Oshima Films to Open X-Rated Festival

Nagisa Oshima’s sexually explicit “In the Realm of the Senses” and “Empire of Passion” will open a weeklong festival of X-rated movies at the Nuart tonight.

The two Japanese films got mixed reviews when they were released in the late ‘70s, but they stand out in the annals of adult movies for Oshima’s attempts to include hard-core sexuality in the context of serious art films.

Some films in the series were eyebrow-raisers when they were first released--Joseph’s Strick’s “Tropic of Cancer” and “Ulysses,” which screen Thursday--but are pale by subsequent X-rated standards.

The series also includes Ralph Bakshi’s hard-core animated film “Fritz the Cat” and Russ Meyer’s “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (closing the program as a double-feature Tuesday).

Other films in the series: “A Clockwork Orange” and “Performance” (Friday); “Last Tango in Paris” and “Midnight Cowboy” (Saturday); “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover” and “The Decameron” (Sunday); and “The Damned” and “The Devils” (Monday).