You may need more than a tub of ice cream to cool you down this summer
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY THE SAMUEL GOLDWYN COMPANY
It’s sapphic summer! Time for sticky nights tossing and turning and getting sunburnt at a queer festival. On the off chance that you’re not basking in the sunshine, why not check out these spicy sapphic films that are sure to get you hot and bothered?
Princess Cyd (2017)
Directed by Stephen Cone, this sun-dappled coming-of-age story follows teen Cyd (Jessie Pinnick) spending a Chicago summer with her novelist aunt. As Cyd explores her sexuality through a flirtation with Katie, themes of queer awakening, consent and emotional intimacy intertwine with the languid heat of summertime discovery.
Desert Hearts (1985)
Donna Deitch directs this groundbreaking lesbian romance set in 1950s Nevada. A repressed professor (Helen Shaver) meets free-spirited Cay (Patricia Charbonneau) during a divorce retreat. The desert heat parallels their burning attraction, as the film tenderly explores sexual awakening and identity in a sunlit landscape of emotional liberation.
Drive Away Dolls (2024)
Directed by Ethan Coen, this queer road comedy features Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan as mismatched friends turned lovers. Fleeing heartbreak in a sweaty summer haze, their trip turns chaotic and erotic. With noirish humour and sexual freedom, it’s a lesbian Thelma & Louise with a punk twist.
The Favourite (2018)
Yorgos Lanthimos crafts a baroque, biting triangle of sex and power. Olivia Colman’s Queen Anne is wooed by Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and Abigail (Emma Stone), whose ambitions smoulder under candlelight. Despite palace walls, the political and erotic heat evokes a decadent, oppressive summer of rivalry, lust and survival.
The Duke Of Burgundy (2014)
Peter Strickland’s sensual arthouse film charts the BDSM relationship between Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna) and Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen), in a dreamlike, unnamed European summer. Obsessive rituals blur dominance and desire, while insects and warm light surround their erotic power struggle in a world both suffocating and intoxicating.
Room In Rome (2010)
Set over one steamy summer night, Julio Medem’s erotic drama stars Elena Anaya and Natasha Yarovenko as strangers who share a hotel room and gradually bare secrets along with skin. With Rome’s sultry glow outside and emotional vulnerability within, the film explores intimacy born from fleeting, physical connection.
Summertime (La Belle Saison) (2016)
In Catherine Corsini’s tender French romance, Delphine (Izïa Higelin) and Carole (Cécile de France) fall in love amid feminist activism in 1970s Paris. Summer on the farm pulses with repressed desire, while the city breathes political fire. Their love story blooms, then withers, under the weight of tradition.
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