We've always been fascinated by what people consider to be a good (or a realistic, or a wank-worthy) sex scene in a mainstream (i.e. not porn) movie--it's why we included this field in the original questionnaire for the Nerve.com personals, lo those many years ago. And we're always looking for new scenes to add to our collection--especially as most porn (even so-called "porn for women") still fails to appeal to us on either plot or aesthetic levels. Which means we've got six new titles to add to our Netflix queue, thanks to this article by Mike Figgis (director of Leaving Las Vegas) about his favorite movie sex moments. He organizes his picks into two categories: those where the actors seem to really mean it, and those where the director has created a kind of "erotic ambience."

Years ago we described our favorite sex scenes for Nerve.com, and Em's pick--the desperate connection forged by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christine in Don't Look Now (that may just have been real sex)--definitely falls into the "they really mean it" category.

Lo chose the classic glow-in-the-dark condom scene from Skin Deep, writing, "The laughter-induced euphoria you'll experience after watching this scene is not unlike a post-coital high. In that blissful haze, you'll probably fail to register the amazing fact that it was two erect penises and nothing else that brought you such joy." Which we think counts as a whole other category that never occurred to Figgis. And her guy Joey (yep, they met at Nerve) picked the transcendent snail mating dance in Microcosmos--go read his description and you'll wonder how the hell you never noticed snail love before. So, what scene do you return to again and again, perhaps with one hand on the remote and the other, well, you know...?