Nude scenes tough to bare

This has been a good month for fans of matter-of-fact film nudity.

If next year’s MTV Movie Awards have a category for fiercest naked fighter, Viggo Mortensen will be the runaway winner for his vicious steam-bath death battle with two thugs in David Cronenberg’s “Eastern Promises.”

Meanwhile, Robert Benton’s ensemble drama “Feast of Love” boasts a European-style attitude about its nudity: If characters would be naked in real life, they’re naked on screen.

You often hear actors talking about how the difficulty of nude scenes is the nakedness of the emotions, not the literal lack of clothes. Don’t believe it.

Radha Mitchell, who plays a real-estate broker having an affair with a married man (Billy Burke) while being wooed by Greg Kinnear’s coffee-shop owner, bares all in scenes of tenderness and anger, and of course those scenes are awkward to film.

But in her mind that awkwardness can help the performance, such as in an argument with Burke’s character where the two reveal stronger-than-realized feelings.

“It did add a kind of excitement to it because it was uncomfortable,” the Australian-born actress said on the phone from Los Angeles. “Definitely. But it’s like jumping into the deep end of a pool and swimming in cold water, and it’s kind of refreshing and exhilarating when you’ve finished.”

Benton is no stranger to showing flesh, having included nudity in “Kramer Vs. Kramer,” “Billy Bathgate,” “Nobody’s Fool” and “Twilight.”

“I guess I’m a dirty old man,” he joked, adding more seriously: “If you’re going to have nudity in a film, it has to have a reason. It has to do with the intensity, and it has to do with the intimacy. The intensity of (Mitchell’s and Burke’s) relationship is extraordinarily strong.”

Benton’s film, written by Allison Burnett based on Charles Baxter’s novel, explores love among characters from their 20s to 60s. Yet how is it possible to find something new to say on the subject?

“It’s one of those things that seems to be inexhaustible,” Benton said. “It always ends badly – somebody gets divorced or dies – yet we always rush at it pell-mell.”