In post-9/11 New York City, an eclectic group of citizens find their lives entangled, personally, romantically, and sexually, at Shortbus, an underground Brooklyn salon infamous for its blend of art, music, politics, and carnality.
The beautiful O is taken by her boyfriend, Rene, to a bizarre retreat, where she is trained in bondage and sexual perversion...
A beautiful young ballet dancer is accepted into a prestigious and exclusive dance academy. Overjoyed at the opportunity to further her career and repair her relationship with her boyfriend, she soon discovers that the academy has a dark side to it--and she may not be able to escape it.
Singapore Sling is chasing after Laura, a romantic memory from his past. One night he finds himself in a mysterious villa, watching two women bury a body. He falls into their trap and, in an atmosphere of isolation and decadence, the trio act out insane pleasure games and a ritual of blood and murder.
Aurora Rumelin is happy because the noble writer Leopold Sacher-Masoch has asked for her hand. Little by little the marriage goes into crisis mainly because Leopold asks his wife to beat him before sexual relations and to treat him like a slave. Both spouses have lovers and, in the end, the marriage ends in divorce.
After ending a six year relationship, a well-behaved, Jewish, OBGYN decides to turn her brain off and her body on by exploring BDSM; instances of which are popping up in the most unusual places.
Flamboyantly gay Austrian television reporter Bruno stirs up trouble with unsuspecting guests and large crowds through brutally frank interviews and painfully hilarious public displays of homosexuality.
Photographer Elliot Slater has inadvertently snapped the only existing photos of elusive jewel thief Omar. When Elliot leaves for a private vacation on an S&M island, he is followed by Omar, Omar's partner, Nina, and undercover police officers Fred and Sheila. Unaware of the number of people chasing him, Elliot enjoys his stay at the resort, and finds himself falling in love with head dominatrix Lisa.
A newly-single woman embarks on a quest to become more sexually adventurous and falls for a charming stranger.
Single mother Diana struggles to provide for her child and pay for her college education. When she meets two dancers from a nearby gentlemen's club, Diana's convinced there's fast money to be made stripping.
In 1997, the Belgian public was in shock when judge Koen A. was convicted for the S&M relationship with his wife. Although their life was destroyed by the verdict, Koen and his wife Magda remain together today. The film is a story about dark sexuality and true love, told from the lover's unique point of view
It was a tumultuous time. In the early Meiji period, there was the first photographer in Japan who lived a heroic life. What fascinated him with photography was a photograph of a naked woman.
A computer wizard infiltrates a London sex club to get evidence for a shutdown, but falls for the proprietress.
From an ominous Lecturer, a small 1930s middle American community learns of the Harper Affair, in which young Jimmy Harper finds his life of promise turn into a life of debauchery and murder thanks to the new drug menace marijuana. Along the way, he receives help from his girlfriend Mary and Jesus Himself, but always finds himself in the arms of the Reefer Man and the rest of the denizens of the Reefer Den.
Bettie Page grew up in a conservative religious family in Tennessee and became a photo model sensation in 1950s New York. Bettie's legendary pin-up photos made her the target of a Senate investigation into pornography, and transformed her into an erotic icon who continues to enthrall fans to this day.
A submissive hooker goes about her trade, suffering abuse at the hands of Japanese salarymen and Yakuza types. She's unhappy about her work, and is apparently trying to find some sort of appeasement for the fact that her lover has married.
TV buff, Jack Fremont, uses his knowledge to stop a nuclear attack by a Russian seeking recognition for his work in television and espionage.
Inspired by the Baader-Meinhof gang, a film about modern left Germans adopting the culture of extreme left-wing movements of the 1970s. East German dominatrix Gudrun leads a revolutionary gang of her own in Berlin. She has her men kidnap the son of a rich businessman in order to gain publicity. Claiming that heterosexuality is a social norm created to keep the people down, she forces her male minions to have sex with each other.
Maria, an unfortunate young woman, kills her rapist father in self-defense, and is later tried, sentenced, and shipped off to a woman's penitentiary where she and her fellow inmates are subjected to psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of a psychotic lesbian warden.
A psychiatrist encourages his female patients to tell him their sexual problems, each as each relates her particular case, we see it in flashback.