The Dreamers, 2003. Fox Searchlight Pictures.
“Films save us from reality,” so says Julia Kondra, curator of @notarton—the Instagram account dedicated to showcasing cinema’s steamiest scenes. In an unabashed celebration of love and lust on-screen, Kondra, who is based in Moscow, posts romantic and risqué clips from her favourite films—there’s everything from Liv Tyler making out on the grass in Stealing Beauty (1996) to intense bedroom moments stolen from Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac (2013), to shots of Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo in Breathless (1960) side by side Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie dancing in Mr & Mrs Smith (2005). There’s Maggie Gyllenhall and James Spader in Secretary (2002) nestled against Scarlett Johansson seductively lighting a secret in Match Point (2005), not to mention countless snippets of illicit encounters taken from Gasper Noé’s ultra-provocative Love (2015). Her favourite of all though—and it features often—is Bernardo Bertulluci’s The Dreamers (2003), with Eva Green, Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel. “I fell in love with this film at first sight,” Kondra tells SLEEK. Meanwhile, she cites Peneolope Cruz and Javier Bardem as her favourite on-screen couple. And quote? “The secret ingredient to sex is love”—taken from Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, where else?
Although @notarton—the name derives from the common criticism directed at art by naysayers (“That’s not art”)—started life as an art-only account back in 2016, overtime Kondra began to share more freely. “Who am I to restrain my boundaries? It’s about everything that touches me, everything I feel a connection with,” she explains. On top of this, Kondra was motivated by what she thought the app was missing. “I didn’t see the real feelings, and that’s how I got the idea came to show genuine sensual content,” she says. Now, Kondra describes the account as platforming “art in any form—paintings, movie scenes—and secret desires and pleasure with a taste for erotic aesthetics.”
While love, romance and desire are the subjects of her account (expect entangled bodies, crumpled bed sheets, sweet caresses and passionate embraces galore) Kondra claims she’s not a hopeless romantic—at the same time, she insists: “Love exists, trust me.” Keeping her expertise in mind, we asked Kondra to select her must-see seductive scenes from recent cinematic history.
1. Salma Hayek in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
“Like a siren luring the poor wanderers with singing; like the Gorgon Medusa, who turned everyone looking at her into stone, at first, Salma—in the role of a vampire—hypnotises the snake with her captivating movements of the hips and then she charms all of the audience in the bar—they know longer know themselves and do not remember who they are.
In general, I think that this whole film was shot for the sake of this dance. And for the sake of Tarantino`s foot obsession. And how exactly Clooney exclaimed, unable to stand the ecstasy, at the end of this scene: “Now that’s what I call a f*ckin ‘show!” But we all know that the show must go on. But only after dark!”
2. Michael Pitt and Eva Green in The Dreamers (2003)
“Have you ever wanted to fall in love with the piece of art and make love to it, to Greek goddess of love and beauty? Well, one of us got lucky and he made it—into the Venus de Milo.”
3. Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz in Blow (2001)
“Maybe that’s what happens when a tornado meets a volcano. Passion.”
4. Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke in Taking Lives (2004)
“Here is Angelina Jolie, the most wanted woman of modern culture—the ultimate sex symbol, no words needed—however, the scene is not only about her. It is about burning desire which accumulates every second more and more. Sensual suspense, sexual tension, prolonged eye contact, the touch are those ingredients which make the dish so delicious with a taste of dangerous thought on top instead of a cherry. You want this ambiguous moment to be endless.”
5. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (deleted scene) (1987)
“She met the one who taught her to be free as the wind and she trusted him. She’s like the wind. She became the wind. She has always been the wind. The famous quote states that ‘dancing is a vertical expression of the horizontal desire’ and this exact scene is a good confirmation. That just proves it right there.”
6. Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger in NINE 1/2 Weeks (1986)
“This scene of classical striptease performed by the legendary Kim Basinger should be studied in schools—sex (or how to be sexy) education. A private life is meant to remain private, except for a private dance. And this dance is like a fine wine, it gets better with age.”
7. Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel in Irreversible (2002)
“Even knowing the fact that they were separated—we still have the evidence of their love. That’s why films are great.”