How to Undress a Woman, the First Time Around

Consider a video a tool for romance, and you may uncover an easy way to slide into your first-time encounter. Nary a movie is made without a moment of romance or seduction, but some are definitely better than others. Here's a selection of five films where the leading lovers do it very well.

An Affair to Remember (1957): International playboy Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant) and nightclub singer Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) are sidetracked while en route to meet their fiancés in New York. They meet and fall in love on a cruise ship. Next? Will Nickie show up for their date at the top of the Empire State Building? Will Terry? The plot twist that closes the movie makes it one of the great tearjerkers of all time.

City of Angels (1998): A lady heart surgeon, played by Meg Ryan, learns about feel, taste, and touch from an angel she discovers presiding over her operating room one day. The angel (Nicholas Cage) experiences his sensations through this lovely and occasionally partly nude human. The dialogue is rich with artful eroticism.

Mo' Better Blues (1990): A brotherly rivalry between jazz musicians Shadow Henderson (Wesley Snipes) and Bleek Gilliam (Denzel Washington) spills over into a covert competition about the women in their lives. The subtext, that each woman is also desired by a rival, makes for two sizzling seductions. Written and directed by Spike Lee.

9 1/2 Weeks (1986): Starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger, this classic devotes an entire hour, plus 52 minutes, to an erotic longing so artfully depicted that nothing is explicit, save the food in the famous refrigerator scene. Don't rent this one if you like your sex tidy.

To Have and Have Not (1944): Never mind that his name was Harry, the art of flirting was never better than when sassy nightclub songstress Marie "Slim" Browning (Lauren Bacall) asks Harry Morgan (Humphrey Bogart), "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and...blow." Never mind the plot, a saga of WWII political intrigue, except that Marie is consorting with the French resistance, and so...so does Bogey. 

Music: Passion by the Earful

Surprise your newfound partner with an extraordinary aural experience. The crescendos of lyric and melody in these selections are guaranteed to pull the heartstrings and stir the libido. Whether you like classical, contemporary, blues, or rock, there's one of each in our selection of music for romantic moments.

Fantasia on Greensleeves
by Ralph Vaughan Williams

Thomas Tallis, the Elizabethan composer credited with writing "Greensleeves," was also a prolific composer of anthems, masses, and lyrical themes such as "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis," a hauntingly romantic adaptation by Ralph Vaughn Williams. It comes on an album with "Greensleeves."

Lush Life
by John Coltrane

When jazz is romantic, it's as enticing as music gets. Coltrane is sensuous, engaging, and totally himself through this classic and early performance of the five tracks, including "I Hear a Rhapsody" and "I Love You." If s/he doesn't like it, better rethink the whole thing.

Passion: Music for "The Last Temptation of Christ"
by Peter Gabriel

Inspired by the contemporary music of Africa and the Middle East, this powerful collection was the musical score for Martin Scorcese's film "The Last Temptation of Christ." Gabriel himself does the drums, flute, keyboard, and vocals on this exotic and original work.

Seal
by Seal

Update your blues and soul collection with a reincarnation worthy of Jimi Hendrix and Jeff Beck (who've actually played backup on some of Seal's work). There's raw passion in Seal's voice and a lyrical message about love, spirituality, and understanding. His first two albums, both entitled simply "Seal," have earned critical acclaim.

Time, Love and Tenderness
by Michael Bolton

A pull on the heartstrings, this album overflows with romantic messages and lilting licks on the guitar strings. Doesn't everybody love "When A Man Loves A Woman"? Bolton does a stylish job of this soulful classic, along with a healthy collection of like-hearted music.

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