Throughout cinema history, there have been some iconic nude scenes that have transcended the bounds of the films in which they appeared. Our new column Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy will take an in-depth look at these scenes, their history, their deeper meanings, and their legacy. This week, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón gets back to his roots with his fourth feature film, exploring the sexually adventurous exploits of a pair of young men in Y Tu Mamá También!
Following his debut Mexican feature Sólo Con Tu Pareja, Cuarón came to Hollywood in the mid-90s to direct a pair of high profile literary adaptation—1995's A Little Princess and 1998's Great Expectations. Though both films were well received and critically lauded, neither of them set the box office on fire, causing the director to do some soul searching. He returned to Mexico for his fourth film, stripping away all of the stylistic flourishes that marked his first venture to Hollywood, getting down and dirty—quite dirty, in fact—with 2001's Y Tu Mamá También.
Technically a period piece set two years before it was made, the film follows the lifelong friends Julio (Gael García Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) set to spend the summer living it up as their girlfriends are traveling to Spain. The horny pair spend their languorous first days of bachelorhood mostly wasting time and masturbating together by the pool...
While attending a wedding, the pair run into Luisa (Maribel Verdú), the wife of Tenoch's cousin, asking her to accompany them on a trip to a hidden beach named Boca del Cielo. At first she seems reluctant to go with them, but after her husband confesses drunkenly that he cheated on her, she throws caution to the wind and joins Julio and Tenoch on their voyage. The boys have fabricated this mystical beach in a move of typical young adult braggadocio, but with a sexually experienced woman in tow, they remain bound and determined to make this a trip to remember.
Stopping at a motel for the evening, Tenoch comes out of the shower to discover a despondent Luisa having just informed her husband that she is leaving him. Tenoch then finds himself seduced by Luisa, removing his towel and giving him the best 88 seconds of his life until that point...
In a turn of fair play, Luisa offers herself to Julio the next morning in the car, and Julio treats her to an identical 88 seconds of bliss in one of the film's many brilliant flourishes. While it was likely evident to Luisa prior to this, she and both young men have come to the stark realization that neither of them is as sexually experienced as they once thought. Though they talk a big game, as all young men do, they clearly don't have the skills to back up all of that talk. As the trip wears on, both Julio and Tenoch confess to one another that they've slept with the other's girlfriend on multiple occasions, causing their friendship to devolve into a rivalry of sorts.
A glorious bit of kismet leads the trio to an actual beach named Boca del Cielo, where they spend the evening—and the film's climax—getting drunk. This, in turn, leads to what looks as though it's going to be a threesome, but Luisa recognizes that Julio and Tenoch's aggression toward one another is fueled by a mutually unrecognized attraction to one another. As she begins to fellate them, she soon guides the pair to one another, shrinking into the background as she allows them a space safe enough to finally act on these hidden urges...
The pair wake up the next morning to discover that Luisa is gone and, being the prototypically boorish "straight" guys that they think they are, they act ashamed and shocked at what they did the night prior...
Both Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal rocketed to international stardom as a result of their work in the film, no doubt as a result of their willingness to explore such sexually adventurous content. Many actors looking to make their name at the time shied away from these sorts of roles, whether that was driven by a fear of the content itself or of just being pigeonholed as actors. This was the new millennium, however, and despite all of the progress made in terms of breaking down stereotyping and sexual openness in the ensuing years, most young actors would be afraid to kill their careers before they even started.
While it's not revolutionary for two self-identified straight actors to play roles like this, it was nothing short of groundbreaking for them to have their careers launched to new heights directly because of their lack of vanity. Both actors were well-known in Mexico at the time, but when the film became a crossover sensation, so too did its stars, with their dedication to their craft being a key factor in their ascent. Directors—like Pedro Almodóvar, Michel Gondry, Julie Taymor, and Harmony Korine to name just a few—who wanted to work with adventurous actors gravitated toward them, knowing they wouldn't scoff at some of the things they would ask of them.
While the film itself doesn't address the issue of whether Julio or Tenoch are actually gay, it does show that they're forever changed by this encounter. While this could easily be seen as the sort of loophole that your average American actor would happily exploit as justification for taking such a role, the ambiguity of the story and the actors' adherence to that ambiguity strengthened their position. Leaving that thread dangling allows them to be all things to all audience members. Those who want to think that their encounter made them realize they're gay are given room to do so, as are the people who just look at it as a callow act of youth, a one-time thing.
By embracing this ambiguity, Bernal and Luna were able to carve out careers for themselves which eventually led to them both landing roles in Disney movies—Coco and Rogue One, respectively—the sort of threat agents once used to steer their clients away from such roles. They made out with one another on screen in an incredibly sensual and sexual way, and this launched their international careers rather than stifling them. Many actors now know, twenty years later, that this isn't a career killer, but they owe a lot to these two terrific actors for having the readiness to realize the same at the exact right moment.
Join us again next Thursday when we take a look at another pioneer of the male nudity world, Harvey Keitel, and his daring performance in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant.
Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy...
—Two of History's Manliest Men Wrestle Naked in Women in Love
