Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies

Danny Wolf's 2020 documentary covers the history of nudity in cinema from the silent era to the present. It runs two lines together: how ideas of morality and censorship rules changed, and how those changes reached the screen. The permissiveness of the silent period, the closing down brought by the Production Code, the loosening of the late sixties and the commercial exploitation that followed are taken in order. Its most valuable section has performers describing how they actually worked in those scenes: contracts, pressure, what was refused and what was agreed. It states plainly that male and female nudity have never been treated equally on screen. A large number of actors and directors speak, and the approach moves between critical and nostalgic. Who it's for: viewers curious about film history and documentaries about the effects of censorship. Who it's not for: anyone expecting academic analysis; the account rests largely on testimony.