A-to-Z of Strippers in the Movies

Aguilera, Christina

The pop songstress brought the moves to her screen debut, Burlesque (2010), but the film played it safe and mainstream, given her fanbase of aging teens, and it robbed the film of any overt or innate sexuality.

Bollywood

Since 1970, when Padma Khanna cast a spell over Prem Nath with her sly gyrations in Johny Mera Naam, India has celebrated the art of the erotic dance on film. In the last decade alone, Yana Gupta has steamed up the opening credits of Murder 2, Raveena Tandon brought the art of pole-dancing to Indian cinemas in Aks, and Katrina Kaif and Padma Lakshi seductively coerced the bad guys with some strategic unbuttoning in Boom. And, unlike Hollywood, India’s biggest male stars regularly disrobe: Naveen Andrews, Rahul Rose and Alexander Gifford in Bombay Boys; Ranbir Kapoor in Anjaana Anjaani; and John Abraham and Akshay Kumar in Desi Boyz (pictured).

Closer

Despite its detractors, Mike Nichol’s caustic battle-of-the-sexes drama features an outrageously courageous turn by Natalie Portman as a sexed-up stripper living in London. Coming off a decade playing child parts and precocious teenagers, Portman exposed her emotions and a whole lot more in a role that changed the way audiences (and the Academy) thought of her.

Darling Lili

Audiences weren’t ready for Julie Andrews aka Sister Maria to transform into Mata Hari, and thus, Blake Edwards’ expensive WWII romp died a quick death at the box office. But anyone who saw it will never forget Andrews bringing the bump and grind in a yellow tassled bikini, leaving a roomful of stuffed shirts stunned, then screaming for more.

Exotica

School-girl Mia Kirshner’s seduction of a men’s club full of transfixed lonely guys is arguably Atom Egoyan’s most accomplished piece of filmmaking. Rich in psychological subtext and overt passion, this 1994 Canadian film is physical and frightening and deeply seductive, all of which stems from Kirshner’s searing central performance, considered by some as the most erotic disrobing in film history.      

Full Monty, The

The sleeper hit of 1997, Peter Cattaneo’s feel good British working-class comedy won over international audiences, and Oscar and BAFTA voters. Not bad for a film about six out-of-work miners who strip to make ends meet (including unlikely candidates Tom Wilkinson and Mark Addy).

Gypsy

Not always afforded the respect it deserves, Mervyn LeRoy’s adaptation of the Broadway smash starred a maturing Natalie Wood as America’s most famous burlesque queen, Gypsy Rose Lee, and Rosalind Russell as her scenery-chewing stage mother, Rose. The story has been told many times (most teeth-gratingly in 1993 with Bette Midler in the Russell role), but LeRoy’s take is big, bold and bawdy, reflecting the lady herself.

Hayek, Salma

No contemporary actress has embraced her inner stripper as assuredly as Salma Hayek, who has portrayed complex but physically forthright women on no less than four occasions: ‘TV Dancing Girl’ in Four Rooms; Santanico Pandemonium in From Dusk ‘Til Dawn; Serendipity in Dogma; and Lola in Americano.

I Know Who Killed Me

Possibly the final nail in the coffin of Lindsay Lohan’s big screen career, Chris Sivertson’s convoluted mess of a film featured the diva as an amnesiac and/or multiple personality sufferer who is an erotic dancer in one life and a staid high-school student in another. Neither was watchable, though Lohan’s stripper-pole moves were well-choreographed.

Jury Duty

Two words you probably won’t see on this website ever again, but here goes: Pauly Shore. In this 1995 comedy, Shore finds it very hard to keep a gig as a part-time stripper; apparently, lady patrons don’t go for erotic dancers who start their routines dressed as milkmen and finish up by slapping cream cheese on their bare buttocks. (Full disclosure: Despite its 0% Rotten Tomatoes rating, I think this film is hilarious).  

Kumashiro, Tatsumi

The Japanese director solicited the services of the nation’s most famous striptease artist Sayuri Ichijō for his 1972 Roman-porno flick Ichijo's Wet Lust (aka Sayuri strip-teaseuse). The film grew in stature amongst international critics over the intervening years, and in 1999, it was voted one of the 100 most important Japanese films of the century. 
 

Muito Gelo e Dois Dedos D'Água

Mariana Ximenes and Paloma Duarte deliver one of South American cinema’s sexiest ever dance routines in Daniel Filho’s ‘cheeky’ 2006 Brazilian rom-com.

9 ½ Weeks

Likely the last joyous moment of on-screen lustiness depicted by Adrian Lyne, 9 ½ Weeks (1986) has Kim Basinger put on sultry show for a popcorn-munching Mickey Rourke to the pulse of Joe Cocker’s ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’. She begins playfully, even nervously, while he, like the audience, thinks it’s simply cute before more base urges take over. The iconic scene is now a striptease classic.  (Footnote: In Lyne’s later work, sex grew increasingly darker: It led to violent obsession in Fatal Attraction; became a crass commodity in Indecent Proposal; and unravelled lives in both Lolita and Unfaithful). 

On Tour

If you are going to take on the responsibilities of acting,writing and directing, why not go the route taken by Mathieu Almaric in his 2010 romp and surround yourself with beautiful, semi-clad beauties every day? As raffish rogue Joachim Zand, Almaric leads a team of erotic dancers (played by real-life Burlesque stars) on a series of increasingly unhinged shows across regional France. 

Perrine, Valerie

Bob Fosse cast novice actor Valerie Perrine as stripper Honey Bruce, opposite Dustin Hoffman’s maniacally unhinged Lenny, in this monochromatic, stream-of-consciousness biopic based on the volatile life of the confrontational American comic Lenny Bruce. Perrine became a star overnight, earning Cannes, BAFTA and NBR trophies.

Queer Stripping

Shakedown is the work of documentarian Leilah Weinraub and chronicles the night-to-night environment of the black lesbian strip club of the title, an iconic establishment amongst underground Los Angeles denizens. A Kickstarter funded project, it is due for release later this year. 

Rand, Sally

At the peak of her popularity in the 1920s, Rand was the greatest film exponent of exotic burlesque moves like the ostrich-feather reveal and the balloon dance; her most popular film was Bolero (1934). In Philip Kaufman’s 1983 astronaut saga The Right Stuff, she’s seen entertaining the flight crews before they launch into space, and was portrayed by dancer Peggy Davis.  

Striptease / Showgirls

The combined, epic failure of both Demi Moore’s puerile vanity project and director Paul Verhoeven’s Vegas-set camp classic meant that strippers all but disappeared from Hollywood movies for close to two decades. There’s no forgiving Moore’s horrible film, which was as falsely constructed as her ripped torso. But Showgirls, starring a wide-eyed, vacuous Elizabeth Berkely as wannabe star Nomi, is sleazy debauchery taken to exalted heights and since become a guilty pleasure for many.

Teaserama

This 1955 compilation of oddly endearing vaudeville and burlesque acts has taken on cult status thanks to the presence of the now legendary chanteuse and B&D icon, Bettie Page. Captured in peak physical condition, Page displays all the curves and not-so-subtle moves that have ensured her reputation has lived on ever since.

Unbearable Lightness of Being, The

The explicit sexuality of Milan Kundera’s novel was captured with an unbridled intensity in Philip Kaufman’s 1988 adaptation. Two key scenes include the gentle disrobing of Tereza (Juliette Binoche) by Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) and the erotic lingerie-clad slinkiness of Sabina (a white-hot Lena Olin) as she mirror-dances for her lover.

Vega, Paz

As Julio Medem’s sexy protagonist in 2001’s self-discovery drama Sex and Lucia, Paz Vega performs a spontaneous, flirtatious strip for her new lover that set the steamy tone for this erotically-charged arthouse hit. The role led to Vega’s all-too-brief stint as a Hollywood’s it-girl, a status which came crashing down with the release of her first and only star-vehicle, James L. Brook’s dud Spanglish.

Walken, Christopher

Drawing on his Broadway roots, Walken put on a showstopping striptease set to Cole Porter’s ‘Let’s Misbehave’ in Herbert Ross’ unfairly-maligned musical, Pennies from Heaven (1981).

X

Jon Hewitt’s divisive thriller trades in lots of bare skin and sordid acts, kicking off with a pre-credit sequence that sets up the film’s frank tone: In the cold light of day, a roomful of chardy-sipping high society women watch as an elite callgirl strips a man, toys with his naked body, and then seals the deal.   

Yellow

A traditional ‘stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold’ drama, Alfredo De Villa’s 2006 Puerto Rican/US co-production was a solid star vehicle for Roselyn Sanchez, whose real-life classical ballet training served her well in the role of a young immigrant with Broadway dreams but who settles for life in a strip club.

Zombie Strippers!

Porn star Jenna Jameson and Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund are just two of the D-list cast trapped in a strip club that becomes a zombie nightmare, in Jay Lee’s tongue-in-cheek, blood-and-boobs cult item. Surprisingly, it’s not as bad as it sounds. But how could it be, right?