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Mainstream nudity

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SCMP Reporter

The year was 1965, the film The Pawnbroker, a much acclaimed movie directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Rod Steiger as a Jewish pawnbroker living in Harlem who is haunted by memories of Nazi prison camps.

It's the kind of movie people describe as 'brilliant', 'important', 'towering'.

As shown in tonight's episode of 100 Years Of Sex (World, 12.50am), The Pawnbroker was more important than some might initially appreciate - it was the first mainstream Hollywood movie to feature a woman's bare breasts.

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Indeed, the decade was one of sexual awakening on screen, as well as off.

Under assault by film-makers such as Russ Meyer, Louis Malle, Ingmar Bergman and Federico Fellini, official censorship started to crumble.

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The Legion of Decency closed and actresses even began to pose nude for studio-sanctioned publicity shots.

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