Movies dealing with eroticism are as old as film history itself. Eroticism has always been one of the most popular subjects and can be found in a broad range of film genres from voyeuristic movies of the silent era to romantic love stories, intimate dramas, sex comedies, erotic thrillers, sexploitation films and recent artcore movies. The popularity and long tradition of cinematic eroticism is, however, not reflected in academic research. On the contrary, compared to other film genres erotic cinema has been largely ignored by film scholars. Much has been written about eroticism in literature and theatre, while in films, and video games for that matter, this subject still seems to be a terra incognita. The main concern of the present volume, therefore, is to initiate a revaluation of this underrated chapter of film history.