin of a tramp steamer, and instead of doin the horizontal bop, Indie falls asleep! That scene, imo, is FAR more effective than any amount of "steam" in a love scene.
The other is in INDIANA JONES and the TEMPLE OF DOOM (a picture I never particularly cared for outside of two scenes, one being the opening sequences, and the other being the love scene where, once again, Indie don't get none).
The love scene in that one occurs in a palace where Indie and 'Willie' (Wilhelmina) have a "spat" and wind up in separate rooms with each waiting for the other to break down and sneak into their room for what both want, the two of them to get together.
It's a homage (some might say blatant rip-off) of an all but identical scene from a classic flick I can't remember the title to.
But in both instances, what makes 'em work is precisely the fact that the lovers DON'T get together. Could be something to consider, especially in regard to dumping that first "steamy" love scene. A near miss followed by a hit might end up with much more impact.
Just a thought.

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6. "RE: ssssMOKin!"

Posted by Rus McLaughlin on Jun-07-05, 03:22 PM (PST)

You're describing anti-sex scenes. Which do have a place, but aren't always appropriate to the story.
The thing to remember about Henry Jones Jr. is that he's a loser. "Raiders," "Temple," and "Last Crusade" are all litanies of missing a chance, getting caught, and never, NEVER getting the fortune and glory he's after. We love him because he tries so damn hard, and never gives up.
The humor in those movies is almost entirely mined out of his frustrations. So yeah... it's entirely appropriate that he can't get laid despite himself. And when he DOES, she's a Nazi agent who betrays him. And who bedded his father first.
Ah, Venice...

RM

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7. "RE: ssssMOKin!"

Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-08-05, 06:35 AM (PST)

>>The thing to remember about Henry Jones Jr. is that he's a loser. "Raiders," "Temple," and "Last Crusade" are all litanies of missing a chance, getting caught, and never, NEVER getting the fortune and glory he's after. We love him because he tries so damn hard, and never gives up. <<
Spoken like a true capitalist, RM. The reason I and many others love his character is because he realizes at the end of each adventure he's won something more important.

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8. "RE: ssssMOKin!"

Posted by Soup on Jun-08-05, 01:03 PM (PST)

I agree with both of ya. But what I was getting at really was (aside from the fact that I can't think of any truly steamy hot love scenes I admire), trying to pull off two of 'em in one pic is likely to be REALLY hard, if not impossible to do.
So I was offering an alternative idea, that being that an "anti-love scene" (a swing and a miss), followed later by the "steamy love scene" (a hit), might be not only easier to pull off, but more effective.

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9. "RE: ssssMOKin!"

Posted by Kevin Shuster on Jun-08-05, 03:18 PM (PST)

What about Lady and the Tramp love scene with the spagetti? Now that was something.
Kevin

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10. "RE: Love Scenes"

Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-09-05, 09:57 AM (PST)

>>What about Lady and the Tramp love scene with the spagetti? Now that was something. <<
That pales in comparison with the love scenes from "Mr. Ed".

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11. "RE: Love Scenes"

Posted by Tim Muncher on Jun-09-05, 11:06 AM (PST)

O so u got that special director'z cut Mr. Ed dvd 2. Awesum wazn't it?
I especially liked seeing the real thing they were doing back there in hiz stall 2 make hiz lips move.
munchman

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12. "RE: Love Scenes"

Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-09-05, 11:53 AM (PST)

It was good, Munchman. The only thing I didn't get was the scene in the "Mr. Ed Does Dallas" episode where Wilbur is sitting naked in Ed's empty stall singing "Shoefly, don't bother me." The symbolism was a bit vague.

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13. "RE: Love Scenes"

Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-09-05, 12:11 PM (PST)

Now, to balance off my silliness, I propose that for a great love scene you take a look at an old movie - "From Here to Eternity (1953" - the scene with Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster rolling in the waves. No nudity, no over-the-top lewdness, just one of the steamiest scenes ever filmed.

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"Love scene examples"
Posted by Sopwith99 on Jun-03-05, 12:01 PM (PST)
I'm writing a screenplay that will contain 2 steamy love scenes. Can anyone suggests movie or TV screenplays to read as examples of well writen love scenes? Many thanks, Sopwith
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1. "RE: Love scene examples"
Posted by Larry Brody on Jun-03-05, 02:49 PM (PST)
Read LETHAL WEAPON. In it, Shane Black creates modern-day screenwriting style. I don't have the script in front of me and haven't memorized the exactly language, but Shane's love scene here says, in effect: "What follows next is a hot, sexy love scene. I know you're all busy executives and have read these a million times before so let's just move on to:" and then off he goes to the next scene. Works for me.
Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top


	3. "RE: Love scene examples"
	Posted by sopwith99 on Jun-05-05, 03:46 AM (PST)
	Thanks for the advice, I was reading Michael Hauge's book Writing Screenplays that sell and he gives an example from the movie body heat, its very good. Hot but not pornographic (as Michael Hauge puts it) and I wanted to find other examples like that. The scenes are pretty important to the overall story line as the woman in the scenes will be waring a wig each time, only hinting at her real identity. I may even have the wig fall of in the last love scene provide discovery to the reader. Again thanks for the input. Sop
	Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top

2. "RE: Love scene examples"
Posted by Rus McLaughlin on Jun-03-05, 02:56 PM (PST)
Why not just write the scenes that make sense to the story, in the exact way you would want to see them on the screen? Sex scenes - scratch that; GOOD sex scenes - are fundamentally no different than any other brand of dramatic scene in terms of elements. There must be tension, there must be risk, there must be a small, vital detail that sticks in the mind. These things can be physical or emotional or both, but they must be present. And for Christ's sake, make it hot. Which is to say, don't emulate 90% of Hollywood sterile sex scenes. Rus McLaughlin
Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top

4. "RE: Love scene examples"
Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-06-05, 11:04 AM (PST)
Hamlet's soliloquy is probably the greatest self-love scene ever written. I'd look at that, too - as a writer you'll need it. Good luck.
Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top

5. "ssssMOKin!"
Posted by Soup on Jun-06-05, 01:18 PM (PST)
To be honest I can't think of very many "steamy" love scenes that really work. Most of them come off as basically soft porn. Now if that's what you WANT, if that's what you think the story really NEEDS,.. And prudishness aside, I can see where that might be the case. To offer just ONE example - if the POINT of the scene is to clearly portray to the audience the shear power of carnal lust, and the idea that you too (a.k.a. the audience), could be led to do something you dammed well know is WRONG, in such a way as to maintain the audience's sympathy for the character, well, in a case like that I could see where it might be necessary to get the audience hot enough in the crotch to feel that in the same situation they too might wind up going over the edge. If I had to do that I'd approach it this way... I'd focus on dynamics. Tension building up to an ultimate (no pun intended), climax. Instead of sex think in terms of the classic "no brakes!" action sequence. All of those "no brakes!" sequences follow the same pattern. Things start out "normal", just driving along. Tension starts to build slowly (insert shot of the speedometer passing 80 or whatever, a.k.a. a hint of trouble to come). The road is windy, steep cliffs to fall off of. The brakes are applied but don't work, and now you're into a sequence where every moment does all it can to increase the danger from moment to moment, the dangers keep getting piled up on each other with all of it building to (again, no pun intended), the final climactic wreck (BLAM!) that the victim either escapes or doesn't. A "steamy" love scene imo would work exactly the same way, start slow, tease, tease more, build the tease toward a "climax" (stop giggling guys). How I'd do that: I'd start thinking long and hard (come on, stop it), about shots, individual shots that would make me hot in the crotch. I'd make a list of them and rate them subjectively for their "hotness factor". Then I'd arrange them into a montage so that the "hotness factor" builds to the whopper, the hottest shot I could come up with, the "big bang" so to speak (o.k., YOU, the one with the giggles, go sit in the corner). That said, were I you, I'd REALLY think twice about 2 steamy love scenes. Dump one of 'em. Do whatever you have to to dump one of 'em, but one way or another I'd find someway, anyway, to dump one of those 2 steamy love scenes. If you don't manage to do that then you're inevitably setting yourself up to fail, and possibly fail fatally, with whichever steamy love scene occurs second. You can only have somebody "lose their brakes" once in a picture. Twice doesn't cut it. No matter how the hell good that second steamy love scene is, it's only going to have half to a quarter the impact it would have had if there wasn't a previous steamy love scene it had to compete with. If there's no way to get rid of the first love scene, then tone it down, way down, so that when the second love scene occurs it's not competing with the first one for "hot". Just a thought, but honestly it's a thought I'd think quite a bit about before settling on trying to do TWO really steamy love scenes in one picture. I really don't see that panning out. Alternatively- I'm by absolutely no means sure that "steamy" necessarily equates to "well written" when it comes to love scenes of any kind. Personally my own favorite love scenes lack "steam" of any kind in the bare flesh sense. Two of my own favorite love scenes are- In INDIANA JONES and the RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARC (the first Indie flick) where Indie and Marion wind up (finally!) alone in the cabin of a tramp steamer, and instead of doin the horizontal bop, Indie falls asleep! That scene, imo, is FAR more effective than any amount of "steam" in a love scene. The other is in INDIANA JONES and the TEMPLE OF DOOM (a picture I never particularly cared for outside of two scenes, one being the opening sequences, and the other being the love scene where, once again, Indie don't get none). The love scene in that one occurs in a palace where Indie and 'Willie' (Wilhelmina) have a "spat" and wind up in separate rooms with each waiting for the other to break down and sneak into their room for what both want, the two of them to get together. It's a homage (some might say blatant rip-off) of an all but identical scene from a classic flick I can't remember the title to. But in both instances, what makes 'em work is precisely the fact that the lovers DON'T get together. Could be something to consider, especially in regard to dumping that first "steamy" love scene. A near miss followed by a hit might end up with much more impact. Just a thought.
Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top


	6. "RE: ssssMOKin!"
	Posted by Rus McLaughlin on Jun-07-05, 03:22 PM (PST)
	You're describing anti-sex scenes. Which do have a place, but aren't always appropriate to the story. The thing to remember about Henry Jones Jr. is that he's a loser. "Raiders," "Temple," and "Last Crusade" are all litanies of missing a chance, getting caught, and never, NEVER getting the fortune and glory he's after. We love him because he tries so damn hard, and never gives up. The humor in those movies is almost entirely mined out of his frustrations. So yeah... it's entirely appropriate that he can't get laid despite himself. And when he DOES, she's a Nazi agent who betrays him. And who bedded his father first. Ah, Venice... RM
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	7. "RE: ssssMOKin!"
	Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-08-05, 06:35 AM (PST)
	>>The thing to remember about Henry Jones Jr. is that he's a loser. "Raiders," "Temple," and "Last Crusade" are all litanies of missing a chance, getting caught, and never, NEVER getting the fortune and glory he's after. We love him because he tries so damn hard, and never gives up. << Spoken like a true capitalist, RM. The reason I and many others love his character is because he realizes at the end of each adventure he's won something more important.
	Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top


	8. "RE: ssssMOKin!"
	Posted by Soup on Jun-08-05, 01:03 PM (PST)
	I agree with both of ya. But what I was getting at really was (aside from the fact that I can't think of any truly steamy hot love scenes I admire), trying to pull off two of 'em in one pic is likely to be REALLY hard, if not impossible to do. So I was offering an alternative idea, that being that an "anti-love scene" (a swing and a miss), followed later by the "steamy love scene" (a hit), might be not only easier to pull off, but more effective.
	Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top


	9. "RE: ssssMOKin!"
	Posted by Kevin Shuster on Jun-08-05, 03:18 PM (PST)
	What about Lady and the Tramp love scene with the spagetti? Now that was something. Kevin
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	10. "RE: Love Scenes"
	Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-09-05, 09:57 AM (PST)
	>>What about Lady and the Tramp love scene with the spagetti? Now that was something. << That pales in comparison with the love scenes from "Mr. Ed".
	Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top


	11. "RE: Love Scenes"
	Posted by Tim Muncher on Jun-09-05, 11:06 AM (PST)
	O so u got that special director'z cut Mr. Ed dvd 2. Awesum wazn't it? I especially liked seeing the real thing they were doing back there in hiz stall 2 make hiz lips move. munchman
	Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top


	12. "RE: Love Scenes"
	Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-09-05, 11:53 AM (PST)
	It was good, Munchman. The only thing I didn't get was the scene in the "Mr. Ed Does Dallas" episode where Wilbur is sitting naked in Ed's empty stall singing "Shoefly, don't bother me." The symbolism was a bit vague.
	Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top


	13. "RE: Love Scenes"
	Posted by Rob O'Hannon on Jun-09-05, 12:11 PM (PST)
	Now, to balance off my silliness, I propose that for a great love scene you take a look at an old movie - "From Here to Eternity (1953" - the scene with Deborah Kerr and Burt Lancaster rolling in the waves. No nudity, no over-the-top lewdness, just one of the steamiest scenes ever filmed.
	Remove	Edit \| Reply \| Reply With Quote \| Top