The ménage-à-trois has long been a feature of art house cinema, particularly to represent the strange or the taboo. For example, in Araki’s Doom Generation (1995), the threesome comes after an hour of sex and murder, while Belucci’s The Dreamers (2003) uses the threesome to represent a turning point in the relationship between Matthew and the twins he has fallen in love with, who had already been in an incestuous relationship of their own.

In both instances, the characters engaging in the threesome are on the fringes of society: criminals and runaways on one hand, cinephile counterculturists on the other, and the threesome is just another way for them to rebel against the institution.

The appeal of the threesome is fairly straightforward: not only do these films present three attractive parties engaging in sex (or at the very least flirtation) with each other, but they also allow the viewer to entertain a fantasy in which two equally appealing suitors battle for their affection, before realizing that they do not have to only limit themselves to one or the other.

In more recent years, however, threesomes have been presented as a topic of interest for even the most “mainstream” members of society. In Guadagnino’s Challengers (2024), the three principal characters engaging in a steamy makeout session are up-and-comers in the tennis world, and while it does not go any further than kissing, it sets the sexual tension for the rest of the film. More apparently, in the 2025 romantic drama The Threesome, the threesome is not a representation of youthful free-spiritedness but rather pitched as a devastating mistake for three middle-American professionals, having life changing consequences for everyone involved.

And yet, a common theme in most depictions of a threesome is the damage it causes to pre-existing relationships: in Cuaron’s Y Tu Mama También (2001), Luisa’s sexual encounter with Julio and Tenoch separately causes a rift in their friendship, one that does not mend after they all sleep together—as opposed to the way Tashi leaves the room in Challengers, not wanting to come between Art and Patrick (a triangle that further complicates after she enters a relationship with Patrick, then with Art)—while the Doom Generation’s threesome ends in brutal assault.

Though these films present a fantasy of sexual non-monogamy, these less-than-conventional relationships remain just that: a fantasy.

Image Credit: Micah Petyt