While sociologists and anthropologists have largely studied the history of mental health norms, categories, and practices through the examination of medical and psychological texts, less has been done to investigate how these norms discreetly diffuse beyond the articulated arguments of professional specialists. This chapter explores how sexual excess (of which ‘sex addiction’ is a recent form) has been depicted in Western films since the 1930s. We identify five ideal-typical narratives of sexual excess and analyse how they unevenly relate to professional classifications. We then turn to the cinematographic techniques used to frame sexual excess, and particularly ‘sex addiction’, in ambivalently aestheticised ways through sound, editing, or camera movements. We conclude that the Western cinematographic treatment of sexual excess has shifted over the twentieth century from scripting the negative consequences of excessive sexuality to framing the anticipation of sexual activities—that is, developing an aesthetic that problematises desire itself.