Film

Henry & June

Henry & June is a sensual, literary romance about three artists entangled in 1930s Paris—writer Henry Miller, his magnetic wife June, and the diarist Anaïs Nin. It's dreamy and erotic without being explicit, moving between ecstasy and jealousy as desire reshapes their relationships. For anyone drawn to bohemian excess, forbidden passion, or the complicated truth behind great art.

TMDb rating3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to sensual, talky portraits of artists living by their own rules, where desire, jealousy and literary ambition keep tangling together in Paris-era rooms.

Skip it if you want a tidy story with clear moral footing; this one luxuriates in its characters' appetites and rarely pauses to tell you how to feel about them.

What it asks of you: It runs close to two and a half hours and stays in its own heated, Bohemian world, so it asks for patience with long conversations and a willingness to sit inside messy feeling.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Bigger Splash2015

Another portrait of artistic egos and desire spiraling in a sun-soaked setting. Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes burn with charisma as their attraction destabilizes a fragile threesome. Gorgeously shot, hypnotic, and morally messy.

But It moves slowly and some will find it pretentious. The characters are mostly unlikeable, which keeps emotional investment low.

A Bigger Splash poster

Frida2002

A vivid, sensual film about another Mexican artist's fierce sexuality and complex marriage. Julie Taymor's direction is bold and visual; Salma Hayek embodies Frida's refusal to be contained by anyone's rules or expectations.

But It prioritizes spectacle and passion over narrative clarity. Some scenes feel more like tableaux than fully drawn moments.

Frida poster

The Dreamers2003

Bertolucci examines passion, transgression, and intellectual obsession in Paris during the 1968 riots. The sex and ideas are inseparable; the energy is intoxicating even when the characters are insufferable.

But Graphic sexual content isn't the issue—the real problem is that the characters' self-absorption can feel exhausting rather than fascinating.

The Dreamers poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Henry & June

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Last Tango in Paris1972

Same director (Bernardo Bertolucci), same interest in sex as philosophy and power. But where Henry & June is about three people negotiating love, this is about two people using anonymity to annihilate themselves in pleasure.

Bertolucci's masterpiece of desire as a solvent—two strangers meet, remove all names and history, and explore sex as pure communication. Marlon Brando and Maria Schneider are electrifying. The most explicitly sexual art film ever made, and also genuinely moving.

But It contains controversial scenes involving real discomfort on set. The sexual content is graphic and not always comfortable. The third act collapses into something darker and sadder than the eroticism promised.

Last Tango in Paris poster
More like this (6)

Maurice1987

A quieter, more emotionally grounded exploration of bisexual desire and the cost of living honestly. James Ivory's restraint makes the intimacy feel earned. It's about what it means to choose your own life.

But It's introspective rather than dramatic. Some find it too genteel for its subject matter.

Maurice poster

Midnight in Paris2011

Woody Allen's love letter to 1920s Paris features Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin as background characters, but captures the milieu's seductive nostalgia and the idea of artistic kinship as erotic fuel.

But Allen's whimsy won't appeal to everyone. It's fundamentally lighter and less challenging than Henry & June.

Midnight in Paris poster

The Lover1992

Jean-Jacques Annaud adapts Marguerite Duras's autobiographical novel about a young French woman's affair with an older Chinese man in colonial Indochina. Visually lush, tactile, and genuinely transgressive.

But The age gap and power dynamics may disturb modern viewers. The narrative is fragmented and sometimes opaque.

The Lover poster

Before Sunrise1995

Linklater's gentle film captures two strangers' intellectual and erotic connection through conversation alone. It proves that desire and intimacy need not be pyrotechnic to feel transcendent.

But If you need plot momentum or dramatic conflict, the minimal structure will bore you.

Before Sunrise poster

Husbands1970

Cassavetes's improvisational odyssey about friendship and marriage spiraling into chaos. Rawer and messier than Henry & June, but it shares the obsession with desire's impact on the people around it.

But The lack of conventional structure and the grainy, handheld style make it exhausting. It can feel self-indulgent.

Husbands poster

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles1976

Both films are about the interior lives of women navigating desire and power, but Akerman strips away all seduction and beauty. Where Henry & June romanticizes artistic passion, Jeanne Dielman asks what it costs, in time and repetition.

Chantal Akerman's glacial three-hour documentary-like observation of a woman's domestic routine and sexual work. It sounds austere—it is—but it's a radical act of attention that reframes desire, labor, and the body. No narrative, no music, just presence.

But It requires patience bordering on endurance. If you expect conventional storytelling or erotic charge, you will be disappointed. It's as much about boredom as pleasure.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles poster

People

Cast

Directing

Writing

Production

Recommended by

The Night and the Moment, The Wolf at the Door